Learning From Fictional Characters

[Markus]

I see entertainment as somewhat of a guilty pleasure among self-actualizers. It's what you allow yourself a little of (or in my case, a lot - which really isn't helping;) ) on the side of more important endeavors. But while you're at it, why not pay attention, and even that avenue could teach you something. 

I'll give three examples. One is Jack from "Talk Dirty To me", who inspired dating coach Alan Roger Currie's highly bold and straightforward way of interacting with women. @Leo Gura mentions an example of a strategic thinker in his video about strategic thinking, I have written it somewhere but won't look it up right now. Thirdly, David Duchovny's character Hank Moody on "Californication" gives I think a fairly realistic portrayal of the behavior of a prolific womanizer. You can trace his behavior back to an attitude a person exhibiting such behavior would need to have. And one can also learn from him fucking up at pretty much everything else.

What I'm expecting from this thread is more examples from you people. Let's make our leisure time more fruitful and creative. 

[Lorcan]

Silver from an underated disney movie called treasure planet.

 

Edited August 1, 2017 by Lorcan

[HypSandar]

You can definitely learn many things from entertainment such as books, movies & video games. You can learn a lot more from learning self development by reading books & watching that type of videos, however there's a quote from Leo.

 

 

"One of the real challenges we have is that when our will power is low we tend to fall back on our default setting."

Which for most people, including myself is consuming fictional entertainment/media.

You can most certainly change your default setting to avoid this but its most certainly not easy and it takes a temporary toll on your mind.

 

Here's a few things Leo noted that "tax" your will power.

• Implementing new behaviors
• Filtering Distractions
• Resisting temptation
• Surprising emotion & impulses
• Taking tests & trying to impress others
• Coping with fear
• Doing something that u don't enjoy

Selecting long-term over short-term rewards

 

I happen to find most of not all of these in my daily life, so after around 5-6 pm my willpower is at its bottom. I can regain some of it by getting some sleep & taking a shower, but not much. It regains fully after 9-10 hours of sleep.

 

Either way, you might plan to do a schedule, change your daily life up to productivity and you'd do it until the evening and then give up and go for entertainment.. Or like me, have a plan but u'd cope with doing things u don't enjoy until the evening, having it all planned but when u'd get home u'd either fall into your default setting or try to drink up the remaining 'wetness' in the glass & be productive for 30 minutes. Even those, barely productive 30 minutes are better then nothing, its little productivity but its better then then none at all.

[Markus]

@HypSandar Was there some specific video where Leo mentioned this stuff? Or was it a forum post.

[HypSandar]

@Markus It was a specific video i watched a few months back, i'll pm you if i manage to recall the name.

Its definitely one of his best videos, it changed my view quiet a bit.

[Arkandeus]

once you are able to see that what happens on your screen is not fictional,the learning increases by enormous magnitudes, what you see in movies and tv-show is very much real, it is happening now, the same way when you see people on the street, that is happening now too. 

everything happens now

[Markus]

1 hour ago, HypSandar said:

@Markus It was a specific video i watched a few months back, i'll pm you if i manage to recall the name.

Its definitely one of his best videos, it changed my view quiet a bit.

Yea you better

[Sri McDonald Trump Maharaj]

I'm currently watching the Hannibal series and there is some serious hallucination and a lot of cluster B personalities going on over there.

Edited August 2, 2017 by Sri McDonald Trump Maharaj

[Leo Gura]

Well of course all story-telling started out with the purpose of not merely entertainment but psychological, moral, and spiritual edification.

What is the hero's journey story but that?

• Aesop's Fables
• Bible stories
• Homer's epics
• The earliest Vedic texts like the Upanishads
• Creation stories from all pre-historic cultures
• Star Wars
• Etc. etc. etc

This list could be 10,000 items deep.

Mankind has used stories to teach about all the vices and virtues of mankind: greed, arrogance, lust, gluttony, selfishness, violence, lying, backstabbing, goodness, selflessness, love, courage, humility, etc. These were not meant to just be entertainment, but stories containing lessons of how to (and how not to) live life.

Yes, you can learn a lot from art, literature, and storytelling if you know how to read between the lines. The danger is, your mind goes numb from watching all that media. And you could have arrived at those lessons yourself by just sitting alone in room in silence for a week, or a few years.

[Moreira]

The price you pay to learn something from fictional characters is that you accept unconsciously some wrong believe systems and contaminated reality.

[TJ Reeves]

@Markus

Tvtropes.org is the ultimate resource for breaking down media into its component parts. From their you can look for insights. Be warned: many tropes are representatives of taken-for-granted-ideas that are either completely wrong or otherwise limited in accuracy. Its easy to create a universe that fits your argument.

[Loreena]

@Annetta 4k is Harambe or  Big Foot. 

Edited August 3, 2017 by Loreena