The most bizarre thing in nature: Human laziness

[MarkKol]

What really causes humans not to do the things they know make their lives better, It is highly illogical and irrational that a human being would ever deny itself fulfillment either by refusing to do certain activities or indulging in others. I mean, how does that even happen? almost like a dog walking away from a fresh killed piece of meat. What causes such mechanisms in the brain, do people have trouble seeing what they're getting by working out or eating healthy, or is there value misalignment like valuing comfort and video games above all else? Maybe It's the issue of not being present or raised differently. But raised differently is just way too broad for me to accept. Who knows.

[Parallax Mind]

Good question. 

I assumed it was because our lives are so comfortable we develop apathy. And we have low self esteem from a depressing society not wanting us to be be great and stand out. Just be quiet and consume. 

[Thought Art]

Humans are not rational 

[Princess Arabia]

You're just putting a label unto what you've observed and you call it laziness. This is Infinity. It includes everything. We're all not the same. You only see laziness because you've contrasted it with it's opposite. 

They are still working their ass of at doing nothing. That's the paradoxical nature of existence. 

[Thought Art]

Laziness makes a lot of sense if you think about it though. 

[universe]

Research delayed gratification.

Your body is designed to do whatever seems to be best right now. Preserving energy is highly ingrained in your body.

[An young being]

8 hours ago, MarkKol said:

What really causes humans not to do the things they know make their lives better, It is highly illogical and irrational that a human being would ever deny itself fulfillment either by refusing to do certain activities or indulging in others. I mean, how does that even happen? almost like a dog walking away from a fresh killed piece of meat. What causes such mechanisms in the brain, do people have trouble seeing what they're getting by working out or eating healthy, or is there value misalignment like valuing comfort and video games above all else? Maybe It's the issue of not being present or raised differently. But raised differently is just way too broad for me to accept. Who knows.

Being lazy is not a problem at all. Being lazy and not contend with the way of life and our laziness is the problem.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

Distraction, immediate pleasure, lower stages of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, are much more sensitive for the brain. It's more useful for survival to seek whatever brings you immediate pleasure, rather than philosophize and have self-discipline.
It's not like a dog walking away from fresh meat. Animals don't have these concerns, and will shoot themselves in the foot plenty of times, just reacting to their instincts and causing unnecessary trouble.

Higher needs such as fulfillment will always be weaker in comparison to lower ones. Leo's series on Survival explains those concepts very well. He talks about "levels of survival strategies". Lower levels will be more primitive and useful in basic scenarios, while higher levels are the more human ones, the spiritual and self-actualizing ones.

Lower and higher level strategies will often contrast each other. Biases and traumas are a low level strategy. They're useful in navigating a complex world and learn from suffering, but they can backfire as an adult who wants to self-actualize.

Everything you do is or has been useful for your survival at some point. Just like pain, it's there for a reason. Without it you'd be dead. It's the same for laziness and procrastination.

[gettoefl]

everyone is utterly lazy and you're no exception

why do you deny you want the the easiest life possible and will leave no stone unturned to make me do all your work for you um like in this thread

easiest isn't best, don't you know

know yourself

[OBEler]

If the body would follow every crazy idea you have, you would be out of energy very fast. 

With laziness, this will not happen

Edited November 26, 2023 by OBEler

[hyruga]

Haha to overcome laziness, you need willpower and take more action.

Another thing is to break free of old identities. For example, if you think of yourself as being bad at running, then you won't run well. Similarly, if you think of yourself as someone who doesn't like travelling, guess what? You won't travel. Haha.

[Carl-Richard]

Remember that we only have to think about things like eating healthy or working out because of modern society. Modern society severely complicates things, mainly because our environment is no longer in alignment with our biological makeup: urban environments, office environments, sitting still all day, not being in the sun, fast food, social media, living alone or with only a small number of people. It's a miracle we are able to get out of bed at all.

The people you see who are healthy and go to the gym are more conscientious and have higher IQs on average. They have better executive functioning and impulse control: they know how to organize their goals and stay on course. They're more able to firstly recognize what is healthy and unhealthy and also to navigate through the challenges of living in an unhealthy environment. Most people simply go by society's standards for determining how to act, so they will be unhealthy by default.

In short, when you construct a society where health requires brains to maintain, many people will not be healthy.

Edited November 28, 2023 by Carl-Richard

[bebotalk]

On 24/11/2023 at 11:30 PM, MarkKol said:

What really causes humans not to do the things they know make their lives better, It is highly illogical and irrational that a human being would ever deny itself fulfillment either by refusing to do certain activities or indulging in others. I mean, how does that even happen? almost like a dog walking away from a fresh killed piece of meat. What causes such mechanisms in the brain, do people have trouble seeing what they're getting by working out or eating healthy, or is there value misalignment like valuing comfort and video games above all else? Maybe It's the issue of not being present or raised differently. But raised differently is just way too broad for me to accept. Who knows.

Humans like most species does what is more optimal and comfortable at a given time. 

[Schizophonia]

 

The only effort to be made in the wild is to hunt/trap animals, gather what there is to gather, move, and then repeat the process over and over again.

Modern civilization is perched far above our natural way of life, and much effort is intuitively considered useless, hence laziness.
Walking or doing group activities can require a lot of energy but will cause much less laziness than stupid activities like running or weight training, the same when comparing work which can sometimes resemble "games/puzzles". "(IT, construction work, etc.) to purely repetitive and cumbersome work, such as public administration positions, shopkeeper, restaurant waiter, etc., whatever, that people usually struggle with for reasons of survival.

The statement in the title of the topic amounts to saying: "The strangest thing about my MacBook Air is that I can't play GTA 5 with the graphics at maximum, otherwise it rams and the fan blows like hell!😤" lol

Everything is linked to nature.

 

[Schizophonia]

On 25/11/2023 at 0:57 AM, Thought Art said:

Humans are not rational 

You are the one who is not rational.
No one wants to "work", or at least put effort into most of modern works.

You don't want the benefits either, a very big house is useless, a sporty car is useless, a new phone is useless.
Any material good will give rise to a little euphoria at first before you return to normal, ultimately 3 days after purchasing your new iPhone your levels of dopaminergic neurotransmition, pleaaaaasure, will not be different than if you had bought a Nokia 3310 , can be even worse when we take into consideration the consequences of owning an iPhone (social networks for example).

Alain Soral speaking about feminism: "I understand that a woman doing a job wants to work less, and that a bourgeois book seller says to herself 'I don't understand, it's good to work'".

 

Edited November 29, 2023 by Schizophonia

[An young being]

There are some lazy people who are the happiest in the world, aka monks, who beg to survive.

[Schizophonia]

4 minutes ago, An young being said:

There are some lazy people who are the happiest in the world, aka monks, who beg to survive.

Be careful, the monks are working.

[An young being]

25 minutes ago, Schizophonia said:

Be careful, the monks are working.

There are a few near me who only beg,eat, meditate and maybe wash their clothes once in a while. Maybe they are called ascetics?

[Epikur]

44 minutes ago, An young being said:

There are a few near me who only beg,eat, meditate and maybe wash their clothes once in a while. Maybe they are called ascetics?

Art and ascetism says Schopenhauer is the best

[caspex]

The human mind works the most, and the best, productivity wise, when in stressful situations.

In dire events, you'll find you're capable of things you never imagined.

Only those, in the past, who had the energy and strength, both mental and physical, to spare for intense situations, made it out alive.

So aside from your daily necessary chores, it becomes essential to save your energy up from stressful situations, which were quite unexpected and frequent in the vast majority of humanity's evolution.

Cut to modern society, where daily chores are minimal and dire situation are almost null for many people. 

Your body-mind keeps saving up for that tiger attack that'll never happen. That's laziness.

Your mind doesn't think past a season or two, because there no need to think that long term to survive.

This is my hypothesis.