Laeserin @Laeserin - 10mo
Most people's self-improvement efforts have no goal beyond self-improvement. nostr:nevent1qqsrse6pecufkft0nsefp2epwcjc7wdjwsuuhvq9gsn4pqhhyazavvcpz3mhxw309akx7cmpd35x7um58g6rsd3e9upzphtxf40yq9jr82xdd8cqtts5szqyx5tcndvaukhsvfmduetr85ceqvzqqqqqqy57vcvx
I think it's because actual, real work is extremely difficult to calibrate. Fake work delivers superficial results much faster and more reliably, with less stress. And it's easier to tailor the results to project a precise message with maximum efficiency. Real work grinds you down, and you may end up with nothing positive to show for it. But it's the only way to be productive; i.e. to create a surplus beyond yourself and your own consumption. Real work is taking parts of the self and exporting them, changing the self, in the process. Hopefully, for the better. Fake work actively reshapes the self, to refine it, always for the better. There is no risk involved. So, the preference for real vs fake work is driven by the desire to be productive, and a willingness to accept risk, in order to be so.
This is why so many women don't want to bear children. Bearing children is #realwork, and it refashions or even degrades your body in a manner largely beyond your control, and usually leads to a lifetime of grueling, nerve-wracking, never-ending labour. The risk and investment are enormous, and results are unknown. You may even suffer all of that, with cheerful dignity, and then walk away, childless.
I guess a male counterpart would be sawing and chopping wood. You can do excersizes to create muscles that look like the muscles resulting from chopping wood, or you can chop actual wood. You will probably have much nicer muscles, with the excersizes. If you chopped wood, then you would have the wood, but you also risk chopping your fingers off and you probably won't stop chopping until all of the wood is chopped, even if you're exhausted and half-frozen. And then someone can come and steal the wood. And you won't be able to burn the wood, effectively, for months or years. And it may rot, in the meantime.
I was thinking about that, with the gym thing. Everyone wondering why you don't go to the gym, every day, while renovating a house and caring for your family, and walking and working outdoors. My dear, sweet summer children: The gym only exists to mimic the physical movements required to live a full, productive life. It is not an end, in and of itself.
