Open Thread

Open Thread #3

The Open Thread is a forum for readers of my blog. It is an opportunity to leave comments and start discussions that do not fit under an existing post or which would derail ongoing debates.

A new Open Thread will be posted whenever it seems suitable. There is no fixed time interval and no set number of posts.

Every Open Thread is easily accessible via the “Open Thread” category on this blog.

88 thoughts on “Open Thread #3

  1. Hi Aaron

    In light of the recent events and the renewed discussion on gun control in the US – do you have any thoughts about structuring gun control laws differently?

    Thanks

      1. Agree. All these shooters are from broken home’s. And most of them use some kind of psychiatric med’s. If they ban the AR-15. They’ll use another gun. If they cant get a gun. They’ll use a car or something else. Gun laws are not going to accomplish anything. You can buy hotter stuff on the black market anyway. It’s not gun culture thats the problem. Or video games. It’s totally screwed up people that they don’t give a fuck about. (until)

      2. @Shawn

        Libertarian and conservative sites have debynkings of the Australian thing/supposed example.

      3. @Yarara, your point is golden. When ever gun control comes up we should bring up Switzerland. It certainly a cultural problem not a gun ownership problem in the US.

      4. Well counterpoint to make is that population of Switzerland is 8 mil and population of US is about 320. Statistically speaking this makes gun violence 40x more likely to happen in US simply because of the difference in population size.

      5. If you weren’t so dumb, you’d have figured that the gun violence rate is way more than 40x times in the US compared to Switzerland. Go to the police websites of both countries and you’ll find that Gun violence in Switzerland is almost nonexistent while in US states with similar low populations, the crime and gun violence rates are humungous both absolutely and as per capita basis. This is said let alone bigger states where the crime and violence rates are astronomic.

        Like Aaron and many other prominent scientists including but not at all limited to Steven D. Levitt of Freakonomics fame says that unwanted or uncared for children is the biggest cause of crime any where in the world.

        I want to stress on unwanted and US states with similar low populations above.

        Now go fuck yourself.

    1. Well there are more than one way to conceptualize probability. You are talking about prevalence, I was talking about incidence.

      Anyway if Switzerland was a large country then probability of a gun violence incident, such as school massacre, would be much higher and government would possibly institute tighter gun regulation as a reaction to that, which by the way is what happened in UK. Part of the reason why there haven’t been crazy incidents in Switzerland (other than being well run and prosperous country) is because it is relatively small.

      @Don: Yeah homicide rates aren’t affected by population size. Here’s a cookie.

      1. “Anyway if Switzerland was a large country then probability of a gun violence incident, such as school massacre, would be much higher”

        So if Switzerland grew to the size of Germany, then gun crime would be higher? Ahem… Dunno, maybe I get this wrong, but isn’t this a largely static number?

        “Part of the reason why there haven’t been crazy incidents in Switzerland (other than being well run and prosperous country) is because it is relatively small.”

        Yeah but here’s one fact your “small is beautiful” argument conveniently ignores: There are less black, low IQ, MAO-A gene carrying monkeys in Switzerland than in the US. If you add 30’000 ghetto gangstas to Liechtenstein with then you’ll see how a small country will become violent .

        It’s OK to be a racist, you know.

      2. You are talking out of your smelly ass.

        I too was talking about the rate of incidence of gun crime and crime in general. Homicide rates are really not affected by population size. Rather they are affected by culture.

        You know what, take that cookie go hide and go pleasure yourself.

      3. Neutralrandomthoughts: (It’s OK to be a racist, you know.) It’s just the way it is. And if you ask black people one on one they’ll mostly admit it themselves. If it wasn’t true you wouldn’t see the same effects all over the world. If you move a majority of black people into a developed area. It’s will turn into a criminal shithole. It doesn’t mean that there are no smart black people at all. It just means there aren’t enough of them to build or maintain a prosperous society. And their cultures are not very productive. The few black people that do have higher IQ and act civilised are shamed for it. They are called uncle tom etc. Black girls that swirl are also shamed. The only people that are not allowed to be racist are white people. Just look at South Africa and you’ll see the future of the Western world. That’s what happens when black people take over. It becomes a shithole. These school shootings are however crazy white boy outcasts. They are all from broken homes and high on med’s.

      4. @ben
        Fully agree. And I don’t see a solution. Not a peaceful one. It’s like cancer.

        A buddy and I had a discussion about immigration and blacks fucking up society’s productivity and what to do to prevent them from hijacking the welfare system. The only humane deal we could come up with was this: When entering the country they get to chose: They get welfare money but get sterilized or they don’t get sterilized but get no welfare money and have to compete on the job market.
        That would be a fairly peaceful way to prevent society from welfare leeches and crime. No free lunches anymore – enough.

      5. @Yarara – right. I’d as well favour keeping them out and cutting all monetary aid to those shitholes. Sink or swim, just like we do.

      6. Ben and neutral, wth??
        Ben you are infecting neutral with your fascism. And neutral im disappointed in you, you want to sterilize black immigrants? Based on what, racism?
        look here to undo the brainwashing.
        African_immigration_to_the_United_States
        Literally the highest performing group, even better than asians, 50% college educated. You cant dispute these cold hard facts. Why do you reject science?

        So no we shouldnt sterilize blacks but fascists instead. Treat them for mental illness in clinics. Inject oxytocine to manage xenophobia.

        Btw this thread is so creepy, its like a gathering of fascists talking about guns, violence against minorities and all other kinds of illegal ideas.

  2. You can’t realistically reduce the guns in the USA. There are just to many guns in circulation. If they want to make a difference by reducing the amount of guns. They would have to deploy the army and search every home in the country. That would trigger a civil war if they do that. This hole gun control debate is bullshit politics. They just use it to get people emotional. They are easy to manipulate that way.

    1. That’s the most interesting thing in all of this. They’re all debating about whether or not to do something.

      Yet that something is literally impossible. It could never actually happen.

      The democrats waxing rhetoric about “the Australian example” know full well that any such attempt in the USA would end in a civil war… And they would lose. Like hands down.

      1. But, Alek, I don’t buy that “there’ll be civil war” story.
        How’s that gonna play out? One day, police starts knocking on doors and confiscating guns, let’s say. A few submit and hand over their guns. Others are like “fuck you” and shoot the cops. The same guys get a visit from heavier police force. This happens a few times. And you know who wins in the end? The state. Because contrary to the state and the police/special unit forces, gun owners as a collective are not organized. It’s not like there’ll be the equivalent of an anti-Trump rally where some libtards can organize themselves on social media.

        Besides, why the notion of “civil war”? Civil war in the sense of the Civil War in the US? But that was nation against nation. Here it’s state against people.

        I don’t know. Maybe I’m pessimistic or weak-minded, but if the state decides to walk in hard, they will win. The state has been handed over too much responsibility for too long time and too much trust so that they can print their own resources literally out of thin air and pay for it with both fake money and tax payer’s money.

        Both situations are unsustainable: The situation now, where we have deranged single-mom shooters fucking up shit – and also unsustainable would be the government and the people looking reality in the eye (i.e. it’s mostly black single parent kids, latino gangs and white kids on meds being criminal) and taking the relevant steps to reverse it. Nobody will come up and not allow blacks to buy guns, take away welfare money from single moms and put kids in therapy instead putting them on Ritalin et al. Way too much conflict of interest and lobbying going on for that.

        No, no… this state expansion is bound to continue. One almost has to pray for the rise of a Hitler-like figure, to reset things at an immense cost. But then again, for what? Humans forget so easily and re-do the same shit all over again.

      2. @Neutralrandomthoughts:

        “One day, police starts knocking on doors and confiscating guns, let’s say.”

        You know that, this is exactly same thing Brits tried to do in late 18th century in their american colonies?

        “When people think of the causes of the American War for Independence, they think of slogans like “no taxation without representation” or cause célèbre like the Boston Tea Party.

        In reality, however, what finally forced the colonials into a shooting war with the British Army in April 1775 was not taxes or even warrant-less searches of homes and their occupation by soldiers, but one of many attempts by the British to disarm Americans as part of an overall gun control program, according to David B. Kopel.

        http://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2015/08/12/how-the-british-gun-control-program-precipitated-the-american-revolution/

        Also from wikipedia:

        “Members of American colonial society argued the position of “no taxation without representation”, starting with the Stamp Act Congress in 1765. They rejected the authority of the British Parliament to tax them because they lacked members in that governing body.
        (…)
        Tensions erupted into battle between Patriot militia and British regulars when the king’s army attempted to capture and destroy Colonial military supplies at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. The conflict then developed into a global war,”

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Revolution

        Here’s little thought experiment:

        “Members of productive society argued the position of “no taxation without representation”, starting with the another round of #metooX in 2018, and gun confiscation. They rejected the authority of the Gynocentric Parliament to tax them because they lacked members in that governing body. Protests steadily escalated to the protesters Massacre in 2020, followed by the tensions that erupted between producers and leeches into global war.”

        Sound probable? Familiar?
        Oh, and dont forget about 3d printing.

        “The US Department of Homeland Security
        (…) released a memo stating that “significant advances in three-dimensional (3D) printing capabilities, availability of free digital 3D printable files for firearms components, and difficulty regulating file sharing may present public safety risks from unqualified gun seekers who obtain or manufacture 3D printed guns,” and that “proposed legislation to ban 3D printing of weapons may deter, but cannot completely prevent their production. Even if the practice is prohibited by new legislation, online distribution of these 3D printable files will be as difficult to control as any other illegally traded music, movie or software files.”[107]”

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing

      3. @Alek & Chairman.
        Good points.
        Just one thing about the 3D printing… ehm… are they gonna print the bullets for those guns, too? 😀

      4. I wouldnt bet on civil war. But millions of people would probably hide their weapons away instead of surrendering them to authorities… you know, like most germans and brits did when their govts outlawed them.

        Citizens only turned in a tiny fraction of the gun that were estimated to be in circulation.
        I can only imagine how that would turn out in a society as rebellious as the american one. In particular in the deep red midwest.

  3. My country has some of the strictest gun laws. But it’s not like we can’t buy guns. I can buy much hotter stuff on the streets than these AR-15’s. Dam i can even get hotter stuff than our military is using. I owned a gun illegally when i was just 16. It was the only way not to get robbed after our wonderful diversification. All the other white kids got robbed on a regular basis. After i pulled it one time when a couple of moroccan boys wanted to robe me and steal my motorbike. No one fucked with me again. I didn’t even have to use it. I just pulled it out one time. After that non of the moroccan boys messed with me again. Owning a gun was a great experience for me. It kept me save. While all others could do is file a police report after they got robbed or rapped. And they would never hear from it again. So most didn’t even bother going to the police. Even in the rare occasion the police would arrest these moroccan boys. They would be out in a couple of hours. And they would take revenge on their victims.

    1. 95% of the time or more that you pull your gun in self defense, you wont need to actually fire your gun.

      Crooks are after a quick easy buck. Shootouts attract unwelcome attention from authorities.

      I also own illegal guns at home. I dont carry them on the street, tough. Never needed it so far.

      1. Yarara: (I dont carry them on the street) I don’t need too anymore. I now live in a much better part of town. I had to move twice because of diversification. I have always been able to defend myself very well. The problem however with most of these moroccan boys is that they never fight one on one. They attack in large groups. And most have knife’s on them. The ones that are a little older carry guns themselves. So if you live in a area with lots of young moroccan men. You simply need a gun. Back than i was very active in marshall arts. I was fighting matches twice a week. But when they jump you 15 on 1 with knife’s. It doesn’t really matter how well you can fight. The only way you’re going to win a fight like that is with a gun. I was never a easy target. The problem is that these boy’s dont just do it for money. They do it for dominance and sport. They enjoy doing it. And they dare each other to take on a harder target. I had fights 3 against 40. They didn’t attack us for money. Just for sport.

      2. Yarara: (Crooks are after a quick easy buck. Shootouts attract unwelcome attention from authorities.) This statement would normally be correct. But with these criminal moroccan street gangs. It doesn’t really apply. They don’t fear the police. The police fears them. And with good reason. Because killing a cop earns them respect points within their group. They don’t just intimidate and dominate normal civilians. They do it with the police as well. And that’s one of the most disturbing thing’s about this. The police would search me and my friends for illegal fireworks and stuff. But these moroccan boy’s would sometimes jump on their police car. And the police would just stand there doing nothing. Later on the police didn’t even dare to come to that side of town. Thats when i bought my gun. It’s a numbers game. They have a strong group mentality. They dont rat each other out. And they never fight alone. If you have a problem with one. You have a problem with all. This also apply’s to police.

      3. Yarara: The problem with these no go zones is that the police has to make a choice. Do we let this criminal moroccan 15yo do his stuff. Or are we calling in the hole dam police force. Because they can’t just arrest that one 15yo moroccan criminal. If they do that. The hole moroccan community in that area will flood in. And they have to fight half the town. And the media will scream discrimination. So the police makes the choice to let it go. And give speeding tickets to white people instead. Because white people don’t normally do mass attacks on police. And the media doesn’t care if the police gets rough on them.

      4. Jesus. Reading about no-go zones is one thing, but hearing from your firsthand experience about what it was like on the streets is so much more vivid. Glad you got out of that neighbourhood fine. I feel like I just wouldn’t stand a chance against these hooligans (I would of course not put myself in such a situation to begin with). If I ever come across them, I can only feebly hope that Asian women aren’t on their priority list of people to harass.

        What do you guys think of martial arts for women, with the intention of self defence? I don’t really see the point of it as I think it’s just foolish to try to engage a guy, who is by default way stronger than I am, in any form of combat. But perhaps I’m overlooking a viable form of martial art or approach? I think my odds of survival are better if I build up my stamina for running or have pepper spray on me. Or both!

      5. Neutralrandomthoughts: All weapons are illegal in the Netherlands. Even pepperspry is illegal. You can get a permit for sport shooting. But rules are very strict. And you need to be a member of a authorised shooting organisation. But you won’t go to jail if you carry a gun. They’ll arrest you. They make a report at the police station. They give you a vine for a couple hundred. You’ll be out in about 2 hours. Unless you actually start shooting. That would be a different story.

      6. Sleazy’s Gal: There are many different martial arts. Some are focused on using the weight and momentum of the enemy. This makes them better for women. You don’t need to be strong to use these techniques effectively. But you need time and good training to master them. Your reaction needs to be fast and without hesitation. You only have a split second to apply these techniques. You can’t have such a reaction without intensive training. Fighting needs to be as automatic as breathing. But it’s never useless to learn self defence. Even if it’s just to make her react instead of freeze. That alone is worth a lot in a dangerous situation. Most people freeze in a attack. It’s the worst possible reaction. If you can teach someone to react instead. Their chances have already doubled.

      7. Sleazy’s Gal: (put myself in such a situation to begin with) Neither did i nor my parents. We moved into a very nice area of town. Mostly white starting families. It was beautiful, peaceful and save. Until someone in government made the decision to make it subsidised housing. Within 2 years it turned into a criminal shithole. 2 years after rhat it was a no go zone. It just snowballed out of control in no time. This wasn’t a real cheap part of town. It use to be mostly middle clas working people. But it was rental. My dad had to pay about 1200 rent a month. But when they started to subsidise it. People without a job could basically live there for free. And people with migrant backgrounds were given priority. They got everything payed for. While the dutch people had to pay the jackpot. So all whites moved out. And the moroccan people moved in. From very nice to no go zone in just 4 years.

      8. I am familiar with the concept of no go zones, we have a few as well here. But by the sound of it the problem seems much worse in Europe.
        Maybe cuz our criminal gangs are locals or other latino immigrants, all speak spanish, and we hardly have any muslim here.

        @neutral you asking about my country? Getting a licence to be a gun user wasnt hard, but they made it harder recently. Even if u get licensed, you need a separate license for each gun. And you cannot carry, neither open nor concealed, unless you get a carry license and those are very rare (it must be justified by extraordinary circumstances and renewed yearly). Exceptions are made for military personnel and private security guards.
        On the other hand, only 1 in 7 guns is registered, and cops arent really our there looking for illegal guns. I could have carried concealed for a decade and they still wouldnt have caught me.

      9. @Sleazys Gal

        By all means you should carry pepper spray. But the best defense is avoiding dangerous situations. You can achieve that in great measurw by avoiding certain areas and behaviours.

        In any case, you should also be able to defend yourself. Sometimes running wont be a choice. You migh be in company of someone you wouldnt leave behind. You migh get cornered. Someone might try to rape you.

        My training is in Taekwon-do and a tiny bit of Krav Maga, so I cannot comment on other martial arts. I found both useful. Even if you are smaller than your assailant, if your blows are quick and precise you can get the upper hand.
        Testicles are not the only sensitive part of the anatomy, u know.

        Krav maga will teach you how to disarm opponents who are armed with guns or knives bare hands – but this is extremely risky and reserved for extreme circumstances. I have practiced those moves many times but they still wouldnt be my first choice.

      10. Yarara: (Testicles are not the only sensitive part of the anatomy, u know.) You’re absolutely right.

        Love Taekwon-do by the way. Hard to master but gorgeous to see in action.

      11. I love TKD, but my current schedule wont allow me to train. Haven been able to train for a few years now.

        In any case, i still remember enough (and sometimes practice the moves) that I am confident going up against a guy with no training.

        Back when I trained tkd, our sabon-im (4th dan instructor) insisted we train a few nasty punches. One I remember vividly was a precision strike to knock down the front teeth of you attacker. Then there were strikes to the throat (incapacitating, potentially deadly if done hard enough) ears (destabilizes opponent) and temples (where the skull bone is thin).
        And the eye poke, of course.

      1. I owned a 1911 handgun.
        Martial arts is great for women in self defence. But you have to be realistic. A woman who follows a martial arts course for a couple days. Isn’t going to beat a average man in a fight. It takes years of training to do that. Maybe months if she is really dedicated. We had a woman at our school that managed to knock her attacker out. But overall you want a woman not to fight head on with a man. Most attackers don’t expect a woman to use martial arts. She should use that element of surprise to land a couple hits. And run while he is still in shock. There are techniques for a woman to take him out. But it’s risky. I wouldn’t advice to stay in the fight for a longer time. Hit hit run!

      2. I hesitate to be too specific. I have trained with .38, .22 and, 9mm pistols.

        At home I have a large caliber rifle.

      3. Also, i have a bow and a crossbow, which are entirely unregulated. 🙂

        Both are deadly. Especially if you fit your arrows with hunting tips.
        Some bows can penetrate bulletproof vests.
        A mere 50lb small crossbow can kill a person.

      4. Sig Sauer P226 Legion is on my buy list once I have the C-Permit which is a non-expiring residence permit for Switzerland. I should get it this Summer.
        I’ll add a SG553 caliber 7.62, which is a fairly expensive assault rifle, a marriage of an AK47 and an AR15. Of course I’ll join a shooting club. Don’t have to, but will.

      5. Neutralrandomthoughts: Sig Sauer P226 Legion and SG553. I like your style. Both excellent choices. I’m hearing some great reviews. Have you used the SG553 already? I’ve heard it’s performing great on short and medium range. Some say perfect for urban combat. Great stopping power, yet very stable at full auto. And what’s your take on the HK416 and HK417? Any personal experience stories would be much appreciated. I’m possibly interested for future purchase.

  4. In light of the discussion on guns I would like to dispel some of the myths perpetuated by the anti-gun lobby.

    Lets start with easy and harmless to worst.

    Violent videos games make kids violent; Why haven’t violent video games and movies sold around the world made the rest of the world just as violent as the US.

    There is a larger rate of incidence of mental illness in the US; Unless its something in the air, the rate of incidence of mental illness is almost the same everywhere. And also, people with mental illness are generally more likely to become victims of violence according to science. That is because, they easily provoke violent individuals.

    Gun violence is not cultural; It is cultural but with a lag. A leading indicator of gun violence in the future in an area is the legal status of easy abortions for women. Think about it this way for laymen, the donehue-levvit hypothesis/fact says the less abortions>more unwanted children>bad people+easy available guns>fucked up culture.

    Countries like Switzerland which has a gun culture can’t comped to the US because the US has a larger population; Bullshit. In some US states, I was asked to off the lights when I leave because there is no one left to do it. That’s how little people live in those states compared to say California. But the incidence of gun violence is sometimes higher in those states than California even.

    Good luck and hope this helps to keep you mother fuckers sane through the shit storm of myths.

    1. Pls define mental illness.

      (NB: me personally, I consider a single-parent child mentally ill)

      1. All unwanted children single parent or otherwise is a prime candidate to harbor mental illnesses.

  5. Feminist have just abolished the US second amendment in a sneaky way. The bills just passed congress (S.1539 and H.R. 3207). They call it the boyfriend loophole laws. They claim they would protect women from abusive dating partners, by ensuring that their abusers are prohibited from possessing guns under federal law. This basically means that any woman can now take away any man’s second amendment rights by getting a restraining order. A woman’s word is all that’s needed.

    Sneaky bitches!

  6. Should you become a parent,do you plan to introduce your children into Meditation early on? that might be real good for them.

  7. Aaron
    To your recommendation list I’d like to make a suggestion, see link below.
    For people like you and me who spend their day at work infront of a screen (or two) I think this comes in handy. I have been using these glasses for two weeks now and I have considerably less eye strain and I feel more tired earlier in the evening. After reading your book on meditation (Amazon review still outstanding – I want to practice for a bit of time before I write it*), I have given myself more sleep, effectively going to bed at around 9pm and it feels natural to wake up at 6:30am (dang… that’s a lot of sleep^^)

    Further, I suggest getting a bluelight filter on your phone, ideally tied to exact daylight of your location – there are a few free apps available.

    Link (no affiliate):
    https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00CAUTK0E/134-8810101-6223901

    *I guess you are happy to help with questions on mediation in your consulations, too – I might want to book one as a bit of guidance a few weeks into practicing almost daily seems a good investment to me.

    1. Thanks for your feedback and those suggestions. I’ve been using a setting on MacOS called “night shift”, which is supposed to reduce blue light emissions of your screen. As a consequence, I seem to get sleepier sooner. (That is of course not a statement that has much, if any, scientific validity.)

      Yes, my consultations are also for questions about meditation.

      1. Are you certain about this Aaron? I always thought that blue light blocks the production of melatonin.

        When preparing for bed time, I always use dimmed light and I also supplement a small ammount of melatonin. Together with unwinding this seems to do the trick.

      2. I haven’t looked into the physiological effects involved, assuming that reading a brief description of the “night shift” setting does not count, so I could well be wrong.

      3. well it’s not contradictory what both of you said.
        Blue light does block the release of melatonin. Worth noting is that the sunlight has less bluelight than a screen. I have my doubts of what blocks better – an app or glasses, but yesterday I switched off my f.lux app on my PC at 9pm to do some gaming and sure as hell I was awake at 10pm. Could be the mix of gaming and bluelight, but usually at 9:15 pm I can hardly keep my head up no matter what I do on a PC (with f.lux on).
        At that point even 1mg of melatonin didn’t do the trick until at least 11:30 pm. Needless to say my eyes burn today. Quality sleep is extremely underrated.

      4. When I taught yoga, it was quite normal that around half the people would fall asleep in the final relaxation phase, and we’re talking about people, mostly women, in their early 20s. Somehow, they all have to stay up, keeping themselves updated on Facebook and Twitter, and end up accumulating an enormous sleep deficit. I’d say a good 8 to 9 hours of sleep a day would be enough to make 50% of people who are affected by it get rid of their anger management issues and their depression.

      5. 8 to 9 seems like a lot. I have a sportswatch that seems to track my sleep pretty accurately. I usually fall asleep at 10 p.m. to get up at 6 a.m. This gives me around 7,5 hours of sleep. I havn’t really tried to get more sleep then 8.

        @Aaron, do you unwind at a certain hour or have a specific evening ritual?

        @neutral, I can attest to what you’re saying. Gaming or highly exciting activities keep me up as well.

      6. Aaron, when did the final relaxation phase kick in for beginners?
        For me it’s around minute 7-8 (shortly before the timer goes off).

        @Geert, it’s not only the 8 or 9 hours of sleep it’s also when you get them. There’s a fundamental difference if you get 9 hours of sleep from midnight til 9am or if you get them from 9pm to 6am. Human Growth Hormone is being released in the highest rate from 10 pm till 2am. As one sleep cycle lasts 90min, of which very little is just deep sleep (I think it’s like 15-20 min, which kick in close to the end of the cycle) you have every interest being ASLEEP at 10pm, not just going to bed. Try going to bed at 9pm for a week and see how you feel throughout the day. People always speak bout quality sleep time, but nobody talks about quality day time. Yesterday we closed an important deal we’ve been working on since October and it was on the edge of not going through. Without a lot of sleep the last week, I doubt that I would’ve had the nerves to do the right thing at the right time and not get angry at some of the parties who (somewhat unintentionally) slowed us down 36h before cut-off. This ties into what Aaron said above about anger management. You get pissed less easily when you have slept well.

        Also, how productive are we when we scroll through social media or zerohedge or whatever at 10 pm….

        I think a simplistic reasoning of saying that we humans used to go to bed when the sun went down and still should do that today can be defended. After all if we exclude extremes like white nights in the northern hemisphere, the sun is long gone at 9:30pm pretty much everywhere. I call it a day at 9:15pm every day during the week and get up at 6:40am.

      7. When teaching yoga, I used ten to fifteen minutes for relaxation at the end. Some people began drifting off to sleep within moments, but most of those who were susceptible to falling asleep within a few minutes.

  8. Thanks for bringing Meditation without Bullshit to Kindle! I like the name. Straight to the point as all your writings and no fluffy nonsense. Main thing I learned is that any type of distraction is bad. I had been meditating before, but it turned out the quality of the sessions was not optimal because my room is too noisy. So i eliminated or replaced all sources of sound and replaced my ticking-ticking clock by a silent digital one. It has improved my sessions significantly and i can go much deeper now than i used to. I also got rid of binaural beats and meditational music, which i had no clue were just another form of distraction. Since meditating in this new way i feel like i am gaining control over my racing mind that i did not have before, so thanks Sleazy for writing this useful book.

    1. Thanks for the feedback, Peter! I’m happy to hear that you’ve found my book helpful. If you have a few minutes to share, please consider leaving a review on Amazon. I’d really appreciate it.

      1. Aaron, do you have to approve the reviews on Amazon?
        I posted mine on this book today, but since it’s the first time I reviewed sth on Amazon, I’m not familiar with how it works.

      2. All good. You’re right, they took a few days but now it’s published.

      3. For some reason Amazon won’t let me write a review due to something about my account not having enough purchases. Buying things for my Kindle has always been a hassle, as i do not own a credit card. So my only means is through buying and inserting gift cards, perhaps this has something to do with it. All very unfortunate, because i was in fact planning to write a review. A very positive one that is, because i can already feel subtle but noticeable improvements after practicing in this new way for less than a week.

  9. Hi Aaron,

    I recently bought your book on meditation and have begun short daily meditations. However, some internet searches made me aware that apparently mediation can be dangerous? I’m a little concerned about continuing now and wondered if you had any thoughts on this issue. Here are a few links on this topic:

    https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-science-behind-behavior/201604/the-little-known-downsides-mindfulness-practice

    https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/jan/23/is-mindfulness-making-us-ill

    https://www.nhs.uk/news/lifestyle-and-exercise/does-meditation-carry-a-risk-of-harmful-side-effects/

    1. The first two articles are about mindfulness, not the kind of meditation I teach. Apart from that, they are pretty nonsensical. I’m sure that with just a bit of effort you can figure out why their reasoning is questionable. The third one is also largely bunk. In particular, I’d like to draw your attention that the key argument is based on an article that appeared in a pay-to-publish online journal. Make of that what you will.

      1. Sorry Aaron, I hadn’t realised other forms of meditation were so different to your (zen inspired) form of meditation.

        The Guardian article is very strange. I don’t know what underlying issues the writer must have to if she has a panic attack from closing her eyes and thinking about her body.

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