Similar to Daniel Day-Lewis, when Viggo Mortensen took the role of Aragon in Lord of the Rings he made a habit of carrying a full sword and scabbard with him every where he went during shooting, even on off days or when he went to the pub or to parties. Likely because Mortensen realized that the real Aragon would have become so comfortable carrying his sword with him and he needed to get that comfortable. So that was probably Day-Lewis's idea as well: a guy like the one he was playing would have gotten used to carrying a gun and wearing leather pants, so I should do it all the time. Great actors worry a lot about how their character moves, and if you're not comfortable with the clothes/objects your character wears or carries it can be very distracting. (I often wonder how much of Day-Lewis's legend is just him messing with people by exaggerating stories, like how he claimed he almost quit acting to be a cobbler after he played one in a movie.)
Also, rather famously Mortensen was a replacement for Aragon. Originally, the studio had the young stud Stuart Townsend in the role, but after a few months of training they replaced him with the older and more age-appropriate for the role Aragon. Townsend never fulfilled his promise as a young highly regarded Hollywood actor, although he was semi-famous as Charlize Theron's bf for a while, and I think his being kicked off of LOTR was a big blow to his ego that he didn't recover from.
It was also around this time another famous subout took place. Dougray Scott was slated to be in a superhero movie, but after some backstage sturm und drang he was replaced by Hugh Jackman. The role was of course Wolverine in the original X-Men movie, which of course Jackman has milked to the moon. Scott, like Townsend, basically disappeared after that. Last I heard he was doing CW level shows like Batwoman.
I didn't know Aragon was a replacement! That reminds me of how Michael J. Fox was a replacement in Back to the Future. You can find clips of the scenes they filmed with the original actor. They decided they needed someone who looked less serious and could elevate the comedy more.
It also reminds me of the character Major T.J. Kong, who rode the bomb in Dr. Strangelove. The actor Slim Pickens showed up dressed in that kind of cowboy style, and a woman on the set said, "Oh, he showed up in character!" Actually it was how he always dressed. No need for the Stanislavski Method or Method Acting there, he was already perfect for the part.
Just like the fantastic R. Lee Ermey, a former drill instructor who played the drill instructor Sergeant Hartman in Full Metal Jacket. He sent in a tape where he shouted insults at the camera for minutes without flinching when his friend threw tennis balls at him.
He really was tough. He had a car accident at night during filming, went off the road and broke his arm. Despite intense pain he stayed awake turning the lights on and off until someone stopped, and then he passed out. That's why he keeps his arm still in many scenes in the movie. There has never been a man more perfect for a role he played.
After Dr. Strangelove, Kubrick liked Pickens so much that he offered Pickens (who was white, and also a country singer) the role of the chef in The Shining. Pickens agreed, but wanted it stipulated in his contract that each scene he was in would be limited to 100 takes.
Kubrick balked (Kubrick endlessly reshot scenes) and instead hired the black singer Scatman Crothers as the chef. Crothers in interviews has broken down in tears by how relentlessly Kubrick worked them on set, doing hundreds of takes and leaning on them very hard and such. And Shelly Winters in all documentaries and interviews on The Shining seemed to be pushed past sanity from Kubrick's abuse (many people posit that her late-life mental breakdown had its origins in Kubrick's treatment of her in The Shining).
It seems Pickens was smart to demand that kind of limitation or walk.
Wow. That shows Kubrick wasn't right in the head. No one needs that many takes. That's some obsessive behavior. Like turning the lights on and off twelve times before you leave the house.
I disagree. Kubrick was a film genius, and began his career as a highly talented photographer. He had a keener eye and more attention to detail than even most legendary directors. And he was a tireless editor. Most of the time he wanted his movie shots to have such a specific minute look --looks that we are only nowadays discovering with DVD and streaming allowing rewatches and YouTube videos showing off the discoveries -- that he could not and would not explain to the people he was working with at the time.
Taking hundreds of takes was so he could spend months whittling them down to the perfect edit and cut of the film so later generations could discover what he put in there. Kubrick almost certainly anticipated the modern streaming/DVD/YouTube age and was making movies for our era as much as his own.
I think Daniel Day-Lewis may have taken method acting further than necessary, but when an actor takes the trouble to master some physical skills which his character is supposed to have it really improves his performance. I've been taken enough training with firearms to notice when an actor clearly doesn't know what he's doing with one. Tom Cruise, in Collateral, had clearly trained enough to look like an expert. Even more so for Keanu Reeves in the John Wick films.
Of course, in many movies actors will use stand ins and camera tricks when there is a particular technical feat their character needs to do (e.g. playing a classical piano piece, doing close up magic, performing surgery, etc.) The camera will focus on the stand-ins hands and then cut to the actor's face and your brain gets fooled into thinking its the actor doing it. SImilar to body doubles in sex scenes.
Of course, highly regarded actors will often go out and learn the skills they have to a display. But this can backfire if the studio makes cuts or does reshoots or changes the script. Matt Damon has told the story that for The Talented Mr. Ripley he had a scene where he had to play classical piano and it was to be filmed on screen by him with no tricks. He spent months before and during shooting learning how to play it, arduously training himself and his hands for the role. Only for the entire piano playing scene to eventually be cut.
Tarantino talks about the sharp questions that De Niro asked him on the set of Jackie Brown. "What kind of shoes does my character wear? Are they scuffed?"
Sometimes a fad is just a fad, and sometimes it isn't. It can be hard for the average Joe to tell the difference, so when the crowd moves on he does too, trusting their wisdom.
Reminds me how the highest-percentage free throw shooter in the NBA was some guy from the 1950s-60s who threw it up underhand. But so many players thought it looked uncool that they all stopped doing it and some guys with good free throw percentages shot normal. But I wonder if it it really is a better way to shoot and it needs to be tried seriously again.
But I'm also reminded how NFL kickers had a fad in the 80s and 90s of kicking with a barefoot, swearing it gave them better ability to control it and hit it harder. Or something. Its gone now, as it turned out to be just a weird fad for a bunch of weird guys doing a weird job that wasn't quite there yet in terms of fan acceptance like today.
Barefoot placekicking was probably made fashionable by Hawaiian Dick Kenney of Michigan State who kicked a field goal in the 1965 college football "Game of the Century" against Notre Dame, which ended in a 10-10 tie as the Fighting Irish ran out the clock for fear of turning the ball back over to the Spartans for fear of Kenney kicking a second field goal.
Kenney kicked straight-ahead off his toes, which seems crazy.
When I was at Rice U. in the later 1970s, Texas was full of crazy-long field goal kickers. In a 1977 game barefoot kicker Tony Franklin of Texas AM kicked 65 yard and a 64 yard field goals.
They were allowed to use tees so it was a little easier back then. But still ...
Hawaii was a huge cultural influence when I was a kid in SoCal in the late 1960s-early 1970s. I can recall my cousin and I going barefoot all summer around 1970 for no good reason other than Hawaii was cool.
Don't forget surfing. When jet airline travel became a thing after WW2 suddenly Hawaii became hip because people could finally go there. Hawaii surfing got over to the mainland and infected Brian Wilson's brain. If it hadn't surfing and surf songs might be seen as just as kitschy as Hawaiian shirts and tiki torches (remember that Bing Crosby scored a Christmas hit with "Mele Kalikimaka").
And WW2 certainly helped Hawaii to get name recognition. Pearl Harbor made Americans think of Hawaii as "America" and not just some random island we owned in the Pacific. That boosted the desire to visit.
> They were allowed to use tees so it was a little easier back then
For your younger readers, these were not the tees that are currently used for kickoffs; they were black pliable blocks that merely raised the ball 2 inches off of the ground; you still needed a holder. In addition, the goal posts were 23⅓ feet apart then, as opposed to 18½ feet now, a difference of 58 inches.
Rick Barry shot free throws underhand, and he was great at it. Overe 90% 6 times. The all-time leader is Steph Curry though, 90.98%. Steve Nash and Mark Price 2 and 3 at over 90%. Barry is 7th all-time at 89.3%. Calvin Murphy was 89.2%, 8th. The top 10 all shot overhand other than Barry, who was late '60s to late '70s.
Bill Sharman was a great FT shooter in the '50s. 16th all-time. He also shot overhand.
I would argue that Achilles is "weird" because he's a man who shows his emotions fully. Which is why, for all they claims to the contrary, women don't actually want a man willing to be emotional. He's a whiny bitch if he does.
In American Ninja Warrior the participants one after the other run, jump and climb through a very tough obstacle course, and few reach the finish line. Many fall down in the water below. The commentators note that often participants get stuck on an obstacle, but once one of them get past it it's much more likely that those after him will get past it as well. So your mindset does have an effect.
This can be exaggerated, of course. In blogs based on helping guys hit on girls, which were more common about ten years ago, there were many useful tips. (A small percent of guys raise the sex-partner-average for all guys, making the average far higher than the mean, because about 80 percent of women want them. So don't think the advice blogs tricked young women into having sex. They were already having sex, just with the same guys. Spreading it around a little isn't bad.) But a real bad tip was "fake it til you make it." The idea that it's all about having courage, nothing else needed.
The blog Chateau Heartiste unfortunately went all-out on that one, because it was what so many regular visitors (and why were they regular visitors instead of getting girlfriends?) wanted to hear: It sounded easy. You don't need to work out, don't need money, don't need friends to go out with. Just act like you're great. He even said, "women don't like millionaires because of their money, but because of the CONFIDENCE it gives them." What a sad turn in that blog. The truth is, "fake it til you make it" would make some guys go out and be loud, with big smiles plastered on, and they'd just look weird. They'd get depressed by all the failure, and would gain a reputation as the guy who hits on anyone, which is absolute poison, especially when women are in contact with each other in Facebook and love gossiping about weird guys.
As better advisers would say, "women can smell bullshit a mile away."
On the other hand, in forums there'd always be someone going in the other direction and get attention that way. You don't need ANYTHING to hit on women, "just smile and say hi!" But the point was, how to get the attractive women, who have a lot of options. Just saying "hi" or "just have confidence" were equally bad advice for how to get those women.
I'm veering off topic. But let me say that those blogs and forums did help me. One especially valuable piece of advice was, "don't settle." Too many guys will hold on to a girl because she gives them sex and company, and they're too afraid to leave that comfort. Which means they'll break up later instead, after several years, having wasted those youthful years when they could have found someone else. I could have settled in two relationships, but I didn't, and so I found the girl who was better for me. And I did that by another piece of useful advice: Instead of the nonsense "You'll find someone when you stop looking" which is what people say when they have no idea, they won't stick their neck out with actual advice, and they think anything that is a paradox must be wise, I followed the advice "Get out there." Keep looking through different venues. Don't stay in your hobby if it gives you nothing - you know attractive women don't stick around for a hobby when they see there are no hot guys there. Be that goal-oriented yourself. If I hadn't followed this advice, I would have settled and wouldn't have found my current girlfriend.
I think this is good advice for sports and work as well. Don't get stuck just because it's comfortable, if it doesn't lead anywhere. Don't fool yourself with talk about loyalty and hopes that things might change. Make the change yourself. Sailer mentions Trump - in his professional life he was constantly trying new ideas, and that is the case with a lot of successful people. Look up the "Google Graveyard" to see how that company has tried and ditched dozens of things. It's just that in the end you only hear about the things that work, and the only advice the successful will give you is a variation of "work hard!" They don't mention how they tried and failed, then switched and tried something else.
I inherited a couple of muskets that aren't nearly as long as DDL's. They're damned heavy compared to a modern long gun. If he hadn't gotten used to it first, he would have been dragging it an hour into a day's filming. I do wonder if his was aluminum alloy or something.
The greasy hair in LOTR was really distracting, like the greasy skin in Berlin Babylon, even if both were authentic.
Dale Carnegie’s How to Stop Worrying and Start living was very effective for me. Old timey American stoicism. Comparing his wisdom to modern self help writers makes me think to myself “we used to be a proper country.”
In investment, trend-following seems to work, both in bull and bear markets. (By "work" I mean it outperforms the broad-based market index like S&P 500.) You buy what has been going up and you sell the dogs, and you stick to it, consistently.
The whole field of technical analysis in finance is essentially based on trend-following. But technical analysis is frowned upon by most investment practitioners; it is considered the "voodoo science" of finance, the "permanent fad" everyone always expects to fade. It hasn't caught on (in the jargon, it hasn't been "arbitraged away"), which is precisely what its acolytes attribute its staying power to.
Barefoot shoes - which essentially are moccasins and barefoot running . Read accounts of explorers, hunters, surveryers like George Washington- they took of boots and put on mocassains when in the bush - same with cowboys .
Read the book Born to Run. Nike is the Pzifer of athletic gear - pedaling shoes that actually hurt your knees.
Barefoot shoes have made a huge improvement to my physical health, and improved my mental state too - it sounds weird, but the feet have as many nerves in it as hands - imagine having thick, sponge like mittens on your whole life and suddenly taking them off.
I, like many middle-aged women, found my experiencing pain in my big toe joint. I went to a podiatrist who diagnosed hallux limitus, and told me I needed to wear very rigid, supportive shoes with a rocker sole, and that I would probably need a joint fusion eventually. However, a guest on Peter Attia's podcast sent me down an internet rabbit hole researching foot function and ended up with exercises and barefoot shoes. That was in May; it is now August and I have transitioned to barefoot shoes and have zero pain in my toe joint as well as now having full range of motion.
and if you followed his advice you probably would have needed a joint fusion!
and if you told many 'expert' podiatrists about barefoot shoes they would have said its conspiracy/misinformation./whatever
its amazing how many simple cheap health practices can save thousands of dollars.. and that's the problem for the people charging thousands of dollars.
It's really kind of nuts. I had previously seen the podiatrist for a pain in my forefoot, which was diagnosed as a neuroma. The doctor told me it was inevitable due to the shape of my foot, with a high arch and long middle toe. I've since realized it was from wearing conventional shoes with the narrow/tapered toe boxes. I never thought I had wide feet, as whenever I had tried on a "wide width" shoe they were too big through the heel and instep (and often still felt tight in the toes). A clue should have been the calluses I have always had on the outsides of my pinky toes. My feet are bony and skinny, but my toes need plenty of room to spread out. I started wearing barefoot/minimalist shoes with wide toe boxes and voila, no more neuroma pain.
Ben Franklin offered some good advice in his Autobiography. I was particularly impressed with his lesson on maintaining courtesy in a debate. I wish more people would follow this advice on the internet.
"[A] Quaker friend having kindly informed me that I was generally thought proud; that my pride show'd itself frequently in conversation; that I was not content with being in the right when discussing any point, but was overbearing, and rather insolent, of which he convinc'd me by mentioning several instances; I determined endeavouring to cure myself, if I could, of this vice or folly among the rest, and I added Humility to my list, giving an extensive meaning to the word.
"I cannot boast of much success in acquiring the reality of this virtue, but I had a good deal with regard to the appearance of it. I made it a rule to forbear all direct contradiction to the sentiments of others, and all positive assertion of my own. I even forbid myself, agreeably to the old laws of our Junto, the use of every word or expression in the language that imported a fix'd opinion, such as certainly, undoubtedly, etc., and I adopted, instead of them, I conceive, I apprehend, or I imagine a thing to be so or so; or it so appears to me at present. When another asserted something that I thought an error, I deny'd myself the pleasure of contradicting him abruptly, and of showing immediately some absurdity in his proposition; and in answering I began by observing that in certain cases or circumstances his opinion would be right, but in the present case there appear'd or seem'd to me some difference, etc. I soon found the advantage of this change in my manner; the conversations I engag'd in went on more pleasantly. The modest way in which I propos'd my opinions procur'd them a readier reception and less contradiction; I had less mortification when I was found to be in the wrong, and I more easily prevail'd with others to give up their mistakes and join with me when I happened to be in the right."
The very intelligent deal with this a lot (I've heard). In conversation with almost everyone, you have two options: stifle your intelligence, or embarrass the other person. When you learn about the mid century genius guys like Feynman or Neumann, it seems like each of them had some personal conversational quirk. I wonder if they needed to invent some kind of handicap for themselves just to stand the boredom of day to day conversation.
I like "10,000 steps a day." Walking 7km (for me, that's the calculation, you can calculate it online) on the treadmill take an hour and a half. I feel good, and it isn't hard actually.
"Fake it til you make it" works, at least for some things. Your body is like a dog. It's stupid and agreeable. If you want to go to sleep, pretend you're tired. Make a big show of making your bed and putting on a night cap and having a sleepy tea. Your body will play along, stupidly. "I guess I'm tired now."
Similar to Daniel Day-Lewis, when Viggo Mortensen took the role of Aragon in Lord of the Rings he made a habit of carrying a full sword and scabbard with him every where he went during shooting, even on off days or when he went to the pub or to parties. Likely because Mortensen realized that the real Aragon would have become so comfortable carrying his sword with him and he needed to get that comfortable. So that was probably Day-Lewis's idea as well: a guy like the one he was playing would have gotten used to carrying a gun and wearing leather pants, so I should do it all the time. Great actors worry a lot about how their character moves, and if you're not comfortable with the clothes/objects your character wears or carries it can be very distracting. (I often wonder how much of Day-Lewis's legend is just him messing with people by exaggerating stories, like how he claimed he almost quit acting to be a cobbler after he played one in a movie.)
Also, rather famously Mortensen was a replacement for Aragon. Originally, the studio had the young stud Stuart Townsend in the role, but after a few months of training they replaced him with the older and more age-appropriate for the role Aragon. Townsend never fulfilled his promise as a young highly regarded Hollywood actor, although he was semi-famous as Charlize Theron's bf for a while, and I think his being kicked off of LOTR was a big blow to his ego that he didn't recover from.
It was also around this time another famous subout took place. Dougray Scott was slated to be in a superhero movie, but after some backstage sturm und drang he was replaced by Hugh Jackman. The role was of course Wolverine in the original X-Men movie, which of course Jackman has milked to the moon. Scott, like Townsend, basically disappeared after that. Last I heard he was doing CW level shows like Batwoman.
Ah, Hollywood.
I didn't know Aragon was a replacement! That reminds me of how Michael J. Fox was a replacement in Back to the Future. You can find clips of the scenes they filmed with the original actor. They decided they needed someone who looked less serious and could elevate the comedy more.
It also reminds me of the character Major T.J. Kong, who rode the bomb in Dr. Strangelove. The actor Slim Pickens showed up dressed in that kind of cowboy style, and a woman on the set said, "Oh, he showed up in character!" Actually it was how he always dressed. No need for the Stanislavski Method or Method Acting there, he was already perfect for the part.
Just like the fantastic R. Lee Ermey, a former drill instructor who played the drill instructor Sergeant Hartman in Full Metal Jacket. He sent in a tape where he shouted insults at the camera for minutes without flinching when his friend threw tennis balls at him.
He really was tough. He had a car accident at night during filming, went off the road and broke his arm. Despite intense pain he stayed awake turning the lights on and off until someone stopped, and then he passed out. That's why he keeps his arm still in many scenes in the movie. There has never been a man more perfect for a role he played.
After Dr. Strangelove, Kubrick liked Pickens so much that he offered Pickens (who was white, and also a country singer) the role of the chef in The Shining. Pickens agreed, but wanted it stipulated in his contract that each scene he was in would be limited to 100 takes.
Kubrick balked (Kubrick endlessly reshot scenes) and instead hired the black singer Scatman Crothers as the chef. Crothers in interviews has broken down in tears by how relentlessly Kubrick worked them on set, doing hundreds of takes and leaning on them very hard and such. And Shelly Winters in all documentaries and interviews on The Shining seemed to be pushed past sanity from Kubrick's abuse (many people posit that her late-life mental breakdown had its origins in Kubrick's treatment of her in The Shining).
It seems Pickens was smart to demand that kind of limitation or walk.
Wow. That shows Kubrick wasn't right in the head. No one needs that many takes. That's some obsessive behavior. Like turning the lights on and off twelve times before you leave the house.
I disagree. Kubrick was a film genius, and began his career as a highly talented photographer. He had a keener eye and more attention to detail than even most legendary directors. And he was a tireless editor. Most of the time he wanted his movie shots to have such a specific minute look --looks that we are only nowadays discovering with DVD and streaming allowing rewatches and YouTube videos showing off the discoveries -- that he could not and would not explain to the people he was working with at the time.
Taking hundreds of takes was so he could spend months whittling them down to the perfect edit and cut of the film so later generations could discover what he put in there. Kubrick almost certainly anticipated the modern streaming/DVD/YouTube age and was making movies for our era as much as his own.
Little known fact: in New Zealand, most people carry swords to the pub.
Yes, because of all the alligators and koalas.
I think Daniel Day-Lewis may have taken method acting further than necessary, but when an actor takes the trouble to master some physical skills which his character is supposed to have it really improves his performance. I've been taken enough training with firearms to notice when an actor clearly doesn't know what he's doing with one. Tom Cruise, in Collateral, had clearly trained enough to look like an expert. Even more so for Keanu Reeves in the John Wick films.
Of course, in many movies actors will use stand ins and camera tricks when there is a particular technical feat their character needs to do (e.g. playing a classical piano piece, doing close up magic, performing surgery, etc.) The camera will focus on the stand-ins hands and then cut to the actor's face and your brain gets fooled into thinking its the actor doing it. SImilar to body doubles in sex scenes.
Of course, highly regarded actors will often go out and learn the skills they have to a display. But this can backfire if the studio makes cuts or does reshoots or changes the script. Matt Damon has told the story that for The Talented Mr. Ripley he had a scene where he had to play classical piano and it was to be filmed on screen by him with no tricks. He spent months before and during shooting learning how to play it, arduously training himself and his hands for the role. Only for the entire piano playing scene to eventually be cut.
Such is Hollywood.
Tarantino talks about the sharp questions that De Niro asked him on the set of Jackie Brown. "What kind of shoes does my character wear? Are they scuffed?"
Sometimes a fad is just a fad, and sometimes it isn't. It can be hard for the average Joe to tell the difference, so when the crowd moves on he does too, trusting their wisdom.
Reminds me how the highest-percentage free throw shooter in the NBA was some guy from the 1950s-60s who threw it up underhand. But so many players thought it looked uncool that they all stopped doing it and some guys with good free throw percentages shot normal. But I wonder if it it really is a better way to shoot and it needs to be tried seriously again.
But I'm also reminded how NFL kickers had a fad in the 80s and 90s of kicking with a barefoot, swearing it gave them better ability to control it and hit it harder. Or something. Its gone now, as it turned out to be just a weird fad for a bunch of weird guys doing a weird job that wasn't quite there yet in terms of fan acceptance like today.
Barefoot placekicking was probably made fashionable by Hawaiian Dick Kenney of Michigan State who kicked a field goal in the 1965 college football "Game of the Century" against Notre Dame, which ended in a 10-10 tie as the Fighting Irish ran out the clock for fear of turning the ball back over to the Spartans for fear of Kenney kicking a second field goal.
Kenney kicked straight-ahead off his toes, which seems crazy.
When I was at Rice U. in the later 1970s, Texas was full of crazy-long field goal kickers. In a 1977 game barefoot kicker Tony Franklin of Texas AM kicked 65 yard and a 64 yard field goals.
They were allowed to use tees so it was a little easier back then. But still ...
Hawaii was a huge cultural influence when I was a kid in SoCal in the late 1960s-early 1970s. I can recall my cousin and I going barefoot all summer around 1970 for no good reason other than Hawaii was cool.
Nowadays, nobody cares about Hawaii.
> Nowadays, nobody cares about Hawaii
That fad should make its comeback in the form of people caring about what Tulsi Gabbard says.
nowadays Hawaii is just turbo California
Don't forget surfing. When jet airline travel became a thing after WW2 suddenly Hawaii became hip because people could finally go there. Hawaii surfing got over to the mainland and infected Brian Wilson's brain. If it hadn't surfing and surf songs might be seen as just as kitschy as Hawaiian shirts and tiki torches (remember that Bing Crosby scored a Christmas hit with "Mele Kalikimaka").
And WW2 certainly helped Hawaii to get name recognition. Pearl Harbor made Americans think of Hawaii as "America" and not just some random island we owned in the Pacific. That boosted the desire to visit.
> They were allowed to use tees so it was a little easier back then
For your younger readers, these were not the tees that are currently used for kickoffs; they were black pliable blocks that merely raised the ball 2 inches off of the ground; you still needed a holder. In addition, the goal posts were 23⅓ feet apart then, as opposed to 18½ feet now, a difference of 58 inches.
Rick Barry shot free throws underhand, and he was great at it. Overe 90% 6 times. The all-time leader is Steph Curry though, 90.98%. Steve Nash and Mark Price 2 and 3 at over 90%. Barry is 7th all-time at 89.3%. Calvin Murphy was 89.2%, 8th. The top 10 all shot overhand other than Barry, who was late '60s to late '70s.
Bill Sharman was a great FT shooter in the '50s. 16th all-time. He also shot overhand.
As my father used to say, guys who can't shoot free throws well shouldn't be allowed to play pro basketball. It's free money.
In Olympic 3 on 3 basketball this year, the star American player was Canyon Barry, who shot freethrows underhand like his dad.
I would argue that Achilles is "weird" because he's a man who shows his emotions fully. Which is why, for all they claims to the contrary, women don't actually want a man willing to be emotional. He's a whiny bitch if he does.
In American Ninja Warrior the participants one after the other run, jump and climb through a very tough obstacle course, and few reach the finish line. Many fall down in the water below. The commentators note that often participants get stuck on an obstacle, but once one of them get past it it's much more likely that those after him will get past it as well. So your mindset does have an effect.
This can be exaggerated, of course. In blogs based on helping guys hit on girls, which were more common about ten years ago, there were many useful tips. (A small percent of guys raise the sex-partner-average for all guys, making the average far higher than the mean, because about 80 percent of women want them. So don't think the advice blogs tricked young women into having sex. They were already having sex, just with the same guys. Spreading it around a little isn't bad.) But a real bad tip was "fake it til you make it." The idea that it's all about having courage, nothing else needed.
The blog Chateau Heartiste unfortunately went all-out on that one, because it was what so many regular visitors (and why were they regular visitors instead of getting girlfriends?) wanted to hear: It sounded easy. You don't need to work out, don't need money, don't need friends to go out with. Just act like you're great. He even said, "women don't like millionaires because of their money, but because of the CONFIDENCE it gives them." What a sad turn in that blog. The truth is, "fake it til you make it" would make some guys go out and be loud, with big smiles plastered on, and they'd just look weird. They'd get depressed by all the failure, and would gain a reputation as the guy who hits on anyone, which is absolute poison, especially when women are in contact with each other in Facebook and love gossiping about weird guys.
As better advisers would say, "women can smell bullshit a mile away."
On the other hand, in forums there'd always be someone going in the other direction and get attention that way. You don't need ANYTHING to hit on women, "just smile and say hi!" But the point was, how to get the attractive women, who have a lot of options. Just saying "hi" or "just have confidence" were equally bad advice for how to get those women.
I'm veering off topic. But let me say that those blogs and forums did help me. One especially valuable piece of advice was, "don't settle." Too many guys will hold on to a girl because she gives them sex and company, and they're too afraid to leave that comfort. Which means they'll break up later instead, after several years, having wasted those youthful years when they could have found someone else. I could have settled in two relationships, but I didn't, and so I found the girl who was better for me. And I did that by another piece of useful advice: Instead of the nonsense "You'll find someone when you stop looking" which is what people say when they have no idea, they won't stick their neck out with actual advice, and they think anything that is a paradox must be wise, I followed the advice "Get out there." Keep looking through different venues. Don't stay in your hobby if it gives you nothing - you know attractive women don't stick around for a hobby when they see there are no hot guys there. Be that goal-oriented yourself. If I hadn't followed this advice, I would have settled and wouldn't have found my current girlfriend.
I think this is good advice for sports and work as well. Don't get stuck just because it's comfortable, if it doesn't lead anywhere. Don't fool yourself with talk about loyalty and hopes that things might change. Make the change yourself. Sailer mentions Trump - in his professional life he was constantly trying new ideas, and that is the case with a lot of successful people. Look up the "Google Graveyard" to see how that company has tried and ditched dozens of things. It's just that in the end you only hear about the things that work, and the only advice the successful will give you is a variation of "work hard!" They don't mention how they tried and failed, then switched and tried something else.
I inherited a couple of muskets that aren't nearly as long as DDL's. They're damned heavy compared to a modern long gun. If he hadn't gotten used to it first, he would have been dragging it an hour into a day's filming. I do wonder if his was aluminum alloy or something.
The greasy hair in LOTR was really distracting, like the greasy skin in Berlin Babylon, even if both were authentic.
Self-help that 'works' seems to fall under the category of good manners.
Dale Carnegie’s How to Stop Worrying and Start living was very effective for me. Old timey American stoicism. Comparing his wisdom to modern self help writers makes me think to myself “we used to be a proper country.”
In investment, trend-following seems to work, both in bull and bear markets. (By "work" I mean it outperforms the broad-based market index like S&P 500.) You buy what has been going up and you sell the dogs, and you stick to it, consistently.
The whole field of technical analysis in finance is essentially based on trend-following. But technical analysis is frowned upon by most investment practitioners; it is considered the "voodoo science" of finance, the "permanent fad" everyone always expects to fade. It hasn't caught on (in the jargon, it hasn't been "arbitraged away"), which is precisely what its acolytes attribute its staying power to.
Not really a 'fad' but making a comeback - Stoicism - -particularly Epictetus - which is what CBT is based on has been very helpful to me.
Barefoot shoes - which essentially are moccasins and barefoot running . Read accounts of explorers, hunters, surveryers like George Washington- they took of boots and put on mocassains when in the bush - same with cowboys .
Read the book Born to Run. Nike is the Pzifer of athletic gear - pedaling shoes that actually hurt your knees.
Barefoot shoes have made a huge improvement to my physical health, and improved my mental state too - it sounds weird, but the feet have as many nerves in it as hands - imagine having thick, sponge like mittens on your whole life and suddenly taking them off.
I, like many middle-aged women, found my experiencing pain in my big toe joint. I went to a podiatrist who diagnosed hallux limitus, and told me I needed to wear very rigid, supportive shoes with a rocker sole, and that I would probably need a joint fusion eventually. However, a guest on Peter Attia's podcast sent me down an internet rabbit hole researching foot function and ended up with exercises and barefoot shoes. That was in May; it is now August and I have transitioned to barefoot shoes and have zero pain in my toe joint as well as now having full range of motion.
and if you followed his advice you probably would have needed a joint fusion!
and if you told many 'expert' podiatrists about barefoot shoes they would have said its conspiracy/misinformation./whatever
its amazing how many simple cheap health practices can save thousands of dollars.. and that's the problem for the people charging thousands of dollars.
It's really kind of nuts. I had previously seen the podiatrist for a pain in my forefoot, which was diagnosed as a neuroma. The doctor told me it was inevitable due to the shape of my foot, with a high arch and long middle toe. I've since realized it was from wearing conventional shoes with the narrow/tapered toe boxes. I never thought I had wide feet, as whenever I had tried on a "wide width" shoe they were too big through the heel and instep (and often still felt tight in the toes). A clue should have been the calluses I have always had on the outsides of my pinky toes. My feet are bony and skinny, but my toes need plenty of room to spread out. I started wearing barefoot/minimalist shoes with wide toe boxes and voila, no more neuroma pain.
Ben Franklin offered some good advice in his Autobiography. I was particularly impressed with his lesson on maintaining courtesy in a debate. I wish more people would follow this advice on the internet.
"[A] Quaker friend having kindly informed me that I was generally thought proud; that my pride show'd itself frequently in conversation; that I was not content with being in the right when discussing any point, but was overbearing, and rather insolent, of which he convinc'd me by mentioning several instances; I determined endeavouring to cure myself, if I could, of this vice or folly among the rest, and I added Humility to my list, giving an extensive meaning to the word.
"I cannot boast of much success in acquiring the reality of this virtue, but I had a good deal with regard to the appearance of it. I made it a rule to forbear all direct contradiction to the sentiments of others, and all positive assertion of my own. I even forbid myself, agreeably to the old laws of our Junto, the use of every word or expression in the language that imported a fix'd opinion, such as certainly, undoubtedly, etc., and I adopted, instead of them, I conceive, I apprehend, or I imagine a thing to be so or so; or it so appears to me at present. When another asserted something that I thought an error, I deny'd myself the pleasure of contradicting him abruptly, and of showing immediately some absurdity in his proposition; and in answering I began by observing that in certain cases or circumstances his opinion would be right, but in the present case there appear'd or seem'd to me some difference, etc. I soon found the advantage of this change in my manner; the conversations I engag'd in went on more pleasantly. The modest way in which I propos'd my opinions procur'd them a readier reception and less contradiction; I had less mortification when I was found to be in the wrong, and I more easily prevail'd with others to give up their mistakes and join with me when I happened to be in the right."
The very intelligent deal with this a lot (I've heard). In conversation with almost everyone, you have two options: stifle your intelligence, or embarrass the other person. When you learn about the mid century genius guys like Feynman or Neumann, it seems like each of them had some personal conversational quirk. I wonder if they needed to invent some kind of handicap for themselves just to stand the boredom of day to day conversation.
Try the defining treatment of the concept -- Samuel Smiles' monster hit of 1859,, cleverly titled "Self-Help".
https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_EKgZAAAAYAAJ/page/n287/mode/2up
Is anyone else having problems seeing comments on this thread? It says 23 comments, then flips back to 4.
I like "10,000 steps a day." Walking 7km (for me, that's the calculation, you can calculate it online) on the treadmill take an hour and a half. I feel good, and it isn't hard actually.
I kinda wonder if Tony Robins stuff works, as some swear by it but it also seems kinda cult like and woo woo
"Fake it til you make it" works, at least for some things. Your body is like a dog. It's stupid and agreeable. If you want to go to sleep, pretend you're tired. Make a big show of making your bed and putting on a night cap and having a sleepy tea. Your body will play along, stupidly. "I guess I'm tired now."