Thread by @paraschopra

What type of player are you in the game of life?

(A thread on different modes of living)

1/ First, the important point to internalize that LIFE IS A GAME.

There's no objectively right or wrong way of playing. It's just that different people have different styles.

2/ Here's my review of life:

https://twitter.com/paraschopra/status/979245153817837570

3/ To play this game, you have to adopt certain styles of playing.

The first choice you have to make is about your relationship with the world. Do you get pushed by the world or do you push it?

4/ Note the difference between the monk’s way of living and the living-in-the-present.

It's easy to mistake both as same.

The difference is: in the monk mode, you practice non-reaction to everything while living in the present entails enjoyment of whatever life throws at you

5/ Think of monks as stoics while everyone else being hedonic.

The hedonic dimension has two extremes: one is where you try changing the world for extra pleasure and the other one is where you try changing yourself towards the same end.

6/ The people at the extremes of the dimension are happiest of the lot.

As you go towards the middle from either extreme, the level of happiness decreases because you’re less sure of what’s an appropriate mode of engagement in any particular situation.

7/ When faced with a choice, people in the middle aren’t sure whether they should accept things as they are or try to change the circumstances around them.

8/ That said, there’s no right way of living.

Being a monk is not nobler than trying to put a dent in the universe.

And trying to put a dent in the universe isn’t nobler than just enjoying the smell of roses in the garden as you’re passing by.

9/ Don’t trust the self-help books. The authors of those books are usually peddling their preferred way of living.

10/ The second dimension relates to how you engage with the world.

Is it primarily inward-looking or is it outward-looking?

11/ Similar to the first dimension, it’s the people in the middle who’re usually less happy because they can’t decide whether they want to read a book or go to a party.

12/ Putting these two dimensions together, we get the life’s ultimate 2×2.

13/ Take a moment to locate yourself in this 2×2.

My earlier essay on discovering happiness may help you with triangulation. invertedpassion.com/you-cannot-pla…

14/ There’s nothing privileged about any quadrant, including being outside the entire diagram.

However, the more you’re in the extremes, the more you can be sure of who you are and hence actually live more fully rather than continuously thinking about living.

15/ That said, you cannot trivially choose a quadrant that you want to occupy.

Your environment, your upbringing, and your personality play a big role in pushing you towards a location in the 2×2.

16/ However, once you’re aware of your available options for modes for life, you can make a conscious commitment towards exploring one or more of them.

17/ It’s also OK to drift and explore all modes of life from time to time.

Nobody is putting a gun on your head and asking you to always be the same kind of person at all points in your life and under all circumstances.

18/ I find this freedom in adopting a style of living a fantastic reminder that either all ways of living life are wasteful or none of them are.

So do whatever makes you happy, and if you’re not sure what makes you happy, keep drifting :)

19/ If you never seem to find a settling ground, don’t panic.

You, at the very least, will end up producing essays like this one and someone somewhere might end up benefitting from your questioning and unsettled drifting.

Happy playing :)

invertedpassion.com/modes-of-livin…