Re:Ask HN: How to overcome the compulsion to comment?
by ironic_ali on Friday August 29, 2014 @06:18PM
(#8244759)
Well said.
After 20 years on the internet, the phrase, 'if you're angry, you've already lost' has stood me in good stead (after lots of practice...)
You can interrupt this compulsion simply by feeling the irritation without trying to get rid of it or channel it into something else, such as a proof of rightness. The more aware you are of how it's agitating you, the less likely you are to lash out.
It might seem like being more aware of something uncomfortable can't help, but in pratice it does. It gives space and time for the irritation to subside, and lessens the habit for next time.
This has given me a new perspective on tolerance. Tolerance is closer than we realize to the physical sense of "to tolerate", i.e. to bear a pain or stress internally without snapping. This capacity increases with practice. The best thing for tolerance is to experience the irritation, that buttons-being-pushed feeling, as a physical sensation and not an intellectual reaction. That somehow metabolizes it.