Paul Nervy Notes
“Jokes, poems, stories, and a lot of philosophy, psychology, and sociology.”


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Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.  ---  .See also: Philosophy, ethics, effort.  ---  12/31/2000


Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.  ---  .This section is about ability, effort and accomplishment.  Topics include: ( ) Ability.  ( ) Effort.  ( ) Accomplishment.  ---  1/24/2006


Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.  ---  Ability and limitations.  One should not become depressed when one realizes one's true limitations, or one's accomplishments after total effort.  One should be happy one tried one's best.  ---  12/30/1995


Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.  ---  Ability is variable. (1) Ability can degrade with fatigue.  (2) Ability can improve with motivation.  Ability can improve with practice.  ---  6/14/2004


Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.  ---  Ability, capacity, capability: are these three words synonyms?  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.  ---  Ability.  (1) Ability now.  (2) Capability in future: (A) Given.  (B) Gained through effort.  (C) Luck of circumstances.  (D) Natural development, etc.  ---  06/30/1993


Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.  ---  Ability.  (1) Current ability: your potential at this moment.  (2) Future ability: your potential as time progresses and you either seize or lose opportunities to develop.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.  ---  Ability.  (1) Development of capacities (by playing games for example).  (2) Use of capacities (to do something useful).  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.  ---  Ability.  (1) What you can do now: current actual ability.  (2) What you could do in future: potential ability.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.  ---  Ability.  Ability can increase through study, practice, or exercise, and decrease through neglect or abuse.  There is a curve that describes increase in ability with increase in practice.  However the curve levels off at the top.  That is, there are limits to ability.  Better training methods will help you fulfill your potential faster.  Some people think there are no limits to ability.  They believe you can do anything.  This is an ideal to shoot for, but is not reachable.  ---  12/30/1995


Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.  ---  Ability.  Development of mental abilities.  Without effort (passive) vs. with effort (active).  Development without effort is not automatic.  We have the ability to develop our entire lives.  How much greater is active development than passive development?  ---  3/29/2000


Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.  ---  Ability.  How did I once feel about blue collar workers?  (1) Shame and guilt for not being one of them.  (2) Sympathy for them.  (3) Unsure of my own abilities and worth.  Sometimes I thought that I was one of them.  (4) Lockean human rights principles.  "All are created equal".  (5)  Thoreau-ian principles.  "Simple life is best".  ---  2/20/1999


Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.  ---  Ability.  Knowledge of how to do something vs. ability or skill to do.  Capacities for both.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.  ---  Ability.  Natural vs. developed.  Used vs. unused.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.  ---  Ability.  Talent.  (1) Relative to average person.  (2) Relative to educated, intelligent people.  (3) Relative to professionals in the field.  (4) Relative to greats in the field.  ---  05/18/1994


Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.  ---  Ability.  The question, "How many different kinds of things can you do?", is as important as the question, "How much of any one thing can you do?"  ---  3/10/2007


Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.  ---  Ability.  Variations in ability.  The same task can seem easy one time, then impossible at another time.  What are the factors, variables and techniques involved to get from seeming tough to seeming easy?  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.  ---  Ability.  What abilities do you lose as what adverse factors appear?  What abilities do you gain from confronting adversity?  ---  04/30/1993


Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.  ---  Ability.  What is your ability level if you put in x amount of mental learning or study, and x amount of physical practice or training.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.  ---  Accomplishment is often dependent on time.  The more hours you put in the more you will accomplish.  Accomplishment = ((Ability * Effort) / Time) - Obstacles?  How to run the brain for more hours?  ---  5/30/2005


Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.  ---  Accomplishment.  (1) How much do great accomplishments depend on you getting greatly psyched (adrenaline and other hormones caused by desire, fear, etc.)?  (2) How much does inspiration depend on same hormones?  ---  06/15/1994


Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.  ---  Accomplishment.  Is what you accomplish judged useful by you, society, all societies, the experts, etc?  I.e., do you accomplish amazing yet useless feats (as found on Letterman's stupid human tricks)?  ---  12/30/1995


Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.  ---  Accomplishment.  What is an accomplishment?  The notion of what you think is an accomplishment depends on what you think is good an useful.  More precisely, the notion of what is an accomplishment depends on what you are able to accurately recognize as good and useful.  Accomplishment is a matter of ethics.  See Philosophy, ethics.  ---  3/10/2007


Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.  ---  Accomplishment.  You can graph someone's mental accomplishments on a 3 line axis graph.  Quantity on one axis,  quality on another axis, and effort (time x energy) on a third axis.  Zero effort = things you think of without even trying.  Other variables include: how much help you had; did you think of it all by yourself; or did you read some books on the subject.  ---  02/04/1994


Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.  ---  Accomplishments = Ability * Effort - Obstacles.  ---  12/30/1995


Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.  ---  Accomplishments are what you get done.  Ability is talent.  Both raw, rough, latent, potential talent and polished, practiced talent.  Effort is degree (intensity) * time (duration).  Effort is how hard you try.  Effort is amount of work you do.  Obstacles are setbacks, mistakes, failures.  ---  12/30/1995


Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.  ---  Effort and accomplishment.  (1) Greatness of effort is (A) Rising to your natural talent and ability (potential).  (B) Rising to the situation, circumstances, opportunities (i.e. honing talent and then using it).  (2) Greatness of achievement is when your effort pays off and you actually accomplish something.  ---  12/30/1996


Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.  ---  Effort.  (1) How hard are you trying?  That is effort.  (2) If you are trying 100%, all day long, day after day, only then is what you accomplish a reflection of your current ability.  (3) Keep trying.  Try again.  Improve your strategy, techniques, attitude.  ---  3/10/2007


Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.  ---  Effort.  100% effort is required.  No accomplishment is necessary.  Effort in all areas is required.  ---  3/29/2000


Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.  ---  Effort.  To aspire is to struggle.  In both the areas of mental effort and physical effort.  Non-effort as a principle leads to being walked all over and taking advantage of.  That is the problem with Hinduism and Buddhism.  "Everything is fine" they say.  ---  9/26/1998


Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.  ---  It seems impossible to accomplish anything.  ---  5/4/2007


Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.  ---  Physical abilities vs. mental abilities.  Is there any limit to mental abilities?  ---  5/30/2005


Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.  ---  Types of ability.  (1) Mental ability: creative and non-creative.  (2) Physical ability: creative (new movements) and non-creative (repetitive movements).  ---  5/15/2001


Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.  ---  Under-achievers: What is holding them back?  (1) Achieving in a bullsh*t system is a non-achievement.  (2) Desire to remain "free".  Non-commitment.  Not take on any responsibility.  (3) Depression.  Mild and chronic.  (4) Fear of confronting the scary and painful world.  Fear of failure bruising their ego.  Fear of how their life will change with success.  Fear of change.  (5) An anti-intellectualism that sees intellectuals as lacking in emotion, and sees intellectuals as lily-livered wimps.  (6) A "free" mind means not committing ideas to paper, where they can confine you and limit your mind.  ---  2/20/1999




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Paul Nervy Notes. Copyright 1988-2007 by Paul Nervy.