See also https://btv-open.dreamhosters.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=16866&action=edit and https://btv-open.dreamhosters.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=13129&action=edit

This blogpost had an initial focus on “addictive” and kids.

In 2019 I told my son that most people tell themselves they can’t live without starch, fried chicken, or any meat for that matter…. Now I realize I show a fairly remarkable internal strength over these addictive foods, similar to grandpa. Here are some notable examples:

• French fries and round thin potato chips — are a real addictive food in my case.
• sugary drinks — Raymond told me most kids are addicted. Prevalent in U.S. and Singapore lifestyle.
• coffee — (almost always with sugar and creamer or condensed milk) is mildly addictive to many many people

On a separate note, many people can’t accept raw vegetable salad without salad dressing. Again, I have trained myself to overcome that dependency. Even though I have my limits on what raw vegetables I could swallow in non-trivial quantity, I am now more “flexible” than most raw veg salad eaters.

The body is weak because the temptation is often overpowering.

• eg: home cooking temptation… I had numerous blogposts
• eg: as an official, the temptation of corruption (Clinton) can reveal a career-killing weakness. Similarly, As a leader of a team, the temptation of favoritism towards certain individuals
• eg: the big4 temptations of an American young adult — Sex, Drugs, Cars, Debt
• eg: when I read CSY’s mail about radiologists, I react negatively (hopefully less than many people in my shoes), partly because other people’s envy is tempting

Broadly, temptations are arguably the #1 most prevalent, often most powerful, most destructive derailer (trouble-maker, show-stopper) in half the endeavors of an individual’s life. As powerful, as destructive as a F5 Twister in the movie.

Based on these and many other examples, it’s no exaggeration to say that temptations rule many lives and ruin many lives. Precisely because of that, /lackluster/dull/?/ interests, /weariness/?/, desensitized reaction .. is life enhancing. More than that, it is often a massive competitive advantage. Imagine, as a stock trader, if you are less affected by emotions [fear, greed…] and can operate more like a cold-blooded machine, you would have a huge advantage. You would get ahead pretty soon. This is a killer talent.

— Buddhism .. has a lot to say about these temptations, sufferings, detachments,
==== my desensitized zones:
— copying homework from classmates
— gambling
— addictive day trading
kinda similar to gambling addiction
— leveraged trading .. is seductive to many retail traders
— video entertainment on smartphone .. I can see 30% of the commuters are addicted.
I find it a very poor entertainment.
— arcade gaming .. in my teenage years in Beijing, I noticed that my cohort were more addicted. I used to spend an hour or so [1] in an gaming arcade and pop my RMB1 coins into the machines. I mostly [2] played the aircraft shooting-up game and never very good at it.

[1] my cohort were spending hours and hours
[2] my cohort were playing many more games, harder games.

— 耐得住寂寞 is related to temptations at a fundamental level. 耐得住寂寞 includes a wide range of endeavors. For some of them, if the practitioner is not tempted by the wrong things, then it’s easier to stick to the practice over a long stretch, and get ahead.

LocalSys self-learning is hard for me because of the temptations and distractions.

— sugary drinks or any drinks
My son has this addiction.
When I came to Singapore in my teenage years, I started to notice that diners always ordered some drinks for their meal.

— coffee .. is reported by many as a mild addiction. Coffee has many health effects. Fine coffee is quite an expensive lifestyle .
In my experience, I have found my life not even 0.001% diminished by my lackluster interest in coffee.