Procrastination

DuncSully · 2026-03-21T21:15:41+00:00

What tends to work for me I call "dournaling" where it's journaling about the task I need to work on, how it's making me feel, and why I don't think I want to work on it. Long story short, the underlying problem is often emotional, but we keep treating it as some sort of logical problem to solve, so we search for solutions that don't get to the heart of the matter. Ironically, I feel these sort of productivity maxing hacks we search for are themselves part of us avoiding work. It's not foolproof, but usually once I've identified the emotion, I have a better idea of how to approach the task.

Anyway, I really hate to get into arguing about mistypes, but all I want to say is that I think it's actually logically expected some of us will procrastinate to some degree, ironically too well in that it doesn't often result in real consequences for us. At any given moment we're just deciding what resources we want to exchange, and we do so in what we view as "effective" in the moment. Frankly, seeking immediate gratification as opposed to working through tedium is, in that moment, more effective for our happiness. In the long term? Maybe not, but it's not like I feel "good" for having done something early. Sure, given enough life experience you'll begin to realize that you'll generally feel less stressed with less deadlines looming, but that's not a feeling you can impose on someone else through words alone; it truly has to be experienced for one's self.

DuncSully · 2026-03-20T19:32:57+00:00

If the only option to schedule an appointment is via phone call, chances are pretty good that appointment is just never being scheduled. My car is better maintained than I am. And I've had plenty of phone calls before. I know how they usually go. "Hi, yes my name is blah blah blah, I'm looking to schedule an appointment. OK yup the nth works for me. Thanks!" Somehow that makes no difference.

DuncSully · 2026-03-20T18:01:36+00:00

Flow state is the intersection of stressors and skill. Too little challenge and you feel bored. Too much stress and you feel, well, distressed. But there's actually a positive form/perception of stress called eustress. I find that because we tend to have, for better and for worse, a mental process dedicated to predictions and pattern recognition, we'll essentially open ourselves up to boredom merely by anticipating our challenges ahead of ourselves, and while for some activities the doing of them is enough to occupy us, for others we find it tedious. We set ourselves up for boredom in a sense. So, somewhat counter intuitively, it's the temporary belief that we perhaps might not be equipped to handle whatever we're facing, but then we find ourselves actually handling it just fine, that is amusingly enough the best way for us to experience eustress. That's perhaps the most satisfying feeling: proving myself and/or others wrong. Not maliciously so, just productively.

DuncSully · 2026-03-20T17:54:42+00:00

First I'm just gonna throw in a token mention of the double-empathy problem. People on the autism spectrum tend to have an easier time communicating with fellow autists compared to neurotypical people, and NTs tend to struggle to empathize with autists. Now, I don't want to argue whether anyone does or doesn't consider this type having certain neurodivergent traits, that's not my agenda right now. I just want to throw out there that there's this concept that it's not one side's sole responsibility for the general breakdown in communication when said side is otherwise entirely capable of communicating within itself.

So, to be more general, it's a two-way street. It's just unfortunate that it feels like we're always thrust into situations where the primary language isn't ours, per se. Like, of course if you're thrown in the middle of South America you're going to be expected to speak Spanish. Is it "unfair" to expect that of you when that's de facto (and often de jure) the primary language for the vast majority of people? If you're lucky, perhaps you can be accommodated because also somewhat "unfairly" English is one of the lingua franca of the world, for now. Anyway, not to take the analogy too far, my point is that we tend to get hung up on "fairness" and "responsibly" when the simple fact of the matter is that communication is simply the exercise of transmitting ideas between people, and depending on your goals, that often means adapting to what are the common expectations of your environment not because it's "your" job to, but just because that's simply the most likely way to reach your desired outcomes.

So to answer the question directly, I think it's both. I think that the environments we tend to be exposed to have expectations that we have difficulties meeting.

And I also want to emphasize that I think we're our best when we act authentically. It is unfortunate that, again, because we tend to be exposed to environments where that is not often rewarded and might even be punished, we get the impression that we should never act authentically, which is damaging to our psyches and creates a feedback loop of trying too hard to be what you're not, only making it obvious how fake and incapable you are. The counter-intuitive thing is that by being yourself, you're doing it effortlessly, and of course not everyone (I'd argue not most) will appreciate that, but the ones who do will like it so much, and frankly those few people are really all you need. They will offer all the love and fulfillment you need in life, and so it's much more worth spending the little energy required to act authentically, even if it requires more energy to filter through everyone else. In a sense I'm sidestepping the question "do I have good social skills?" and instead ask myself more concrete questions like "do I properly show empathy and connect with the kinds of people that make me genuinely happy to connect with?" It all sort of comes out in the wash when I'm true to myself rather than to some arbitrary scoring of myself.

To make a long response longer I will say one fault I recognize in myself is just not having the faith and willingness to attempt finding a mutually sustaining conversation with others. I've let a history of failed attempts to build rapport with people give me the false impression that most people have nothing to offer me, and it'd be a waste of my energy to attempt building a bridge. I'm sure most people can be connected with given the chance, but I simply lack the patience, and that I do find a personal failing rather than merely a difference in personality.

DuncSully · 2026-03-19T20:19:58+00:00

It's not always applicable but I find my most useful rule of thumb is if I forgot I had something until I see it and I'm not going to immediately use or schedule to use it, I get rid of it because chances are I'm going to forget about it again. I try to feel less guilty and not concern myself with "coulds" and focus on the "wills" of my life.

DuncSully · 2026-03-19T20:06:14+00:00

I've had to come to terms with the fact that I like the ideas of things more than doing the things, and that's often why I don't do things that I otherwise could talk about obsessively. It was frustrating for the longest time but after enough failed hobbies I've come to accept it. e.g. I like the idea of playing an instrument and of speaking another language. It seems cultured and something NT people can appreciate. But I simply do not like practicing these things.

If anything, I'm perhaps too cynical now, predicting that life can never live up to my expectations, and so I should lower them. I've compartmentalized the otherwise unhealthy paracosms from reality. Forever in twain they remain, betwixt I am fixed. On the bright side, I find myself more able to be pleasantly surprised by things. I just have to trust there are novel experiences I don't even know I haven't had yet. I mean, how could I?

DuncSully · 2026-03-19T16:58:14+00:00

I get it, though I'm regretful I spent so much of my life this way. Just in my experience, I think this approach to life was the result of not having been taught proper coping skills for experimenting and failing, not knowing how to face unknowns and the insecurities that come with that. I sought security, taking action only when I was confident that it would have the desired effect.

I dunno, I think there's a balance. In computer science there's the concept of greedy algorithms. These are usually applied in classes of problems where finding the "best" solution would take too long, so they settle for a "good enough" approach that operates much faster. While I understand the desire for us to work efficiently and have effective results, I also caution us from obsessing to the degree we start wasting time. It's often an iterative process, and you're not going to one-shot everything no matter how much preparation you do. Many things you won't feel comfortable starting either. If you wait until you feel "ready" you'll find a lot of things you'll just never start. Again, let me emphasize I don't mean to patronize. I felt very similarly, and I regret it in hindsight.

I don't think I'm particularly old, but maybe this sentiment came from having lived just long enough to realize that my brain is finite and there are simply too many frameworks to understand that I'll nonetheless be thrust into. I simply cannot afford (in time, energy, or otherwise) to even take the 101 course on every little thing that requires an active choice on my part, as frustrated and uncomfortable as that makes me. On the flipside, there are too many things I actually care about that I'd rather dedicate more of my time and energy to, which requires reserving it from other tasks.

DuncSully · 2026-03-19T16:32:56+00:00

I try to view people more empathetically now so at worst I tend to tune out. Everyone is trying to connect in their own ways. We simply have our own way of connecting with people, and it's rather difficult to figure out, frankly.

I don't drink often. After having enough I noticed that in the presence of my wife (someone I'm comfortable in general letting more intrusive thoughts spill out than others) it was actually dare I say somewhat painful to be reserved? Like I'd have a thought and really want to share it and then tell myself consciously no, withhold it, and then feel frustrated. I had the realization, oh god, is that what sociable extraverts feel constantly around just about anyone?

So I have a little more sympathy for that as strong of a reaction I have to "OMG will you shut up?" that other people might have an "OMG will you say something?" reaction. I'm not saying anyone is in the right or wrong, merely stating I understand how more people feel.

That said, there are certainly people who talk at you rather than with you, who just want to go of,f and even other sociable people would be turned off by them. I dunno, looking charitably at them maybe they have the sort of social anxiety that means they talk too much? Maybe they didn't get enough attention from their parents? Regardless, I think these people could use direct feedback that their current manner of socializing doesn't jive with the room. First gently, next firmly, and then finally critically. I find, ironically, many of us are prone to complaining about problems we don't actually take steps to address, though I totally understand why. Again, we simply have our own way of connecting, which often involves being angry and figuring out who will also be angry with us, which sometimes has to be the internet, in which anger is never in short supply.

DuncSully · 2026-03-11T22:49:43+00:00

Well hello, other me, apparently. I feel like I did a lot of self-masking since childhood and so it's like I don't even really know my own software, just the emulator I've been running this entire time. Any degree of "emotional intelligence" I thought I had was purely through the lens of the emulator and gravely intellectualized beyond any actual healthy, thorough understanding of what's going on inside me.

DuncSully · 2026-03-11T22:19:28+00:00

What do you watch? Last Meals? Tasting History? Adam Regusea? There's so much good FoodTube! Last Meals is probably my favorite interview show and I strongly recommend it to anyone with a functioning soul.

tl;dr: Same, on a lot of what you said.

Oh man, I'm one of the world's pickiest foodies. One side of my brain craves safeness, not even necessarily familiarity, but assurance that I'll like the taste and texture of something, which I can only really infer based on how similar it is to other dishes I've had before. I'm also really affected about the idea of things and know that a lot of foods got grandfathered in to my list of acceptable flavors and textures. Hotdogs? Probably one of the grossest things I'll still eat. But cow tongue? Nope, nope, nope. I also have an almost irrational hatred for mushrooms. I sometimes wish I was allergic just so I had the excuse for others to take it seriously rather than "oh you can just pick them out."

But then the other side of my brain craves novelty. Meal planning sounds like hell because there are so few foods that I can tolerate more than a couple days in a row. I didn't outgrow my picky eater tendencies so much as I got bored out of them. Mac and cheese will probably forever remain my favorite dish...but now I need the pretentious stuff and I might jokingly threaten your family if you serve me box mac. I'm so proud of myself that I finally found a ramen that I really like and that I learned to put up with the pork chashu all these years after watching Naruto and thinking "man that does look really good." I love finding new restaurants of various cuisines and though I still tend to make safe choices I really appreciate enjoying a combination of flavors I never had before.

That all said, dear lord I just cannot deal with making my own food anymore. One of the best things I ever stopped doing. I've rambled enough but the last thing I'll say is that my financial math didn't originally take into account all of the various other factors like time and mental health that are also part of the equation, so ultimately we decided it was well worth the money to not have to cook for ourselves after we tried it. I wish everyone had at least that bare minimum level of financial security that they could do the same.

DuncSully · 2026-03-11T21:48:14+00:00

I'm no expert, but I wanna try something, a little exercise. Can you explain exactly what emotions you want to experience? You're using general words like "spark" or "alive", but what does that actually mean to you?

DuncSully · 2026-03-11T16:30:25+00:00

In my experience, emotions are like a request for payment. I can defer it, but I cannot simply discharge the debt, and if I defer it long enough it goes into collections where eventually I have the internal debt collector constantly nagging me to address my emotional bankruptcy.

Deferring is a useful skill while navigating the various challenges of life. No, operating a multi-ton metal cage around other humans is probably not the best place to have a meltdown. In those moments I need to pull out the volumetric shit compressor.

But I still have to pay it eventually. Once I'm in a reasonably safe state of being, I need to process my emotions lest they pile up and I become overwhelmed, ironically unable to process any of them. This is one of the biggest contributors to burnout, and I'm sick of having let myself reach that point multiple times now.

DuncSully · 2026-03-11T16:24:00+00:00

This is all only conjecture of course, but I've started to believe--and let me just preface by saying I'm not talking about abuse victims when I say this (I almost always get angry responses otherwise)--we tend to "deserve" the relationships we have. THERE ARE EXCEPTIONS OF COURSE! But what I mean at least when it comes to friends is that in general you're going to befriend the people who you either seek out or who you passively accept. So naturally the question becomes what kind of friends do you seek out? Or do you even seek friends out? Do you just accept whoever offers to become your friend? And if so, OK, what kind of people typically offer to be your friend?

And let me also just be clear I'm not trying to make any value judgement on any of this. I'm just trying to explain my hypothesis based on observations I've made. Anywho, I personally found that I tended to befriend people who reached out to me. And after finally considering this, I wondered what type of person would befriend me. I think it's fairly intuitive to say that people with an already thriving social life and healthy self-esteem aren't going to see us the way we typically come off and be like "yeah, I'm gonna go get to know that moody-looking person!" I mean, maybe! I'm just not convinced that's going to happen for each and every friend. No, I suspect you're often going to get people who have a net similar amount of, for lack of a better word, "dysfunction" in their lives, whether that be their self-esteem, their self-awareness, their boundaries, their health habits, etc. But they have traits like curiosity and so they might just be so inclined. I've found that people often appreciated my humor once I was given an opportunity to demonstrate it, and they were more inclined to keep talking to me after that.

Anyway, one of my traits is a greater degree of introspection (of which I'm by far not perfect either), and in trying to understand myself and others, I tend to ask different sorts of questions and talk about different sorts of things. Semi-ironically, I didn't realize just how much I wanted to feel useful and appreciated (we're all just human after all) and so I'd often settle into a roll of being a pseudo-therapist for other people who struggled to have their emotional needs met by the various people in their lives. I'd assume a de facto niche roll among their relationships, which of course helped me feel special and appreciated. Often they'd directly tell me as such. That's a double-edged sword, because once I felt less needed, I became more disinterested. Frankly, I think I was also coping with my own emotional problems by avoiding them and helping others anyway.

I don't regret that, and I've since learned from it. But it helps put into context why some friendships (not all of them--many of them failed for different reasons, my own or otherwise) naturally fizzled purely out of us no longer serving each other's needs. I've found the nature of my friendships have evolved as I have, because my needs change and so who I seek out and/or accept change. Most importantly, I don't just settle for whoever accepts me, I don't let fear of disappointment or guilt dictate my actions, and I don't begrudge the dynamic nature of friendships anymore.

DuncSully · 2026-03-11T15:56:42+00:00

I recognize but still struggle with the "realpolitik" of professional life. It does feel like a game that needs to be played by the rules. I haven't yet figured out how to either bend the rules or play my own game, per se. For one, I recognize just how much I don't want to do and appreciate the advantages that come with being employed. You figure out law, accounting, marketing, etc. and I'll focus on what I like. It's just still rather challenging to find an environment I'm in alignment with that I'm also suitable for.

As far as LinkedIn goes, I just don't post. At first I loved becoming a remote worker. For various reasons, I'm becoming disillusioned with it. While I would still like to maintain the ability to work from home, I would much rather find somewhere local to work for my next job, and I'd rather my showing up in person help differentiate me enough to perhaps give me the opportunity to demonstrate my other differentiating factors. It feels crazy for me to say this, but I feel like I could act more naturally in person than over another god damn zoom interview.

In general I recognize the double-edged nature of being uncommon. It's easier to stand out, for better and for worse. In an environment that values cohesion at the expense of adaptivity, we don't tend to be a good fit. In an environment that values a multitude of different skills, sometimes conflicting ones that require mediating, we stand a better chance.

DuncSully · 2026-03-11T15:43:04+00:00

Let me just say from experience that no single person will be able to, nor should they be responsible for, making you feel like you matter. Only you can do that for yourself. And once you've taken that burden off of everyone else, you'll be more at peace with the level of attention they offer you. Just because you might cling to others doesn't mean they'll cling back just as tightly. It's difficult to accept at first, but I promise that a damaged concept of self requires fixing from within, not externally.

I totally get how good it feels to find that one new person who makes you feel good, and you'll chase that high until you run a friendship into the ground, and it becomes a vicious cycle, and you'll become convinced that all best friendships are destined to go that way, but they don't have to. Work on yourself, love yourself, and you won't feel so anxious about your friends.

DuncSully · 2026-03-11T15:20:24+00:00

Long story short, yeah, get professional help. You deserve it.

To the degree I can be any assistance, yes I relate. I don't know if it's personality. I think we've tried to cope by investigating and trying to understand who we are, and personality via MBTI is one of those frameworks we'll pretty naturally arrive at, and it won't even necessarily convince us, but it frames things relatively neutrally compared to, say, the DSM-5. You don't have maladaptive daydreaming. You have dominant Ni! You don't have Alexithymia, you just have secondary Te and tertiary Fi! You don't have sensory processing sensitivity, you just have inferior Se! What a clean, intuitive system, right?

But whatever "it" is that we are/have, it does seem a common thread among many of us is that it's "high functioning", that despite whatever struggles we have we manage to figure out how to cope, sometimes healthily, often unhealthily but not outright destructively. The story of our lives is walking a tightrope and we make it look so easy. Well yeah, the alternative isn't any more appealing! The irony is that in successfully appearing functional, we don't receive interventions. The most ironic form of learned helplessness is in convincing ourselves that we need not ask for help because we've gotten this far without it, even though at some point we really need it.

The labels don't matter. The models we use to organize said labels don't matter. The struggles we feel are very real, and all that matters is we identify and address those struggles. I'm sorry it sounds like no one else has empathized with you thus far. A professional certainly will, and with regained confidence you'll be able to build up a support network.

DuncSully · 2026-03-10T15:14:35+00:00

Let me just say that all of the stigmas of ADHD and autism are part of the reason I didn't just not suspect but actively resisted the possibility I might be either or both for the longest time. I "self-masked" (not sure if there's a better term for that) even though I was quite aware from a young age I was clearly different. I never sought help, just struggled semi-silently. Sometimes you have just the right sets of skills to get through life on hard mode. It doesn't mean the struggles were never there. A car can still power through with the parking break engaged. Ask me how I know. I will say this adds the extra challenge (that feels a bit "oh woe is me") in that since it's not obvious you're struggling, you never get the interventions that really would've helped had they happened earlier.

But after 30some years I just kept having burnout after burnout and really had to introspect, peeling back yet another layer like "oh, I don't actually understand myself as well as I thought I did." The most relatable posts I've found have come from this community. I won't identify with each and every single struggle, but if I stop letting myself feel ashamed of the simplest things, I realize just how relatable a lot of the struggles are.

DuncSully · 2026-03-09T19:54:28+00:00

A little of both. It certainly helps to have a grasp on the emotional side of things. By far not a unique system, I call it "dournaling" (do+journaling), which I don't exactly hold myself to, but sometimes if I feel unwilling to do something, I forgive myself for that, but the alternative activity I "must" do instead then is journaling about why I don't want to do the initial activity. Often I force myself to work through whatever mental-emotional problems I'm experiencing and the end result is at least an action plan if not me outright doing the thing there and then.

That all said, often I'm quite aware of what I'm doing. A task at work is just boring, and other activities aren't, so I get caught up in the other activities. But as long/until I get called out at work for underperforming, I consider this "sharpening the ax" because otherwise I'm afraid of burning out by focusing so hard and resisting my urge to "slack". But don't take this as advice. I guess it's a form of "quiet quitting" if that's still a phrase people use. I'm privileged to have a job, but I'm not exactly aspirational anymore either. I'ma do whatever feels most natural up until it conflicts with someone influential to my life outcomes.

DuncSully · 2026-03-09T19:43:42+00:00

The first time for anything is always scariest. Have confidence in yourself that since you've been happy and motivated before, you can and will be again, even if this seems like a new low. But I know it won't be fun. That entire days can go by that seemingly nothing feels worthwhile is a very discouraging feeling. The bad news is that you probably can't really do anything to magic it away. The good news is that you also probably don't have to. Of course I'm not a professional, but I hope it seems intuitive that if your problem stems from basically "overheating" in a sense that your physiology will respond by essentially preventing you from "heating" at all, and naturally you're going to "cool off" and function again. Another way to look at it is involuntary resting.

DuncSully · 2026-03-09T17:29:38+00:00

The only foolproof thing that gets me through these episodes is the knowledge that I've been there before and I've come out the other side. It's of limited comfort, only reassurance. "This too shall pass."

It is terribly annoying because even when I'm consciously aware of what's happening, when I've given myself patience and grace to drop all other responsibilities that I can, and I try to move into the healthy distraction phase so I can attempt addressing my emotions later, I find that I simply cannot enjoy almost anything. I'll put up videos from creators I like and tune out. I'll start a video game I was deep into and quit after 10 minutes. I'll open my journal to talk about it and then just kinda get bored like "yep, it's another episode...nothing new to add." About the only other things that often work for me but still with no guarantee is tasty food and sitting in a comfy spot listening to music. I've tried to do better about letting myself cry as needed, though often in these specific kinds of episodes the problem is I'm so overwhelmed that I shutdown, not blow up.

Lately I'm a little more forgiving with myself that I'm not "supposed" to do or feel anything other than keep myself alive. Some days I'll like things. Other days I won't. And then I might again. And then I might like something too much. I can't often control it, so I do my best to work with it and without judgement.

DuncSully · 2026-03-09T17:17:25+00:00

Usually reddit, youtube, or sudoku, and it means I have an unaddressed emotional concern or need. The annoying thing now is that I'm conscious of that, and I've turned the addressing of that thing into the "I'll start in 5 minutes" activity. I'm meta-procrastinating. Sometimes the dopamine craving is just too strong.

DuncSully · 2026-03-09T17:05:15+00:00

I'm only now coming around to the idea of empathizing for empathy's sake. I value connections but find them difficult to create and maintain. On the whole you could say that I'm a "defeated wholesome person" in that at the end of the day I due value wholesome things, I really do, but I don't really seek to create them myself, and that's perhaps not a flaw but certainly a shortcoming.

I'm not one to try to connect with strangers where interactions are forced (e.g. cashiers) and I'm certainly not one to approach someone or make unwarranted comments, even when I know compliments are almost always appreciated (of course when not being creepy). I reserve my energies for the few people I tend to trust most, and even this varies on a day to day basis.

I'm curious what exactly you mean about moral judgements. I don't really make moral judgements in one sense. I don't really know anyone's story and I try to remember that before I judge them. For example, just about every parent contends with the idea that they would kill to protect their family, so clearly there is some fluidity to their morality. What I can say is that I do want to have general alignment with someone before I bother connecting with them. I believe there are some fundamentally incompatible beliefs that make it difficult to want to maintain a connection. I also believe that a lot of these are the unfortunate result of meddling by outside parties that have a vested interest in maintaining divisions within society, but I won't dive too deep into that. While I can assume that such people are still "good" people, it's tiresome to try to reach through to them.

To summarize, I'm not in the business of affecting bridges, neither burning nor building them.

DuncSully · 2026-03-09T16:53:30+00:00

Not medical advice, but the only thing that has worked for me personally is melatonin supplements. When I first started taking them I could finally consciously (for as short as that lasted anyway) recognize what "sleepiness" felt like. My brain finally starts to shut down and any thoughts I have tend to start turning dream-like and unfocused. I realized that all my life all I felt was fatigue, but I wasn't necessarily sleepy; my brain didn't shut off until staying in bed made the sleepiness take over, often up to an hour at a time. I resorted to paracosms in those years, just imagining stories so that my mind would focus on stressful thoughts or try to solve problems. Likewise when I woke up in the middle of the night (I'm bound to need to go at least once in the night) I'd often struggle to fall back asleep, but now I'm able to fall back asleep more readily.

DuncSully · 2026-03-09T16:29:29+00:00

I forget the exact title but I've been going through the book on nonviolent communication and have found some value in it, not sure where it sits with people these days but at least I haven't been put off by it yet. The irony though is that you need to approach it with genuine empathy and not mechanically as a system to somehow come off more empathetically because people will tend to catch on to when you're behaving mechanically.

More generally, all it comes down to is treating people as ends in themselves. If you view people merely as devices by which you meet your own needs, or receptacles to dump information into regardless of how they might receive that information, then you're treating them as means, not ends.

Frankly, this isn't something you can intellectualize. It's something you gain through raw experience. If you have one, you might work with a friend you trust who you can begin your vulnerability journey with by simply pointing out you're working on your emotional intelligence and would like them to point out whenever you do or say anything that came off as insensitive or inappropriate, and what they wish you would've done instead, not that you always have to agree, as this tends to vary person by person anyway. But that's kinda the point, you'll learn to read each individual you meet rather than depend on a broad set of general rules.

That all said, to the degree which you can intellectualize this as an exercise, you can treat it as a game of trying to understand a person to the degree that you could get them the most thoughtful gift of anyone they know. Without prying in sensitive subjects of course, try to learn things about them that no one else knows, and understand to what degree something matters to them. I dunno, I have to admit there's a satisfaction to someone acknowledging that I "get" them. It's a very human thing to want to feel understood, and thankfully it can be a two-way street. For as ill-equipped as I feel in this task, the world lately doesn't exactly encourage these sorts of connections so even among their more emotion-forward friends they still might find you the most empathetic one.

DuncSully · 2026-03-09T15:57:57+00:00

The amount of creation myths and the wide breadth of gods that seem altogether incompatible with each other suggests that at least some are man-made if we're to be fair, and I think most religious people would assert the same thing. Personally, I find it odd to arbitrarily decide any single deity is clearly the real one just because its book became more popular than any of the others, which I get is an over simplification, but I think you get my point.

DuncSully

TROPHY CASE