As long as the awareness of something is lacking, it cannot be a sin—although it can certainly be an impediment. Once one is conscious of the impeding thing, it is a sin.
— Ludwig Hohl, The Notes: or On Non-premature Reconciliation
Sorry, sluggards: Hohl has no time for your self-indulgent excuses about how your phone has made you incapable of reading books anymore. You are a contemptible sinner, plain and simple. And don’t pretend that changing your behavior requires tracing the “roots” back through childhood, personality type, attachment style, dopamine loops, family dynamics, social conditions, and whatever other roadblocks you hurriedly assemble. The eagerness with which you approach this self-analysis and “root cause” searching should be a clue that it is a much easier task than the actual changes you know you need to make. You are, frankly, relishing the thought of thinking and talking about yourself, and even more so if you have an audience listening. The mind is perfectly capable of turning “working on myself” into another form of craving. You can become attached to the novelty of insight, attached to explanation, attached to the increasingly ornate story of why you are the way you are. The ego does not object to being dissected nearly as much as people imagine. In fact, it enjoys being the center of a very long symposium. Diagnosis is useful only insofar as it leads to amendment. Otherwise you have merely become more articulate about your vice.