-
A sketch of 3 Mission Statements
- Mission 1: Balance between abstract theory and concrete application
- Approach concepts with caution, breaking them down when they don’t fit reality.
- Start from observing actual reality rather than forcing it into pre-existing frameworks.
- Balance precision with accessibility in language.
- Create conceptual paths that help people manifest their true intentions.
- Mission 2: Develop thoughts that emerge from temporary perspectives.
- Valuable ideas often arise from “brain-alchemy” – the mixing of recent inputs with existing thoughts.
- Creating a space to develop these fleeting ideas allows them to be refined over time.
- Through iteration, promising ideas can be “distilled down to essential effectiveness”.
- Mission 3: Reappropriate and make accessible valuable marginal ideas.
- Maintain a diverse “information diet” that includes lesser-known perspectives.
- Continue revisiting and repackaging marginal ideas with potential.
There’s a gap between the wealth of available thought and our ability to apply it. By grounding concepts in reality, preserving fleeting insights, and revitalising overlooked ideas, we can develop more effective conceptual tools that better align our actions with our deeper intentions.
- Mission 1: Balance between abstract theory and concrete application
-
Kiki’s overblown angst
"Kiki's Delivery Service" portrays the universal experience of youthful anxiety when first striking out independently.
- The film follows 13-year-old witch Kiki establishing herself in a new town
- Her journey represents classic coming-of-age challenges, for example:
- Experiencing independence for the first time
- Facing self-doubt after initial failures
- Early failures feel catastrophic precisely because we lack, for example, knowledge of what overcoming challenges feels like.
- The transformative moment comes after we've "tasted the invigorating satisfaction of extricating ourselves from a predicament all on our own".
- After this experience, previously "overblown" feelings of tragedy seem manageable, paired with the incentivising memory of what overcoming previous challenges felt like.
- Kiki's letter home captures this growth: "There are still times when I feel sad, but all in all I sure love this town.
-
The blessed reader from the Library of Babel
I use Borges' Library of Babel to explore the relationship between language, thought, and communication.
- The protagonist finds a book written in "Perfectiolect" - a language perfectly tailored to her mind alone.
- Each word corresponds to her most personal and dense combinations of ideas
- Grammar allows for optimal comprehension and emotional resonance
- One sentence in Perfectiolect would require pages to translate into common language
- The Reader knows three languages, each with distinct properties:
- Perfectiolect - perfect for self-understanding but untranslatable to others
- Dozenese - spoken by twelve close peers, less precise but enables meaningful exchange
- Communiglot - spoken by 300 community members, sacrifices depth for broader connection
- The Reader's experience reveals language paradoxes:
- The most precise language is useless for communication
- Shared languages require sacrificing nuance and personal meaning
- The words that emerge from group interactions create meanings no individual could develop alone
- She values different aspects of each language.
- She wonders about broader languages like Metrolingua (thousands of speakers) and what language millions might share
- The protagonist finds a book written in "Perfectiolect" - a language perfectly tailored to her mind alone.
-
Voting is a good excuse to learn history. Learning history is a good way to develop empathy
How can voting be a gateway to deeper historical understanding and empathy?
- Taking voting seriously requires going beyond surface-level reasoning:
- Questioning our political preferences leads to examining ideologies, contexts, and subtexts.
- Most of us quickly reach the limits of our knowledge when challenged with a few "whys".
- Only a minority has done the thorough homework needed for truly informed choices.
- Understanding history enriches our civic participation:
- Learning the detailed history of one's territory provides crucial context
- Historical knowledge reveals complexities that contradict simplistic judgments
- The past becomes both something to honor and to question critically
- Present decisions can be made with historical awareness rather than from unresolved grudges
While we may still face uncertainty in the voting booth, the journey of historical exploration prompted by civic duty creates lasting value through deeper understanding and empathetic connection to our shared past.
- Taking voting seriously requires going beyond surface-level reasoning:
-
Anti-ethos – opinion shortcuts as a double edged sword
I examine how the credibility of speakers (ethos) can overshadow the value of their ideas.
- Potentially impactful ideas can be dismissed due to factors unrelated to their merit:
- Speaker's credentials or lack thereof.
- Perceived moral character.
- Absence of endorsement from authority figures.
- Presentation style lacking "common-sense wisdom".
- While ethos has been recognized since ancient rhetoric, it creates a dilemma:
- Using ethos as a shortcut is necessary - we cannot deeply evaluate every idea
- Valuable ideas may be overlooked when they come from sources with "negative ethos"
- I detail a balanced approach to this conundrum.
- For example, ask yourself "What if this idea was presented within a pristine, irreproachable ethos?”
- Potentially impactful ideas can be dismissed due to factors unrelated to their merit:
-
Baking into a text a possible utility beyond its mere consumption
This essay explores how we might optimize our reading for deeper value.
- We face a fundamental challenge with reading:
- Limited time to explore potentially life-changing authors.
- Limited capacity to retain what we read (like an "overfilled bucket").
- Tension between consuming new content and developing our own ideas
- I identify two contrasting approaches to reading:
- Goal-oriented consuming: Scanning with specific intentions, extracting only what serves our purpose.
- Serendipity-prepared consuming: Reading thoroughly while remaining alert to unexpected treasures.
- I propose variations to these approaches to address the problem of choosing one or the other, both from the writer and the reader’s side.
- How to compensate for potentially missing gems in unread portions?
- Why choose application over finishing more texts?
- We face a fundamental challenge with reading: