The three themes for this week are "On Interest," "On the Internet" and "Humility/ Model Recalibration." I was not aware just how much I had thought about the internet, but see the first two sections as statements of the problem and the third section as working toward solutions.
==
On Interest
==
Interesting is easier to hack than beautiful. Hence, prioritize the beautiful over the interesting . . . especially in interesting times.
More important than being interested is working on good projects. With a project in focus interesting things come to you and find a more harmonious, joyful place in your life.
"Why is the truth usually not just un- but anti-interesting?" David Foster Wallace.
Interesting: you have to watch for the danger of anti-social media most when it is truly interesting.
==
On the Internet
==
The old internet was the greatest tool for life's conventional warfare. Internet 2.0 -- or whatever marketing label you want to give it -- is guerrilla warfare against the human psyche.
How sad it must be to live on such a poor information diet, and with so little self control, that you think it is the job of other people to prevent you from seeing spoilers.
Life is so much more interesting when you are learning new things. Contrast this with Silicon Valley's internet, where you are told that what you are going to like is exactly like something you have enjoyed before.
(Note. I am to understand the titans of the Valley don't fall for this trap, and don't let their children use their products, but that is deeply instructive. . . in more ways than one).
I'm bringing "web surfing" back. Most people don't surf anymore; they are herded.
I know modernity's whole shtick is efficiency. But always ask "efficient at what?." Anti-social media does not efficiently give you information; rather, it efficiently kills time.
Why less anti-social media? Simple: more living, less arguing.
It is odd how the incentives of anti-social media have turned the pragmatists into absolutists about their pragmatism. If really pragmatists, then time to start building a coalition. If instead you are just signaling for likes, then by all means, continue. . .
We just accept at the level of truism that the internet contains "the sum total of all information," but if this is true why do most of the best blogs consistently import knowledge from books into the internet?
Anti-social media platforms which allow only upvotes are the ultimate fool's paradise.
"We used to have to talk to other humans if we wanted to join a cult." comment on a Reddit thread by user named 77096.
Complaining on the internet for an hour is easier than spending that same hour working on a problem. The benefits of the complaining are immediate and almost guaranteed. This reinforces complaining over doing. Now, repeat that across our species over billions, if not trillions, of total hours . . .
Anyone who thinks their best thinking happens on Twitter, misunderstands both the medium of Twitter, as well as thought.
In the age of the printing press, anonymity was a way to avoid the hectoring of the outside world and achieve authenticity. In the internet age, anonymity is a way to join in the hectoring and with it the pan-societal effort to make sure no can be authentic anywhere.
Netflix: because you watched a documentary based on research and facts, you'd probably love to watch ten documentaries of nothing but conspiracy theory.
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by Twitter.
What I really mean:
I have seen the worst souls of my generation destroyed by Twitter. . . Well, damaged further.
==
Humility/ Model Recalibration
==
I'm only interested in listening to people who listen to other people.
We live in a society that thinks it has no time for politeness markers, but then wonders why everyone is angry at each other.
I'm not sure of much, but someone as sure as you is probably wrong.
They say they have no Faith, but then talk like True Believers about every opinion they state. I know what they really worship.
As productive as it can be to ask "why are things bad," it is often more worthwhile to ponder "why aren't things much, much worse already?"
Be very suspicious of any take-down that assumes each and every thing someone else states is always wrong. You are not witnessing truth-finding, but rather branding.
Contempt brain is stupid brain.
Of all the lessons to teach a Harvard or Oxford grad, the hardest seems to be a non sequitur. Particularly about where one went to college.
To be on record saying there is nothing worthwhile in world literature is to admit to being too ignorant or too stupid to pattern-match whole classes of human knowledge.
I can be convinced that gambling for amusement is immoral, but the ability to make a bet needs to be on the table as a tool to deal with blowhards.
The only thing we have to fear is confidence itself.
I'm bringing "web surfing" back. Most people don't surf anymore; they are herded.
I know modernity's whole shtick is efficiency. But always ask "efficient at what?." Anti-social media does not efficiently give you information; rather, it efficiently kills time.
Why less anti-social media? Simple: more living, less arguing.
It is odd how the incentives of anti-social media have turned the pragmatists into absolutists about their pragmatism. If really pragmatists, then time to start building a coalition. If instead you are just signaling for likes, then by all means, continue. . .
We just accept at the level of truism that the internet contains "the sum total of all information," but if this is true why do most of the best blogs consistently import knowledge from books into the internet?
Anti-social media platforms which allow only upvotes are the ultimate fool's paradise.
"We used to have to talk to other humans if we wanted to join a cult." comment on a Reddit thread by user named 77096.
Complaining on the internet for an hour is easier than spending that same hour working on a problem. The benefits of the complaining are immediate and almost guaranteed. This reinforces complaining over doing. Now, repeat that across our species over billions, if not trillions, of total hours . . .
Anyone who thinks their best thinking happens on Twitter, misunderstands both the medium of Twitter, as well as thought.
In the age of the printing press, anonymity was a way to avoid the hectoring of the outside world and achieve authenticity. In the internet age, anonymity is a way to join in the hectoring and with it the pan-societal effort to make sure no can be authentic anywhere.
Netflix: because you watched a documentary based on research and facts, you'd probably love to watch ten documentaries of nothing but conspiracy theory.
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by Twitter.
What I really mean:
I have seen the worst souls of my generation destroyed by Twitter. . . Well, damaged further.
==
Humility/ Model Recalibration
==
I'm only interested in listening to people who listen to other people.
We live in a society that thinks it has no time for politeness markers, but then wonders why everyone is angry at each other.
I'm not sure of much, but someone as sure as you is probably wrong.
They say they have no Faith, but then talk like True Believers about every opinion they state. I know what they really worship.
As productive as it can be to ask "why are things bad," it is often more worthwhile to ponder "why aren't things much, much worse already?"
Be very suspicious of any take-down that assumes each and every thing someone else states is always wrong. You are not witnessing truth-finding, but rather branding.
Contempt brain is stupid brain.
Of all the lessons to teach a Harvard or Oxford grad, the hardest seems to be a non sequitur. Particularly about where one went to college.
To be on record saying there is nothing worthwhile in world literature is to admit to being too ignorant or too stupid to pattern-match whole classes of human knowledge.
I can be convinced that gambling for amusement is immoral, but the ability to make a bet needs to be on the table as a tool to deal with blowhards.
The only thing we have to fear is confidence itself.
