Tuesday, January 31, 2012
This accidental
meeting of possibilities
calls itself I.
I ask: what am I doing here?
And, at once, this I
becomes unreal.
Dag Hammarskjöld (via whiskey river)
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Friday, January 27, 2012
Let me lie alone on my back in tall grass and see the sun and the water droplets on the branches and the red tree trunks through my own eyes. Let me color them and build them with my own words. Lonely, strong words. Let me stand alone at the edge of the earth and look at it honestly, alone.
(via awritersruminations)
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Information Overload: an Update
Awhile back, I wrote a post about information overload. Specifically, I was referring to the incredible amount of knowledge placed at our fingertips via articles from an almost innumerable amount of sources. I was eager to find a digital solution to streamline the process of finding and reading articles online, and came up with a solution in which I rated the articles I read on a scale of one to five. The highest-rated articles would go into Evernote for safekeeping, and I would write a summary of them at my leisure. By writing the summary, I was more likely to retain the information I deemed worthy of being remembered. The experiment has gone remarkably well, and I’d like to share the results.
First, the rating system was too complicated. Instead of rating an article’s importance on a scale of one to five, I now simply give it a “yes” or “no.” A “yes” means it goes into the vault (read: Evernote), and a “no” means it’s not worth retaining. This forces me to be dramatically more selective in the information I save, which is the point, in the end. I have a finite amount of time in the world, and only the best should be worthy of my time.
As far as the reading process itself, those articles that I don’t find it necessary to retain still get a brief moment to roll around in my brain. After each article, I simply pause and breathe for a few seconds. I realized that I was going directly from one article to another without even so much as a pause, treating the collection of articles as exactly that... a collection (I wonder if this is a symptom restricted to the “Instapaper Method” of reading, where all of your articles are presented in such a back-to-back format). Instead, each article is its own entity, worthy of at least a moment of reflection after being read. By adding a simple pause, I allow the information in each article to marinate a bit before being engulfed. It’s truly amazing how many of life’s questions can be answered with a few simple breaths.
Those articles that I would like to save, of course, end up in Evernote, and as it turns out, I now have a collection of the most wonderful writings that tend to help me form my opinion of my reality at any given moment in time- a personal treasure of the most delicious prose, which I find myself occasionally opening to dig around in. I can’t help but liken this to the old Disney cartoon- Scrooge McDuck doing the backstroke in his pile of money. The feeling, to me, is the same. This collection truly is a treasure, because words are what I truly adore. With this method, I’ve finally found a way to give those words the respect they deserve.
Incidentally, if you’re interested, I’ve made this collection of mine public. You can browse my treasure trove, broken down into the following categories (summaries not included):
I hope you enjoy them as much as I have. Happy reading.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
One common strategy for thinking about this is to suggest that what we used to call the whole universe is just a small part of everything there is, and that we live in a kind of bubble universe, a small region of something much larger. And the beginning of this region, what we call the big bang, came about by some physical process, from something before it, and that we happen to find ourselves in this region because this is a region that can support life. The idea being that there are lots of these bubble universes, maybe an infinite number of bubble universes, all very different from one another.
What Happened Before the Big Bang? Tim Maudlin on the new philosophy of cosmology. See also theoretical physicist Laurence Krauss’s A Universe from Nothing. (via curiositycounts)
Monday, January 23, 2012
The joy of bourbon drinking is not the pharmacological effect of the C2H5OH on the cortex but rather the instant of the whiskey being knocked back and the little explosion of Kentucky U.S.A. sunshine in the cavity of the nasopharynx and the hot bosky bite of Tennessee summertime —aesthetic considerations to which the effect of the alcohol is, if not dispensable, at least secondary.
Seeing is perception
with the original,
unconditioned eye.
It is a state of consciousness
in which separation of
photographer/subject,
audience/image dissolves;
in which a reality beyond words
and concepts opens up,
whose “point” or “meaning” is
the direct experience itself.
(via crashinglybeautiful)
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Friday, January 20, 2012
Man’s real life is happy, chiefly because he is ever expecting that it soon will be so.
Edgar Allan Poe (via thecultofgenius)
Thursday, January 19, 2012
I wish the whole day were like breakfast, when people are still connected to their dreams, focused inward, and not yet ready to engage with the world around them. I realized this is how I am all day; for me, unlike other people, there doesn’t come a moment after a cup of coffee or a shower or whatever when I suddenly feel alive and awake and connected to the world. If it were always breakfast, I would be fine.
Peter Cameron (via thesuicidediaries)
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
On Nuance
“When one is young, one venerates and despises without that art of nuances which constitutes the best gain of life, and it is only fair that one has to pay dearly for having assaulted men and things in this manner with Yes and No. Everything is arranged so that the worst of tastes, the taste for the unconditional, should be cruelly fooled and abused until a man learns to put a little art into his feelings and rather to risk trying even what is artificial — as the real artists of life do.”~ Friedrich Nietzsche
When I was young(er), the most frustrating concept was constantly on my mind: nuance. I despised the intricacies that seemed to envelope every issue. To me, the world should be black and white. If there is a concept of right and wrong, the world should mirror the simplicity of that statement. Something is either right, or it is wrong. Something is either good, or it is not. To simplify things to this level seemed the most important undertaking I could imagine. How much more enjoyable things would be if we could distill the essence of everything to such simple terms. If you bullied someone, you were wrong- no exceptions. If you care about someone, you act in a certain manner. There is no room for grey.
I’ve since changed my position on nuance, as I think most tend to do as the years get on. I tend to embrace simplicity now more than ever, but I also recognize the importance, the necessity even, of the details that tend to construct the intricate quilt of our world. For the longest time, though, I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was that brought about this shift in thinking. Of course, diversity in all things- in people, in stories- is a critical feature of a fulfilled and wise world- but why?
The answer, insofar as it lies within me, has to do with a pursuit of knowledge, whether it is factual, emotional, spiritual or otherwise in nature. A detestation of nuance is a fear of pursuing knowledge, while to embrace nuance is to embrace a journey that is at the core of the human experience. Curiosity is perhaps the greatest asset of the human mind. One would shudder to think of the world in which curiosity, and therefore nuance, doesn’t exist.
Consider gay rights- a defining issue of our time.
In my teens, I would have asserted the opinion that all men are created equal, and it’s as simple as that. To do so, however, is to negate the intricacies so necessary to the conversation. Those fighting against gay rights do so from the teachings of their basic moral foundation. The fastest way to entrench someone more deeply in their beliefs is to ignore those beliefs altogether. Instead, a conversation needs to take place on the very basis of those moral foundations, which can ultimately lead to the discussion of gay rights.
The position of those opposed to gay rights is similarly black and white. Homosexuality is wrong, and that’s that. In this context, the crucial detail being missed is what constitutes an action (or a lifestyle, as they like to put it) being wrong. The question being begged of this position, then, is not being asked.
As a result of this, we have two sides of an argument standing opposite each other, one shouting “Black!” and the other shouting “White!”. If you care passionately enough about a subject, you must pay it the proper respect in looking closely at the details which form its foundation.
I believe there are more constructive ways to deal with this, and it begins with curiosity. Each side must be curious enough to delve deeper into the symptoms of the counterpoint’s argument.
The defining characteristic of an evolving mind is the acknowledgement that there are questions to which we have no answer. After this confession, there is only one logical step to take. A pool of curiosity lies before us, shimmering with the hope of new mysteries to solve, if we but offer it our naked feet, and take a step into the Unknown.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
On Women as Works of Art
I am the father of a magnificent seven-year-old girl. Fatherhood, I’ve come to realize, is a supreme catalyst for the mind. Parenthood forces a new way of thinking on an individual. It expands the mind to include innumerable new ways of thinking. Most recently, I’ve been thinking about the world in which she is growing up, the world of the past that she will never know, and the world she will inhabit as an adult. The following are my incomplete ramblings on the subject.
The female body is a work of art. Few would argue with this, and few would fail to recall the Seinfeld episode in which Elaine describes this very truth (going on to add that “the male body is utilitarian... it’s for gettin’ around”). What we fail to recognize as the true works of art are the mind and soul of the modern woman. Because of this problem, through Industrial Age thinking, we’ve deprived ourselves of remarkable insights as a society, and as individuals.
Far removed as we seem, it wasn’t long ago (a hundred years or so) that women in the workforce was a laughable thought. Unless we knew a woman personally, we had no access to her mind, or to her soul. So, we fed on, and lusted after, what was instantly available to us: her body. When the photograph came around, we photographed women. With the advent of television, we put them on camera. To my knowledge, there were no television shows, or movies for that matter, that showcased the minds of women: for the most part, they were there for aesthetic pleasure. Only the body was visible to the world, and even this level of visibility was reserved for only the select women that were indeed put on camera. The mind and soul were not available to us.
As a result, history has largely been written by only half of our collective intelligence.
Today, we’ve instigated what is being referred to as the Information Age. So many have access to so much information, and also have a medium with which to disperse their own information. Combine this with the results of so much hard work by so many people in the past half-century, and women are stepping up to an even pedestal with us males, the long-dominant gender. The effect is an exciting one: now that women are just as highly educated as men, just as driven, and society has finally recognized them as just as capable, not only can we see the results of their work, but they are now free to publish their thoughts, findings, and conclusions for all the world to see thanks to this Digital Age we live in.
The dichtomy of thought processes of men and women is as old as our species, but is probably best exemplified in the Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus series of books. Note that I’m oversimplifying here for the sake of making a point: men, traditionally, are logic-driven, and so the collective body of work regarding how we understand our world has been seen through a rational lens. So much of the human experience, though, lies in the emotional, and emotional observations are something at which men are sadly inept in comparison to our counterparts. (Again, this is not to say that all women are devoid of logic, and all men of emotion, but there is a morsel of truth in this massive oversimplification.) So the Information Age will bring us a new lens with which to view the world: the emotional, and it is only by looking at our reality, our experience, through both lenses that we can begin to grasp the full scope of what it means to be a human being.
This is why I'm so hopeful of the world in which my daughter is growing up, and why I expect more growth from it. The challenges, of course, are not over. Far from it. Women must keep doing what they’ve been doing: educating themselves, working their asses off, shedding the “I am only a body” image. We men will have our duties, too. We must begin to lust after the minds of women, as we’ve always lusted after their bodies. That is not to say that men will stop lusting after the female form- it's embedded into our survival instincts, and, as I said, it is a work of art, and works of art should be treated as such. It’s simply time to recognize the mind and soul of women as art of greater measure.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Saturday, January 7, 2012
On Flippancy
I’ve been accused, on a somewhat regular basis, of thinking too much- the implication being that I’m a bit too serious. Since I so love my irony, I’ve been thinking about thinking.
“No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking,” Voltaire once said. The fact that this quote comes to mind more readily than others speaks to crux of the problem of thinking too much: it’s a difference in perspective on life itself, the lens through which I view the world. If the goal of thinking is to resolve a problem, and I think quite often, then I must view the world as a series of problems to be solved. If I look back on my short adult life, I realise that this is increasingly true. Each day, I see more and more of the world which needs to change. We’ve come a long way as a society, but the problems of humanity that have so outraged are not that far behind us. Given the age of mankind, political alliance through marriage, for example, are not exactly ancient history. It wasn’t too long ago that Galileo was burned for his ideas. Or, take much more recent history: segregation, for example, creationism, or the current gay rights movement. With so many wrongs that need righted, how can one not set aside time to ponder?
Not that I will solve these problems- I simply understand the importance of questioning the norm. After all, the above-mentioned atrocities were once considered the norm, at least within each offender’s respective society. The point is it took a new perspective, a new kind of courage, in each instance, to change the way the world viewed each problem. How, then, did this change in perspective come about? Inevitably, it starts with the individual. The printing press, the discovery that the earth was round, the economic policies that led to the Recession- all of these things began to change the world’s perspective by changing a single person (or group of persons)’s perspective. There are so many things that need changed today- the industrial age is at an end, and the workforce needs to change with it. Democracy and capitalism themselves have reached the tipping point, and we must now question the very fundamentals of the system in which we live. There’s no end to the challenges we face as a whole. As Einstein put it, “The world we have created is a product of our thinking; it cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”
Yet, there must be something more personal involved. I don’t intend to change the world, so why do I think about these things? Socrates famously said that a live unexamined is not worth living. If my life is to be worth living, I must examine it- I must think. With more and more emerging research, mankind is starting to realise that our minds, our senses, our perceptions do little more than trick us all day long. We have now questioned the very purpose for which reason itself exists, or how much blameworthiness in a criminal can be attributed to free will, and how much to factors beyond the criminal’s control (physical, environmental, etc). If am to be the man that I hope to be, isn’t it imperative that I reflect on the way these emerging thoughts affect me as a man?
In the end, though, I have to agree that my detractors are right: I probably think too much. Combined with an understanding of myself in the here and now, developed largely through meditation practice, I also leave time for simply being here, now. Perhaps the problem is that I simply am not here and now often enough. Perhaps a little more balance is in order- and I thank those that have pointed out that I think too much for offering a little perspective on that balance. Perhaps, like alcohol, thinking serves us best in moderation.
Friday, January 6, 2012
On Miracles
*Disclaimer: this is an old post, imported from Tumblr.
I've long envied the ranks of the religious for their belief in miracles. What a truly amazing thought- to hold a true belief in that which transcends all known laws of the universe as we know it. Recently, though, I realized that my envy was misplaced. Truly, I would throw away belief in miracles, a thousand times over, for the ability to observe those tiny moments which exist within the constraints of physical law, and which inspire such awe in me.
I continually find myself amazed by the creativity of my fellow human beings. The process of creating a truly beautiful work of art, or an engaging story, or a tantalizing design from nothing more than a thought humbles me.
I'm amazed by great conversations. When one exchanges thoughts with a friend, and it seems to be that the flow of information, though coming from two sources, converges in space and time to form an idea which neither person, alone, could have imagined- it inspires me.
When I watch a colony of bees, and I understand how blissful it must be to be so focused on one task, continually, and to dedicate yourself so completely to the greater good, I am just a bit the wiser.
When I read a Shakespearean play, and I recognize the universality of the humanity contained within each character, marveling at the fact that a man five centuries removed from me could so embody the most primitive inclinations of man in such an elegant way, I am amazed.
When I watch my child learn something new, and she smiles at me so unreservedly, and I can almost see the expansion of her mind as new ideas form, I am nearly brought to tears.
I no longer envy the ranks of the religious in their belief in miracles. I'm simply thankful for the ability to recognize the miracles that constantly surround me.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Resolutions are shit.
Resolutions are shit.
So you have a few resolutions? Great. That means one thing, and one thing only: there are aspects of yourself which you would like to improve upon.
That being the case, I applaud that decision. It’s no secret that my mantra is stolen from Socrates: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Apparently you’ve accepted this notion, too, if you’ve set a goal to grow. The problem is that resolutions never work. We all know this, and yet we set them every year. What were your resolutions last year? How many did you accomplish? I thought so. It’s not your fault- it’s human nature, really.
January 1, 2012 is, quite literally, a completely random point in the space-time continuum. It is not a “better” time to improve yourself than was December 31, or July 7. At best, it may give you a sense of a blank slate from which to begin. Here’s the thing, though: every single day of your life is a blank slate. Growth isn’t something that you begin because of a flip of a page on a calendar. It’s a desire to be better, a hunger. If you didn’t feel that hunger last week, you’re not going to feel it today. Not all is doom and gloom, though. In fact, I’d say this is good news.
You want to change? Okay. Start today. Now. Tomorrow is the only day of your life that never comes, so get to it. If you’re having trouble figuring out where to start, here’s a tip or two.
Trim your list.
If your list of resolutions is a page and a half long, forget about it. It will never get done. In fact, the longer it is, the less likely you are to accomplish anything, let alone everything on the list. Why? Think of the feeling you get when you’re washing dishes. Imagine a set of eighteen dishes- eighteen plates, eighteen silverware sets, eighteen glasses. Now imagine approaching these dishes in the sink. Inevitably, it will feel like an almost insurmountable task. Now, imagine the same scenario, but with only three sets of dishes. See how much better that feels? There is no smaller a sense of accomplishment when the task is finished, but the stress level in even approaching the task is drastically diminished. You’re much more likely to start this task, which, of course, is the first and most important step. Trim your list down to those things which you feel are the most vital to your growth, and focus on those. Once you do them regularly, they will become habits. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an action, but a habit.” Aristotle was a wise dude. Once they become habits, the rest is frictionless, and you can move onto another goal.
Get specific.
Eating less and giving more to charity are admirable goals, but unless you break them down, you’re not likely to accomplish them. The human brain needs specific action steps to take towards completing a goal. Measure your caloric intake, and set a goal of a few hundred calories less per day. Find actual charities you’d like to donate to, set aside a fraction or your paycheck, and give a certain amount on a specific date of your choosing. Do this with all of your goals: break them down into actionable steps, with clearly defined dates, and watch the ease with which you mark them off the list. This has the added benefit of making it easier to start each task, since you can start with small, actionable steps (much easier to implement) than with large, generic goals, leaving you without the foggiest notion of where to even begin.
Workflowy is a wonderful and simple tool to organize your goals into simple, actionable steps.
In sum, resolutions are shit, and 2012 will not be your year unless you make today your day. Today, right now, is your blank slate. Begin.
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