Uncertain comfort. The universe says "look at me!" It's all on fire. What is consciousness? It's just one choice after another. The faith to keep going. Purchases need not be politics.
“All tyrannies rule through fraud and force,
but once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on force.”
– George Orwell
1. “Tolerance for uncertainty is one of the most valuable human traits.”
The Hidden Cost of Certainty – Sahil Bloom – (Curiosity Chronicle)
Once again, this is presented as a business concept, but it has much broader application. We’re living in a world with an incredible amount of uncertainty, and our ability to persist in the face of it remains a critical life skill.
The real rewards in life go to those who can show up every single day when the rewards are uncertain.
I know I’m struggling with everything that’s going on, not knowing what so many things will look like in a week, a month, a year. The challenge is to keep on, keeping on in spite of it all.
Do this: As best you can: keep calm and carry on.
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2. “The universe is constantly trying to get our attention”
The Synchronicity of Life – Tom Greene – (Wit & Wisdom)
Greene’s premise is that the world is trying to tell us something, and that we’re not listening.
Most people would rather watch cat videos than contemplate the big questions of life
While I’m not one to ascribe some kind of design to the random occurrences of the day, as Greene seems to suggest we should, I do think that it’s an incredibly helpful mental model. Coincidences with unexpected relationships — synchronicity according to Carl Jung — can help us see things in different ways, and perhaps jar us out of our comfortable complacency.
But ya gotta be paying attention.
Do this: Pay attention.
#attention #coincidence #syncronicity
3. “Welcome to the hypernormalization club”
Systems are crumbling – but daily life continues. The dissonance is real – Adrienne Matei – (The Guardian)
First articulated in 2005 by scholar Alexei Yurchak to describe the civilian experience in Soviet Russia, hypernormalization describes life in a society where two main things are happening.
The first is people seeing that governing systems and institutions are broken. And the second is that, for reasons including a lack of effective leadership and an inability to imagine how to disrupt the status quo, people carry on with their lives as normal despite systemic dysfunction – give or take a heavy load of fear, dread, denial and dissociation.
The article goes on to point out the value of being able to identify this, and to understand that we’re not alone. I get that, I really do.
But it’s not enough. That heavy load of fear, dread, depression, dissociation … they persist.
Do this: At least know you’re not alone.
4. “Don’t trust your consciousness to tell you what consciousness really is.”
Consciousness Has a Psychology Problem – Iris Berent – (Nautilus)
This essay is both interesting and disappointing. At its core, it’s not about consciousness, but people’s perceptions and opinions about consciousness.
Our intuitions can’t be trusted to reveal reliable information about the nature of our minds.
The reason it caught my attention is, of course, AI. We’re arguing about whether AI can become self-aware, sentient, or conscious, without even knowing what those terms actually mean for ourselves. All we have are competing opinions, most boiling down to consciousness being either a characteristic of our physical nature, or something separate from our physical nature, and neither of which is really helpful.
And yet, it’s the question of the day for AI, even though it remains the question of the millennia for humanity.
Do this: Don’t always trust your intuitions.
5. “Your entire life is just repeated tiny choices.”
The One (Tiny) Decision That Quietly Controls Your Entire Life – Thomas Oppong – (Medium)
The most important decision of my life will always be this one: What will I do next?
Fair enough. The essay goes on to explain how our days are, indeed, a sequence of tiny decisions that accumulate into becoming a life.
I see it as a strong argument for simply being more aware. More “mindful”, if you’re not sick of the term. Pay attention to what you’re doing, and avoid excessive auto-pilot.
The problem I have with philosophy like this, though, is that there’s an assumption we can take the time to evaluate every decision, to craft every habit, to watch every action we take throughout our lives. Besides being crazy-making, it’s just not practical.
It requires balance and tradeoffs essays like this often conveniently overlook.
Do this: Moderation in all things, including both moderation and mindfulness.
#choices #decisions #mindfulness
6. “Have the courage to see it clearly. Have the faith to keep going anyway.”
How to Survive Hard Times – Sahil Bloom – (Curiosity Chronicle)
This spoke to me because we’re in hard times. Bloom reminds us of the Stockdale paradox.
Admiral James Stockdale was an eight-year prisoner of war in Vietnam, enduring absolutely brutal conditions. And yet, he said afterward:
You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.
Eight. Years.
Do this: Don’t lose faith that you will prevail.
7. “I’m tired of everything being a moral decision.”
Our beautiful walled gardens of moral purity. – Greg Storey – (Brilliantcrank)
This comes up from time to time. I’m guilty of it myself: this publication left Substack because Substack gives undesirables a platform and I don’t want to be associated with that (or have any revenue I might have earned go to or come from that).
And yet. Is it “performative purity”? Does it matter? Where does it stop? Pick a platform, store, or other online presence: they all have something objectionable, if not to you, then to someone else.
Each time we cancel one platform, we migrate to another that will eventually disappoint us too.
And does taking this kind of “action” make us feel good about ourselves, preventing us from taking other actions that might actually have greater impact on the underlying issues?
We don’t have to turn purchases into a political statement. We don’t have to be the ethics police of our own consumption. We can care deeply about justice and still use Amazon when we need toilet paper delivered.
It’s something I struggle with. There are companies I avoid due to their ethics or behavior. And yet, there are others I keep using.
Do this: Consider the actions you take, and if they’re preventing you from taking action that might be more effective.
Random links
What I’m reading now
- Mistborn: The Final Empire – Brandon Sanderson
- Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World – Anne-Laure Le Cunff
- Nudge: The Final Edition – Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein
- The Science of Storytelling – Will Storr (audio)
My Reading List – everything I’ve read since 2021.
My Sources Page – the common sources I scan/read regularly.
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3 “Welcome to the hypernormalization club” ✔