If that line made perfect sense to you, go straight to “The Orientation Procedure”. Otherwise, here are a few options.
1. If you’re sort of panicking and just need something object level to grab onto immediately, try to catch a spark of curiosity about “confusion”.
2. If you’re overwhelmed by all the sparks you see and are anxious because you don’t know what kind you’re supposed to catch, take either of the other options, or read the sub-essay in the coda at the very end. (It might help, it might not. If you’re not stuck at this point, I recommend saving the coda for later.)
3. If you’re stuck on, “What even is a spark of curiosity and how do I know one when I see it?”, read the main essay without trying the procedure. Then, watch for things that might be sparks of curiosity in your daily life over the next week or two, and come back to these instructions once you think you may have found one.
If this isn’t readily apparent, notice when the direction of your gaze shifts, and ask yourself why it happened. When the answer is of the form, “I wanted to know X” or “I wondered Y”, the shift in your gaze was preceded by curiosity.
This might be exactly what CFAR calls “boggling”. I’m calling it something else, because no matter how many times people try to explain boggling to me, 1) I can’t quite understand what it is, and 2) I feel very sure that they are somehow doing it wrong.
Footnotes (each footnote is a reply to this comment)
Footnote #2:
If that line made perfect sense to you, go straight to “The Orientation Procedure”. Otherwise, here are a few options.
1. If you’re sort of panicking and just need something object level to grab onto immediately, try to catch a spark of curiosity about “confusion”.
2. If you’re overwhelmed by all the sparks you see and are anxious because you don’t know what kind you’re supposed to catch, take either of the other options, or read the sub-essay in the coda at the very end. (It might help, it might not. If you’re not stuck at this point, I recommend saving the coda for later.)
3. If you’re stuck on, “What even is a spark of curiosity and how do I know one when I see it?”, read the main essay without trying the procedure. Then, watch for things that might be sparks of curiosity in your daily life over the next week or two, and come back to these instructions once you think you may have found one.
Footnote #1:
If this isn’t readily apparent, notice when the direction of your gaze shifts, and ask yourself why it happened. When the answer is of the form, “I wanted to know X” or “I wondered Y”, the shift in your gaze was preceded by curiosity.
Footnote #5:
Unless you happen to be studying burrowing owls, I suppose.
Footnote #4:
This might be exactly what CFAR calls “boggling”. I’m calling it something else, because no matter how many times people try to explain boggling to me, 1) I can’t quite understand what it is, and 2) I feel very sure that they are somehow doing it wrong.
Footnote #3:
I do not know what drums are called. I’m just guessing. Sorry, percussionists.