Thanks for this. I’ve been thinking about what to do, as well as where and with whom to live over the next few years. This post highlights important things missing from default plans.
It makes me more excited about having independence, space to think, and a close circle of trusted friends (vs being managed / managing, anxious about urgent todos, and part of a scene).
I’ve spent more time thinking about math completely unrelated to my work after reading this post.
The theoretical justifications are more subtle, and seem closer to true, than previous justifications I’ve seen for related ideas.
The dialog doesn’t overstate its case and acknowledges some tradeoffs that I think can be real—eg I do think there is some good urgent real thinking going on, that some people are a good fit for it, and can make a reasonable choice to do less serious play.
I do think there is some good urgent real thinking going on, that some people are a good fit for it, and can make a reasonable choice to do less serious play.
Definitely. A second-order hope I have is to make more space available for people to be more head-down intense about urgent thinking. The idea being:
Alice wants to be heads-down intense about urgent thinking. She does so. Then Bob sees Alice, and feels pressured to also be intense in that way. When Bob tries to be intense in that way, he throws away his mind, and that’s not good for him. He doesn’t fully understand what’s going wrong, but he knows that what’s going wrong has something to do with him being pressured to be intense. He correctly identifies that the pressure is partly caused by Alice (whether or not it’s Alice who really ought to change her behavior). Not understanding the situation in detail, Bob only has blunt actions available; and not having an explicit justification for pushing back against some pressure he feels, he doesn’t push back explicitly, out in the open, but instead puts some of his force toward implicitly pressuring Alice to not be so intense.
If Bob were more able to defend important things from implicit pressure that he feels, he’s less pushed to pressure Alice to not be intense. And so Alice is more freed to be intense, as is suitable for her.
(This is fairly theoretical, but would explain some of my experiences.)
Thanks for this. I’ve been thinking about what to do, as well as where and with whom to live over the next few years. This post highlights important things missing from default plans.
It makes me more excited about having independence, space to think, and a close circle of trusted friends (vs being managed / managing, anxious about urgent todos, and part of a scene).
I’ve spent more time thinking about math completely unrelated to my work after reading this post.
The theoretical justifications are more subtle, and seem closer to true, than previous justifications I’ve seen for related ideas.
The dialog doesn’t overstate its case and acknowledges some tradeoffs that I think can be real—eg I do think there is some good urgent real thinking going on, that some people are a good fit for it, and can make a reasonable choice to do less serious play.
Good to hear.
Definitely. A second-order hope I have is to make more space available for people to be more head-down intense about urgent thinking. The idea being:
Alice wants to be heads-down intense about urgent thinking. She does so. Then Bob sees Alice, and feels pressured to also be intense in that way. When Bob tries to be intense in that way, he throws away his mind, and that’s not good for him. He doesn’t fully understand what’s going wrong, but he knows that what’s going wrong has something to do with him being pressured to be intense. He correctly identifies that the pressure is partly caused by Alice (whether or not it’s Alice who really ought to change her behavior). Not understanding the situation in detail, Bob only has blunt actions available; and not having an explicit justification for pushing back against some pressure he feels, he doesn’t push back explicitly, out in the open, but instead puts some of his force toward implicitly pressuring Alice to not be so intense.
If Bob were more able to defend important things from implicit pressure that he feels, he’s less pushed to pressure Alice to not be intense. And so Alice is more freed to be intense, as is suitable for her.
(This is fairly theoretical, but would explain some of my experiences.)