Learning
I once emphasized how I see writing as a must , and how it helps me to understand myself . I did not say that lightly. At the time, I thought I was already being radical in my statement. I thought calling writing a “must” was extreme enough. But I have come to a stronger conclusion since then,
Some of the things that force clarity of mind in writing are not the words only and the choice of words, but the links between them. linking notes is not a decorative feature. it is structural. it allows thought to move from being scattered into being shaped. this is something that can hardly be utilized in regular note taking apps, but when you use a more sophisticated system or a personal blog, you allow this feature to exist naturally.
I remember my friend Awab sharing a thoughtful reading recommendation from the LessWrong community titled You will be OK . it is both a clarification and a gentle reminder of different ways to think and act under the existential threat of AI, written as a response to concerns raised by a young community member in Turning 20 in the probable pre-apocalypse .
you go through life for a long time believing no one has ever suffered the way you have.
and then, one day, you read something. or you hear something.
and you realize your suffering does not isolate you. it is your bridge.
There’s a point at which everything you learn requires you to learn the opposite thing. If you learn to be patient, then eventually you’ll need to learn when to be impatient.
If you learn to control your anger, then you’ll have to learn when it’s good to be angry. And if you learn to be gentle, then you must learn when to put up a fight.
Life isn’t made up of a set of solutions for you to find.
It’s built on extreme behaviors you learn to balance.Josh Terry
Learn to write, I’m dead serious about that, because… pick some hard problems and learn to write very, very carefully. when I say pay attention to the word, I mean that pick the right words, organize them into the right phrases and get your sentences straight. read and write everyday and see if you can discover what is true.
Jordan Peterson