Great essay, Alan. This put some more words to some feelings I've had as well. One issue I've thought about is how rapid ones ideas can simply become a commodity now. I've thought about how long and arduous coming up with and stress testing a new idea reall is. Along with how much humility is needed to let your ideas be challenged, ripped apart and hopefully improved. When I run that process through the lens of "intellectual property," I can see how conflict would be hard to avoid. Especially as we've seen the Ted-Talkification of so many ideas. Where that idea becomes "content" and merely a revenue stream instead of a meaningful contribution to humanity. I also have a hard time judging too hard since it is hard to really turn down the chance to "get your bag" while living in a world where that seems to be the main incentive structure. Thought provoking writing here as always, Alan. 🍻
Thanks Dylan, I always appreciate your insights. I hadn't thought of the "commodification of ideas", and I think you're touching on something quite fundamental to this entire landscape; that if ideas are commodities, there is no incentive to make ideas robust, only commercial. Ideas get filtered into something Instagrammable, rather than valuable.
I do understand the reluctance to judge in this context, but I also think there remain glimmers of hope that show that reward and genuine robustness of ideas and valued contributions to humanity are not yet consigned to history. Sean Carroll comes to mind when I think of someone who seems, at least to me, to hold both in tension in their thinking and contributions.
A part of the narrative of all religions is a recipe for mental fitness. It is a shame this is buried in myths.
I can remember in 1962 my father, who was ex RAF and a senior civil defence organiser, saying that he had been told to expect a nuclear strike within 24 hours. Next day life went on and no-one was particularly upset.
The mental fitness point is spot on, as is the shame that is was buried in myths. Imagine TikTog generation being told a nuclear strike was expected in the morning?
The big question we simply haven't yet answered is how to take what religion provided and package it into something useful and adaptive in a secular context. In the absence of which, people are just defaulting back to some secular form of religion or filling the gap with another belief system.
I watched '9 Days in Raqqa' yesterday. In that destruction, it's certain that most felt lost and were looking for people to tell them what to do. Those that stood up became the leaders and leaders of idea. Everyone else stood up because of them, a diluted form of confidence, but sometimes its all we can do.
I've not seen it, but I get the idea you're speaking to (correct me if I am wrong), which is that difficult, challenging times force people to become leaders, to generate new ideas. Perhaps our lack of ideas is inseperable from our material luxuries, a thought that really only crossed my mind with your comment.
Yes, I meant it that way and the other. Comfort has bred mental hostility for the few who are capable of ideas. Not all are capable, and thus there's merit to them simply standing. The documentary is strong in my head, so its possible I'm using it as an awkward lens.
Very enjoyable and insightful read Alan. I tend to agree that our cognitive disarmament has reached new heights. In the first place it seems, in Huxleyan fashion, we have no will to wade through the dizzying number of ideas available to us. Attempting to do so results in an almost immediate road block: how to discriminate good ideas from the rest. If somehow a good idea achieves any traction, there is no trust that such an idea could be implemented faithfully and free of corruption. Would Gorgias laugh, or cry? Looking forward to the next one!
Great essay, Alan. This put some more words to some feelings I've had as well. One issue I've thought about is how rapid ones ideas can simply become a commodity now. I've thought about how long and arduous coming up with and stress testing a new idea reall is. Along with how much humility is needed to let your ideas be challenged, ripped apart and hopefully improved. When I run that process through the lens of "intellectual property," I can see how conflict would be hard to avoid. Especially as we've seen the Ted-Talkification of so many ideas. Where that idea becomes "content" and merely a revenue stream instead of a meaningful contribution to humanity. I also have a hard time judging too hard since it is hard to really turn down the chance to "get your bag" while living in a world where that seems to be the main incentive structure. Thought provoking writing here as always, Alan. 🍻
Thanks Dylan, I always appreciate your insights. I hadn't thought of the "commodification of ideas", and I think you're touching on something quite fundamental to this entire landscape; that if ideas are commodities, there is no incentive to make ideas robust, only commercial. Ideas get filtered into something Instagrammable, rather than valuable.
I do understand the reluctance to judge in this context, but I also think there remain glimmers of hope that show that reward and genuine robustness of ideas and valued contributions to humanity are not yet consigned to history. Sean Carroll comes to mind when I think of someone who seems, at least to me, to hold both in tension in their thinking and contributions.
Another interesting article, thanks.
A part of the narrative of all religions is a recipe for mental fitness. It is a shame this is buried in myths.
I can remember in 1962 my father, who was ex RAF and a senior civil defence organiser, saying that he had been told to expect a nuclear strike within 24 hours. Next day life went on and no-one was particularly upset.
The mental fitness point is spot on, as is the shame that is was buried in myths. Imagine TikTog generation being told a nuclear strike was expected in the morning?
The big question we simply haven't yet answered is how to take what religion provided and package it into something useful and adaptive in a secular context. In the absence of which, people are just defaulting back to some secular form of religion or filling the gap with another belief system.
I watched '9 Days in Raqqa' yesterday. In that destruction, it's certain that most felt lost and were looking for people to tell them what to do. Those that stood up became the leaders and leaders of idea. Everyone else stood up because of them, a diluted form of confidence, but sometimes its all we can do.
I've not seen it, but I get the idea you're speaking to (correct me if I am wrong), which is that difficult, challenging times force people to become leaders, to generate new ideas. Perhaps our lack of ideas is inseperable from our material luxuries, a thought that really only crossed my mind with your comment.
Yes, I meant it that way and the other. Comfort has bred mental hostility for the few who are capable of ideas. Not all are capable, and thus there's merit to them simply standing. The documentary is strong in my head, so its possible I'm using it as an awkward lens.
Very enjoyable and insightful read Alan. I tend to agree that our cognitive disarmament has reached new heights. In the first place it seems, in Huxleyan fashion, we have no will to wade through the dizzying number of ideas available to us. Attempting to do so results in an almost immediate road block: how to discriminate good ideas from the rest. If somehow a good idea achieves any traction, there is no trust that such an idea could be implemented faithfully and free of corruption. Would Gorgias laugh, or cry? Looking forward to the next one!