flâneur

Christy

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on the atlas — 26

highlights — 35

  • and yet i’ve noticed that after we spend extended time together, we also become more fond of the time apart. living together feels like pulses of energy that encourage us to work harder for one another, and then the days away is when we execute on said improvements. when he drives me to the airport, we go over things we want to accomplish before we see each other next. he is going to finish developing his game, i am going to finish a book, he is going to push a new update on the sim, i am going to finish writing a blog, he is going to work out everyday, i am going to work out everyday. i keep …
    'til death do us part | arielle lok
  • Productive engines as they are, universities are flawed. They’re expensive, inefficient bureaucracies that are often inequitable. I have confidence universities can be disrupted, and new, stronger ideas will take their place in society in due time – the imperfections are too fatal in the long term to brush away. There is no shortage of interesting companies and experimental policies trying to find alternatives to universities as a product. But whatever takes the place of universities will also have to fill the role they currently play to the communities that grow around and beyond it, into the…
    Note on how to be happy
  • The internet didn’t kill counterculture—you just won’t find it on Instagram
    The internet didn’t kill counterculture—you just won’t find it on Instagram
  • : why didn't I document everything exhaustively? How could have I understood as an experienced emotional reality that my life will never be so open again, that I will not be a teenager forever, that I will fall out of love, that I will try really hard to get into college and then promptly abandon it, that I will try and fail at many things, that people will want me, that I will want people, that I will be depressed and ecstatic and bored, that I will, for years after we break up (and probably always), rap along to the Kanye song we listened to when you were cooking in the kitchen and I was lea…
    Note on how to be happy
  • tell your friends you love them
    tell your friends you love them
  • This is one of the things I enjoy about Feynman on "doubt and uncertainty and not knowing". Ditto Jonathan Blow's video game "The Witness". Or Penrose's "Road to Reality". Or for that matter, Sagan in "Cosmos". In each case they are doubling down and exploring beliefs that are important to them, personally. There's a sincerity in it that you can feel. Even when I disagree with it, or find it foreign to my own sensibility, I can still sense it. Tremendous, sincere interest, founded in some of their deepest beliefs, and then developed as far as they can go.
    Cosmos: working notes, 1
  • I meet a fair number of secular people who make up rituals, fables, traditions. And it often (not always) seems wrong to me. They are tremendously sincere people, searching. And yet they are often making stuff up in imitation of the past. They are not asking: what are my deepest beliefs? Unless and until they do so their rituals will seem lame. They're searching for Yahweh. Like Govinda in Hesse's Siddhartha, they're looking for someone to tell them the answer, rather than exploring what they actually believe.
    Cosmos: working notes, 1
  • But he also repeatedly switches to another point of view, in which humanity is tiny and insignificant. And then he will switch back again to the human level. This repeats multiple times, powerfully juxtaposing two vastly different points of view, points of view in what might seem superficially like strong conflict. The net effect is an expansion of consciousness, as you begin to merge these two types of consciousness.
    Cosmos: working notes, 1
  • There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.
    Cosmos: working notes, 1
  • A constant dilemma in my life is what Heather Havrilesky describes as the tug between passion and loyalty. I identify as someone who is moved by idealism and intensity, but also cares about duty and longevity. When you’re torn between the two, what are you supposed to choose?
    love in the time of hyperfixation - by Ava
  • Discipline With such powerful forces leading us astray, it's not surprising we find it so hard to discover what we like to work on. Most people are doomed in childhood by accepting the axiom that work = pain. Those who escape this are nearly all lured onto the rocks by prestige or money. How many even discover something they love to work on? A few hundred thousand, perhaps, out of billions. It's hard to find work you love; it must be, if so few do. So don't underestimate this task. And don't feel bad if you haven't succeeded yet. In fact, if you admit to yourself that you're discontented, you'…
    How to Do What You Love
  • The empirical evidence is clear on this. If you look at where the largest numbers of successful startups come from, it's pretty much the same as the list of the most selective universities. I don't think it's the prestigious names of these universities that cause more good startups to come out of them. Nor do I think it's because the quality of the teaching is better. What's driving this is simply the difficulty of getting in. You have to be pretty smart and determined to get into MIT or Cambridge, so if you do manage to get in, you'll find the other students include a lot of smart and determi…
    How to Start Google
  • Making something for your friends isn't the only source of startup ideas. It's just the best source for young founders, who have the least knowledge of what other people want, and whose own wants are most predictive of future demand.
    How to Start Google
  • Danger: Falling Powers
    Danger: Falling Powers
  • “when I grow to be a poppy in the graveyard, I will send you all my love upon the breeze.”
    At night I feel alive
  • The City as a Black Box: Navigating Through the Surplus of Information
    The City as a Black Box: Navigating Through the Surplus of Information « INC Longform
  • That is not a good thing. I get grumpy, and gripe about broken websites to my girlfriend. Occasionally that gets her in a grump too.
    Your self is not a spiritual obstacle | Vividness
  • “There is nothing fundamentally wrong with you” does not mean you are perfect. (Although some New Age folks might tell you that.) You have no cosmic defects; but, if you are like me, you have numerous practical faults. For example, I am habitually irritated—usually by badly-designed or buggy software.
    Your self is not a spiritual obstacle | Vividness
  • Everyone has the same set of emotions, though. The details about which ones you feel, in which situations, are spiritually meaningless. You cannot find The Answer To Life, The Universe, And Everything there.
    Your self is not a spiritual obstacle | Vividness
  • This does not mean that there are no wrong actions. It means that experiencing the kleshas does not force you to act wrongly. Tantra has a toolkit of methods that help break the habitual links between particular emotions and actions.
    Your self is not a spiritual obstacle | Vividness
  • “Ego” is not evil. It is not a spiritual problem.
    Your self is not a spiritual obstacle | Vividness
  • This dialogue points to an activity of “trans-individual qua the individual,” where the “trans-individual” designates a Zen person with nondiscriminatory wisdom, while the “individual” designates those who remain in the everyday lifeworld. (In the above quote, the former is designated by the phrase “the person,” while the latter by the pronoun “you.”) However, in the everyday human lifeworld, the “trans-individual” cannot “make the tea himself,” because he is not incarnate like the individual who remains in the dualistic, either-or ego-logical, everyday standpoint.
    Japanese Zen Buddhist Philosophy (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
  • 8.1 Zen Person For the Zen person, the move from “not two” to “not one” is an issue of concretely instantiating in the everyday lifeworld what is experienced through the stance of “not two.” This point, for example, is well illustrated in the following Zen dialogue between Zen Master Ungen (Chin. Yúnyán, 780–841) and a fellow practitioner, Dōgo (Chin., Dàowú; 769–835). When Ungen is making a cup of tea, the dialogue runs as follows: Dōgo: To whom are you going to serve the tea you are preparing? Ungen: There is the person who wants it. Dōgo: Can’t the person who wants it make the tea himself? …
    Japanese Zen Buddhist Philosophy (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
  • Japanese Zen Buddhist Philosophy
    Japanese Zen Buddhist Philosophy (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
  • INDIS: Indra HVDC Distribution System for a new more electrical aircraft of Piaggio Aerospace
    INDIS: Indra HVDC Distribution System for a new more electrical aircraft of Piaggio Aerospace | indra
  • Do I Need to Go to University?
    Do I Need to Go to University? -- colah's blog
  • Do I have things I deeply want to spend a year of my life exploring or working on? Do I have a way to support myself that leaves me time and energy to grow? Can I really work self-directed for months at a time? Do I have examples of me working hard on a personal project or learning without external structure? Do I have or can I learn the skills I need to work on this project independently? Do I have sources of community, peer support or mentorship for what I want to do?
    Do I Need to Go to University? -- colah's blog
  • The Planning Fallacy , explained.
    Planning fallacy - The Decision Lab
  • Challenges of Passive Funding
    Challenges of Passive Funding | Open Philanthropy
  • What, exactly, is the difference between a cult and a religion?
    Eight Short Studies On Excuses - LessWrong
  • The Bellicose Dictator
    Eight Short Studies On Excuses - LessWrong
  • Resist the Happy Death Spiral
    Resist the Happy Death Spiral — LessWrong
  • The root of all evil is premature optimization.
    Ineffective Altruism — LessWrong
  • Utility maximization. We’ve been thinking in terms of preserving values versus winning competitions, and expecting optimizing for the latter to destroy the former. But many of the most important competitions / optimization processes in modern civilization are optimizing for human values. You win at capitalism partly by satisfying customers’ values. You win at democracy partly by satisfying voters’ values.
    Meditations On Moloch | Slate Star Codex
  • Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea
    Meditations On Moloch | Slate Star Codex