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We can't see our culture very well, because we see with it

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Re: We can't see our culture very well, because we see with it

#31

Post by pavlov »

efaref wrote: post #18
rogeryu wrote: post #10

Marshall McLuhan once said that the last thing a fish would ever notice in it’s habitat is the water. Likewise, the most obvious and powerful realities of our human culture seem to also be the most unrecognised. http://stoweboyd.com/2013/07/12/marshall-mcluhan-once-said-t...

Like how we never notice air. Oh wait...

Today we know what air is, but for ancient people it was far from obvious.

Plato describes it thus:

"There are similar differences in the air; of which the brightest part is called the aether, and the most turbid sort mist and darkness; and there are various other nameless kinds which arise from the inequality of the triangles."

http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/timaeus.html

Mist, darkness and aether are completely unrelated to any modern definition of air.

Re: We can't see our culture very well, because we see with it

#32

Post by codingdave »

pavlov wrote: post #31
efaref wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like how we never notice air. Oh wait...

Today we know what air is, but for ancient people it was far from obvious. Plato describes it thus: "There are similar differences in the air; of which the brightest part is called the aether, and the most turbid sort mist and darkness; and there are various other nameless kinds which arise from the inequality of the triangles." http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/timaeus.html Mist, darkness and aether are completely unrel…

But they noticed it. Their accuracy is not really the point - they did notice their own environment.

Re: We can't see our culture very well, because we see with it

#33

Post by SolaceQuantum »

I suppose I have an "outsider's" view on cultural matters but I've always been highly skeptical of framing culture in such absolute terms. While it is true culture is a nebulous concept that has a tendency to leak everywhere doesn't mean that it's so smoke-and-mirrors that you can never sit back and examine things. Many people are forced to do this through talk therapy via the development of unhealthy thinking patterns because of a life circumstance in which they developed them.

I don't know what this article is trying to say or what it's trying to teach. It seems to be the word version of a pastel grunge aesthetic blogger.

Re: We can't see our culture very well, because we see with it

#34

Post by ThrustVectoring »

vlehto wrote: post #22

Some of my friends report how eating certain mushrooms made the super creative. I have asked what they created? Nothing. The reason why they think they we're creative is because they felt creative. This article made similar thing for me with respect to learning. I feel like I learned something. But I really don't remember what.

I actually buy that psychedelics make people more creative. People fall into more predictable mental ruts than random exploration would, so anything that kicks the brain out of the patterns it wants to match to is going to help.

Re: We can't see our culture very well, because we see with it

#35

Post by ThomPete »

One of my biggest eureka-moments I had when I moved to the states from Denmark — wasn't what I learned about the US — but what I learned about Denmark.

I suddenly saw things about my own culture clearly when I wasn't surrounded by confirmation bias of specific ways of looking at things.

One of the most eye-opening experiences for me; If you wan't to understand something you need to understand it through things that are related to it not the things themselves. I have applied this to many other things in live (want to understand design, read about the things that are related to design instead of design itself.

Re: We can't see our culture very well, because we see with it

#36

Post by nsomaru »

coderdude wrote: post #23
nness wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or better yet, Medium could place a warning that the user has uploaded files with a hefty file-size and how it could cause performance or data issues for their readers. What a bot would be better for is people complaining about people complaining. That'd knock out a good 50% of all HN comments.

Speaking of culture, this comment reminds me of how other communities see HN. We seem to be unaware of our own culture while outsiders can see it quite well. - "Ad hominem" - Causation/correlation - Complaining about ads - Complaining about font color and size - Complaining - "This." (We pinched the laziest one-liner Reddit has to offer) - Anything regarding logical fallacies

Add:

- confirmation bias

- strawman

- bubble or not

- why disable mobile zoom?

Re: We can't see our culture very well, because we see with it

#37

Post by drumdance »

ThomPete wrote: post #35

One of my biggest eureka-moments I had when I moved to the states from Denmark — wasn't what I learned about the US — but what I learned about Denmark. I suddenly saw things about my own culture clearly when I wasn't surrounded by confirmation bias of specific ways of looking at things. One of the most eye-opening experiences for me; If you wan't to understand something you need to understand it through things that a…

I think international travel should be mandatory, especially for US citizens. The longest I've stayed anywhere overseas is a month, but even a few days in another country can be eye-opening.

Re: We can't see our culture very well, because we see with it

#38

Post by drumdance »

vlehto wrote: post #22

Some of my friends report how eating certain mushrooms made the super creative. I have asked what they created? Nothing. The reason why they think they we're creative is because they felt creative. This article made similar thing for me with respect to learning. I feel like I learned something. But I really don't remember what.

Cannabis often makes me more creative in terms of ideas, but not usually execution.

Re: We can't see our culture very well, because we see with it

#39

Post by trdrake »

nness wrote: post #2

Noting before reading that 15mb of animated GIF's is not a great way for an article to make a first impression.

Not to mention the animations - jittery text on a grainy image - adds absolutely 0 useful information, does it at the expense of a huge download and a headache.

Re: We can't see our culture very well, because we see with it

#40

Post by pavlov »

codingdave wrote: post #32
pavlov wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Today we know what air is, but for ancient people it was far from obvious. Plato describes it thus: "There are similar differences in the air; of which the brightest part is called the aether, and the most turbid sort mist and darkness; and there are various other nameless kinds which arise from the inequality of the triangles." http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/timaeus.html Mist, darkness and aether are completely unrel…

But they noticed it. Their accuracy is not really the point - they did notice their own environment.

They observed effects within the medium like moisture and darkness, but did ancient people really "notice" the medium itself? Depends on the definition of "notice", I guess.
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