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Your Most Improbable Life

kevinkelly.substack.com

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Re: Your Most Improbable Life

#31

Post by lacewing »

ElProlactin wrote: post #5

> Your life’s goal should be to become the most improbable person you can be. Your life's goal should not be dictated by Substack philosophers. > Here is what you gain with your most improbable life: > The authentic you. Your particular mix of talents, native abilities, personal inclinations, genetic limits, life experiences, and ambitious desires points to a mixture that is distinctly unique – if it is allowed to bl…

This is, quite obviously, just one person's perspective on life. But it's a call to action, so let me ask you this: what do you propose?

From your response, I see two takeaways: don't try to be creative because this only helps AI, and don't be spontaneous because the society wouldn't want you to. Is that it, or is there more? To be clear, I'm not trying to be overly snarky, but we don't get the option of doing nothing. If you don't like what this person is selling, what's your trick?

Re: Your Most Improbable Life

#32

Post by Nevermark »

ElProlactin wrote: post #5

> Your life’s goal should be to become the most improbable person you can be. Your life's goal should not be dictated by Substack philosophers. > Here is what you gain with your most improbable life: > The authentic you. Your particular mix of talents, native abilities, personal inclinations, genetic limits, life experiences, and ambitious desires points to a mixture that is distinctly unique – if it is allowed to bl…

> Your life's goal should not be dictated by Substack philosophers.

Dictate? The only expectation is readers consider ideas.

You made some good points about "self-help". I don't fully agree, but you gave me something to think about.

The essay struck me very directly. I have made unusual career choices, and beyond or because of that, life has changed in unimagined ways every five years of my adult life. Improbable paths to improbable destinations. I do feel like it has left me in a unique position, amidst all the upheavals.

Re: Your Most Improbable Life

#33

Post by phs318u »

lacewing wrote: post #31
ElProlactin wrote: post #5

> Your life’s goal should be to become the most improbable person you can be. Your life's goal should not be dictated by Substack philosophers. > Here is what you gain with your most improbable life: > The authentic you. Your particular mix of talents, native abilities, personal inclinations, genetic limits, life experiences, and ambitious desires points to a mixture that is distinctly unique – if it is allowed to bl…

This is, quite obviously, just one person's perspective on life. But it's a call to action, so let me ask you this: what do you propose? From your response, I see two takeaways: don't try to be creative because this only helps AI, and don't be spontaneous because the society wouldn't want you to. Is that it, or is there more? To be clear, I'm not trying to be overly snarky, but we don't get the option of doing nothin…

Why does parent need to propose anything? Perhaps, in the absence of any external authoritative instructions to the contrary, our purpose is for each of us to discover our own purpose and realise it. Why should parent (or anyone else) have a “trick”, and if they did why would it be applicable to anyone else?

Re: Your Most Improbable Life

#34

Post by phs318u »

Nevermark wrote: post #32
ElProlactin wrote: post #5

> Your life’s goal should be to become the most improbable person you can be. Your life's goal should not be dictated by Substack philosophers. > Here is what you gain with your most improbable life: > The authentic you. Your particular mix of talents, native abilities, personal inclinations, genetic limits, life experiences, and ambitious desires points to a mixture that is distinctly unique – if it is allowed to bl…

> Your life's goal should not be dictated by Substack philosophers. Dictate? The only expectation is readers consider ideas. You made some good points about "self-help". I don't fully agree, but you gave me something to think about. The essay struck me very directly. I have made unusual career choices, and beyond or because of that, life has changed in unimagined ways every five years of my adult life. Improbable pat…

“Improbable paths to improbable destinations.”

As someone that’s recently turned 60, your last paragraph resonates intensely. I am so, so far from the life I predicted for myself at age 25.

Re: Your Most Improbable Life

#35

Post by abroadwin »

lacewing wrote: post #31
ElProlactin wrote: post #5

> Your life’s goal should be to become the most improbable person you can be. Your life's goal should not be dictated by Substack philosophers. > Here is what you gain with your most improbable life: > The authentic you. Your particular mix of talents, native abilities, personal inclinations, genetic limits, life experiences, and ambitious desires points to a mixture that is distinctly unique – if it is allowed to bl…

This is, quite obviously, just one person's perspective on life. But it's a call to action, so let me ask you this: what do you propose? From your response, I see two takeaways: don't try to be creative because this only helps AI, and don't be spontaneous because the society wouldn't want you to. Is that it, or is there more? To be clear, I'm not trying to be overly snarky, but we don't get the option of doing nothin…

It sounds to me like their "trick" is simply not acting from the psychological position that you need to do something you're not doing in order to realize your authentic or best self. Wu wei?

Re: Your Most Improbable Life

#36

Post by ElProlactin »

abroadwin wrote: post #35
lacewing wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is, quite obviously, just one person's perspective on life. But it's a call to action, so let me ask you this: what do you propose? From your response, I see two takeaways: don't try to be creative because this only helps AI, and don't be spontaneous because the society wouldn't want you to. Is that it, or is there more? To be clear, I'm not trying to be overly snarky, but we don't get the option of doing nothin…

It sounds to me like their "trick" is simply not acting from the psychological position that you need to do something you're not doing in order to realize your authentic or best self. Wu wei?

Exactly. 無為

Re: Your Most Improbable Life

#37

Post by ElProlactin »

Nevermark wrote: post #32
ElProlactin wrote: post #5

> Your life’s goal should be to become the most improbable person you can be. Your life's goal should not be dictated by Substack philosophers. > Here is what you gain with your most improbable life: > The authentic you. Your particular mix of talents, native abilities, personal inclinations, genetic limits, life experiences, and ambitious desires points to a mixture that is distinctly unique – if it is allowed to bl…

> Your life's goal should not be dictated by Substack philosophers. Dictate? The only expectation is readers consider ideas. You made some good points about "self-help". I don't fully agree, but you gave me something to think about. The essay struck me very directly. I have made unusual career choices, and beyond or because of that, life has changed in unimagined ways every five years of my adult life. Improbable pat…

> Dictate? What an inhospitable straw man/false dichotomy.

The first sentence of the article is "Your life’s goal should be to become the most improbable person you can be."

It is literally telling you what you should do.

Re: Your Most Improbable Life

#38

Post by zem »

lacewing wrote: post #31
ElProlactin wrote: post #5

> Your life’s goal should be to become the most improbable person you can be. Your life's goal should not be dictated by Substack philosophers. > Here is what you gain with your most improbable life: > The authentic you. Your particular mix of talents, native abilities, personal inclinations, genetic limits, life experiences, and ambitious desires points to a mixture that is distinctly unique – if it is allowed to bl…

This is, quite obviously, just one person's perspective on life. But it's a call to action, so let me ask you this: what do you propose? From your response, I see two takeaways: don't try to be creative because this only helps AI, and don't be spontaneous because the society wouldn't want you to. Is that it, or is there more? To be clear, I'm not trying to be overly snarky, but we don't get the option of doing nothin…

just... be creative when you have something creative to express and the expression brings you joy, happiness, satisfaction, or any other reward of your choice. be spontaneous for similar reasons. don't do it because someone has attached an artificial "you are now leading your best life" reward to the mere fact of creativity or spontaneity - that's just reactive.

truly authentic creativity and spontaneity would leave room for conformity if that's what made you happiest in the moment, because why should the fact that everyone else also does something prevent it from being a worthwhile thing for you personally to do?

Re: Your Most Improbable Life

#40

Post by code_biologist »

adrianN wrote: post #12
ElProlactin wrote: post #5

> Your life’s goal should be to become the most improbable person you can be. Your life's goal should not be dictated by Substack philosophers. > Here is what you gain with your most improbable life: > The authentic you. Your particular mix of talents, native abilities, personal inclinations, genetic limits, life experiences, and ambitious desires points to a mixture that is distinctly unique – if it is allowed to bl…

Society strongly rewards predictability. If I try to minimize predictability of my actions I will very quickly be hit by a car and die. Similar outcomes should be expected in most other areas of life. Stop predictably paying your bills and delivering value… Individualism in the west pretends to value uniqueness, but in practice it values belonging to sollte specific subgroup of consumers and avoiding solidarity with…

"If there is anything the nonconformist hates worse than a conformist, it’s another nonconformist who doesn’t conform to the prevailing standard of nonconformity." - Bill Vaughan
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