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Your Most Improbable Life

kevinkelly.substack.com

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Re: Your Most Improbable Life

#121

Post by Nevermark »

ElProlactin wrote: post #99
Nevermark wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being able to incorporate many incomplete and even contradictory models, without dissonance, is most certainly a scaling factor. Wisdom often has unexpectedly wide application, and so is more multiplicative than it is simply additive. Reality is never contradictory, but it is complex. The seeming contradictions in models are because models capture different subsets of reality, not because they are wrong. Yes, we get…

> Getting caught up in wording styles that other's don't have any trouble with, is not what I would call a skill. My opinion is that telling people "your goal in life should be..." is an aggressive form of advice-giving. I believe that the plain text wording of the statement speaks for itself. You're free to disagree. I don't know why you feel the need to try to put me down for my opinion and go so far as to speak fo…

> I don't know why you feel the need to try to put me down for my opinion

I have not criticized any of your substantive views.

Only your unfair and unreasoned criticism of the essay writer's motives. Apparently due to unfamiliarity with normal language use.

They were not trying to dictate anything.

I also made the positive (non-critiquing) point that viewpoints are valuable, even when they don't match our situations at any given moment. They are rarely "right" or "wrong", in the way facts are.

A great deal of wisdom is accumulating many views that let us "see" different things in different ways.

Re: Your Most Improbable Life

#122

Post by oliculipolicula »

PaulHoule wrote: post #98

There is a balance to be found here. I had the improbable experience of contracting with a community of foxes and then made up the cover story that "this is a character I play to get better smiles when I do street photography" and then made that story true. So most of the time I am the one-and-only fox-photographer and feel unique but there are some places where a lot of beastly people are around and I think "I feel…

I sure hope foxes might be the antiwolf (in the sense that antiheros are more marketable than heroes)

Relatedly, FT may have a shot at beating "main character syndrome" out of wolves that think they are foxes

https://archive.ph/AplGo

https://archive.ph/ECclr

Due to their nonlibertarian (anti-liberal? Overton Hole-in-the-wall centrist!) opinion pieces that never fail to squeeze a giggle out of yours truly

To the foxes that worry they might be wolves I'd prescribe the Economist

Re: Your Most Improbable Life

#123

Post by xyzzy123 »

There’s no discussion about risk, investment or variance in the post. I want my life to be uniquely GREAT but unless you apply a bit of strategy the outcome of "do improbable things" could just as well be uniquely BAD.

Everyone notices that huge outlier successes seem to follow their own unique paths but the millions of failures who weren’t as lucky or strategic are quiet or invisible. You can’t just focus on the outcome or the actions, you have to understand the process and respond to feedback.

Successful people get to weird places via search, not throwing darts.

Make lots of small bets and double down on the ones that seem to pay off. Be willing to push things further than “most reasonable people” would but only if you can get concrete signals of reward.

“If you think you can fly, start by trying to take off from the ground”.

Re: Your Most Improbable Life

#124

Post by 1659447091 »

ElProlactin wrote: post #97
1659447091 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But is that not also "following a path laid out by someone else?" How do we know when we "are [...] being the "authentic you"" when so much of our early lives have been conditioned by our environment if we never challenge that by looking for other ways; be that through exploring western "self-help", Chinese philosophy, or both (and others). Maybe it's through that action, the West's obsession with "self-help" that de…

Most people have experienced what 無為 speaks to without even knowing about the concept or trying to follow it. That's the whole point. In fact, if you're trying too hard to achieve 無為, you defeat the purpose.

Exactly my point

> Most people

I could say "most people" are also unsatisfied. We follow what is given to us and at some point, usually near mid-age people are sick of it and try to find another way...others just keep on keeping on; some satisfied, some pretending to be -- we really can't know, but given the age of my circle, I find it's a lot of pretending. So it may look like they found 無為 without knowing or searching, but overcoming that part that was given to us thats says they should be happy because where they are turns out to be another mask.

On a smaller scale I have seen the realization of that, then the search through western self-help (or religion) happens that ended up leading to 無為 without ever knowing it. Usually because at some point it pushes them over the "f-this edge". While not an observation of most people, they are patterns I keep coming across getting older.

I bring it up because sometimes we simply need to let others follow their own "self-help" (self-cultivation) path without interfering or telling them how they are doing it wrong. When you tell them they need 無為, and not their "self-help" books, and if they listen, then they focus on trying to achieve it. Which as you say, defeat(s) the purpose.

Re: Your Most Improbable Life

#125

Post by 1659447091 »

abroadwin wrote: post #102
1659447091 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But is that not also "following a path laid out by someone else?" How do we know when we "are [...] being the "authentic you"" when so much of our early lives have been conditioned by our environment if we never challenge that by looking for other ways; be that through exploring western "self-help", Chinese philosophy, or both (and others). Maybe it's through that action, the West's obsession with "self-help" that de…

> But is that not also "following a path laid out by someone else?" Not really. I'd use the analogy of breathing. Imagine you're convinced that you need to breathe properly, so you consciously obsess over each breath (congratulations: you are now breathing manually). Then someone comes along and says "you know, you can just breathe without thinking about doing it right." Is letting go of that manual breathing and jus…

Not a great analogy* tbh, I don't really follow but I think I understand what you are trying to get at. Forgive me if I am off the mark here

I think it misses the point of telling someone in search of self-help that the true way to self-help is "non-action/do nothing" to get there -- well you are now telling someone in the middle of a search for something they may not completely understand that they are looking in the wrong place and the correct place is "over here".

Now they are following your directions and still searching. When it's the searching that keeps them up at night.

*(as in someone becoming obsessed with breathing starts manual breathing -- to get their breathing stronger because they were unfulfilled with the previous way -- to support their weaker lungs [or why ever they started], and are told you don't have to do that you can breath without thinking (except that was the og problem), will not all of a sudden be, wow you are right I can breathe on my own like before and my previous issues that led me to try different suddenly disappeared when I went back to improper automatic breathing where I was breathing too short, too fast and through my mouth)

Re: Your Most Improbable Life

#126

Post by thimkerbell »

CuriouslyC wrote: post #14
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…

The next level of realization is that every path you've been following your entire life has been laid out by someone else, or chosen due to the value system imparted by someone else, so there's not really an authentic "you" in the way that people like to believe.

See also: scarce housing and parking place availability.
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