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Ursula K. Le Guin on “Spare Time”

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Re: Ursula K. Le Guin on “Spare Time”

#2
Ursula was such a boss. Dry humor and insight... the best combination.

She would disagree with a lot of what HN finds important. We (tech industry, SV, whatever) could stand to incorporate more ideas along her line of thinking.

Re: Ursula K. Le Guin on “Spare Time”

#3
I think what Le Guin is expressing tacitly that most of us adopt meaning into our lives. We fall in love. We get religion, we have kids, we are dedicated to our vocations, etc. Creative people create meaning for their lives. This is hard work requiring extreme skepticism and bravery (which ultimately can be very lonely): each idea must pass a battery of psychic litmus tests to be considered valid. It's exhausting. But this sort of way of life is the ultimately most fulfilling, I think. Most purposeful. Note: I don't really do this my own life, I feel like I have too many adopted meanings in my life that crowd out this process and lack the fundamental courage to really do this.

Re: Ursula K. Le Guin on “Spare Time”

#4

I think what Le Guin is expressing tacitly that most of us adopt meaning into our lives. We fall in love. We get religion, we have kids, we are dedicated to our vocations, etc. Creative people create meaning for their lives. This is hard work requiring extreme skepticism and bravery (which ultimately can be very lonely): each idea must pass a battery of psychic litmus tests to be considered valid. It's exhausting. Bu…

Could you elaborate on the difference between adopted and created meaning? Are these terms that you created, or adopted? :-)

Re: Ursula K. Le Guin on “Spare Time”

#5
post #2

Ursula was such a boss. Dry humor and insight... the best combination. She would disagree with a lot of what HN finds important. We (tech industry, SV, whatever) could stand to incorporate more ideas along her line of thinking.

Agreed, true insight like hers would be valuable. People who have no stakes theire, just reflecting from a unbiased outsider perspective. No cultural or counter-cultural pushing to reach whatever results fit ones current perspective.

Re: Ursula K. Le Guin on “Spare Time”

#7
post #2

Ursula was such a boss. Dry humor and insight... the best combination. She would disagree with a lot of what HN finds important. We (tech industry, SV, whatever) could stand to incorporate more ideas along her line of thinking.

Agreed, true insight like hers would be valuable. People who have no stakes theire, just reflecting from a unbiased outsider perspective. No cultural or counter-cultural pushing to reach whatever results fit ones current perspective.

Parcissons you are shadow banned.

Re: Ursula K. Le Guin on “Spare Time”

#8

I think what Le Guin is expressing tacitly that most of us adopt meaning into our lives. We fall in love. We get religion, we have kids, we are dedicated to our vocations, etc. Creative people create meaning for their lives. This is hard work requiring extreme skepticism and bravery (which ultimately can be very lonely): each idea must pass a battery of psychic litmus tests to be considered valid. It's exhausting. Bu…

I really like a recent thing I read about adult development from Robert Kegan. These go in order in his model, and these are kind of adult development levels to "achieve".. which of course itself leads to a discussion of Kegan's work, but here are the interesting ones for adults:

- socialization - your identity is based on your social context, and the society around you

- self-authored - your identity is based on what you've carved out for yourself, and you are in control of it outside of your social constructs.

- self-transformation - your identity is not your own! You see identity as something as movable and constructed as many other objects in your life.

Re: Ursula K. Le Guin on “Spare Time”

#10

Jeff Bezos often talks about acting now so as to minimize regret when you are 80. Interestingly enough this article says that 80 is a magical number for life reflection. Probably not a coincidence knowing Bezos.

Seems like a weird thing to optimize for. The amount of time you'll feel regret before you feel nothing is pretty minimial.
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