aron
@aronshelton
Designing and navigating various contextual arrangements with an enigmatic sense of hope. #wayfinder
aron
The landscape of information online is time-independent yet observer-relative. My interaction with content is shaped by my unique digital context – my online habits, frequented sites, and chosen links. This reminds me, in an unscientific manner, of Einstein’s relativity, where time and space are relative to the observer's position. The meaning and significance of online information change based on the viewer and their vantage point. No wonder the internet feels like a vast, contentious discussion space, with everything existing in all states and variances simultaneously. In real life, things change over time, but perhaps in the physics of the internet, it's all about the relational dynamics of data, defined by its current network of relationships and connections.
When I post online, I add basic metrics to track views. But I never know the contexts or the viewers. Suddenly, this information exists in multiple states of interpretation and misunderstanding, yet in a seemingly timeless way. It appears in various timelines and communities, creating different contexts and associations by proximity alone. This makes me think of information entanglement, where separate pieces of content, or even fragments, once removed from their original context, become intrinsically linked in the minds of others, existing all at once in myriad forms. The data becomes the medium. Like a quantum particle, understood only in layman's terms, it exists in multiple states of interpretation, misunderstanding, and relevance simultaneously, collapsing into a specific state only upon interaction (viewing, sharing, commenting, etc.).
Seven thoughts on ritual:
Rituals are the feedback loops we construct to construct ourselves.
Rituals shape the medium of time.
Rituals orient us.
Rituals are protocols.
Ritual is a form of play.
Rituals take place in a world set apart.
Rituals make meaning.
We need ritual technology. Technology designed for ritual use. Why? Most of the software we use daily is designed to engagement-max. Social media feeds, loot boxes, compulsion loops, gang gang yes yes yes ice cream so good. You’re caught in a feedback loop with the algorithm, and you are the squishiest part of that loop. Ritual technology operates on a different timescale. Underneath the fast twitch of compulsion loops is the slow thrum of ritual. Elder feedback systems. An antidote to algorithmic engagement addiction?
I'm so thankful that I'm an addict and that I'm an alcoholic, because I have these people. And without that addiction and alcoholism and without coming to the point where I could admit that, I don't know that I would have ever had a bond with such an amazing group of people as this. And it's awesome because it's not just here. It's not just in the
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Which of my strongest beliefs are formed on second-hand information vs. first-hand experience?
If I could not compare myself to anyone else, how would I define a good life?
Whose views do I criticize that I would actually agree with if I lived in their shoes?
Who do I envy that is actually less happy than I am?
Looking back, am I any good at... See more
If I could not compare myself to anyone else, how would I define a good life?
Whose views do I criticize that I would actually agree with if I lived in their shoes?
Who do I envy that is actually less happy than I am?
Looking back, am I any good at... See more
Morgan Housel • A Few Questions
Co-creation value adds. 1) When you're stuck with creating something, your co-creator nudges you because they're not going to be stuck on the same thing as you are. So no more writer's block, creative block, etc. They will jump in to push the creation into a version that you could have never imagined. 2) The editing process is much, much faster
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