Breaking Through Constraints (SSIR)
An Essay in Which My Friend Feels Stuck and I Suggest Relaxing Some Constraints
Henrik Karlssonhenrikkarlsson.xyzThis makes me realize that what I said earlier in this essay is not enough. You can’t simply list what you want to do and figure out how to do more of that. You also need to surface the unarticulated constraints that you have floating around, and that are making what you were born to do needlessly hard or impossible. You must bring into light the... See more
Henrik Karlsson • An Essay in Which My Friend Feels Stuck and I Suggest Relaxing Some Constraints

This makes me realize that what I said earlier in this essay is not enough. You can’t simply list what you want to do and figure out how to do more of that. You also need to surface the unarticulated constraints that you have floating around, and that are making what you were born to do needlessly hard or impossible. You must bring into light the... See more
Henrik Karlsson • An Essay in Which My Friend Feels Stuck and I Suggest Relaxing Some Constraints
Some examples of constraints I had to unlearn to make my life tractable: I used to think my day job needed to feel meaningful, rather than act as a funding scheme for my projects; I used to think that I had to write in Swedish, that I needed to have a publisher, and that I couldn’t write essays because no one reads essays in Sweden. All of this... See more