culture

mostly of the internet kind

Philosophy is bad because you think thoughts that you think are your own thoughts, and you think you’re in charge of those thoughts, and you’re figuring things out.

But the reality is, our thoughts are almost entirely drawn from the soup in our culture of thoughts that people have had before. And all we’re doing is repeating them. We think we’re thi... See more

David Chapman • Myth, adult developmental stages, and entrepreneurship

I’ve said this many times before. Most people don’t actually know what thinking is. Instead they have thoughts. Thoughts occur to them. What David adds here is the perspective of where thoughts come from, which is basically our environment, our culture, all of our conditioning. Everything is a remix, as Visa likes to say. What does recognizing this do for us?

The meaning of OXI we should fight for is the belief in politics itself. OXI is the belief that we can throw off the demands of a supposedly ‘impartial’ economy that serves only the few, that we can reject the fallacy that ‘economic necessity’ demands something we consider socially unacceptable, and instead begin to make decisions about our own col... See more

k-punk • Democracy is Joy

As a musician, listening to a song can teach you a lot, but it’s not the path to rigorous learning. Mastery comes through practice, discipline, and the often uninspiring grind of didactic instruction.

The same principle applies to gaining wisdom. Art and literature are secondary sources to wisdom, philosophy is the primary source.

Omar F. Najjarine • Why modern life feels meaningless

This is where I disagree. At least on the surface. If the implication is that you go and read the primary texts themselves, of philosophy, which is often considered “Great” philosophy, then you will be doomed. Great philosophy is not always good, helpful, useful. It is great as a result of stirring attention, thought, etc. I think most people do fine without studying philosophy itself. I do think, though, we need to think more, rather than prescribe philosophy as the sole source of wisdom. Wisdom is something learned and gained in action and reflection. Philosophy (as a field) can inspire that, but I do not think it is the only way.

Romance is dead. You can’t wonder what your crush is up to you anymore because you can just watch their Instagram Story. You can’t wonder where they have been, what music they listen to, what their life is like; it’s all there, listed on their Facebook profile like a product description, their personality packaged into their Instagram grid. And now... See more

Freya India • Rejecting The Machine

And if people aren’t posting, people don’t bother to ask, because it doesn’t cross our mind to. What is real is what is posted, and this is what we think about. Anything outside of this awareness of what we construe as reality is left to the wayside, maybe for the worse. In this case, definitely.

The internet-ification of our lives is not a response to the hostility of the built environment to communal life but a continuation and intensification of that hostility.

Celine Nguyen • In Defense of San Francisco

The San Francisco Bay Area has a long history as the playground of consciousness. For decades, many of its resident technologists have been both habitually curious about — and determined to master — the inside of their brains. This sort of cerebral hedonism is hardly visible to outsiders, in the way that visitors to Miami might be dazzled by the sp... See more

Manufacturing Bliss

“Cerebral hedonism”

How many of us actually identify the public good with our own good? For most of us, the outside world exists for our income and our enjoyment. We have a using-based relationship with the world, not a caring one. Again, this is not entirely our fault.

Omar F. Najjarine • Why modern life feels meaningless

I ultimately think that the people who are histrionic about safety in San Francisco—they just hate cities! They hate the fact that they have to interact with other people, people who are visibly poorer than them and different from them, when they go out into the world. They hate the fact that homeless people exist and that they have to see them, in... See more

Celine Nguyen • In Defense of San Francisco

I think the best default answer to leftist ideology is to point out the arbitrary, sweeping assertions using proprietary abstractions, without evidence, and say "Let us know when you have something." As in, something we can even work with or evaluate, because this is just arbitrary junk.

Michael Huemer • Who Cares About Diversity?

Historically, work looked very different. In the 1700s, approximately 90% of Americans were self-employed or engaged in family-owned trades or agriculture. Even by the early to mid-1800s, around 80-85% were independent artisans or farmers, continuing the tradition of self-employment. This dynamic began to shift dramatically with industrialization, ... See more