we are shaped by our tools, systems, and environment
Fiction Lag (aka Experience-Taking)
When people are captivated by a work of fiction, they unconsciously adopt the traits of their favorite characters. We develop our identities by copying others, and perhaps one reason we enjoy fiction is that it gives us ideas on who to be.
When people are captivated by a work of fiction, they unconsciously adopt the traits of their favorite characters. We develop our identities by copying others, and perhaps one reason we enjoy fiction is that it gives us ideas on who to be.
Gurwinder • 30 Useful Concepts (Spring 2024)
Bloomberg has always been as much a social object as a data pipe. Those orange and black screens are a badge of belonging; the unique keyboard is a rite of passage.
In this context, POSH signals that the Bloomberg community isn’t just about trading credit default swaps, but also about trading Ferraris, Bordeaux, and Patek Philippes, currencies of... See more
In this context, POSH signals that the Bloomberg community isn’t just about trading credit default swaps, but also about trading Ferraris, Bordeaux, and Patek Philippes, currencies of... See more
"frictionless experiences with technology mean that we notice less about the tools we’re using and what it is they actually do. This, he thinks, promotes a kind of self-absorption. We don’t see ourselves as being in conversation with our tools or the physical world; instead, we see ourselves as masters of our environment, with the expectation that... See more
The Dark Side of Frictionless Technology
We use the computer to process words, but the ideas that animate those words originate somewhere else, away from the screen. The word processor has changed the way we write, but it hasn't yet changed the way we think.
New York Times • Tool for Thought
The way of the tourist is to consume; the way of the pilgrim is to be consumed. To the tourist the journey is a means. The pilgrim understands that it is both a means and an end in itself. The tourist and the pilgrim experience time differently. For the former, time is the foe that gives consumption its urgency. For the latter, time is a gift in... See more
The Tourist and the Pilgrim
“in this version though, a lot of your story is written by others. You write your autofiction about yourself and others write their fictions about you, often anonymously, on Substacks, subreddits, messageboards like Lolcow, on Twitter and Instagram and podcasts too, and this makes things different from what has come before. The lives of these
... See moreNot only do we tend to rewrite our memories according to the narratives we believe in at the moment, we are also easily influenced by word choices e.g. using the phrase ‘a car that zoomed past’ versus ‘a car that drove past’ can cause us to believe different things.
Memory is less so a recording or a catalogue, but more like vapour.
We must strategically protect and take aim with our attention, not just because it’s the lens through which we see, but because it’s the architecture of our reality.