unexplainable

The cure for over-summary, I think, is something akin to cultivation. States and maturity need good growing conditions and time. The wonder we should concern ourselves with: What else has been hidden by summary? What thoughts must we resist abridging? Those giant sequoias echo a reminder to ask ourselves, what are the unseen things today that could... See more

Articulating ideas as simply as possible is attractive, not least because getting people to agree with us is attractive. But we have a tendency to overrate ideas that can be shared easily, with the most apparent advantages. By constant simplifying, we may be lulled into abridging our own ideas a little too much, and sooner or later our audience—or ... See more

Very few people understand on any level why they’re able to do what they do. Why their relationship works. Why they’re good at their job. Why they’re happy. I remember Helena Fitzgerald writing that people make more art about sadness because it’s so much easier to analyze than happiness, and that continues to ring true to me. It’s really, really ha... See more

Many people who are talented in their various fields have access to insight they can’t share with others. They simply see something we can’t. They try to describe it—picture any Paris Review interview—and often hearing them talk about their process is interesting and informative. But they’re unable to describe the core thing—what gives them the sto... See more

New discoveries often have to be conceived initially as variations of existing things,

even by their discoverers

, because there isn't yet the conceptual vocabulary to express them.

becoming a [computing-internet-creative] [researcher-artist-technologist-???]

(clearly still searching for a term that feels right, or maybe I don’t need just one term and should embrace these multiplicities?)

Many concepts can be explained concisely, in simple language, and we should all strive for clarity. But the aphorism is a mistake, for a number of thoughts approximate the carpenter’s craft, and to meaningfully reveal them requires time and attention. Sometimes these cannot simply be told to another at all, they must be grown. For a topical example... See more

Since the beginning of time, the answer to “What do you do?” could be answered with one word.

Finance. Sales. Education.

But today, most jobs exist in liminal spaces:  Kind of like this but also not quite that.

It may have been fair to think that any explanation longer than a one-word, universally understood, job title was just an attempt to l

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I like thinking about what comes after all the thinking. When we’re done explaining, categorizing, and solving everything that’s explainable, categorizable, and solvable, what’s left? The best things? The most important ones? This reminds me of Nietzsche’s idea that capturing something in language is the end of our wonder, rather than the beginning... See more