David Pennington
@dtpennington
I write stuff. I’d like to write more stuff. Currently: reclaiming my brain.
David Pennington
dtpennington.com
This isn’t the same kind of attention we give to our Instagram and TikTok feeds. It is a ritualised form of intentional presence directed to a shared sense of meaning and history.
As a result, our digital commons has become commoditised and overrun by the cult of self. When we shout ‘listen!’ on social media, we are demanding that others ‘Listen to... See more
As a result, our digital commons has become commoditised and overrun by the cult of self. When we shout ‘listen!’ on social media, we are demanding that others ‘Listen to... See more
Alexander Beiner • Myth and Metrics: How Social Media Robs Us of Ritual, and How to Revive It
It is a mistake and a misreading of nature to think that you, a living creature, will be flourishing all the days of your life.
I’m not languishing, I’m dormant - Austin Kleon
Michael Goldhaber is the internet prophet you’ve never heard of. Here’s a short list of things he saw coming: the complete dominance of the internet, increased shamelessness in politics, terrorists co-opting social media, the rise of reality television, personal websites, oversharing, personal essay, fandoms and online influencer culture — along with the near destruction of our ability to focus.
Which brings us back to the question of traditionalism and dynamism, and their potential interaction: if you have had a cultural revolution that cleared too much ground, razed too many bastions and led to a kind of cultural debasement and forgetting, you probably need to go backward, or least turn that way for recollection, before you can hope to... See more
Ross Douthat • The fall of the intellectual
Alas, we’re too dumb for the big ideas. Pop psychology, it is! Pass me my copy of Atomic Habits.
So this is what’s happened to the world: optimization trumps human preference. The people who want to win the argument are effectively prepared to ignore human truths to preserve the integrity of the artificial model.
Adam Grant • Are We Too Impatient to Be Intelligent?
Rather than confronting the systems that create our problems, technosolutionists zoom in on a single friction point and deploy a product. To illustrate this, Sanchez-Gomez offers a great example: imagine a company developed a numbing ointment for the wounds of children working in factories rather than abolishing child labour. The ointment treats... See more
google.com • Inbox (6,480) - tyler.faught92@gmail.com - Gmail
This is what a frictionless world looks like. Everything accelerates, until you forget what it means to try.
kyla scanlon • The Most Valuable Commodity in the World Is Friction
- He would identify the topic he wanted to focus on for the next season of life. He would usually be weighing what he planned to do during this time, like teaching a seminar, writing articles, attending conferences, etc.
- He would then revisit key papers and ideas from that topic as a way of refreshing his mind.
- Then, he would begin in earnest. This