David Pennington
@dtpennington
I write stuff. I’d like to write more stuff. Currently: reclaiming my brain.
David Pennington
dtpennington.com
The decline of polymathy... is a crisis of too much information.
Erik Hoel • Polymaths are back from the dead
The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible.
The role of the artist
“I felt like I was just a flightless bird that could only grip the railing and gaze into the distance,” he said.
Yan Zhuang • Want a Break From Being Human? Flap Your Wings and Squawk.
I’d be even more aware from now on! I’d remember that machine learning has been defined by the people who want me to believe it works the way they say it does. But an algorithm can’t really observe anything. So it can’t really measure my behavior, and so it can’t really discover anything for me, or about me!
Are overnight oats ads proof that Instagram is changing reality?
only when we have shifted into the rest-and-digest response of the nervous system will our brains allow us to reclaim our attention, access the power of our imagination, and unlock our subconscious.
James Doty • Mind Magic
- 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
Jared Henderson • Intellectual Projects
Content served by algorithms is effective in part because it’s disorienting, which helps to short-circuit the defenses against impulse—discernment, self-restraint, patience—that are the hallmarks of emotional maturity, rendering most of us a little bit more childish.
archive.ph
The Cult of Done Manifesto
- There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
- Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
- There is no editing stage.
- Pretending you know what you’re doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you’re doing even if you don’t and do it.
- Banish