Rachel Campbell

A thinking mind is not swallowed up by what it comes to know. It reaches out to grasp something related to itself and to its present knowledge (and so knowable in some degree) but also separate from itself and from its present knowledge (not identical with these). In any act of thinking, the mind must reach across this space between known and unkno... See more

"I began to notice this animal dimension in my own speaking—conscious now not only of the denotative meaning of my terms, but also of the gruff or giddy melody that steadily sounds through my phrases, and the dance enacted by my body as I speak—the open astonishment or the slumped surrender, the wary stealth or the lanky ease. Trying to articulate ... See more

I met some of my heroes and some of them sucked; I attended events that were hollow and demented but looked fun online; I eventually realized the best parts of my life weren’t exclusive whatsoever but run-of-the-mill: a result not of being elevated above my peers (on a stage, say) but thrust among them (in the crowd). In time I came to see these po... See more

I’m less interested in building things that resolve emotion, and more interested in what we could build to hold it.

Everything works. Nothing lands.

As kids, we pressed against things to understand them. Clay. Walls. Rules. We learned form through pressure. Touch made things real.

When nothing hurts, there’s nothing to push against. And without pushback, we can’t locate ourselves. We’re just floating - stimulated, maybe. But untethered.

But pain and pleasure aren’t reactions to the system - they are the system. Without resistance, reward goes flat. Without contrast, pleasure becomes ambient. The result isn’t meaning - it’s dopamine. And dopamine, divorced from depth, doesn’t satisfy. It loops.

When you're young, pain and pleasure aren't theoretical . They're directional .

They’re your first tools. The original interface.