sari
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"How to clarify a concept you can't articulate:
1. Change mediums. Draw it. Photograph it. Sing it.
2. Change levels. Explain what is one level up (bigger picture) or one level down (finer details).
3. Change fields. What would this concept look like in different fields?"(James Clear newsletter)
what ideas are we missing out on when we can inly tolerate those that can be compressed into bite-sized tweets and TikTok videos.
source: long distance thinking, Simon Sarris
any classification seems to understate what it is
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“It is ironic that I was never categorizable and now I’m a category.”
Jimmy Buffett
- 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
from Long Distance Thinking by Simon Sarris
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Many things in the world have not been named; and many things, even if they have been named, have never been described.
Notes on Camp, Susan Sontag.
“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.”
-Jack Kerouac
- Why are we drawn to cheap, re-usable, and safe language? The pressure to use modular Swedish furniture is similar to the pressure online writers face. We want quick results, we cushion our words, and we crave to be accepted.
from IKEA Words: How Not to Furnish Your Digital Home
“The next _____” “[existing thing] (eg Uber) for x” Almost always wrong and uninteresting Build something that can’t be easily analogized
build something you can't easily put into words
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David Lynch on the limitations of language: “Cinema is a language. It can say things—big, abstract things. And I love that about it. I’m not always good with words. Some people are poets and have a beautiful way of saying things with words. But cinema is its own language. And with it you can say so many things, because you’ve got time and sequen... See more