Escaping Flatland

Agentic fragments

This capacity to see through objects and notice how they can be reconfigured is closely related to agency. Having learned how to pick things apart and…

Oct 8 • 

Henrik Karlsson

123

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How I read

Reading well is an endurance sport. I sometimes talk to people who want to become serious readers and so pick up Kafka’s The Trial or something like…

Oct 1 • 

Henrik Karlsson

751

31

September 2025

The moments

Life is not a story that builds to a climax. It is a story that meanders. In the first half, we accumulate resources—skills, friends, status—and, in the…

Sep 18 • 

Henrik Karlsson

91

8

Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself and bloom

When people talk about the value of paying attention and slowing down, they often make it sound prudish and monk-like. But we shouldn’t forget how…

Sep 4 • 

Henrik Karlsson

1,359

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August 2025

When facing a complicated problem, don't try to solve it, try to understand it

On problem solving and form-context-fit

Aug 18 • 

Johanna Karlsson

 and 

Henrik Karlsson

804

31

July 2025

A constellation of lookers

Fragments, vol. 5

Jul 31 • 

Henrik Karlsson

94

5

I went looking for friends, see what I found

Of all the ways this blog have changed my life, the most exciting was in December 2021 when I wrote a post about Ivan Illich that ended up, to my utter…

Jul 16 • 

Henrik Karlsson

81

32

On agency

Or, how to handle being sentenced to freedom, and handle it effectively, and authentically, and responsibly

Jul 7 • 

Henrik Karlsson

 and 

Johanna Karlsson

1,522

77

June 2025

On the pleasure of reading private notebooks

One reason I like this genre is that people censor themselves less when they are writing in private.

Jun 15 • 

Henrik Karlsson

327

16

Caring for others

At Kastrup Airport in Copenhagen, I see a passport fall out of the back pocket of a man and immediately (at least) three strangers call out.

Jun 9 • 

Henrik Karlsson

94

13

May 2025

When writing, look at what you are trying to describe more than at your words

9 reflections

May 22 • 

Henrik Karlsson

156

4

What problem should you be working on now?

How to filter problems worth solving from problems worth quitting?

May 12 • 

Henrik Karlsson

350

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