While reading this enjoyable essay, I couldn't quite get stultia out of my head, as it sounded strange. So I went and read the Foucault essay you linked, and learned that it was the more familiar stultitia that was the form, and that a -ti- had fallen out. So I got to read two interestings essays instead of just one.
Incidentally, repetitions are also what is most easily omitted by scribes, much to the chagrin of the modern editor.
Yes. A lot of the spiritual excercises used by Christians were borrowed from various philosophical sects in the Roman empire, such as Stoics. This is especially clear if you look at the early monks in the desert, etc
I really liked your honest reflection on essay writing. As someone who has been trying to write more to refine my thinking, I too have felt the gulf between the written word and my own actions.
You may like to check out the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, if you haven't already. I am sure you will like it. He used to practice rewriting passages from books that he had read, and compare his articulation to that of the og authors. Also, he had designed an excellent scheduler for practicing virtues. I have written a bit about him here on my substack, you can check it out or read his biography in full (highly recommended).
This is exactly the problem that I have thought about for a couple weeks. I also noticed that the info-sphere around me (especially x.com) has a lot of references to it. Very curious if this is a kind of confirmation bias - as we're conscious about it we see it more - or that it's because of the proliferation of great content everywhere that we're starting to see 'great ideas' aren't that great.
Adjacent to this is the idea Why books donʼt work (https://andymatuschak.org/books/) - which suggests our brains need some form of repetition/active mental activity to translate an external idea into a pattern in our brain.
P/S: speaking of Nabeel's Principles, the 53th one has a beautiful analogy to this: "The difference between a Turing machine and a finite state machine is the tape."
I do exactly this (tracking my core ‘principles’ (in Notion btw) and reviewing them) and have done for years. Loved reading this article. Interestingly I have found that having kids has helped me to embed them more than anything, because it has subconsciously become a self-fulfilling prophecy that as I have had a desire to remember these things they have emerged as a form of mentorship to my kids. This has not only hopefully started to instill in my kids the type of character I hope they can have, but it has helped me to become more of who I want to be too.
Apologies for scribbled comment but thanks for the article!
i practice many of the things you’ve written about. i just had no name for them nor any idea their was/is a powerful purpose to the practices. this essay has been so engaging and helpful. deepening,actually.
I have a black book where ive written by hand. Its full. Mostly stuff from spiritual teachers that felt insightful and what helped me to structure the mess that is life. I rarely read it but its there when the moment comes. Now ive started to write down more concise thoughts i myself come up with onto my ecoprints.. in the spirit of after years and years of reading others ive started to have my own true feeling ideas whats it about. I wasnt planning on writing on ecoprints but started by chance and found out somehow theyre perfect for it since my thoughts mostly circle around natural life.
Thanks for this. Footnote no. 3 (on collaboration) is a familiar predicament, made worse for me by caffeine, which paints everything as possible and awesome.
I never set out to capture a list of memorable snippets, but at some point, the wise people around me were saying enough memorable stuff that I started entering the quotes into my Google calendar. I now set a recurrence rate for each quote-event (monthly, quarterly, annually depending on how often I want to return to the idea). I include the idea, who said it, and when. It's gathered steam for me in a wonderful way. The calendar is called "Thoughts", and it's mostly wisdom from one of my brothers.
The brother wisdom is typically understood right away. However, I have one friend who tends to say things that almost make sense to me in the moment, but don't. Things like "Only solve problems." When I get the Spidey sense that I'll want to remember one of those ideas, I stick it on the calendar. A few years later, when life or career has shifted, the ideas suddenly take on meaning.
As months go by, all of these ideas bubble up at a regular cadence so that they become thought habits. Sometimes, I see a Thoughts reminder in my inbox and barely pause before archiving the email. Other times, I take time to reflect on the idea in its current context, so it doesn't drift past in a closed loop of familiarity.
Occasionally, years on, I'll send a thought back to its author as a reminder of their past wisdom :)
And also occasionally, a friend will ask to subscribe to the calendar. That one makes me happy.
On the topic of hypomnēmata, I have been using Anki (flashcard program) for something like this. I already use it for language study on the train in the morning, so I added a deck for bits of writing and ideas/questions I want to come back to, and pick easy/medium/hard/again based on how soon I think I want to come back to that thought again. It's not quite the same thing because you don't have fine control over what cards will appear today, but it is low maintenance and portable, and the randomness isn't necessarily a bad thing...
It varies depending on the thing. Sometimes I'm trying to change how I act in certain situations, so the "front" of the flash card is a description of the situation, and the "back" is what I actually want to think or do when that happens. Some cards are questions I try to answer like "What's the easiest thing you could do to improve your life right now, and why aren't you doing that?" (I may or may not have a current answer to them, and just skip if it doesn't feel relevant.)
A chunk of them are conversation prompts that I'm hoping to remember when socializing with people, I just re-read them. Some of them are just interesting sections of blogs I found insightful, which I also just re-read. There's a few that are describing relaxation techniques, or identifying and processing feelings techniques, I try to glance at them and then close my eyes and see if I recall all the steps, maybe quietly run through them (as much as I can while on the train).
On the point of articulating beforehand, I've noticed the same principle apply to reoccurring patterns like procrastination
The articulation here is of *action*, where if I notice I'm procrastinating, what's the list of pre-considered actions (e.g go on a walk, call a friend, put on a pomodoro) I can physically look at / bring to mind and then take to move me out of it, vs relying on an emotionally compromised self to do so, where that friction of coming up with something, even simple, might be great enough that it leads to an experience I've had multiple times of scrolling on social media, having the thought "Hm. I don't actually want to be doing this, how do I do something else", blink, and then realize that another 20 minutes has passed
Great newsletter. You are speaking about the mental model side of change. You explain really well that we have to keep it present and fresh in our working memory. What our brains can conceptualize, allows us to actually take the steps to realize it.
Another difficult part is the consistent, repitive action that winds those things into the deeper, habitual parts of our brains. It would be great if you wrote a newsletter that spoke more to that piece. What elements actually keep people consistently taking actions towards the things they want to change? Reminders and reflections are an important part of that, but not the whole puzzle.
While reading this enjoyable essay, I couldn't quite get stultia out of my head, as it sounded strange. So I went and read the Foucault essay you linked, and learned that it was the more familiar stultitia that was the form, and that a -ti- had fallen out. So I got to read two interestings essays instead of just one.
Incidentally, repetitions are also what is most easily omitted by scribes, much to the chagrin of the modern editor.
Thank you for catching that :)
repeat old incantations of humanity fables and legends
because this is how you will attain the good you will not attain
repeat great words repeat them stubbornly
like those crossing the desert who perished in the sand
and they will reward you with what they have at hand
with the whip of laughter with murder on a garbage heap
go because only in this way will you be admitted to the company of cold skulls
to the company of your ancestors: Gilgamesh Hector Roland
the defenders of the kingdom without limit and the city of ashes
Be faithful Go
- Zbigniew Herbert
I started to make notes on this essay
And eventually just started to copy and paste whole paragraphs and parts
I think it would be easier to copy and paste all of that. It is a good read and I love it.
Wondering if this is the same philosophy behind why evangelical culture often holds members accountable to perform daily prayer and Bible reading
Yes. A lot of the spiritual excercises used by Christians were borrowed from various philosophical sects in the Roman empire, such as Stoics. This is especially clear if you look at the early monks in the desert, etc
Groups of people need something that binds each constituent to one another. Shared rituals and texts serve as these unifying substrates.
I really liked your honest reflection on essay writing. As someone who has been trying to write more to refine my thinking, I too have felt the gulf between the written word and my own actions.
You may like to check out the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, if you haven't already. I am sure you will like it. He used to practice rewriting passages from books that he had read, and compare his articulation to that of the og authors. Also, he had designed an excellent scheduler for practicing virtues. I have written a bit about him here on my substack, you can check it out or read his biography in full (highly recommended).
I’m just going to say that my hodgepodge of quotes I like and love in my disorganized notes app is an aspirational hypomnēmata…
This is exactly the problem that I have thought about for a couple weeks. I also noticed that the info-sphere around me (especially x.com) has a lot of references to it. Very curious if this is a kind of confirmation bias - as we're conscious about it we see it more - or that it's because of the proliferation of great content everywhere that we're starting to see 'great ideas' aren't that great.
Adjacent to this is the idea Why books donʼt work (https://andymatuschak.org/books/) - which suggests our brains need some form of repetition/active mental activity to translate an external idea into a pattern in our brain.
P/S: speaking of Nabeel's Principles, the 53th one has a beautiful analogy to this: "The difference between a Turing machine and a finite state machine is the tape."
I do exactly this (tracking my core ‘principles’ (in Notion btw) and reviewing them) and have done for years. Loved reading this article. Interestingly I have found that having kids has helped me to embed them more than anything, because it has subconsciously become a self-fulfilling prophecy that as I have had a desire to remember these things they have emerged as a form of mentorship to my kids. This has not only hopefully started to instill in my kids the type of character I hope they can have, but it has helped me to become more of who I want to be too.
Apologies for scribbled comment but thanks for the article!
As a response to #2, you can try using Readwise.
i practice many of the things you’ve written about. i just had no name for them nor any idea their was/is a powerful purpose to the practices. this essay has been so engaging and helpful. deepening,actually.
I have a black book where ive written by hand. Its full. Mostly stuff from spiritual teachers that felt insightful and what helped me to structure the mess that is life. I rarely read it but its there when the moment comes. Now ive started to write down more concise thoughts i myself come up with onto my ecoprints.. in the spirit of after years and years of reading others ive started to have my own true feeling ideas whats it about. I wasnt planning on writing on ecoprints but started by chance and found out somehow theyre perfect for it since my thoughts mostly circle around natural life.
And i did first try to read them, the ecoprint-scripts that is, every morning but needless to say its usually now once a week maybe.
I like the reflection on the role of your writing, it seems like a close partner can also naturally remind you to live in virtue
Hi Henrik,
Thanks for this. Footnote no. 3 (on collaboration) is a familiar predicament, made worse for me by caffeine, which paints everything as possible and awesome.
I never set out to capture a list of memorable snippets, but at some point, the wise people around me were saying enough memorable stuff that I started entering the quotes into my Google calendar. I now set a recurrence rate for each quote-event (monthly, quarterly, annually depending on how often I want to return to the idea). I include the idea, who said it, and when. It's gathered steam for me in a wonderful way. The calendar is called "Thoughts", and it's mostly wisdom from one of my brothers.
The brother wisdom is typically understood right away. However, I have one friend who tends to say things that almost make sense to me in the moment, but don't. Things like "Only solve problems." When I get the Spidey sense that I'll want to remember one of those ideas, I stick it on the calendar. A few years later, when life or career has shifted, the ideas suddenly take on meaning.
As months go by, all of these ideas bubble up at a regular cadence so that they become thought habits. Sometimes, I see a Thoughts reminder in my inbox and barely pause before archiving the email. Other times, I take time to reflect on the idea in its current context, so it doesn't drift past in a closed loop of familiarity.
Occasionally, years on, I'll send a thought back to its author as a reminder of their past wisdom :)
And also occasionally, a friend will ask to subscribe to the calendar. That one makes me happy.
Cheers from Brooklyn.
On the topic of hypomnēmata, I have been using Anki (flashcard program) for something like this. I already use it for language study on the train in the morning, so I added a deck for bits of writing and ideas/questions I want to come back to, and pick easy/medium/hard/again based on how soon I think I want to come back to that thought again. It's not quite the same thing because you don't have fine control over what cards will appear today, but it is low maintenance and portable, and the randomness isn't necessarily a bad thing...
What does "coming back" to a thought entail? Do you write? If the thought is a question, do you answer it?
It varies depending on the thing. Sometimes I'm trying to change how I act in certain situations, so the "front" of the flash card is a description of the situation, and the "back" is what I actually want to think or do when that happens. Some cards are questions I try to answer like "What's the easiest thing you could do to improve your life right now, and why aren't you doing that?" (I may or may not have a current answer to them, and just skip if it doesn't feel relevant.)
A chunk of them are conversation prompts that I'm hoping to remember when socializing with people, I just re-read them. Some of them are just interesting sections of blogs I found insightful, which I also just re-read. There's a few that are describing relaxation techniques, or identifying and processing feelings techniques, I try to glance at them and then close my eyes and see if I recall all the steps, maybe quietly run through them (as much as I can while on the train).
On the point of articulating beforehand, I've noticed the same principle apply to reoccurring patterns like procrastination
The articulation here is of *action*, where if I notice I'm procrastinating, what's the list of pre-considered actions (e.g go on a walk, call a friend, put on a pomodoro) I can physically look at / bring to mind and then take to move me out of it, vs relying on an emotionally compromised self to do so, where that friction of coming up with something, even simple, might be great enough that it leads to an experience I've had multiple times of scrolling on social media, having the thought "Hm. I don't actually want to be doing this, how do I do something else", blink, and then realize that another 20 minutes has passed
Great newsletter. You are speaking about the mental model side of change. You explain really well that we have to keep it present and fresh in our working memory. What our brains can conceptualize, allows us to actually take the steps to realize it.
Another difficult part is the consistent, repitive action that winds those things into the deeper, habitual parts of our brains. It would be great if you wrote a newsletter that spoke more to that piece. What elements actually keep people consistently taking actions towards the things they want to change? Reminders and reflections are an important part of that, but not the whole puzzle.