So it’s way past my bedtime and I’ve been sitting on YouTube just clicking on the next video and the next video and the next one. And rather than doing what I really ought to do – what I’ve told myself to do 10 times now – I clicked on the next related video that looked interesting. It was a string quartet arrangement of one of Satie’s Gymnopedies. One that I’ve seen a bajillion times, admittedly. But why not watch it again, eh?
Eu Não Falo Português.
The Key to Creating
It’s only been 6 days, and I think I’ve cracked the code to Project Thinking Out Loud. I’ve discovered the key to creating – which I may or may not have ripped off of Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art. I read it a long time ago, so who knows. But even though I’m sure this idea isn’t original, I’ve finally realized how powerful and true it is.
Extreme Ideas Should Be Presented Extremely
I came out of the school system thinking that there are 4 ways to spread ideas: the expository essay, the persuasive essay, the analytical essay, and the argumentative essay. Or whatever. But it turns out (as with many things school taught me) that’s just not true.
I’ve discovered an interesting way to spread extreme ideas. That is, ideas that are unpalatable or uncommon. There are two things you have to do if you want to make people stop and think about these kinds of things:
- Get rid of the fluff. Get out of the middle of the road. Hop off the fence. And do so without shame or reservation.
- Don’t acknowledge all the counter-arguments against your statement, and don’t even acknowledge all of the points of a particular counter-argument. Extreme ideas should be presented extremely.
Inspired by my reading of Nietzsche and Hermann Hesse over the past few years. Listen to the full recording above to hear me put these “rules” into context with an example from my life.
Speak What You Think
About a week ago, this quote popped up on my Twitter feed. I absolutely fell in love with it.
“Let’s start with a test: Do you have any opinions that you would be reluctant to express in front of a group of your peers?” –Paul Graham
It’s a little bit embarrassing how excited I got. But the thing that I liked most about this quote was that it reminded me how important it is to form your own opinions and speak what you think – even if you feel like you have an unpopular or “the wrong” ideas and opinions.
Having unpopular opinions is relatively much safer today than it was one or two or three hundred years ago. A couple hundred years ago, if you said something bad about your king or the Church, you were imprisoned or exiled at best. Today in the US, it’s pretty safe to say that you won’t be assassinated like Cicero, or exiled like Jean-Jacques Rousseau, or even thrown in jail like Oscar Wilde or Bertrand Russell.
It’s not that things are perfect today. You might lose your job or be barred from certain professions for publicly holding certain beliefs (if you’re an avid creationist, most people won’t to hire you as a biology professor). Jail time is still a possibility (though usually only if you act unlawfully according to your beliefs). But I think I’d rather lose my job than face exile or an assassin in the night.