Ask the Author: Justin Harnish
Answered Questions (4)
Justin Harnish
Writing, of course. There are so many things that can take you away from the act of writing and writing is such a solitary, mentally focused task that it can be difficult to really engage with it as much as possible, even in the most diligent of writers. But when it is flowing and you are getting out exactly the landscape of thought and language that you hoped to convey in your mind's-eye, there is little in the way of an examined life that compares.
Justin Harnish
By the numbers, I am just an ordinary, middle of the road man; but thanks to a lifestyle that prioritizes examined life living (i.e. meditation, reading, writing, deep thought) my experience is often ILLUMINATED. In my new book, Ordinary, Illuminated, I want to help others find and appreciate the illuminated nature of ordinary experience and our existence in the universe.
Justin Harnish
I know it sounds pat, but reading inspires me to write. There is something about that middle-conscious ground where words come to life in the mind that is still magical and mysterious and inspiring and makes me want to tap into it.
I've done work that has required almost no narrative voice and can answer definitively for me that work like that almost never engages the sense of flow that a blank "Byword" page engages for me. Writing practice, especially the essay length of a blog post or greater, creates a virtuous cycle where I can see myself improving, my ideas becoming clearer, and I even stumble on a fun turn of phrase or two, which engages a deeper, purpose-driven motivation. Practice makes purpose.
I've done work that has required almost no narrative voice and can answer definitively for me that work like that almost never engages the sense of flow that a blank "Byword" page engages for me. Writing practice, especially the essay length of a blog post or greater, creates a virtuous cycle where I can see myself improving, my ideas becoming clearer, and I even stumble on a fun turn of phrase or two, which engages a deeper, purpose-driven motivation. Practice makes purpose.
Justin Harnish
I initially wanted to write a business book about vision as the first part of a three-part series of vision, strategy, and tactics, but I found a more interesting (and not anywhere near sorted out) intersection between metaphysics and modern cosmology that made me dump the business book pretty quick.
I had always been a major fan of hard-core physics books but after reading "The Fabric of Reality" by David Deutsch, I saw how much more they could do to investigate physics, the science of the mind, and the nature of knowledge (in the case of "The Fabric of Reality") or all natural-meaning (in the case of "Meaning in the Multiverse").
I had always been a major fan of hard-core physics books but after reading "The Fabric of Reality" by David Deutsch, I saw how much more they could do to investigate physics, the science of the mind, and the nature of knowledge (in the case of "The Fabric of Reality") or all natural-meaning (in the case of "Meaning in the Multiverse").
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