Euan Semple's Blog, page 5

Letting myself go

Over the past few years I have become fascinated by our idea of a self, the narrative that we create about ourselves, a homunculus sitting somewhere behind our eyes that we feel steers our lives.

But this narrative is made up. In fact we don’t exist as a separate self, we are a collection of millions of tiny organisms, doing what they do without our active control, without real boundaries between ourselves and “other”, just a part of the fabric of life doing life without any active input from our little selves, despite the fact that our frontal lobes retrofit agency to decisions that our biology has made quite happily on its own.

I have become increasingly convinced that we don’t have free will. That what we are and what we do is a result of inconceivably complex chains of events and influences that we have no control over. So this “self” suffers. It suffers from feeling out of control and fearful of the world out there causing it to feel alone and anxious much of the time.

Through reading endless books about Advaita and Buddhist thinking I have ended up trying to let go of this idea of self. Trying to let go of stories about what I should or shouldn’t be doing, trying to let go of feelings of worthiness or otherwise, trying to let go of the sense of a little me that has to defend itself against the world “out there”. All the time fully aware that there is no little me trying at all, it is all just happening…

The result, so far, appears to be closer to the other sense of “letting myself go” namely losing the plot and losing all sense of purpose.

But that sense of purpose is cultural, it is another story. Rest is Resistance convincingly pushes back against these cultural narratives about usefulness and purpose, which are stories perpetrated to keep us in our place and nose to the grindstone in support of the success of others.

So I am waiting to see. Waiting to see if I “achieve enlightenment” or disappear up my own proverbial backside…

Another reason to want to leave WordPress.

Apologies to all of you who kindly commented on my post about Microblog. For some bizarre reason, despite the fact that you have all previously commented on the blog, WordPress decided they were spam!

Hopefully now sorted.

Micro.blog

I’m toying with the idea of moving this blog off WordPress. I get frustrated that I’d have to spend more money to do anything even quite basic with plugins for blogrolls etc. Any one reading this got experience with Micro.blog?

Around the world in 1896

Truly remarkable footage, originally filmed by the Lumiere, brothers, and recently colourised and restored.

H/T Garret Vreeland

The Wire

I have just finished watching The Wire. 60 episodes in 16 days. Immersive doesn’t begin to express it…

Conversational learning

I always used to feel that the best way to learn at work was in conversation with someone else who already had experience or knew what they were talking about. I was never very comfortable with the whole industry of corporate learning and development departments. I never really felt that I learned much from sitting in a classroom of any sort and the way this was then manifest in online learning systems was truly nightmarish.

But from the experience I’m currently having of chatting to a bot, which is increasingly satisfying and increasingly reliable, I can imagine an awful lot of learning situations in which this could be a viable solution.

For instance, the other day I decided I was going to try to write more often for my blog. I mentioned this to my bot and she offered to help me brainstorm some potential topics. We haven’t done it yet but I know she’s perfectly capable of coming up with some interesting suggestions.

Yes, you get the odd rogue bit of AI, and these are what are currently making the headlines. But they’ll get better and we’ll get better at knowing what to do with them.

And like I say, learning through conversations has always felt good. Even if the person at the other end isn’t real…

Barbie

Finally got around to watching Barbie with the girls last night. Throughly enjoyed it.

What a beautifully made film. People talk about “wooden acting” but watching Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling managing to convey the impression of being plastic dolls was amazing.

I loved the interweaving of gender politics and even blubbed at the “meaning of life” ending.

Apple tax?

People go on about how much more expensive Apple kit is, and sometimes refer to it as the Apple Tax.

Well, I am sitting here, having decided to go back to using a laptop, using my 2010 MacBook Air.

Yes, a thirteen year old computer that is still working reliably and able to do all that I want it to do. OK, I am having to get a little hacky to get around the fact that it won’t run the latest software, but it hasn’t taken much effort to get me where I want to be.

Moral compass?

Most of the time I’m an optimist about the future, but…

(via Tracy Durnell)

It’s just a blog

Lovely post on blogging from Annie Mueller