Colin Wright's Blog, page 19

Exposure

Every new experience we have is a camera with a light attached to it. That camera allows us to see a side of ourselves—an ultra-specific angle, a super-distinct composition—that we may never have seen before. That we may not have even suspected existed. The light on the camera can expose new folds in our skin, […]

Flexible Structures

This essay was originally published on my Patreon. I try not to get too caught up in ritual. I enjoy routine and predictability on a visceral level as much as anyone, and being able to plan around lazy mornings or afternoon workouts makes it simpler to distribute other tasks throughout my day. But I also […]

High-Temperature Searches

I came across an interesting concept that touches on both neuroscience and artificial intelligence, recently. My first contact with this concept was in a book about psychoactive substances, but the notion branches out to encompass a wide-variety of fields, depending on how you think about it. The idea is that some thinking requires more brain […]

Success

Most of us possess a broad, subconsciously felt definition of success. This definition is compiled over the course of our lives, and iterated and updated as we learn more about the world, as we learn and work, as we receive advice and acquire accolades. It also evolves as we achieve flavors of success along the […]

Consumption

Buying things, owning things, consuming things isn’t wrong or bad or unhealthy. Our tendency to rely on consumption for balance, for nourishment, for happiness, however, can be. Or at the very least, it can be antagonistic to our personal goals and ambitions. We exist within an economic structure that determines how we exchange value, often […]

Thoughtful Pause

After learning anything, being exposed to new information, encountering art or any other type of cultural artifact, take a moment to yourself and quietly process what you’ve just intellectually imbibed. This heuristic—to pause and think after taking something in—serves multiple purposes. Doing so allows us to slam that new information up against things we already […]

Training

The saying “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life” has been (incorrectly) attributed to a variety of people over the years. But regardless of who originally coined the phrase, it has become something of a North Star for folks looking to build a better, more […]

Epistemic Humility

The word “epistemic” means, essentially, anything dealing with knowledge. Epistemic humility, then, is being humble with your assumptions about understanding. It’s recognizing that you may not know something—may not know a great many things—and that this is natural and okay. This doesn’t mean deciding that you’re ignorant and therefore know nothing about anything. And it […]

Where You’ll Be

Our present perspective is limiting. It can also be deceptively harmful, at times. Yes, we’re using the best information currently available, operating under assumptions derived from the most up-to-date sensory input and internal processing. But that may mean nothing a year from now. It may mean nothing tomorrow. A few minutes from now, something dramatic […]

Press-Worthy

To gain press for something that you’re doing, to increase attention and have newspapers and blogs writing stories about it, that thing, that effort of yours, needs to be framed in a press-worthy way. What this typically means is demonstrating why it’s worth paying attention to compared to all other possible things that could be […]