michael_nielsen

I've started to reply to this several times It's difficult to reply to Many people have played this role in my life. Some more than others, naturally. It's v personal, though, & those relationships matter a lot to me. That makes talking about them publicly s'thing done w care.

I will say this: if you observe people closely enough, there are magicians everywhere. The answer to the question: "Would I have done that?" is so often "No, it would never have occurred to me." And, very often, that means there is something to be learned.

If the person is good at what they do, then just noticing those moments is enormously powerful. I suspect we develop very good filters for screening them out in part _because_ there are so many all around us; it can be overwhelming.

For a shared example, Amit: almost everyone at the first workshop we went to together was a magician, in some way. Several of those people have since become friends and... wow.

It's actually become a good use of Anki for me. If I do something creative with such a person, afterward I start to think through what we did. Everything from basic mechanics to the gestalt.

It's surprising how often this can be almost overwhelming: I may learn dozens or even hundreds of things from pretty brief interactions. As I say, everything from basic mechanics through to overall gestalt. So many "why did they do that?" mysteries.

I realize I haven't really answered your question! I think I'd want to do that after some reflection, or in person. But hope that was helpful.

It was, thank you! I’m now thinking of magicians and also that magician’s convention where we met. I’m also reminded that Thoth is my patron god — writing, magic, and science.