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Henrik Karlsson
@phokarlsson
Anthropologist gone native on the internet. Thinking about how to scale agentic and flourishing cultures. Writes escapingflatland.substack.com
escapingflatland.substack.comJoined September 2011

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Here's something I like about Andrei Tarkovsky: when he meets the sound editor who will work on Solaris, Tarkovsky writes in his diary that the editor is "brilliant" and said "we should not use Bach because everyone is doing that now" and then Tarkovsky goes ahead and uses Bach.
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It is in the conflicts between bubbles that most problems occur--polarization etc. Isolated bubbles leads to a few cults, but not much harm overall. But I haven't seen a good analysis of this topic. What should I read? Preferably something that proves me wrong.
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I don't have a single essay that I'm excited about at the moment, the way I've felt about some of my best essays in the past. It feels more like I'm tunneling toward something, and it excites me in a new way.
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There's a part in Bob Dylan's memoars that I resonate with right now. Its in 1993. He feels like he's in a rut. But then he has a revelation - it is a bit unclear what it is - but he discovers a new way of singing, and knows that he must do thousands of concerts to figure it out.
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So I spend more time thinking about craft and register to have more degrees of freedom as I tunnel through my experience. I study others, I dissect sentence constructions, images, tones of voice. And then I might do a series of essays that explore in that direction.
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I guess I see essays as tunnels through my experience and my knowledge, and the limits in my register means certain directions are out of reach. When I get to those points, I have to turn the essay in another direction, and that becomes more obvious when I write more.
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To not repeat, I try to push into topics or registers that are new to me - and I fail. For example, I notice that I am unable to write about things that I'm angry about. I can't write that register in a way that I'm proud of - I can't do anger like Thomas Bernhard.
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When I write more pieces, I become more aware of the limitations in my craft, my register. I notice how I repeat myself. Another sloppy hopeful ending! And this pushes me to explore the edges of my craft.
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There is also the privilege I have that my essays have reach now, so I will get people emailing me book recommendations or telling me about experiences etc. I might write an essay just to set off that reaction, to see what comes out of that.
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Now, I'm having that sense over the arch of several pieces. I might have a feeling that if I lean into a certain topic or register for a month, that will start uncovering interesting new essays. I might write one or two and throw them away just to prepare ground for the third one
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When going into a piece, there is always this feeling that you are aiming for something - you never quite know what you will find at the end. Your thinking evolve, you discover holes, as you edit you notice interesting parallels etc etc
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I’m noticing a shift in how I experience writing as I’m producing more. I no longer think about the pieces separately but as part of this larger flow. It's a bit like how experienced chess players start thinking not about particular moves but larger patterns.
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Unless you know for certain that a certain outcome was the result of luck, err on the side of assuming it was not. It is a more effective way of navigating the terrain.
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The thing that has most surprised and delighted me, though, is all the people I have met. I've written in legacy media before and it is screaming into a void. But writing a blog is summoning a culture. And the culture that I found changed me.
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So I've changed my mind about that. Though, as you might notice from the tone, I'm still a bit defensive about it. It makes me uncomfortable. But my job is not to be comfortable! It is to do whatever I can to bring into the world what I am capable of bringing into the world.
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And not only is that necessary to do big work. I feel I have a moral responsibility to do it too. Because it will allow me to bring more beauty into the world. And we need more beauty. We need more people doing work at their highest level.
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The best art (or whatever you want to do) gets made by people who know what they stand for *but they are also very shrewd about reading the incentive landscape and the opportunities*. And whenever they find alignment with their goals, they exploit it.
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It is important to have a very clear understanding of your values. I prefer not to be able to heat my house than sell out my values. I've done that. But not compromising on your values is not the same thing as not paying attention to the market.
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Reading Tarkovsky's diaries and it fascinates me that he is focused on making more money - it is not something that bleeds through in his films. While working on Solaris: "Now I must earn as much as possible so that we can finish the house by the autumn."
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But one thing I've changed my mind about over these two years is: refusing to think about money is not morally superior. I used to be very much the hungry artist type. I wouldn't compromise. And I still won't compromise. But. How to explain it?
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I notice a certain resistance in me when I talk about "how to make things go viral", "ROI" etc. Because what I want to do is not that: I want to do great work, great essays. And I want to delight my friends.
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It would be great if more ppl focused on doing big valuable pieces. I think on average they will have a better ROI on their time doing that than 10 hot takes on the news. (Though ppl will be slightly less inclined to pay for big pieces compared to mass content.)
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Another thing I've come to believe is something like "the advice that you should be super prolific and quantity will lead to quality" is wrong. Or to be more precise: it is prbly good advice for someone who is new to writing, as a way to get unblocked and get reps. But.
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