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vgr's profile
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
@vgr

Tweets

Venkatesh Rao

@vgr

Conversational account. For work follow @ribbonfarm, @breaking_smart, @artofgig. Tweets are 90% vacuous views, apathetically held. Mediocritopian. IKEA builder.

Los Angeles, CA
venkateshrao.com
Joined August 2007

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    1. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 20 Mar 2019
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      The second response is trickier. Of course not all of us are genius enough to grok and appreciate surprisal hidden in depths of the advanced math of quantum mechanics and stuff. But here's the thing: demystifying a subject to drain it of surprise is FAR easier than working in it

      1 reply 1 retweet 45 likes
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    2. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 20 Mar 2019
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      Good pop science/math that is decently challenging can demystify a subject for you without giving you the mastery. And a taste of mastery is enough to tell you that there isn't as much surprise there as you might think.

      2 replies 1 retweet 43 likes
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    3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 20 Mar 2019
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      The illusion of having "seen it all" is like the illusion of having found a "formula" for prime numbers that works up to some point. Of course the number of primes is infinite, but you can convince yourself you've seen them all if the next one is too far away for you to count to

      1 reply 2 retweets 38 likes
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    4. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 20 Mar 2019
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      Half of all meditation techniques are about regaining the easy-to-surprise beginner mind so ordinary magic of life can surprise in delight you again. The other half of meditation techniques are to console yourself because the first half doesn't work as well as advertised 😆

      5 replies 9 retweets 96 likes
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    5. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 20 Mar 2019
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      But "beginner mind" idea is right in essence. Except you have to generate the surprise within yourself. Thanks to our enormous capacities for denial etc. some of the deepest reserves for mystery and surprise are within you. You just have to be willing to look foolish to tap them

      3 replies 2 retweets 55 likes
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    6. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 20 Mar 2019
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      People dimly recognize this and try to pick up new skills and brave early-learning-curve awkwardness as a way to inject freshness into life again. That's not quite right. If you're an advanced pianist, fumbling at tennis won't really help rediscover the surprisability of age 9.

      2 replies 4 retweets 31 likes
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    7. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 20 Mar 2019
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      What WILL help is to blow up things where you think you already know it all and find ways to go all fumbling and awkward again. So our notional pianist has to find a way to be a fumbling beginner *at the piano* again.

      4 replies 3 retweets 56 likes
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    8. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 20 Mar 2019
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      Self-disruption basically. Trying to inject novelty into your life by learning unrelated new things is like trying to do 3 undergraduate degrees instead of 1 PhD. A series of degrees is a scripted series of self-disruptions. MS mind disrupts BS mind. PhD mind disrupts MS mind.

      1 reply 3 retweets 51 likes
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    9. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 20 Mar 2019
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      Doesn't work very well, but the more informal, less scripted version of developing a sense for when you've plateaued in some activity and blowing it up at the right time, to make it new again, but WITHOUT losing the experience earned... that's the real skill of surprise-seeking

      3 replies 1 retweet 37 likes
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    10. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 20 Mar 2019
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      Thank you for reading my long-winded justification for my writing mostly sucking this last year 😆

      4 replies 0 retweets 38 likes
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      Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 20 Mar 2019
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      Addendum: there is a big element of surrender in accessing surprisal latent in the universe, and it becomes harder to surrender with age because we become addicted to agency. Even when risks are low, we resist. Kids surprise more easily because they surrender more easily.

      9:49 PM - 20 Mar 2019
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      • Saurya / మొలోక్దాస S U P R E E T H Aaron Jacob Truth Empowers 👀 coolin Vidal Kenneth Haugland Rajeev Ramachandran Tracy Herz Drake E. (he/him)
      8 replies 2 retweets 56 likes
        1. New conversation
        2. visa is working on his ebook‏ @visakanv 20 Mar 2019
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          I suspect this thread is gonna get you some DMs offering you psychedelics

          1 reply 0 retweets 3 likes
        3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 20 Mar 2019
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          Replying to @visakanv

          Psychedelics don’t really address this problem. They just make you care about it less. My limited experience plus observation of those who do a lot more suggests that (as with meditation) the effects are mostly wishful thinking. Unpopular opinion. You can’t cheat this problem.

          2 replies 0 retweets 3 likes
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        2. Ari Nielsen‏ @anielsen108 20 Mar 2019
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          Replying to @vgr

          This thread c'est moi. This situation prompted me to start exploring Twitter in Fall 2017, followed by 18 months of getting in sync with modern times. The only place I have found significant traction is by converting my ordinary patterns of life into fun mastery challenges.

          1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
        3. Ari Nielsen‏ @anielsen108 20 Mar 2019
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          Replying to @anielsen108 @vgr

          Have always been a serious neophile. Participated in both SF alternative communities and high suburbanism for decades. Eventually, all approaches looked like escapes, either from simplicity, or into simplicity. These days, going for "ordinary life as performance art."

          0 replies 0 retweets 1 like
        4. End of conversation
        1. Mike Reisenauer‏ @mtreisenauer 21 Mar 2019
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          Replying to @vgr

          This whole thread is amazing

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
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        1. Brad Heitmann‏ @bradheitmann 21 Mar 2019
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          Replying to @vgr

          Does surprise arise as we discover the universe or as we discover ourselves through our interactions with it? Or does the lack of surprise later in life come from our assumption that we can and do know ourselves? Perhaps it’s about relentlessly unlocking new aspects of self.

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        1. interminable schizophony‏ @Gluefactoryltd 21 Mar 2019
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          🍄

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        1. New conversation
        2. Jorge David‏ @jorda0mega 21 Mar 2019
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          Replying to @vgr

          @readwiseio save

          1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        3. Readwise‏ @readwiseio 21 Mar 2019
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          Done! We've saved this tweet to your Readwise library so that you can revisit/remember it 🧠📚

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
        4. End of conversation
        1. Swamp Yankee‏ @ndwpdx 21 Mar 2019
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          You are turning into Alan Watts. "If you can let go and see that agency implies non-agency..." I earnestly approve.

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