Can you imagine a civilization that knows how to build rockets and spacecraft and has mastered orbital mechanics, but holds a consensus belief in astrological interpretations of the universe? Ie they can get to Mars, but their reason to go there is to meet the god of war?
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We approach the potential of the internet like a spacefaring culture of literalist astrologers. Where space missions are planned seriously at the level of “Crewed Dragon mission launched by a Falcon Heavy with 5 mission specialists and one cult-of-Mars priest”
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Eg. What should you do: “follow your passion!” How should you do it: “Learn how to build websites, run Kickstarter campaigns, fine-tune conversion funnels, and use agile methods to iterate quickly, testing rigorously along the way” See an impedance mismatch there?
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Much of internet tech is a means to access inner space. You can become more kinds of very different person. If your life were a space mission, with different destinations being different possible versions of future you, you should probably construct better maps of becoming.
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Currently possibility space for future you are described by the following “planets”, each with a better-than random playbook for heading there, but Mercury: god of follow-your-passion Venus: god of fuck-you-money Mars: god of Medium-post spiritual journeys
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Asteroid belt: god of Waldenponding Jupiter: god of gig-economy Saturn: god of reach and freeze peach Uranus: god of awokening Neptune: god of gonzo shitposting Pluto: god of nerddom and nerdsniping Kuiper belt: chadvirginstacy
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These goal-gods who induce ends to match overpowered means are kinda silly but they are better than nothing if they get you moving. Superstition is a symptom of grasp exceeding reach (cf “A man’s reach should exceed his grasp, else what’s a heaven for” which is backwards)
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Having any reason to go to Neptune is better than no reason, but a good reason is better than a nonsensical one, and more likely to catalyze success by a meaningful means-ends chicken egg virtuous feedback. Having an accurate sense of ends helps refine the means and vice versa
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End of conversation
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decline in ends-thinking seems to have really accelerated after ww2, and then again in last 15 years. correlated with technique fetish, which is easier to comprehend and to have intersubjectivity about. certainly true in the social sciences.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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