Conversation

Have been reluctant to make any big, bold, costly-to-reverse moves this year. I think this is the essence of goblin mode for me. Anyone else in this state? 2 years of basically no tough decisions have atrophied the decision muscles.
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It was like the clock was stopped and I was only making fun decisions on a branch. Now the clock has restarted and it’s time to merge the branch back and restart the main flow. And it’s hard to do. Mix of atrophy and apathy indistinguishable from a courage deficit.
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It’s not clear what invites and deserves bold moves anymore. I think I have a history of making a somewhat courageous move every 1-2 years as an adult and I’m now past 3 years without one. Not a good feeling.
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It’s not just me. Elon Musk is a guy with a long history of real big bold moves and the best thing he’s come up with lately is the petty feint of pretending to buy Twitter. Everybody is eager to break out of pandemic stasis field but no one has a good answer to “with what?”
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You can’t just restart historical time with nothing. You need a next move. The story needs… developments to continue. There have been events but not true developments at any scale for a few years. At least not positive ones. It’s all been sound and fury signifying nothing.
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There’s 2 kinds of big moves: uncreative and creative. Eg: addressing a health issue vs starting next book. Creative big moves unlock the psyche energy needed to make the uncreative ones. If you can’t think of creative big moves, the uncreative ones get stuck as well.
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The creative big moves help you put a value on life itself which in turn puts a value on the uncreative ones: “I have to be healthy enough to write my great novel” type motivation stack.
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People working backwards from big long-term goals that still make sense with pandemic interruption have an easier time. You pick up where you left off. If curing cancer or getting to Mars created purpose for you in 2019 it probably still does in 2022. But for improv types…
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… it’s harder. It’s like waiting for the universe to say “yes, and…” to the last thing you said in 2019. I’ve never been a long-term planner, let alone life-goal type. A week is my normal improv horizon. The weeks sometimes compound or have network effects but it’s mot planned
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The tide’s been out for a long time. It’s like the moon vanished or something. A growing “bound in shallows and miseries” feeling. I kinda suspect Putin invaded Ukraine to shake off this feeling.
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Ie there’s a strong temptation to try and jumpstart history with *any* move, even a dumb, pointless one. Exists at all scales. From Putin or Musk down to you and me. The “shallows and miseries” state is tough to endure.
Replying to
Even people with strong missions and tunnel visions around them are uneasy, because their missions unravel if the rest of humanity is “bound in shallows and miseries” Elon’s been tunnel visioned on making Mars rockets and babies. Why did he need this dumb twitter spasm?
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Shit the entire world is kinda waiting for Godot isn’t it? Only the clueless are barreling on with their missions unaware that the world’s attention has unraveled and the overall plot lost. Bless ‘em.
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Lol, look what I wrote then. “Low-level grifters might hoard toilet paper, sell fake N95 masks, or peddle fake cures, but bigger, Bond-villain level moves are hard to script.” We haven’t moved an inch. History is dead in the water. If Even Elon can’t make up a Bond villain move
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Come on universe, make your next creative move. Bring on a proper new “tide in the affairs of men.” Send Godot out to fight. Yet another omicron variant ain’t it. 🤬
Come On GIF by HBO Max
GIF
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When the ship of history is stuck in the doldrums, there are no smart moves. No cleverly leveraged use of winds and currents of change. You just have to break out the oars and start rising.
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Replying to
the William Gibson “jack move”
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Quote Tweet
“Opening preparation is a genuine mixed strategy Nash equilibrium: that is, players find it optimal to vary their choices rather than doing the same best move…people play subtly suboptimal moves to get positions they know better than their opponents do.” fullstackeconomics.com/short-stack-ec
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