count off and name:
the essence of living is interacting with the world through our senses. yet our inner world can come to dominate our awareness of the outer. grounding is important, to give us a breath, and a moment of perspective
that which we repeat gains importance to us
the more precisely we understand process and repeat steps, the more predictable our results
total sum of invested effort
actual progress on any front is achieved not from planning but actual labor. we use plans and tools as force multipliers, but even without either it’s usually possible to still make some gains. what matters is how much energy we’re able to accumulate in any single direction, cumulatively, over all time
frequent, regular contributions matter more than sporadic big ones
how do we empty an ocean? one teaspoon at a time
like petting a cat
the way to brush long hair is gently, with slow strokes, willing to turn out and start a new stroke whenever we hit a knot. we de-snarl not from pushing through the tangle, but by teasing it out
the way to pet a cat is similar
the way to add quality to any type of project is to run over its lines, curves, or exposed surfaces, over and over, de-snarling small tangles as we find them
working quality into the cracks
being heard is incredibly validating to our sense of self
true listening is trying to understand why the other person is saying what they say
a lot of men especially will fall in love with someone who listens to them
the world is built from stories. being able to tell a good story gives us power to shape other people’s perspectives
the point of the ego in our brain is to explain why something makes sense; especially why i -specifically am rational. the ego will fucking lie to make its point, but so long as we know that, it’s a power we can harness like any other
writing something down adds to the cohesiveness we can build
it’s like combing our recall. when our own story is presented linearly, it’s easier for us to find and work on gaps
forcing a spell is bad though. if we can’t form a cohesive story when writing down our meaning, it usually indicates we don’t yet have understanding
space left deliberately unfilled
in biz school, they taught us to count to twelve in our head, after we ask someone something before assuming they’re not going to answer and moving on. good advice; seems to work
(forgive me please one abstract concept on a page of practicals)
we have a tendency to evaluate information on axis. for instance: that which is true against that which is false
but then there’s also that which is meaningless and neither true nor false. this is a completely separate axis totally outside of true/false, and shares no characteristics with true/false
in math we call this an orthogonal axis
in electrical engineering we call that which is neither true nor false high-Z. in eastern philosophy it’s called mu, and the most famous example is: does dog have buddha nature?
in spreadsheets, we make a pivot table where we swap rows and columns to aggregate data in new ways
in aikido there’s a concept called musubi where a cause and an effect are wrapped so tightly around each other it becomes impossible to tell which is which
the point is, we like to classify information. orthogonal or not, every new axis we can classify against lets us access another perspective. if we go searching for new axis, new perspectives, we may find one that gives us position and strength
a skilled aikidoist can gently tilt an attacker’s energy such that their attacker violently slams themself into a wall
a skilled mage can do the same using perspectives