Redirection
I write for leisure and pleasure; value-creation – as it is with the materials called “content” – is not my priority.
Hello there, you are reading The Busymind Project. This newsletter is a gradual unwrapping of my speculations and thoughts – I approach writing as a process rather than as a result.
I publish this newsletter every Monday and also publish occasionally on weekends. The running theme in my essays comprises human nature and its approach to thinking, language, external behaviour, and culture. I sometimes take an event and extrapolate thoughts from it. But other times, I just deal abstractly and speak in universals.
Lastly, I write for leisure and pleasure; value-creation – as it is with the materials called “content” – is not my priority. Contemplation, reflection, and redirection are.
For today’s letter, I redirect you to some essays I have written in the past including the one I wrote on Saturday. So, please, enjoy. Also, like this post, leave a comment and subscribe to my newsletter.
PS: All headings contain links to the essays.
Musings for the weekend
This essay contains three mini-essays that add up into one. What I explore here is the diminishing worth of human character in our day. I tied this in with the fraudulent temper of modern-day utilitarian education as well as the successes of the A.I system.
I took inspiration from C.S Lewis, Alison Wolf, Thomas Babington Macauley, and Nicholas Nassim Taleb.
To be fair, I don’t think I passed my point luridly. To correct that, read this: no quantity of learning and gathering knowledge beats or replaces the need for human models of quality character. In essence, we need great human models lest our knowledge make us mad.
Age of Cats and Shining Objects
I wrote this essay while watching Queen Elizabeth’s funeral. All that pomp and tradition, and the unity of grief helped me realise that there is a dimension to man that is positively immune to the endless acquisition of knowledge that we do to meet utilitarian ends.
There is a way of life that finds rest in the things that do not make intelligible sense in the moment. We know it is there; we may not be able to reach it; but we know that it is real. However, by being absorbed into chasing shining objects of knowledge called facts, we miss these non-shining gems and pierce our souls with horror.
In all, this essay is a call to stillness. It is a call to give things their appropriate category and estimated value. It is a motion to give to the utilitarian what is utilitarian and to give unto the transcendent what is transcendent.
Friendship or Network
I, in this essay, lament the dearth of quality in friendships. I chalked this down to how much our tools have shaped us. The paradox goes that the things we made to improve our connections have done a fantastic job of driving us apart – in spirit and essence – even while we appear so close.
The lamentation continues that friendships (and by extension other forms of relationships) have been hollowed out by the touch of commerce.
I reckon that the instruction to form networks is parasitic to the point that it sucks the life out of relationships that should be premised on values rather than on transactions. For what it is worth, we should revive the non-transaction style characteristic of childhood friendships. Ciao.
This meme identifies some elements you should avoid on Twitter
And scene. Have a great week.