Thoreau 2.0
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""" He was obsessed with how complexity can creep into unexpected corners of your life, disguised as necessity. He gives the example of a farmer who convinces himself he must eat meat in order to stay strong. Since meat is expensive, the farmer tills more land in order to afford it. And the harder he works, the hungrier he gets, in a vicious spiral.
[...] What I had thought was a convenience had actually been the foundation for a little pyramid of anxieties.
[...] I'm intrigued by this idea of complexity being something adversarial, that sneaks into your life, like a cockroach, and you have to fight to eradicate. """
Doesn't just apply to life, but also to software and startups.
I've been running a tech startup about as long as Maciej (though with a very different path / business), and I sometimes wonder about the complexities we now take for granted, 4 years in.
Not just complexities of our business, but also the infrastructure we've re-built, re-factored, re-architected, etc. over the years and our own understanding of the problem space we've "mastered".
We've assembled this tapestry of tools, technologies, processes, cultural practices, customers, partners, etc. And as software engineers, we have "simply accepted" a certain level of complexity.
When the company first started in 2009, it was just two guys sending keystrokes into a fresh vim buffer. No "funding", no "process", no "brand" -- just creation. I think this is what creates nostalgia for the early days of a company's life -- it's the purity and simplicity of it.
I wish I had gotten Maciej's advice earlier and kept a journal.
My problem: his presentation sounds too contrived. My background is in literature; meaning, I am obsessed with literature and reading and its where most of my knowledge rests.
I love Thoreau. I'm a hiker. I'm learning to program. I really like computers and technology. But I rarely, if ever try to unite the two. Sorry, it just doesn't work.
One things computers try to do is make things scale, as I understand it; understand and organise things with massive computer power. I'm not saying this is a bad thing.
But Thoreau wanted the opposite.
I'm sure the presenter meant well, and his heart was in the right place, but have a close look at the words he uses. They're buzzwords to try to relate to an audience who is further apart from Thoreau's ideology than he might've wished.
He is "rebranding" Thoreau. Thoreau is not a 'content creator', because that word has certain connotations nowadays, which do not apply to him. Yes, this might be semantics, but this type of updated/21st century diction to try to relate/appeal to a new audience sounds contrived.
I applaud his efforts, because at least Thoreau serves as a way to balance out technologists' lives.
But because he was so extreme, all this sounds like yoga instructors talking about living a better life sipping on their Starbucks coffee and buying expensive Yoga mats.
I mean, sure, it's really good that you have recognised the worth of many nonmaterialistic things, but you're not really helping if most of your life is materialistic. Note I'm not forcing anyone into doing away with their material- and technology-driven lives.
All I'm saying is Thoreau's ideology and the modern person are not compatible, unfortunately. And because of that, all we can do is sit around and study his writings conceptually, abstractly, without gaining the experience he wanted everyone to have. Few of us could stand 2 years of living the way he did, yet the presenter actually feels the need to tell his audience, (I'm paraphrasing), "Sure! Thoreau ONLY did it for 2 years, and he had mom and sister come out once a week to help!" Um...how long would the average person be able to stand it?
The OP says it is easy to take Thoreau out of context, because he is so quotable, yet continues to do this very thing!
"Moreover, you must walk like a camel, which is said to be the only beast which ruminates when walking. When a traveler asked Wordsworth's servant to show him her master's study, she answered, 'Here is his library, his study is out of doors.'"
He doesn't mean that you need to go and collect data electronically on people or go on a Google car and photograph every single major street to store it, analyse it, and show it to the world on a computer. If you believe this is what he is saying, this is called "reappropriation".
Lastly, let me quote again from his book titled Walking--a recommended read because it is short, yet illustrates his ideology.
"In short, all good things are wild and free. There is something in a strain of music, whether by its wildness, to speak without satire, reminds me of the cries emitted by wild beasts in their native forests. It is so much of their wildness as I can understand. Give me for my friends and neighbors wild men, not tame ones. The wildness of the savage is but a faint symbol of the awful ferity with which good men and lovers meet."
Stop trying to tame Thoreau's ideas. Let's not try to make ourselves feel better by saying we have some things in common with him or stretching his ideas.
I go into nature to get away from my computers and society and everyone else. It is my own personal struggle or inner conflict. I don't need to try to convince others of how good we can have it if we just adopted Thoreau's ideas, because by our current standards, he would be considered an extremist.
In that same passage above, Thoreau goes on to talk about how domesticated animals need to reassert themselves.
Please, let's not dilute Thoreau just to make us feel better, because (1) most people who don't agree with him will not feel better about it; and (2) most people who want to agree with him will find that they cannot adopt his ideas or lifestyle. I think the HN crowd is too smart to adopt some half-assed idea. They'd rather come up with their own idea or take on how to find a balance between technology, nature, and tackling startup culture.
He was poking fun at the current culture by calling him a "content creator".
I saw this talk in person, and it was obvious in that context.
This was also a joke, which was very clear to me from reading it (I wasn't there). I thought it was hilarious how straight he played it.
I wasn't being sarcastic. I was agreeing with the comment I replied to (by forsaken, which pointed out a joke), and disagreeing with the long comment it replied to (by kafkaesque). You might think I'm being sarcastic now, but I can't do anything more than tell you I'm not.
Wait... I can show you I wasn't sarcastic, by noting the signal that Maciej Ceglowski was joking: he longwindedly repeated (almost) verbatim a long phrase describing the thing that he deplored, and that he would do.
Tim Ferriss-style lifehacks and inspirational quotes
Another signal is the general tone is jokey (and he was even explicit about trolling the audience with Ayn Rand).
Not sure why I'm going to such trouble to clarify. I guess I just don't like being misunderstood. Also, it happened to me once before that someone thought I was being sarcastic online when I wasn't, and I didn't correct it (which I later felt was wrong of me).
If you're going to take the time to write such a long essay disagreeing with someone, the very least you should bother to do is read what they wrote.
You're less likely to make a fool of yourself that way.
> The OP says it is easy to take Thoreau out of context, because he is so quotable, yet continues to do this very thing!
See, there you go. If you'd read the talk, you'd understand how silly you sound. I'll reduce it down for you:
Walden is a layered work. You can't just go in and strip-mine it for a bunch of Tim Ferriss-style life hacks, or inspirational quotes, without missing the entire point of the book.
Since we have limited time, though, I've gone and picked out some Tim Ferriss-style lifehacks and inspirational quotes, which I will present as a set of bullet points.
Can you see the joke?
One things computers try to do is make things scale, as I understand it; understand and organise things with massive computer power. I'm not saying this is a bad thing.
But Thoreau wanted the opposite.
I'm interested in how you paint yourself as a complex, multifaceted person (rightfully so!), but disagree with suggestions to apply lessons across facets. For example, one could also say that computers facilitate the act of "abstract[ing] away complexity," which seems very Thoreau-esque. One could say that, but I wouldn't -- at least seriously -- because it sounds ridiculously pretentious.
Anyway.
It's worth pointing out that Maciej is a very, very strong critic of Silicon Valley culture so I think you're missing context for his talk (hint: the "content curator" bit is complete sarcasm). Follow @Pinboard or @baconmeteor on Twitter to see what I mean.
He already tweeted about your post:
Warning: kiss the next several hours goodbye because he's simply an outstandingly interesting and funny writer - imagine something like a cross between Bill Bryson and Douglas Adams and you wouldn't be too far off the mark.
I would very much like everyone to read Walden - it's a wonderful, incredible, life-changing book. But the feeling I get at the end is not, "Man, I should start a business, where people can post up images of things they want! And then other people can see if they want them! And then, then! We can advertise!"
The feeling you get, after reading the book - well, the feeling I got was more, "I'm still in this system, I want out, I can't, the world is truly monstrous". We can all live in our own little cabins in the woods for a little while, we can all do our own little civil disobedience - but like young adults, most of us grow out of it, because to hold this course is very hard and greed is a very easy trap to fall into.
If you like Thoreau, one of the most obvious path to take would then be Emerson and his essays. They're all wonderful, but I don't know what lessons you learn from them can be applied to "start a business with someone elses money that hopefully goes public", except that that itself is a fool's errand. I don't know what either would say about social media or whatever it's called know, execept that it's simply abstracts the real nature of actual interaction, into something that's lost the important parts of it. What would Thoreau say about working so long hours typing away at a keyboard? He would say that's the worst thing at all: work only as much as you want, and no more. That's a whole chapter in Walden. How many people here, truly do that?
Things to think about.
and also, what a lame title for a talk - there already WAS a Walden Two, and, for a sci-fi book, it's not half bad. Kinda weak, but worth a read [0]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walden_Two
And it itself was a take on how to bring Thoreau idea into a community setting. It's a little more than, "Write journals!", and "Know Yourself!". This talk - trying to take a masterpiece book, and apply it to your life, and trying to talk about it in bite-sized chunks.... it's not working for me. Show me, don't tell me.
But it sounds like Maciej's goal was not to be an entrepreneur, but to be able to support himself running a one-man business. Being self-reliant that way instead of depending on a job in someone else's company might be quite in agreement with the simple life that Thoreau advocated.
I had no idea (based on his name) that Maciej started Pinboard in Romania.
PS. And actually Bulgaria is the poorest, Romania does better.
You can basically create your own reddit feed of tags, even if you don't intend to use the bookmark feature - which is quite excellent.
http://delicious.com/username/tag
than
Paper? Software? Either way, what kind of system do you have for organizing your notes?
The main things I've learned is that indexing is incredibly important. Number your pages, and keep at least one page in the front of the journal for referencing what pages belong to what category. Don't overthink the categories, sometimes broad is good. Most often I just use "Random thoughts/writing" or "programming".
It might seem odd to keep an actual, physical paper journal in this day and age. But for some reason, the tactile nature of it just feels right. I have more motivation to pop open my paper journal and physically write some things than I do to pop open VIM, or Evernote, or Simplenote, or whatever. Even on a phone or a tablet. (especially so, in fact) On top of that, there's less of a chance of a paper journal being stolen, you never have to worry about internet connectivity (Evernote, non-premium), or battery life, or having to fight a multitasking system... the list goes on. I've had times where I just want to take a quick note and I end up fighting something auto-opening, or already being open, or waiting for a new note, that I just get frustrated and end up back with real paper. I haven't found anything that is as flexible or works as well to date. (I also HEARTILY recommend you get either blank paper, or graph paper. particularly graph paper. I have a huge notebook I carry around of graph paper, and it has proven invaluable for so many things. from diagramming software code flow, to diagramming an interface, or even just plain writing notes. this is what I use: http://www.jetpens.com/Maruman-Mnemosyne-Imagination-Noteboo... It's good for carrying in a bag/backpack for serious needs, not as great for a journal. I tend to have both with me)
1. What do you do if you don't have a journal handy, but want to make a note?
2. What's the portal cover sleeve?
3. Do you keep a daily diary, or is it a collection of thoughts on various topics, or both?
2. Kinda hard to answer, as I don't know the company that made the cover for my journal. (I got it while at MAGFest last January, so they're likely to be there again if you're an attendee) It looks somewhat like this though: http://photoguy42.deviantart.com/art/My-take-on-the-river-so... except black leather with a blue portal on one side, orange on the other. It's a 5 1/2" by 8" size journal, (http://www.art-alternatives.com/products/items/sketch-books.... the AA75121 one) which for me is a good size to be able to write whatever without feeling too constrained. Your mileage may vary. However, the cover is fantastic because it's definitely very tough, and keeps the journal safe from damage. (the Bullet Journal website recommends this so that it doesn't fall apart over the year or so you're supposed to keep a book) You could get away with something else though. I personally don't want to buy a journal which can only be used once, and prefer nice covers where I can swap out the paper. If you want to just buy a single book, no fancy cover, that's fine. You should look up Rhodia for that, as they have very nice paper. Or you could get what I'm using, which absorbs fountain pen ink very nicely without bleeding. A very rare quality in paper :)
3. Thoughts on various topics. Whatever I feel like is worth writing down. A game idea, ideas for a game engine, poetry, tasks, etc. A daily journal is a great idea though, if you feel like you can keep it up. And I always have whatever I write in a category, which I have in my index. Do I want to review my notes on the Scala course I'm taking? Index says page 34-35. Handy!
After just a few days I've found myself not being able to figure out at a glance what's next and having to go back and forth the notes. That even if I've spent the time to inter-link things. But at this point I should also mention that in my role (product manager) I have quite a few projects on my plate at all time and a month long list of things is usually in the high tens/hundred items (and doesn't include meetings).
I was really attracted by the BulletJournal system as it felt in a way similar to what I've been using, but with a nicer/cleaner visual representation. Basically I have my long list of things in a tool. Every Monday I spend a bit of time extracting what's the focus for the week into a separate file. In this file I also log daily activity. At the end of the week there's a short review and then I'm archiving the week.
Honestly though, it sounds like you have a system already in place that works well for you. Why switch away? The only thing you might do is use a notebook to dump all the stuff from one week into, then have your short review on a separate page(s), then start over. (using indices in the front of the notebook to keep an easy reference to start of each section. start of week 1, start of week 1 review, start of week 2, etc.) But I suppose one size does not fit all. Do what works and helps you keep track of things!
I organize my journals by keeping each month in its own file <month yyyy> (e.g., "jan 2013", "aug 2011"). And in each file I write the date (mm/dd) as the outer most indentation, then write the entry (indented) underneath it. So a typical file might look like:
09/27
Some notes here.
An idea here.
A particularly good idea here.
So I flesh it out here.
And add more details as I go.
Some things I learned..
09/28
Today's entry...
I say Moleskine specifically, because there are a lot of shitty notebooks where the writing might even fade over time.
First 10 minutes here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYJKd0rkKss
That being said, I didn't know Maciej built Pinboard in Romania, that's pretty cool, I'd say. I wonder what was he doing in Botosani :)
The Alameda-Weehawken Burrito Tunnel: http://idlewords.com/2007/04/the_alameda-weehawken_burrito_t...
A Rocket To Nowhere: http://idlewords.com/2005/08/a_rocket_to_nowhere.htm
Scott and Scurvy: http://idlewords.com/2010/03/scott_and_scurvy.htm
And everything else on http://idlewords.com/
(The pinboard blog is great too, I particularly liked http://blog.pinboard.in/2011/10/the_fans_are_all_right/)
Anyways, the man has a way with words.
Why Arabic Is Terrific http://idlewords.com/2011/08/why_arabic_is_terrific.htm