Apologetics for Philosophy: “…getting in touch with this archive of greatness will put you in touch with practices and insights that in turn put you back in touch with reality, with being, in new, old, and timeless ways. And they do so in a way that lets us glean what reality is in a deeper sense.”
Greening the Heavens: “…let’s not be cynics: we build a future for ourselves by outpacing the errors of our errant past and refining the plausibility of our visions, so that one day our descendants may eventually achieve a horticulture of the heavens. And perhaps the inevitable coloring of our visions of the future by the worries and ideological conflicts of our own times is not such a problem if we can learn to swim comfortably in the postmodern uncertainty…acknowledging that we alone are in charge of our values is nothing other than taking accountability for them; and what’s more, recognizing the fallibility of our resulting beliefs and actions is no warrant for disillusionment, but the first step toward correcting them.”
How Empires Are Built: “People who make the most of the network revolution (which is happening, whether you and I like it or not), are going to be best positioned to serve their countries, communities, businesses, and families. Those who don’t won’t. The issue is urgent.”
How to Find the Frontiers of Knowledge: “Entering a field for the first time as an autodidact, you should decide whether you want to enter into a community of practice, a master-apprentice relationship, or a functional institution. Try to figure out for each of those whether it fits the criteria. Seek out an energetic community of practice, or a good master. If you are considering joining an institution, make sure that its bureaucracy is working well, its professionalized roles are functional, and its leadership is aligned with correct output.”
Live Versus Dead Players: “What are signs that a player is alive? One strong sign is a player doing things outside of their expected domain — in a new, unexpected domain — which indicates that they can figure out new things for themselves. Take Steve Jobs. Not too long ago, we saw Apple fighting against compliance with government requests for backdoor access to its data. This means that Jobs had previously found a way around compliance, which also means that Jobs was able to figure out ways to deal with the intelligence world. This was outside of his expected domain of building technology companies. This is a strong sign that Apple, at least while piloted by Steve Jobs, was a live player.”
Political and Cultural Transformation in the Era of Massive Psychic Damage: “…the wallpaper in people’s minds needs to change. Their reflexes and instincts need to change at the mass scale. This has to be a priority. Correcting this problem will require that the messages people receive every day be different.”
The Price and the Prize: “What is the consequence of desire? Different goads kick and prod as we slog day to day, and we rarely see the fruits. Maybe we fear the consequences, afraid of success as much as failure. The demands placed upon us by our desires are often as clear and structured as the payments on an installment plan. However, payments can be put off indefinitely. Of course this has its own cost, but by the time Collections reaches out, the original compulsion is diluted. Payoff seems pointless. The desire has been purchased by other entities at a lower price. This is the difference between author and critic, between athlete and broadcaster, between dictator and theorist, between lover and voyeur, between sainthood and seeker. To desire something, especially something great, is natural, as is the response from the crowd. Cries, jeers, pure hatred. Greatness produces its own opposite desires from those who resent it or feel the one desiring it is unworthy of his aim. And maybe he is; one problem of desire is delusion. To the same extent one is able to have faith in his deluded desire, he is more or less able to reach out and grasp it.”