{thinkism}: Kevin Kelly’s term for the assumption {AI researchers make that more intelligence or cognitive power will solve a problem, rather than more data or a reframing of the problem}
Q. His conversation opener of choice with strangers?
A. What do you know more about than most people?
Q. What unusual thing does Kevin try to do with ideas he’s developing, before committing to them himself?
A. Tries to give them away to other people.
Q. His language-based heuristic for choosing new projects?
A. Try to do something that doesn’t have a name yet—stay “ahead of the language.”
But how did it all start? What can the origins of Friedan’s discovery of the “feminine mystique” tell us about the process, the feelings, the experience of making our own encounter with new truths in our lives? For Friedan started, not as an organizer, not as a lecturer, not as a spokesperson—but as an independent investigator of “a problem that had no name.” “Until I started writing the book, I wasn’t even conscious of the woman problem,” she confesses.
More on “staying ahead of the language”, from The Independent Scholars Handbook - Richard Gross (p107)
“Always demand a deadline because it weeds out {the extraneous and the ordinary}. A deadline prevents you from trying to make it perfect, so {you have to make it different. Different is better}.”
“If you ask for someone’s feedback, you’ll get a critic. But if instead {you ask for advice, you’ll get a partner}.”
“To earn bliss, just for a moment, send someone you don’t know {a compliment for something they did}.”
Q. “The work on any worthy project is endless, infinite.” What’s the consequence for KK?
A. You can’t limit the work, so you must limit the hours—that’s what you can manage.
Q. Kevin’s repetition-oriented way to evaluate how you’re spending your days?
A. “If you repeated what you did today 365 more times, will you be where you want to be next year?”
Q. “The main reason to produce something every day”?
A. Steady production teaches you a spirit of abundance, which lets you let go of good work to reach the great stuff.
“When you find something you really enjoy, {do it slowly}.”