Substance
In unforced learning, I mentioned how we have to actively work to create and maintain an environment that supports learning.
The second issue is picking the substance we want to incorporate or reinforce in ourselves. Note I'm not talking about physical substance, I mean noetic (spiritual, mental, intellectual, metaphysical) substance.
We are managing the risk of having the environment, but not using it "for good". We have to be careful with both internal and external sources of low quality substance and noise.
The human mind is always trying to save energy. It has extensive machinery to achieve that
- mental shortcuts
- habit formation to avoid decisionmaking and energy required to start new tasks.
- addictions
- wandering, drifting. doing nothing
- passive consumption of information
- lack of introspection and retrospection. no critical review
- lack of planning
- wrong memory consolidation. immediately forgetting details. self-delusion
Modern life's bad habit reinforcement actively works to pull you further and further away from quality substance
- content that is viral, emotionally provoking, shallow, conflicting, short form
- disinformation, lies
- algorithmic "recommendations" that have nothing to do with your interests. planted by the highest bidder to steer you away from your chosen path.
- reinforcing stereotypes
- anti-tradition taken to an extreme. cultural subversion that erases the lessons from the past
- trendy new things are local maxima that usually won't survive the test of time.
So the odds are stacked against us beyond naive randomness. It's impossible to depend only on luck in order to make progress. It takes effort and energy. Plan on how to make progress then act on it. Iterate.
Avoid the bad substance. Practice intellectual hygiene. Don't engage. Don't feed your mind garbage. Don't let the thoughts multiply. Don't get drawn into polemics that don't concern you. Don't give up - continue search for quality. But make sure to stop and investigate it when you find it.
Be awake. Be sensitive to the outliers, the eccentrics, the "crazy", the "weird", the counterculture. The bigger the cultural and spiritual difference between you and another person, the less appealing it is to interact. The communication will start at an emotional and situational rock bottom, lowest common denominator. But this is also an opportunity to cover a lot of new ground, a lot of breadth. Try to take a glimpse of their soul.
Think how to build process, structure, systems for staying exposed to good substance. But also don't be dogmatic and isolated. Stay flexible, take calculated risk.
One of the reliable filters for substance is time. Wisdom compounds across generations. Mythology started at least 50,000 years ago. Modern writing systems have been around for at least 5,000 years.
A lot of humanity's lessons and knowledge is encoded in spiritual, religious, mystic text. It is often romanticized and exaggerated to make it more appealing to a wide audience; it is often vague and full of omission, because the scholars had to protect themselves. Don't let those things distract you. Read between the lines. Try to put things into historical context. Be aware of historical revisionism. Try to read original sources and editions. It won't immediately make sense, but that's just a fact of reality. Most things of value take time to build, understanding is no exception.
Read philosophy and commentary on it. Don't let the contradictions you see mislead you into thinking the whole work is flawed. Nobody has a perfect understanding of the world. It's still useful.
If you're wondering where to start, here are some personal favorites, very accessible
- Kahlil Gibran - The Prophet. Discusses fundamental human experiences
- Osho's Reflections on Kahlil Gibran - The Prophet [1]. This is a bit tricky. Osho doesn't provide passive commentary, he reinterprets the whole work into his own philosophy. It has to be read like an original book. Also shows why it's important to read the original sources, not only commentary. Osho was an amazing spiritual teacher, philosopher, orator-eclectic.