Hi Ethan. It's kind of lucky I ran across your response. Sooner or later I'd have gone to your site, but sometimes I find a very exciting possibility and then forget about it for a year (which is why creating my own tailored approach to BASB is so important).
But as it happens I just set foot in the substack world, which I'm not terribly involved with, despite taking Write of Passage - and then getting deluged in other things so I can hardly remember it. It's another siloed network-affects world, not as big or aggressive as Facebook or Twitter (and FB is the worst; it's such a pain in the ass to share anything on FB outside of FB).
Specifically, I was luckily drawn to Venkatesh Rao's The Use and Misuse of the OODA Loop, which is in Ribbonfarm Studio, which I guess I'll have to break down and subscribe to. There's a good chance you know of him, if you're an early adapter of BASB. I was looking for my Ribbonfarm articles and the title just happened to come up, and I thought GREAT; Venkat's having second thoughts about OODA. Let me know if I'm dropping unfamiliar stuff you. Venkat's realm is worth knowing about.
So I'm reading this thing, and in the top right corner, besides "Upgrade to Paid" is my old icon and a red circle with the number 3 in it. I have 3 somethings? What? I've never been in this world before, but this is how I find 3 responses to you to your stuff which is linked to substack.
I could keep going, but have to get back to survival-related things, like putting together a response to an invitation to apply for a Perl (programming language) job - Perl's mostly been buried by Python, but I happen to have 2 decades of Perl, so if someone will pay me to use it... I thought it couldn't hurt to add samples of my writing; they didn't mention writing, but made a big point about English proficiency.
So I'll just leave you with a couple of things. There are a few things missing from Hanzi's world. Not much real science, such as human origins, neuroscience, genetics, and things are happening in these, and I'm sure other areas that will interact with meta-modernity and the attempt to put democracy and freedom back on their feet for good. Just check out this one thing; it's the smallest (8 page) synopsis of the amazing work of Michael Tomasello:
Hi Ethan. Mostly I want to communicate to say thank you. The choice of which article to "comment on" is kind of arbitrary. I remember in one of the first things I read by you, you described your giving up the idea that being autodidactic is superior to institutional knowledge, and was admiring of that. I am a mostly autodidactic omnivorous learner, but mostly learn from journal articles and books by people supported by academic institution of learning in a certain area. If an autodidact goes into their territory, one is likely to get bruised, and be hyper-conscious of prejudices that they have, but in academic institutions of learning about a TRACTABLE SUBJECT (see https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2017/01/12/cannon-balls-plate-tectonics-and-invisible-elephants/), the close institutional networking and discipline of criticism of ideas that turn out to be wrongheaded does most of the work.
So far, I mostly want to thank you for introducing me to Hanzi Freinacht, who has an incredible vision, almost never seems to strike a wrong note, and mentions just about very thinker, theory, vision or fear, that I've been drawn into. I'm about halfway through The Listening Society (reading from both ends towards the middle), and just got The Nordic Ideology on Kindle unlimited and got the audible version. I hilight the Kindle editions, and have a tool, Readwise, that sends all the hilights into my Roam Research "second brain". If you don't know what that's about, "google"[we need to replace Google and start by replacing "google" as a verb] "second brain". It's an explosive movement of the last few years, producing many offshoots.
You mention Individual Family Systems (maybe not quite the right phrase). I tried that, and still think it is probalbly real and has great potential, but my guide offered a Zoom group therapy session, that was mainly traditional group therapy and manifested little of IFS.
In Hanzi's work, where he sometimes goes into name dropping (or theory or concept-dropping) mode, they always seem to me to be people/.. I've studied or dipped into, or have a good impression and want to get into them. This addresses another "what, if anything, is missing" concern, which is how the writing might have changed, if it was post February 2022.
In some of your writing you cite Peter Pomerantsev(?) and Anne Applebaum, two of the best writers on important subjects, and I was pleasantly shocked to find they had teamed up (and I see that citation comes by way of Hanzi). This addresses another "what, if anything, is missing" concern, which is how the writing might have changed, if it was written post February 2022. The time we have to make something happen keeps getting shorter. Then there was the 3 part "Strongmen Destroyed" series in Metamoderna.org by Denys Bakirov which really seems to rise to the importance of the issue.
And actually the Peter Pomer.. and Anne Applebaum wasn't by way of Hanzi. I had found that through a course that I took a while back called "Tools for the Regenerative Renaissance" which was such a great course and I highly recommend it.
I'll have to check out the Strongmen Destroyed series. I've been reading a lot of the posts on that website and find them fascinating. I don't think I've read a piece that I haven't liked.
Glad to have connected and again I truly appreciate you taking the time and writing out this thoughtful response.
It makes me so happy that you've found Hanzi. He's been the intellectual that I've been most influenced by this year in 2022. I'm just nearing the end of the "Nordic Ideology" book and his references very wide-reaching for sure. I'm always enlivened by intellectuals that seem to have read widely and can pull from many different sources, thinkers and disciplines. Hanzi is definitely one of them.
Maybe we can speak about Hanzi and all things Becoming Conscious is a podcast sometime. My schedule is extremely busy these days, but with enough planning and scheduling far enough in advance I may be able to make it work.
I'm desiring to have deeper, richer intellectual discussions even though my time seems to be used for an increasing amount of projects and i'm spreading myself way to thin right now.
I'm really desiring to write a ton of pieces on Hanzi's "Nordic Ideology" soon and trying to do my own proto-synthesis of all the different political ideologies and really trying to take the perspective of each one of them as best as possible and get at the strengths of each one and get at their criticisms of all the other ideologies.
Hi Hal. I just want to say thank you for supporting the newsletter, i have so much appreciation for you and this extremely thoughtful comment of yours.
In regards to the Autodidactic approach to knowledge, I'm glad that you appreciate the perspective shift that I've been writing about. This has been quite a huge shift that I've experienced recently. I was all in on the autodidactic camp for a while and then over time I realized that the primary source that was influencing this belief in my worldview was extremely narcissistic and thought his perspectives were entirely superior to everyone else's in the world. This was a wake up call for me. I realized that without collective feedbacking and criticism and collaboration there will never be anyone to gut check your work and ideas so to speak.
My perspectives on knowledge and collective intelligence now have been extremely influenced by John Vervaeke. His work is what caused the huge shift. I'm in this space now where I feel that my intellectual collaboration is lacking, but I'm sure that it will develop with time and that may include starting to participate in more academic circles to find such critiques.
I've added your article to my Matter/Instapaper list. I find myself reading a copious about of articles these days and will get back to you when I get a chance to chew through it. I love your thoughts in the comment about how the discipline of criticism does most of the work.
In regards to the second brain stuff, I'm ecstatic that you're into that as well. I've taken Tiago's Building a Second Brain Course multiple times now and am a lover of all things David Perell and Nat Eliason as well. I've been using Evernote and Notion for a few years now, but recently got onto the Roam Research train and have been loving it. I particularly enjoy the export feature of kindle notes and of articles on Matter into the program, it makes notetaking seamless. I'm still finding my writing flow in Roam, but it's such a fun tool to use and it has extreme power and utility I believe.
P.S. IFS Parts Work Template looks great.
Hi Ethan. It's kind of lucky I ran across your response. Sooner or later I'd have gone to your site, but sometimes I find a very exciting possibility and then forget about it for a year (which is why creating my own tailored approach to BASB is so important).
But as it happens I just set foot in the substack world, which I'm not terribly involved with, despite taking Write of Passage - and then getting deluged in other things so I can hardly remember it. It's another siloed network-affects world, not as big or aggressive as Facebook or Twitter (and FB is the worst; it's such a pain in the ass to share anything on FB outside of FB).
Specifically, I was luckily drawn to Venkatesh Rao's The Use and Misuse of the OODA Loop, which is in Ribbonfarm Studio, which I guess I'll have to break down and subscribe to. There's a good chance you know of him, if you're an early adapter of BASB. I was looking for my Ribbonfarm articles and the title just happened to come up, and I thought GREAT; Venkat's having second thoughts about OODA. Let me know if I'm dropping unfamiliar stuff you. Venkat's realm is worth knowing about.
So I'm reading this thing, and in the top right corner, besides "Upgrade to Paid" is my old icon and a red circle with the number 3 in it. I have 3 somethings? What? I've never been in this world before, but this is how I find 3 responses to you to your stuff which is linked to substack.
I could keep going, but have to get back to survival-related things, like putting together a response to an invitation to apply for a Perl (programming language) job - Perl's mostly been buried by Python, but I happen to have 2 decades of Perl, so if someone will pay me to use it... I thought it couldn't hurt to add samples of my writing; they didn't mention writing, but made a big point about English proficiency.
So I'll just leave you with a couple of things. There are a few things missing from Hanzi's world. Not much real science, such as human origins, neuroscience, genetics, and things are happening in these, and I'm sure other areas that will interact with meta-modernity and the attempt to put democracy and freedom back on their feet for good. Just check out this one thing; it's the smallest (8 page) synopsis of the amazing work of Michael Tomasello:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261567999_The_ultra-social_animal
Best Wishes, Hal (hal@panix.com if you want to break out of the silo)
Hi Ethan. Mostly I want to communicate to say thank you. The choice of which article to "comment on" is kind of arbitrary. I remember in one of the first things I read by you, you described your giving up the idea that being autodidactic is superior to institutional knowledge, and was admiring of that. I am a mostly autodidactic omnivorous learner, but mostly learn from journal articles and books by people supported by academic institution of learning in a certain area. If an autodidact goes into their territory, one is likely to get bruised, and be hyper-conscious of prejudices that they have, but in academic institutions of learning about a TRACTABLE SUBJECT (see https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2017/01/12/cannon-balls-plate-tectonics-and-invisible-elephants/), the close institutional networking and discipline of criticism of ideas that turn out to be wrongheaded does most of the work.
So far, I mostly want to thank you for introducing me to Hanzi Freinacht, who has an incredible vision, almost never seems to strike a wrong note, and mentions just about very thinker, theory, vision or fear, that I've been drawn into. I'm about halfway through The Listening Society (reading from both ends towards the middle), and just got The Nordic Ideology on Kindle unlimited and got the audible version. I hilight the Kindle editions, and have a tool, Readwise, that sends all the hilights into my Roam Research "second brain". If you don't know what that's about, "google"[we need to replace Google and start by replacing "google" as a verb] "second brain". It's an explosive movement of the last few years, producing many offshoots.
You mention Individual Family Systems (maybe not quite the right phrase). I tried that, and still think it is probalbly real and has great potential, but my guide offered a Zoom group therapy session, that was mainly traditional group therapy and manifested little of IFS.
In Hanzi's work, where he sometimes goes into name dropping (or theory or concept-dropping) mode, they always seem to me to be people/.. I've studied or dipped into, or have a good impression and want to get into them. This addresses another "what, if anything, is missing" concern, which is how the writing might have changed, if it was post February 2022.
In some of your writing you cite Peter Pomerantsev(?) and Anne Applebaum, two of the best writers on important subjects, and I was pleasantly shocked to find they had teamed up (and I see that citation comes by way of Hanzi). This addresses another "what, if anything, is missing" concern, which is how the writing might have changed, if it was written post February 2022. The time we have to make something happen keeps getting shorter. Then there was the 3 part "Strongmen Destroyed" series in Metamoderna.org by Denys Bakirov which really seems to rise to the importance of the issue.
Part 3:
IFS is profoundly powerful. I'd recommend it highly. If you're interested in a basic practice I've created this notion template which is the basic process if you go into each question and ask it of on of the part of yourself: https://ethan-nelson.notion.site/IFS-Parts-Work-Template-3eb69f8b1bac4fb7b17e3b572fd0ac09
And actually the Peter Pomer.. and Anne Applebaum wasn't by way of Hanzi. I had found that through a course that I took a while back called "Tools for the Regenerative Renaissance" which was such a great course and I highly recommend it.
I'll have to check out the Strongmen Destroyed series. I've been reading a lot of the posts on that website and find them fascinating. I don't think I've read a piece that I haven't liked.
Glad to have connected and again I truly appreciate you taking the time and writing out this thoughtful response.
Part 2:
It makes me so happy that you've found Hanzi. He's been the intellectual that I've been most influenced by this year in 2022. I'm just nearing the end of the "Nordic Ideology" book and his references very wide-reaching for sure. I'm always enlivened by intellectuals that seem to have read widely and can pull from many different sources, thinkers and disciplines. Hanzi is definitely one of them.
Maybe we can speak about Hanzi and all things Becoming Conscious is a podcast sometime. My schedule is extremely busy these days, but with enough planning and scheduling far enough in advance I may be able to make it work.
I'm desiring to have deeper, richer intellectual discussions even though my time seems to be used for an increasing amount of projects and i'm spreading myself way to thin right now.
I'm really desiring to write a ton of pieces on Hanzi's "Nordic Ideology" soon and trying to do my own proto-synthesis of all the different political ideologies and really trying to take the perspective of each one of them as best as possible and get at the strengths of each one and get at their criticisms of all the other ideologies.
Hi Hal. I just want to say thank you for supporting the newsletter, i have so much appreciation for you and this extremely thoughtful comment of yours.
In regards to the Autodidactic approach to knowledge, I'm glad that you appreciate the perspective shift that I've been writing about. This has been quite a huge shift that I've experienced recently. I was all in on the autodidactic camp for a while and then over time I realized that the primary source that was influencing this belief in my worldview was extremely narcissistic and thought his perspectives were entirely superior to everyone else's in the world. This was a wake up call for me. I realized that without collective feedbacking and criticism and collaboration there will never be anyone to gut check your work and ideas so to speak.
My perspectives on knowledge and collective intelligence now have been extremely influenced by John Vervaeke. His work is what caused the huge shift. I'm in this space now where I feel that my intellectual collaboration is lacking, but I'm sure that it will develop with time and that may include starting to participate in more academic circles to find such critiques.
I've added your article to my Matter/Instapaper list. I find myself reading a copious about of articles these days and will get back to you when I get a chance to chew through it. I love your thoughts in the comment about how the discipline of criticism does most of the work.
In regards to the second brain stuff, I'm ecstatic that you're into that as well. I've taken Tiago's Building a Second Brain Course multiple times now and am a lover of all things David Perell and Nat Eliason as well. I've been using Evernote and Notion for a few years now, but recently got onto the Roam Research train and have been loving it. I particularly enjoy the export feature of kindle notes and of articles on Matter into the program, it makes notetaking seamless. I'm still finding my writing flow in Roam, but it's such a fun tool to use and it has extreme power and utility I believe.