I heard someone say if you pursue any field of study deep enough you arrive at mystery. Yet the popular scientistic outlook is the opposite of mysterious. It presents a cocksure, “Everything’s settled but the details, and someone in a lab in Sweden is working those out as we speak”. What kind of invitation to inquiry is that? Where’s the adventure?
Author: Isaac Morehouse
Isaac Morehouse is the founder and CEO of Praxis, an awesome startup apprenticeship program. He is dedicated to the relentless pursuit of freedom. He’s written some books, done some podcasting, and is always experimenting with self-directed living and learning. When he’s not with his wife and kids or building his company, he can be found smoking cigars, playing guitars, singing, reading, writing, getting angry watching sports teams from his home state of Michigan, or enjoying the beach.
Envy is No Fun
Competition is great. Inspiration is great. Anger can be great. A desire to win can be great. Frustration that others are getting what you’re not can be great. Envy is never great. Envy is when some combo of the above moves to the next stage.
School Will be Remembered Like Leeches and Cigarettes
How did humans learn stuff the other several thousand years of civilization? How were 80% of colonial Americans literate with no standardized institutional schooling, and when books were rare and costly and most jobs didn’t even require reading? How did people invent stuff, start businesses, write books, create great art, and expand the corpus of human knowledge for thousands of years without certified teachers and grades and degrees?
Framing is Everything
There is no such thing as an isolated fact or experience or data point. They all exist in a context, interpreted through a frame. We all know this, but it’s still easy to underestimate just how important framing is.
Walled Gardens of the Infocalypse
A friend once called the plummeting cost of information “The Infocalypse”. So much info flying everywhere might soon fry our brains. A bit dramatic, but there’s an economic reality here. Info costs were the main driver of many social and commercial institutions and relationships for most of human history. They keep dropping, changing everything.
Is it Dumb to Try to Stay Innovative?
Maybe innovation is a kid thing. Maybe a company with millions of customers and billions in revenue constantly pivoting and brainstorming and re-positioning would be sorta wrong. Maybe the well-functioning older, large firm is one that continues to deliver consistent value to a large market with healthy margins until they get too old and die.
Don’t Start a Movement
Think about the iPhone, or Apple in general. No movement existed or was needed to make them change the way the world interacts with technology. Sure, there are pockets of True Believer Apple fans, but what actually moves the market isn’t a Movement, but a great product. They just solve a problem and create value for individual customers. Really well.
It’s Not for Them, It’s for You
Try busting butt and being the best person in the world to work with. Then tell me you don’t feel more awesome, confident, and content. Tell me you gain more from doing the minimum. I won’t believe you because I know it’s not true. Don’t go out of your way to help others out of altruism. There’s never enough of that to muster. Do it as an investment in your own personal pride and self-respect.
Preparing for the Brush Fire
The best stuff comes from unexpected bursts of inspiration. Lightning strikes. But what separates all the bursts that fizzle into those that set the world ablaze? The conditions of the environment when the lightning strikes.
The Hardest Thing
Parenting is the hardest thing in my life. It’s a series of new situations that require new modes of thinking, always in moments where you are too pressed for time to do much thinking. So they are a test of instincts and habits. Whatever gut reaction comes out of you is usually the best you can do in the moment.