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I might be naive/ignorant here but - in my experience it always makes more sense to persuade individuals than to try to change big-picture narratives or âthe zeitgeistâ. in fact I think doing the former is the only way to properly do the latter
my take is that narrative and meta-narrative discussion is only really useful to the degree that it changes your behavior at the ground level Itâs hideously easy to get carried away tilting at windmills and feel like youâre doing something âmeaningfulâ and âsignificantâ
It is also very much shaped by the limitations of my circumstances - ie loosely itâs the perspective of someone who can reach several thousand loosely and a few hundred intimately. Seems plausible and likely that the game changes with scale, with totally different âphysicsâ
I realise this view is also shaped by my experience working next to @dineshraju for 5+ years - easily one of the smartest, highest-functioning, optimistic people I know, who seemed to conclude very early on that the only thing that really matters is the actual dent youâre making
The cool and interesting thing about making dents is that you donât need to persuade everybody. First you need to persuade yourself. Then a partner. Then a small crew. The thing that matters is not widespread consensus, but depth of alignment. All your effort, at a single point
Leaning on my musicianâs background: if you want to sell out stadiums, 99% of the time, 1st you have to sell out bars. (I guess in 2019 first you need a hit YouTube video đ. Then another.) There are some exceptions, but those tend to crash &burn from a lack of sound fundamentals
Every few years in Singapore, some artist writes a really long, heartfelt essay about how SG is a bad place to do art. Thereâs not enough support, not enough venues, the public doesnât value it, the culture is wrong. It always bums me out, because I feel itâs so... mistaken?
You canât get people to read books by telling them that literature is important. You get them to read books by being excited about books. And âbooks are so exciting!!!â doesnât cut it, you have to get into precisely what youâre excited about. This is how interest spreads
Every 2-3 years when my Facebook get into this stupid discussion about âoh no Singaporeans donât care about literature, what shall we do,â I always have just one simple question: What was the last great book that you loved so much you had to *insist* that other people read it?
I know firsthand that I have gotten dozens of people to buy and read good books - not by me preaching at them, or guilt-tripping them, or showing off - but by being a sincerely passionate book nerd, in public. Seriously, just talk about what you love!! https://t.co/ikrY9DOP9r
Thread of books I'm reading in 2018. Deciding that I'm going to focus on optimizing for "books started" (which is fun and interesting) rather than "books finished" (which for me has a sort of masochistic, completionist connotation I'd like to be free of).
@visakanv Mmmm I think I've gotten close to a dozen people to check out McGilchrist's book at this point, by tweeting excitedly about it for a year. (Confirmed cases is like 7, but I haven't tested a whole cruise ship yet to find out about asymptomatic cases.) https://t.co/qOoST1g6x4