I Wrote 12 Poems in Less than One Hour, and Now I Have Achieved Enlightenment

So today I introduced my tongue to my cheek and I learned a lot from the process. I make content for a living, and I’ve gotten pretty good at it. With the intricacies of being an entrepreneur and trying to bend the system whenever possible, I sometimes run into the edges. What I mean is I burn out easy. I recover easy too, but sometimes my gut wants to explode in all directions because I want to make a difference in the world, and the world seems to be falling apart around us. I found myself inspired after watching a documentary, which is a state I find myself in every time I watch a documentary, and I wrote 12 poems exploring our current world. I wrote them in less than an hour. I’m not sure if this makes me more or less impressive, but I hope they inspire some thought in you, as the certainly did in me as I tried to resist the thoughts as little as possible as I typed. Anyways, now I am enlightened. Thank you for being a part of the journey.

The dire importance of sharing your experiences. (And listening to others'​ too.)

We are all extremely social, storytelling beings. Need proof? Our social behavior is pretty much exclusively sharing stories or creating a story to be told later.

It's clear that what makes the human mind and human social structures different is language and deep cooperation. Need proof? Do you trust the Chinese government? Do you know how many of the products you use in the next week were made in China?

More on myth-making, collaboration, and why humans rule the world: https://fs.blog/2016/01/why-humans-dominate-earth/

Above the physical things in nature that we can touch, we create another, non-inherent layer of meaning in everything that we do. Referred to as the "Ethnosphere". The layer of information or description. The meaning of any event, action, or result is ultimately the story we tell about it and the language used around it.

More on the Ethnosphere: https://mdp.berkeley.edu/exploring-the-ethnosphere/

This being true, our world, our technology, and our solutions to problems grow at the speed in which our language evolves. What does this mean?

This means that you can't "launch" a rocket into "orbit" until you, and your engineers and manufacturers understand what "launch" and "gravity" mean in terms of both language and math (a numerical language.)

The implications of language evolving are very easily applied to science and technology. Example, we couldn't talk about space time and light years until physics evolved. What isn't always clear is how language evolves, but most importantly around human issues and solutions.

More on language and culture: https://www.britannica.com/topic/language/Language-and-culture

This, I believe is what people mean when they say, "Technology is evolving faster that our culture can adapt to it." It seems to me (not my original idea,) that our language will have to evolve to better describe emotion. After all, the depth of our regular response to the question, "How are you doing today?" typically lands somewhere between great and okay.

Great video on extreme innovation and tech moving faster than culture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAdGvbU1B58&t=1462s

The importance of emotion is often lost in a world where technology saves the most labor, but ultimately the emotional world is what makes us human. I believe there's some deeper implications about the importance of connection to emotion and the irrational there that I'll leave alone for now.

So, why do we talk so much? Share so much? Why is it direly important to share your experiences and listen to others? It is important because it is the basis of understanding. There is a magical property to lived experience. It makes real the sage wisdom of the prophets and the gurus.

It is only through more experience that you can grow, lead, and essentially put your life together. Try applying for CEO of any company without experience. Try being the preacher at your church without any experience. Try telling someone how to raise their kid or run a business without any experience. You see my point.

The importance of sharing your experiences is it provides a road map for someone who looks up to. Think about how many people have lived in New York City their whole lives that don't even know that the night sky has stars. Think about the artist that doesn't know they can make an honest living selling their art online. Think about the hypnotized nightly news watcher that doesn't know that we're living in the safest time to be alive.

My point is ultimately that our image of the world is shaped by our experiences and stories we've collected from others. The more we share our thoughts the more we can expand the collective worldview, and collectively come to grips with the bad ideas that many of us take for granted. Think of sharing authentic thoughts and takes on an experience as therapy for the collective human mind (or at least one level below the collective in the culture you exist in).

My point is ultimately that our image of the world is shaped by our experiences and stories we've collected from others. The more we share our thoughts the more we can expand the collective worldview, and collectively come to grips with the bad ideas that many of us take for granted. Think of sharing authentic thoughts and takes on an experience as therapy for the collective human mind (or at least one level below the collective in the culture you exist in).

Aren't we already doing this? What should we change? Candor. We need more thoughtful candor and honesty. Slowly, the most honest among us are gaining social power and currency, and they should. We need to be honest ultimately with ourselves, and then externalize it to those around us.

I am not perfect. I procrastinate too much. I also have impulsive behavior that hurts me from eating too much to taking trips I feel like I don't deserve and feel like I can't afford. I've been catching myself being judgemental more than I put off, and I have more debt than I'm currently comfortable with.

Honestly, with exception of the eating and judgment, my "spontaneity" (the positive side of the impulsiveness) and my affinity for risk and adventure (the positive side of my debt) are some of my favorite traits about myself. This is key, you have to find a way to love yourself. If you exhibit behaviors you can't learn to love, you may be being influenced by someone else's traits in your environment. You will likely have to leave.

So why should you, just a regular person, share your truth? You shouldn't. You should share your true experience. Because just like you're reading this, someone who looks up to you may change their life forever because of your story. Even if everyone influences one life, we can all evolve our emotional language, more quickly.

What experiences do you take as granted? What mindsets that you've earned to you take as "common sense"? What is an imperfection that people probably don't know about you that would really show those around you that they can accomplish what you've accomplished?

Last but not least, listening. I hope you don't need proof for the impact of listening, but listening and being honest with yourself go hand in hand. The person who is self aware of their feelings, dreams, and shortcomings will be much more open to finding common ground with someone they disagree with. Why? The person who needs to win is usually hiding something, maybe even from themselves (take it from an extremely competitive person.)

Truly, if you feel the urge to share, honestly and with candor, you must also take it upon yourself to listen and see other perspectives. This doesn't mean you have to dissolve in the endless ocean of emotion and perspective, but it does mean fashioning a boat and occasionally vacationing from your island.

Introduction

Hi there. Do you find yourself looking for greener pastures? Maybe striving for better in an attempt to generate sufficient purpose in our modern machine world? Me too. The issues & opportunities ahead of humanity are at an all time interesting level, and I’d like to explore and in some cases create its potentials with you.

What I hope to explore with you is self improvement, optimization, and I guess actualization is pretty much the implication for those of you familiar with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. By seeking to be actualized (weird collection of words to type), my hope is to make valuable connections in the fields of environment, business, politics, psychology, biology, and philosophy. I think I’m good at a couple things: Making unique connections. Telling stories.

I think the most interesting and important breakthroughs from 2020 to 2050 will be in the fields of music, psychedelics, technology, and politics. Let’s rediscover our humanness before it gets taken away from us.