christweedt

I’m planning on using this platform to record my meditations for the day. I’m happy to hear your thoughts and discuss them with you, but plz note that posting meditations here doesn’t mean I believe or endorse them

in a different place with different prices. And perhaps affections that have been shaped to the various places to which we’ve been allotted. But the human predicament is the same.

As I walk in LA next to houses half the size of mine, but eight times the price, children are running, trying to beat their mile time. Parents are talking about their kids schooling. Children are dating, participating in or leaving the faith. Our concerns are all the same, but…

Whatever infallibility is, it needs to be compatible with the infallible source issuing riddles that the source knows the recipients will consistently get incorrect, or statements that the source knows people will consistently interpret incorrectly.

Kids test their physical boundaries and develop physical resilience through rough play in a safe environment. Kids test their emotional boundaries and develop emotional resilience through mockery and insults in a safe environment.

With respect to the future, aspiration. With respect to the present, contentment.

Many moves in academia are not cited, deliberately. E.g. creating a new but non-worthwhile topic for discussion, or doing so without argumentation.

Levels of philosophical scholarship, from superficial to deep: 1. Objecting to extant views 2. Piecing together argumentation across an entire topic, citing extant views 3. Arguing for a new view in a topic 4. Creating a new and worthwhile topic for discussion, with arguments

@resistancemoney Yes! Perhaps children know this instinctively and so tend to ask us for it as it’s the most precious resource. “Dad, look at this!” “Dad, are you ready?”

@christweedt In truth attention is the most scarce resource we have and the most precious gift.

Changes in perceptions of politeness concerning attention is fascinating to me. Our (older) generation takes it to be polite to give others attention as a show of respect. The younger generation thinks the opposite...

To reduce this value to “soft skills” is to way undersell the value that a LA major provides for a person, intrinsically and instrumentally.

and perhaps this provided value looks different depending on the person. It’s not just these weak “soft skills.” But the fact is, if you get a LA major, you’ll provide value in some way or other! …

The instrumental value of the liberal arts can, and in some cases should, be advertised. For example, it’s good to tell people that businesses are hiring Philosophy majors, along with stats and charts to prove it! My biggest issue is with the “soft skills” language. …

Recusing oneself via headphones and one’s phone is a way of enabling others to focus attention as they determine without rudely denying others’ bid for attention.

They know that giving people their attention entails a bid for the attention of the recipient, and they take it to be polite not to made a demand/bid for the attention of others. …

The smartest English departments will double down on ensuring their students have read long arduous books, numerous a semester. They’ll have reading labs where students read & take physical notes for 3 hours at a time. They advertise their students can concentrate for hours.

Same for most education and jobs today.

“Even though initially someone might seem absurd to us if they structured their lives around collecting saucers of mud, over time this absurdity might fade away, and we might just come to take it for granted that this is the sort of thing that people happen to pursue.” Grimm 2016