The strongest idea here is that attention is not merely a productivity tool. It is an authorship decision.
A deeply intellectual life is not built by consuming more ideas, but by protecting enough attention to wrestle with a few of them until they actually change how you see.
Depth may indeed be the new moat. More importantly, it may be the only defense against living a life assembled by other people’s priorities.
Craig, the distinction between being informed and understanding really struck me.
That said, I think AI is a tool that can make surface-level thinking almost effortless and, if used differently, become a remarkably good thinking partner. Perhaps the real discipline isn’t avoiding tools that make thinking easier, but knowing when they are helping or harming our thinking.
First of all, make sure you put "terrified, horrified, scared shitless," or some other fearmongering reference in the title or subtitle to get people to read it.
Mission accomplished.
Otherwise, great article. I'm not worried about the collective, because the "one man, one vote" collective has been on a downward spiral since the end of WWII. We've always been a collectively dumb country, meaning that a large percentage of us don't read, don't care to learn, embrace conspiracy theories, and so on.
A lot of that has to do with the specific strategies our corporate-political-industrial-military-educational complex has wrought during the last 80 years or so. Teach 'em just enough to allow them to work and serve the state. Don't increase wages significantly, and allow the wealthy to pay fewer taxes, etc. etc.
And unfortunately, too many people have bought into it. We had a surge of optimism when we coalesced around a common cause - Vietnam lies, civil rights abuses, nascent LGBTQ rights protests, women emerging, Latino causes - in the late 1960's. We won some gains, but the country lost interest after Watergate and nothing was really accomplished, so the Right stepped in and employed the start of their decades-long, well-though-out-and-conceived strategy of getting conservative voices and minds in all the top jobs in government, in law and order circles, and in corporations.
Mission accomplished.
We fought in the streets in the late '60s, early '70s, and now we're fighting amongst ourselves on social media, which the powers-that-be want.
We have more potential intellectualizing today than ever before, but what's lacking in the action part.
The strongest idea here is that attention is not merely a productivity tool. It is an authorship decision.
A deeply intellectual life is not built by consuming more ideas, but by protecting enough attention to wrestle with a few of them until they actually change how you see.
Depth may indeed be the new moat. More importantly, it may be the only defense against living a life assembled by other people’s priorities.
Craig, the distinction between being informed and understanding really struck me.
That said, I think AI is a tool that can make surface-level thinking almost effortless and, if used differently, become a remarkably good thinking partner. Perhaps the real discipline isn’t avoiding tools that make thinking easier, but knowing when they are helping or harming our thinking.
First of all, make sure you put "terrified, horrified, scared shitless," or some other fearmongering reference in the title or subtitle to get people to read it.
Mission accomplished.
Otherwise, great article. I'm not worried about the collective, because the "one man, one vote" collective has been on a downward spiral since the end of WWII. We've always been a collectively dumb country, meaning that a large percentage of us don't read, don't care to learn, embrace conspiracy theories, and so on.
A lot of that has to do with the specific strategies our corporate-political-industrial-military-educational complex has wrought during the last 80 years or so. Teach 'em just enough to allow them to work and serve the state. Don't increase wages significantly, and allow the wealthy to pay fewer taxes, etc. etc.
And unfortunately, too many people have bought into it. We had a surge of optimism when we coalesced around a common cause - Vietnam lies, civil rights abuses, nascent LGBTQ rights protests, women emerging, Latino causes - in the late 1960's. We won some gains, but the country lost interest after Watergate and nothing was really accomplished, so the Right stepped in and employed the start of their decades-long, well-though-out-and-conceived strategy of getting conservative voices and minds in all the top jobs in government, in law and order circles, and in corporations.
Mission accomplished.
We fought in the streets in the late '60s, early '70s, and now we're fighting amongst ourselves on social media, which the powers-that-be want.
We have more potential intellectualizing today than ever before, but what's lacking in the action part.
Great piece! A very insightful read.