Afterword to The Mind Shifting Power of Questions

You are not going to believe this.

I started this post on Saturday. I took my kid to boxing class. That gives me one hour to write in a coffee shop. I kicked it off and when I was already 1.000 words 😱 into the first section, First Principles Thinking, I thought: “Man, this is getting out of control”. Then I decided to restart it with a very succinct summary of the 3 ways and perhaps turn it into a series of posts.

Yes, this was supposed to be a very succinct version of the post. 😐

For whatever reason, the topic touches a nerve and stimulates a thousand references that I connect with it.

In the end, these posts are too long.

In a way, I find myself trapped between a millenial curiosity, and a gen-x format—the blog post. The generational gap between content and format can either develop in an interesting proposal or one that satisfies no one.

The interesting proposal comes from making the posts as visual an experience as possible. I believe there’s room to continue pushing that boundary. But I can’t help feeling that this medium is obsolete and I should be focusing on crafting instagram stories instead.

That just might be my question, what the hell:

How might I make blog posts interesting in the age of short form video?

I promised an MVP for an archive page. I included the link at the bottom of the page, in the footer. It's an interesting feeling when you see your work piling up on size. I've always wanted to create non-linear navigation systems for my pages, but never really cracked the model. I will surrender again to the simple convenience of an index.

This week I crafted a lovely diagram (I hope you agree!). What makes it lovely is the beautiful color palette that I shamelssly stole from Luke Pearson’s Hilda comics.

The comic books and the TV series (Netflix) are a wonderful reference for the whole family.

The Abstraction Stack™ and the Tangible Reality™ are trademarked (😜) and could make a comeback in the 1.000 word epic I drafted about just First Principles Thinking.

I should start creating a glossary of all the high level abstraction bullshit I create. Talk about practicing what you preach!

Having said this, the Agile Adoption Drama™ do deserve the trademark and even an acronym if you push me… AAD. It should be considered an organizational mental illness and have a protocol and a prescription, administered by a certified coach, of course.

Don’t you like the Kylie’s—from Fantanstic Mr. Fox—dumb face? He’s not following. Still better than any emoji I could find.

I struggled to make the background gradient of the bullshit 💩 diagram… I could not find one that worked, so I reverted to the one gradient to rule them all… that from the album Awake by Tycho:

But I feel I’ve desecrated it. It doesn’t really work that well. I’ve misused it. The Lord of electronic music have mercy on my soul! 🙏

The 2 references in the 3rd section, The One Thing in Your Head, are well worth your time. Both the article by Paul Graham and Josh Waitzkin’s book 📖 are essential reading.

I was introduced to Zen koans thanks to Henry Shukman in his series at Waking Up. Zen koans are exactly what I claim for questions: magic spells 🪄 that trigger areas of our consciousness. Zen koans operate at a deeper level, though—or so Zen masters claim—and have the capacity to provoke a sudden awakening in us. Very difficult to discuss these ideas without relying on too many HLAs, so I’m going to leave it here. Some stuff can only be experienced, not talked through.

There’s nothing I can add on Kant’s 3 questions that can improve on the depth of reading—and reflecting on—them.

Finding them was a gift 🎁 I wanted to pass on.

See you guys next week 👋!