Slow Havamal: 63

The 63rd verse says that to be wise, you must both ask questions and answer them wisely; and that a secret trusted to one person may last, but if two people know, everyone else will, too.

Initially, there seem to be two distinct halves to this verse, with little to link them. In the first, we learn that part of being wise is knowing how to ask and answer wisely—itself, a two-part formula. The search for wisdom begins with the question. If I think I have all the answers, if everything seems to add up, I will never ask, and never learn. Learning, in essence, is change that maps better to the world of experience. I reckon the sequence goes something like this: I notice a discrepancy, or an event that doesn’t add up with the wisdom I currently have; I formulate a question (to the right person) designed to shed light on the confusing aspects; I receive an answer, and reformulate my worldview to make sense of such things.( Read more... )

Blog Roundup: Ancient Sea Kings

Here are a few recent highlights from my new blog, AncientSeaKings.com.

How to (Do a Hell of a Lot More Than) Think for Yourself: Series

These are the opening salvos of what I intend to be a very long essay series, complete with practical exercises, that seeks to shed light on the difficulty of what I call living authentically, which includes independent thinking. Each essay after the intro will include a practical measure to train some ability that commonly trips people up. So far, I only have the intro and the first essay, but I expect to release them at about a biweekly cadence. As a teaser, the first three essays all deal with the basics of how we form meaning through the semiotic signs of Charles S. Peirce. Future installments will go into detail on many other things, such as ternary thinking, logical fallacies, and the all-important difficulty of knowing what you SHOULD do but being unable to overcome your emotions and habits.

Speed as a Class Signal

Instead of book reviews, I like to post interesting thought trains that I found via a certain work. This one comes from Ivan Illich.

Education as Responsibility

And this one comes from E,.F. Schumacher.