Read on Twitter
Every difficult thing that takes time has a growth curve similar to body-building. Skill accumulation for piano, or understanding a subject, etc... all grow in the same way you build muscle.
You have to work a part of your brain to exhaustion. You can "feel" when your brain is really moving vs when it's just memorizing stuff in a zombie state. Growth will be slow but steady. Tracking every day isn't very beneficial. You don't just "get it" instantly.
Growth peters off too. The reason most people don't have a six pack is because at a certain point the discipline required is too much. You reach your "good enough"
In order to further growth you have to actively seek out ways to push yourselves. The main enemy is you. You have to care more than you don't care in order to do something. Otherwise the "don't care" wins and you push the snooze alarm.
If A-students have a main weakness it's this. They haven't experience a feeling of real growth in 'power' and the time it takes to build something real.
E.g. smart student/professor who is brilliant but can't run a business because they don't how to push past their personal limitations on discomfort. A 'nerd' is someone who hasn't pushed back their personal discomfort to talking to girls, something even teens can do.
Arrested development is when we're unwilling to push ourselves anymore and start looking for weapons. Instead of improving body and mind we look for better armour, sword, and knowledge(spells?).
An example for piano. When you're practicing a sequence it's very easy for your fingers to just go "blahe" and randomly smash down.
You have to consciously untangle that 'blah' moment into separate moments in time. This untangling process feels like slow motion. You feel each press as a distinct even. It's very tiring to focus so finely.
After a round of practicing you "burn" the memories into your mind. New growth starts growing. You have to continuously burn the right paths until the new growth fully bridges.
That then becomes 'muscle' memory. It reaches a stage where you mind doesn't have to and often even forgets how to consciously tokenize. It's delegated completely to the muscles.
The feeling of 'burning' is very tangible. It's the feeling after a day at disneyland or an exciting trip. You feel "burned" out and electrified but so tired and fall asleep yet feeling "every day should be like this"
Knowledge is the weapon of the mind. A mind that is knowledgeable may not be very skillful. Knowledge is sought as a shortcut just as weapons are.
With too much knowledge overgrowth the mind can't really burn a path from end to end. The 'nerd' ends up collecting different types of weapons instead of learning how to use them.
He sits there presiding over a billion dollars worth of 'guns' but wonders why he is not as powerful as an army. It's the general who inspires others to pick up their guns and use them who really make change in the world (for better or for worse)
Someone who only knows a bunch of trivia or seems to collect knowledge only for the sake of it is like a gun nut owning multiple assault rifles and other weapons. You're impressed and intimidated but also think the guy is somewhat crazy.
He mistakes the owning to the using. He thinks he grows powerful but only grows more burdened and encumbered by all the tools he has to learn and keep track of.
With too much knowledge you're like a chef with 100 different tools. A specialized apple peeler, pineapple corer, etc... You spend so much time maintaining, cleaning, keeping track of your tools life becomes work.
Unlike the chef who does everything with just a knife. He overall has a 'holistic' feel to his actions unlike the other chef whose 'flow' is broken by the introduction of different tools in the workflow.
The trope of some inefficient but traditional way of doing things producing something superior has this truth to it. Japanese culture has a ton of this.
It's true because adhering to a script/tradition allows you to tap into the soul of the world. It's false because going through the motions of a story doesn't necessarily bring the story to life. Sometimes that same story exists in the now as a new form of technology.
Life behaves in a circular way where we're constantly discovering old truth precisely because the present and future can only be forged via a chain of truths rediscovering itself in the future.
This is why going into the future is like going into the past. It's why we think our ancestors may have had some secret "magic" energy that is just as potent as the scientific energy from out sci-fi universes.
Back on topic...
Something becomes 'whole' when it becomes 'bridged'. and things can only become bridged once plank at a time.
Something becomes 'whole' when it becomes 'bridged'. and things can only become bridged once plank at a time.
You have to go plank from plank. You can't just skip the difficult parts. That creates 'false' wholeness.
E.g. true understanding leads to loving tolerance but tolerance with only partial understanding leads to build up of resentment.
E.g. true understanding leads to loving tolerance but tolerance with only partial understanding leads to build up of resentment.
