lpcrealmadrid

Admittedly, I wrote this post 3 years ago when I was seeking clarity around disagreement during a wild time. Re-reading it now, in yet another wild time (3 years "wiser" aka having learned how to change a diaper or two), I missed out on compassion for those who are offended. Like you said, if it's important to find a mutual way forward, then it is also worth addressing the fears + emotional lives of those that are offended.

1. I agree, during debate, put the offense monster to the side.

2. In an effort to spare words, I compressed the Galileo story into something that missed important details. My bad. My understanding of the saga was that many members of the Church did engage with good faith in the emerging science of the time. What happened was mostly a political spat (though I still think there was an element of "offense" involved).

Question away! If I don’t stick the landing on the follow-up email (which I’m still working on - original email got too long hence the truncation), you can say that you were right ;)

Thanks for your comment, not a fan of the snark but the content is great.

Really hope you enjoy it :)

https://www.shinzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/AnOutline...

We have to earn the generalist label - the generalist has his own form of specialization.

From what I’ve seen, the successful generalist’s command over the basics is so strong that you wonder why they never specialized deeper. The generalist has a good mental map of the territory and solves problems very proficiently, though perhaps not as quickly or rigorously as someone more specialized in a specific sliver of the problem domain.

(anecdotal from my own journey learning how to program and initially feeling frustrated by the lack of market for generalists)

My understanding is that many spiritual traditions have historically viewed psychedelics as ego’s way of “grasping” for enlightenment, for many before they are prepared for what they may experience.

A “bad trip” can leave someone in a state of confusion that they aren’t quite prepared to deal with.

I’m all for content marketing like this but if your competency is creating culture through design at least make sure the reading experience isn’t painful

Money is a useful way to buy accountability for your goals. Most of what you need to know is already out there for free, it's just really easy to get discouraged or not scope your goals well enough.

Three (free) resources:

- https://www.theodinproject.com/

- https://teachyourselfcs.com/

- https://github.com/danistefanovic/build-your-own-x

Stuff you gotta pay for:

- https://www.newco.app/bootcamp

- https://lambdaschool.com/

Just a few here to get you started. Good luck! You got this.

The “Hippo” irony comes from a story from the incredible Ernesto Sirolli:

“SIROLLI: It was a project where we Italians decided to teach Zambian people how to grow food. So we arrived there with Italian seeds in southern Zambia in this absolutely magnificent valley going down to the Zambezi River. And we taught the local people how to grow Italian tomatoes and zucchini. And of course, the local people had absolutely no interest in doing that so we paid them to come and work, and sometimes they would show up. And we were amazed that the local people in such fertile valley, would not have any agriculture. But instead of asking them how come they were not growing anything, we simply said, thank God we're here. Just in the nick of time to save the Zambian people from starvation.

And of course, everything in Africa grew beautifully and we had these magnificent tomatoes. In Italy, a tomato would grow to this size. In Zambia, to this size. And we were telling the Zambians, look how easy agriculture is. When the tomatoes were nice and ripe and red, overnight, some 200 hippos came up from the river and they ate everything. And we said to the Zambians, my God, the hippos. And the Zambians said, yes, that's why we have no agriculture here. Why didn't you tell us? You never asked. I thought it was only us Italian's blundering around Africa, but then I saw what the Americans were doing, what the English were doing, what the French were doing. And after seeing what they were doing, I became quite proud of our project in Zambia because, you see, at least we fed the hippos.”

The ways in which we organize and make sense of the world calcify with the repetition of certain memes.

The idea at least is that psychedelics add entropy to this habituation. Perhaps this itself causes a lot of trouble for people (like myself) who think they have this world figured out in a significant way, only to start seeing God/Satan/Hades and throw that all up in the air.

Going on that journey without an experienced guide would be the dangerous part methinks (Pollan discusses this in another podcast he was a guest on recently)