
## The Constant Battle Against Perfectionism

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I just finished watching an inspiring video about the opportunity that awaits those who just get started. It’s the third reminder I’ve come across in the past week. It seems like a sign, and it ignites this desire within me to write a piece about it. *Just getting started*. Before I can even get my footing, my arch-enemy, perfectionism steps on the field.

He brings the usual artillery — those all-consuming feelings of inadequacy and shame. Will this next idea die an early death like so many that have come before it? Will it be yet another casualty, another tombstone in my graveyard of abandoned ideas?

Next, I start playing out what it would look like *if* I even get around to publishing the piece — and I can’t decide what’s worse: the deafening silence of nobody noticing or caring, or the humiliating yell from the rafters of the comment section, exclaiming “Lame!” or “You suck!”

This fear paralyzes me. I start questioning whether it’s worth it to even try.

Perfectionism to me is telling myself that I care *so* deeply about the quality of my work. But the reality behind it is, I’m just terrified of other people’s judgment.

I think to myself, *I need to find a way through this.* So, I decided it was time to take a field trip. Time to get inspired. Maybe that will free me from this rut.

## A Trip to the Barnes

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  _The Barnes Foundation, Exterior_

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Next time you’re in Philadelphia, there is a museum that I recommend visiting, called The Barnes Foundation. It’s a striking collection of over 900 artworks from notable late 19th, early 20th century artists like Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse, Picasso, and van Gogh.

The Barnes arranges its collection in “ensembles,” highlighting the visual relationships between the pieces. It invites the observer to explore connections between the pieces such as a color, line, and space, rather than focusing on the specific artists or their respective historical period. It really is unlike any traditional museum you’ll have been to before.

Taking the advice I’d given to countless other people, I decided to visit The Barnes during my extended layover in Philadelphia. So I made the trek from Old City to the stark building housing quaint art from a bygone era.

As I walked through the different rooms, taking in the litany of pastels coming from the copious collections of Impressionist-era art, there was one room in particular that I was struck by. But it wasn’t for the reason you might expect.

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<MainColumn image='/images/get-started/barnes-ensemble.jpg' height={761} width ={1024} caption="Room 10, West Wall"/>

In the room, there was a wall full of rudimentary sketches, still lifes, and portraits. I remember thinking to myself, “maybe I’m missing something, but what are pieces like *this* doing in such a renowned museum like this?”

Confused but intrigued, I approached the wall. I started seeing plaques with the same names over and over again. *Picasso*. *Matisse*. This art didn’t seem to match the artistic styles or the caliber of what I knew these artists to be able to create.

Then came the revelation. These distinguished artists didn’t become who they are through one defining work. And not all of their work was groundbreaking, or even necessarily impressive in terms of technical execution. *What they did was get started, keep going, and keep refining their craft. And through these efforts they figured out their unique style.*

Initially they might have done seemingly more basic work, or they might have imitated their peers and precursors. But they didn’t stop. They kept making art. They kept building upon their learnings. And they ended up creating massive bodies of work, and countless masterpieces.

## The Taste Gap

This difference between what I saw at the Barnes and what I knew these artists had the potential to be able to create, it reminded me of how Ira Glass famously articulated this journey of exploration, experimentation, and iteration in what has been termed “the taste gap”:

> All of us who do creative work...we get into it because we have good taste. But it’s like there’s a gap…for the first couple years that you’re making stuff, what you’re making isn’t so good. It’s trying to be good, it has ambition to be good, but it’s not quite that good. But your taste — the thing that got you into the game — your taste is still killer, and your taste is good enough that you can tell that what you’re making is kind of a disappointment to you.
>
> **It’s only by actually going through a volume of work that you are actually going to catch up and close that gap.** And the work you’re making will be as good as your ambitions. It’s gonna take you a while — it’s normal to take a while. And you just have to fight your way through that.

We shouldn’t wait until we’ve reached a certain level and *then* take action. Instead, we reach that certain level *by* taking action.

Tim Urban has written more than ninety blog posts over ten years, leading to having his own TED talk, interviewing Elon Musk, and self-publishing a book. David Foster Wallace wrote thirty-plus short stories and essays alongside his epic tome, Infinite Jest.

The taste gap serves as a constant reminder to *me* that these writers — who have fundamentally changed how I perceive the world — had to start somewhere. That I need to start somewhere. That mastery of *any* domain is a direct result of focused repetition.

## Quantity Leads to Quality

There was another well-known parable, “art by the pound,” from the book *Art & Fear*, that further illustrates the payoff of taking initiative and being consistent:

> [A] ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality.
>
> His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pound pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot — albeit a perfect one — to get an “A”.
>
> Well, grading time came, and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that **while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work – and learning from their mistakes — the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.**

There is no better example illustrating this process of progression through iteration than that of Picasso’s series of lithographs called, *The Bull*.

He starts with a typical quick sketch of a bull, that then transforms into a more exaggerated almost mythical-looking beast. But half-way through the series, we begin to see him pare it down into abstract and stylized form. The final lithograph is a simple line drawing that simultaneously captures the essence of the bull and expresses Picasso’s unique artistic style.

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## Take Imperfect Action

You can keep waiting for opportunities. Keep waiting for the perfect time to get started. Or you can create your own opportunity. You can commit to sitting down and writing for 5 minutes. And day-by-day, continue to build on this.

You can accept that you will be afraid, you may get stuck, others may judge you, and that what you make (at least initially) might not be as good as you’d like it to be.

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“**There is knowledge within you that is precious and valuable, and that people need.** They need it. It would change their lives. it would change the course of their career. It would change their relationships. It would change their health. If they only knew what you knew.” - Tiago Forte

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But you can also see the upside. That putting yourself out there and taking that imperfect action builds connections beyond what you create, and inspires others in ways that you never could have expected.

*After all, this essay started out as a spark of inspiration in my head. Through persistence and iterance, I’ve breathed life into it, fanned the flame. And now you’re reading it. And we’ve formed a connection that we didn’t have before.*


This is a story about starting. About creating your own opportunities. About pushing through fear and taking imperfect action. It's about a series of patterns that I came across,  all telling me, “Just get started. Keep going. Keep creating. Keep sharing. The rest will work itself out.“

Just Get Started (Quantity Leads to Quality)


<MainColumn image='/images/eeaao/eeaao-yeoh.jpg' height={504} width ={1200} caption="Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All at Once" />

With the 95th Oscars right around the corner, and Everything Everywhere All At Once (EEAAO) [breaking records](https://variety.com/2023/film/actors/everything-everywhere-breaks-record-most-wins-sag-awards-a24-1235536654/) at the Screen Actors Guild Awards last month, I was reminded of a couple recent interviews where the actors discussed *what it was about the atmosphere that their directors created that encouraged the cast and crew to do their best work*.

Particularly in EEAAO's case — how a low-budget, surrealist sci-fi (and it's cast) have become the front-runner for several of the top Oscar prizes.

It made me think about **the delicate nature of creativity**, but more importantly, what can be **accomplished collectively and individually** in a **safe environment** where **experimentation and vulnerability are encouraged**.

> The worst enemy of creativity is self-doubt. - Sylvia Plath

As Steve Jobs once said: "[ideas] begin as fragile, barely formed thoughts, so easily missed, so easily compromised, so easily just squished."

As I try to start publishing more consistently again, I can hear that voice of self-doubt whispering in my ear, "creating in isolation is lonely, sharing it with the world is scary, and you should just give up because nobody cares" — these interviews reminded me that **creativity does not happen in a vacuum**. That human creativity thrives within a nourishing community.

My Internet friend Salman [explains this vulnerability struggle](https://salman.io/blog/low-stakes-strong-takes/) eloquently:

> You imagined the inevitable moment when you would *dip the toes of your little creation into the vast ocean of the internet, helplessly watching its struggling strokes under the critical gaze of the world's eye* as you completed the obligatory rituals, trumpeting its arrival on the channels of social media.
>
> *Would it sink at once, dying an invisible death, mourned only in your memories?*
>
> *Would it swim far enough to surpass the thrashing waves of algorithmic entry, and onto the judging jaws of trolling piranhas?*

## The Most Dangerous Myth About Creativity: The "Lone Genius"

If creativity is such a delicate act, and we want to encourage others to create as a way to explore who they are, and who they are in relation to others, then there couldn't be a more dangerous myth than that of the lone genius.

In [Show Your Work](https://austinkleon.com/show-your-work/), author Austin Kleon writes:

> If you believe in the lone genius myth, creativity is an antisocial act, performed by only a few great figures, mostly dead men with names like Mozart, Einstein, or Picasso. The rest of us are left to stand around and gawk in awe at their achievements.

But then Kleon suggests we pursue a healthier alternative, finding what musician Brian Eno calls a "**scenius**":

> Under this model, **great ideas are often birthed by a group of creative individuals**—artists, curators, thinkers, theorists, and other tastemakers—who make up **an "ecology of talent."**
>
> Many of the people who we think of as lone geniuses were actually part of **"a whole scene of people who were supporting each other, looking at each other's work, copying from each other, stealing ideas, and contributing ideas."**
>
> Being a valuable part of a scenius is [then] about what you have to contribute—**the ideas you share, the quality of the connections you make, and the conversations you start.**

The essence of art is living and sharing our stories. And through this human expression, we can connect, encourage, and inspire others. Which brings me back to my earlier interview examples.

## Communities Cultivating Creativity in Cinema

### The EEAAO Cast on Working with "the Daniels"

EEAAO is *philosophy disguised as fiction*. The absurdity and outlandishness of the movie — the conceit of a multiverse, the pyrotechnics, the cinematic flourishing — all serve as a way to help the audience let our guard down so we can reflect on the underlying question that the movie asks us: ‌**how do we pay attention to the ones we love when the universe is trying to take that attention away from them?**

<MainColumn image='/images/eeaao/eeaao-cast-daniels.jpg' height={800} width ={1200} caption="The cast of Everything Everywhere All at Once" />

The actors in a film are the vessel for its script. And to get *the best* from the actors requires a certain level of vulnerability — them connecting with themselves, each other, the directors, and the audience. That connection to self and others requires vulnerability. That vulnerability requires a safe space to allow people to feel like they won't be judged or rejected. And from what the actors [have said](https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=81&v=A7DgDpURLRY&feature=youtu.be), the set of EEAAO was very much that:

> The Daniels are **really good with hearing their actors**' thoughts or feedback. It is very much a **collaborative process**.
>
> **Every scene has been thought out and composed** and **yet [they] allow you to play**. They have **created a situation** where **everybody should be more friendly and more creative**. There's a real feeling of kindness — **it's very intentional the way that everyone is cultivating a workspace that is full of joy**.

### Austin Butler on Working with Quentin Tarantino

I was similarly struck by something Austin Butler said about working with Quentin Tarantino in a recent [Hot Ones interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=623&v=XgmTqdPd34Y&feature=youtu.be).

Quentin Tarantino needs no introduction. He's a director with a distinct cinematic signature that puts him among the likes of Michel Gondry, Wes Anderson, or Lars von Trier. But what Butler said in his conversation with Sean Evans was a wonderful reminder that making movie magic "takes a village":

> Sean Evans: Is it true that Quentin Tarantino will oftentimes request another take even if he has everything that he needs just because making movies kicks ass?
>
> Austin Butler: Yeah [...] it's really awesome when you're on set the first time [...] and he says, **"okay we got it, but we're gonna do one more. You know why?"** And the entire crew screams **"because we love making movies!"**
>
> And the first time you're there you kind of go "oh you're not in on it?" and so Brad and Leo, everybody's like "because we love making movies!"
>
> There are sets that are so sterile, there are sets where there's no joy, there are sets where people are just at a job, and **you're trying to make something that you're gonna give to the world** and **with Quentin** that was so cool because **it just changes the atoms in the room** and then the next time that "we love making movies" happens, now you're in on it. So **every new crew member or actor, whoever, then suddenly they're a part of the tribe** at that point saying "we love making movies!"

## To Create is to Connect

Serendipity on the internet only happens when we share our ideas with the world. Every word, tweet, or essay we write is [a search query to find our people](https://escapingflatland.substack.com/p/search-query) — a signal to others about what is meaningful to us, and about how we want to connect.

For some, the fear of rejection (or worse apathy) outweighs the potential rewards of connection. Luckily, there are burgeoning communities (like Write of Passage) and platforms (like Substack) that are hopefully going to lay the groundwork for what it means to create, connect, and grow (individually and collectively) in the Internet age.

As the novelist Henry Miller once said, "part of the act of creating is in discovering your own kind." And if you really think about it, the Internet is just a bunch of sceniuses divorced of physical geography, and devoid of traditional gatekeepers. The opportunity is there for those who grasp it — to connect, to create, to express, to grow, to inspire.

*Create things. Discover yourself. Find the others.*


How a couple of recent movie interviews reminded me what can be accomplished collectively and individually in a safe environment where experimentation and vulnerability are encouraged.

Cultivating Collective Creativity


<MainColumn image='/images/internet-friends-illustration.png' height={1117} width ={1490} caption="Illustration of finding your people online" />

_Background: I worked with fellow prose-wrangler, Michael Dean (recently anointed Editor-in-Chef at Write of Passage) to develop this piece to be featured on the Write of Passage site._

Elaborating on my [previous essay](https://itsjustmath.net/internet-friends) about how I counterintuitively made more friends during the pandemic, this new piece attempts to convince you that—in this age of increasing isolation and hyper-individualism—the internet is the ultimate resource for finding that social connection you may be longing for.

Drawing a parallel between the chaos and overstimulation I was confronted with when traveling to a new country and engaging on the internet while sheltering in place during the pandemic, **the essay proposes finding guides to help navigate new places (physical or digital) because they allow you to focus on the quality of your experience without getting overwhelmed.**

**Ultimately by shrinking the size of these new places, these guides enable you to find the like-minded people that gravitate around them.**

My hope is to portray the power and potency of interactions between people with shared passions and curiosities and to convince you that making friends on the internet is a worthwhile pursuit.

> I found that shared curiosities broke down the traditional barriers you would expect to have in digital interactions with people you have never met IRL. It turns out that there’s much more potency to an interaction with somebody who has the same weirdly specific interests as you, and it’s much easier to build rapport than you’d expect
>
> The willingness to help others, to freely share information and advice, to give time selflessly – it rekindled my hope that the Internet could be the grand, unifying platform that I had envisioned all those years ago when I first got introduced to online social networks.

I end the essay with a framework for pinpointing your own passions and curiosities and finding guides in those domains. With the caveat that the key to connection and flourishing within any of these communities is participation, vulnerability, and **taking bold action**.

> *Find the others*, and let the magical force of the Internet introduce you to the people who might just become your best friends, your colleagues, maybe even your life partner.

[Read the essay](https://writeofpassage.school/2022/08/26/how-to-make-friends-on-the-internet/)

There is a special kind of magic that happens when you find your people online. This essay explores how to find your people on the internet and why it's worth the effort.

How to Make Friends on the Internet


As a millennial, I was raised online. As a shy, sheltered, lonely kid, the internet provided me with the friendship, support, and the human connection I was lacking in real life. Through online chats like AOL instant messenger I was able to develop much needed social skills. Through social media like Myspace I found people with similar interests to my own, and started to get an idea of what healthy human interactions could look like.

As I matured into an adult, and the internet became more technocratic, capitalistic, cannibalistic, and polarizing, I put more and more space between it and myself. But then when the pandemic hit and we were told to shelter in place, I called upon my past (positive) experience of following my curiosity, taking a leap of faith, and finding and engaging with strangers online.

What happened over the next 18 months surprised even me. I started to make new friends, more friends than I had at the start of the pandemic. Quality friends that were passionate about the same things I was.

## Lost, Then Found

It wasn't all sunshine and lollipops though. My initial experience navigating the pandemic was much like my experience figuring out how to get around Tokyo on my first solo trip there.

I remember very distinctly the feelings of dread, despair, and disorientation getting off that subway in Shibuya during rush hour. I hadn’t picked up my “pocket wifi” device yet, so I didn’t have cell service. I couldn’t tell up from down, east from west. I couldn’t slow down to figure out if I was going the right way because that would disrupt the uniquely Japanese ordered-and-efficient flow of traffic at the metro station. Even worse, all of the signs were written in Japanese.

<MainColumn image='/images/yamanote-line.jpg' height={432} width ={700} />

I wished so badly that I had somebody to show me the way around, or some kind of guidebook — alas, I embraced my fate, and through trial-and-error, finally figured out where I needed to go.

Many of us felt similarly lost when the pandemic started. In addition to the incomprehensible loss of life,<SideNote id="lives-lost">1-in-5 people have lost a close friend or family member to COVID ([Source](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/23/opinion/covid-pandemic-grief.html))</SideNote> we lost those shared spaces and connections that we relied on to ground us.<SideNote id="loneliness">A recent [report](https://mcc.gse.harvard.edu/reports/loneliness-in-america) from the Harvard Graduate School of Education suggests _1-in-3_ people (_including 2-in-3 young adults_) in America felt increases in “serious loneliness” during the pandemic. A similar [study](https://www.americansurveycenter.org/research/the-state-of-american-friendship-change-challenges-and-loss/) found that (even before the pandemic) _nearly half_ of all Americans (49%) reported having fewer than three close friends</SideNote> Those shared spaces are sometimes referred to as _third places_<SideNote id="third-places">Coined by sociologist Ray Oldenburg</SideNote> — i.e. places where we spend time between home (first place) and work (second place). Sometimes called the “living room” of society, they are locations<SideNote id="tp-locations">E.g. Coffee shops, barbershops, art galleries</SideNote> where we convene to exchange ideas, have a good time, and build relationships. We were thrown into this new digital world and forced to learn how to navigate within it, alone.

The following day of my Tokyo trip, I began to find my bearings. I felt like I could go to the metro station and not be so worried I was taking the subway in the wrong direction. I had a slightly better idea of what to listen for when it was time to get off at my stop.

But I was now faced with a new problem, there were an _overwhelming_ number of things to do and places to see. How could I find the places that I’d personally be interested in seeing? Places that attract people who are curious about the same things as I was? Where would I find the third places relevant to me in Tokyo?

When you’re exploring any new place, physical or digital, you're often tasked with trying to separate the signal from the noise and find places on your frequency. In these cases it’s helpful to have a framework for unearthing the places you want to visit, or to find a reputable source that can act as a tour guide (and even provide you with a map or guide book).

## A Framework for Finding Third Places

The internet is the perfect platform for discovering _digital_ third places, places where you can develop friendships with people who have similar interests and curiosities as you. And unlike most of history, this new digital medium ensures you won’t be constrained geographically in your search. In order to find your people, you’ll have to learn: what to look for, who to ask, how to filter out the noise, and how to broadcast your interests to attract others.

Now you might be wondering:
- How did you find your tribe?
- How did you figure out what you’re interested in?
- And how did you know where to look once you did?

Using the abundance of free time afforded to me by the pandemic, I started asking myself:
- What makes me come alive when I learn or read about it?
- What fascinates me?
- What could I talk about for hours with a close friend?

For me it was:
- Exploring how to use technology to improve my life — how I can use digital tools as a _second brain_<SideNote id="second-brain">Coined by [Tiago Forte](https://fortelabs.co/)</SideNote> to offload things from my first brain, and be able to focus my energy on what’s important to me and reach my potential
- Externalizing my thoughts in writing – as a way of learning how to think better, as a medium of creative expression, as a way of creating a digital archive of my thoughts and actions

Once I figured out these areas of interest, I followed the cookie crumbs to see where they led. Just like the “places of interest" I would visit in the analog world, my journey took me to many locations in this new digital city. And at each destination I met new friends. I ventured to:

<MarginFigure id="ii-cafe" image="/images/interintellect-salon.jpg" height={919} width={1600} noWrapper={false} />

- The **Lab of Tools for Thought**<SideNote id="tft">Technology used to to augment human thought (think: bicycles for the mind)</SideNote> (featuring engineers and hackers using [Roam Research](https://twitter.com/RoamResearch), [Logseq](https://logseq.com/), [Obsidian](https://obsidian.md/))
- The **Creators Gym** (helmed by David Perell and Will Mannon of [Write of Passage](https://writeofpassage.school/))
  - Through which I met my morning (writing) workout crew, Writual
- The **[Interintellect Cafe](https://interintellect.com/)** (which is reviving the French Salon format for the 21st century)

## What Route Will You Take?

I wanted to make the most of my time in Tokyo, so I made sure to do my research beforehand and come armed with a trove of places I was interested in seeing.<MarginFigure id="tokyo-map" image="/images/tokyo-poi-map.jpg" height={498} width={1200} noWrapper={true} /> The internet was an indispensable tool as I curated this list. In addition to consulting friends who had been there before, I also found digital guidebooks created by other fellow travelers on platforms like Timeout, Atlas Obscura, Foursquare, and Yelp. I created a map of Tokyo that was uniquely mine.  Through that I found such treasures as Lion Cafe<SideNote id="lion-cafe">A century-old tranquil cafe serving coffee and tea with two-stories-tall speakers playing orchestral classical recordings.</SideNote>, Anata no Warehouse<SideNote id="anata">A dystopian-themed arcade for adults</SideNote>, the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum<SideNote id="ramen">A food-court/museum themed as 1958 Tokyo (the year instant noodles were invented)</SideNote>, and Genki Sushi<SideNote id="genki">Completely automated, conveyor belt sushi</SideNote>.

<MainColumn image='/images/japan-collage.jpg' height={1268} width ={1200} />

I took a similar trial-and-error route for finding my tribe online, and I welcome you to use the above framework to blaze your own trail, to find the points of interest on your personal map of the internet. But if you end up having trouble wading through the waters of information abundance<SideNote id="info-abundance"> This concept is borrowed from David Perell’s piece on [The Paradox of Abundance](https://twitter.com/david_perell/status/1478463462485344261)</SideNote> I recommend finding a tour guide, a curator, to help you navigate the current.

> "What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured." - Kurt Vonnegut

Here are some exemplary tour guides<SideNote id="tour-guides"> I invite you to sign up for any of their newsletters, I subscribe to all of the ones on this list</SideNote>:
- For writing and sharing online: [David Perell](https://perell.com/about/)
- For metacognition: [Anne-Laure Le Cunff / Ness Labs](https://nesslabs.com/)
- For reading, curation, and general curiosity: [The Marginalian](https://www.themarginalian.org/about/)
- For mastering the best of what others have already figured out: [Shane Parrish](https://fs.blog/start/#brainfood)
- For optimization of self and health: [Tim Ferriss](https://tim.blog/about/)
- For learning sustainable and enjoyable approaches to success: [Matt D’Avella](https://slowgrowth.com/philosophy/), [Khe Hy](https://radreads.co/)
- For learning about ADHD, neurodivergence, creativity: [Jessica McCabe](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-nPM1_kSZf91ZGkcgy_95Q), [Jesse Anderson](https://twitter.com/jessejanderson)

## A Love Letter to the Internet

My earlier forays using the internet to find my way both as a young adult, and solo traveler in Tokyo, prepared me in an unexpected way to be able to survive—even thrive—during one of the most scary, uncertain, and socially isolating times in our lives. These adventures taught me what an invaluable tool the internet and its social platforms can be in any expedition. That when utilized correctly, you can get inside the minds of and be part of conversations with experts and aficionados in the fields you're interested in. It truly can be a spectacular thing.

If I had one final piece of advice for you to take with you in your upcoming travels, it would be: embrace the excitement of exploring new places and experiencing new things. Treat it all as an experiment, and try not to take it too seriously. **Follow your curiosity compass** and see where it leads.

Even If you're an introvert (like me), I think you'll be pleasantly surprised to find out that it's quite easy to connect, interact, and nurture relationships with people (on the internet) who share the same passions and curiosities as you. You just need to know where to look.

How I Used the Internet to Find My Tribe

You're an Introvert, How Did You Make More Friends During a Pandemic?


<MainColumn image='/images/explorables/elements-4d-viewfinder.jpeg' height={454} width ={680}/>

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to build a complementary website for an augmented reality app and interactive learning experience that this startup DAQRI built, called [Elements 4D](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/daqri/elements-4d-interactive-blocks/description).  Each block face represented a different element from the periodic table. Beaming the app's viewfinder onto the blocks instantly transformed them into 4D<SideNote id='4d'>It was called "4D" because the product cube had the same make-up as a three-dimensional object, with an additional interactive fourth dimension provided through the lens of their augmented reality app. It was a marketing term that the DAQRI team came up with.</SideNote> representations of that element, and clicking on that block in the app brought up detailed information about that element. I was immediately struck by the potential of this concept as someone who has been an experiential learner his whole life. I just didn't realize it had a name, an "explorable explanation."<SideNote id='ee'>Also called “EE” or “Explorable”</SideNote>

<br/>
<MainColumn image='/images/explorables/elements-4d.gif' height={388} width={796} />

## Learning From Experience

Think of examples in your own life where you have learned something from experience (or experimentation) in a way that you could never have learned conceptually. A classic example of "learning from experience" is when a parent tries to teach their child not to touch fire. They can try to teach them conceptually, but the child won't understand why until they learn by getting their hand too close to the fire.

In the early 1900s—around the same time the industrial revolution was beginning to gain steam—Maria Montessori just graduated from medical school. She was starting to formulate a hypothesis about how children are driven genetically to learn their culture. In her observations, she noticed that children were naturally curious, eager for knowledge, and fully capable of initiating learning in a sufficiently supportive and well-prepared learning environment.

Around the same time the Henry Ford assembly-line process rolled onto the scene. With its focus on efficiency and output, it quickly gained steam and began to bleed into our education system. Shunting Montessori's efforts by creating a "factory model" for learning, it treated children as raw products (instead of curious individuals) that are to be shaped into products to meet the various demands of the economy.

Fast forward half a century to Silicon Valley, where a small group of well-intentioned engineers started exploring the use of technology to revolutionize learning, augment human intelligence, and help us work together to solve some of our species' most pressing problems.<SideNote id='pioneers'>Check out some of the magic that happened at [Stanford Research Institute](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SRI_International) and [Xerox PARC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PARC_(company))</SideNote> Unfortunately, similar to what happened with Maria Montessori, these early visionaries' efforts were thwarted by the remnants of national policies designed to ramp up the US economy after the Second World War. A retailing analyst named Victor Lebow unknowingly forever changed the trajectory of the United States' economy, claiming that "[its] ultimate purpose is to produce more consumer goods."<SideNote id='consumption'>He said: "Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption." (Via: [The Story of Stuff](https://www.storyofstuff.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/StoryofStuff_AnnotatedScript.pdf))</SideNote>

Falling in line with the focus on consumption, technology use has tilted more and more in the direction of passive consumption (entertainment and pleasure) and less towards experimentation and creation. Leisure and intrinsically enjoyable activities are an integral ingredient for living a fulfilling life, but modern technology companies have morphed their platforms and technologies to leverage our deeply embedded survival instincts against us. They prey on our need for social approval; their intermittent reward systems have turned our phones into slot machines; and their algorithm-driven feeds calculate which emotions keep users most engaged with no regard for their time or well-being.<SideNote id='organized'>I touch on this point in [How Are You So Organized?](https://itsjustmath.net/blog/how-are-you-so-organized)</SideNote>

In order for learning to be able to compete for our attention with these apps that exploit our worst tendencies, we need to have an interactive medium that allows people to explore things they are curious about. I believe that part of the solution can be found in these interactive digital articles called Explorable Explanations. They take advantage of the dynamic nature of our digital tools (screens) to help people learn and engage with complex ideas in a way that they weren't able to previously.
<MarginFigure id='equation' image='/images/explorables/equation.gif' height={452} width={686} />


> Explorable Explanations provide a platform that encourages engagement, guiding and nudging the reader as they actively test their own hypotheses leads to much more knowledge than simple text with static images thrown in.

This interactivity and dynamic visualization provided by this medium facilitates active participation and experimentation that can allow the reader to build an intuition about the behavior of a system. This leads to a fundamentally different understanding compared to a traditional (static) medium (like marks on paper). This increased engagement creates a connection with the material that can influence both attitude (towards learning) and the amount of time spent learning, both (time spent, emotion towards) of which are proven ways to improve learning outcomes.<SideNote id='comm-interactive'>[Communicating With Interactive Articles](https://distill.pub/2020/communicating-with-interactive-articles)</SideNote>

<br/>
<MainColumn image='/images/explorables/frequency.gif' height={561} width={800}>

Image via: [Media for Thinking the Unthinkable](https://vimeo.com/67076984)

</MainColumn>

## Dreams of Computer (R)evolution

Prior to the development of the internet, digital pioneers like Alan Kay and Douglas Englebart worked to build technological concepts that aimed to empower individuals and enhance cognition.

Over the last century, we have developed these incredible digital devices with power to "outrace [our] senses of sight and hearing, enough capacity to store for later retrieval thousands of pages-equivalents of reference materials, poems, letters, recipes, records, drawings, animations, musical scores, waveforms, dynamic simulations, and anything else you would like to remember and change."<SideNote id='kay'>[The father of mobile computing is not impressed](https://www.fastcompany.com/40435064/what-alan-kay-thinks-about-the-iphone-and-technology-now?position=2&campaign_date=09162017): A Q&A with Alan Kay</SideNote>

Computers have fundamentally changed the way we communicate. Yet while the technology to share our ideas has grown exponentially, the interfaces have remained largely unchanged. Today (through our screens) "we have the power to simulate arbitrarily complex dynamic behavior, but we still think in static symbols and use linear tools."<SideNote id='paper-thoughts'>[What is Bret Victor Trying to Do?](https://notes.fringeling.com/WhatIsBretVictorTryingToDo/)</SideNote><MarginFigure id='notion' image='/images/explorables/notion.png' height={652} width={1000} noWrapper={true}>Via: [Notion](https://www.notion.so/about)</MarginFigure> **We are computer users still thinking paper thoughts.**

> In our rush for the future, we let technology run over the human and the humane. We increased our productivity by supercharging the old tools, the old representations and the old paradigms, instead of inventing new ones that are native to the new medium.<SideNote id='rush'>[What is Bret Victor Trying to Do?](https://notes.fringeling.com/WhatIsBretVictorTryingToDo/)</SideNote>

Technology is not what's holding us back. There is a need to think beyond computer interfaces the way they are designed today, not through the lens of a product or service but as a new medium for thought. We need to think about moving from a static medium (marks on paper) to an interactive, dynamic medium that allows the learner to actively participate in the thinking process.

Fortunately, a new digital medium—an explorable explanation—has emerged with the potential to make learning more accessible to a broader range of people using active learning techniques. It makes systems intelligible, and complex behavior visible and useful; it allows direct manipulation of dynamic representations. It is based on the principle that we must have immediate feedback and direct access to the artifacts of our learning processes—we need to see, deeply, when we try to understand.

> "The power to understand and predict the quantities of the world should not be restricted to those with a freakish knack for manipulating abstract symbols." - *Bret Victor*

## Diving Deeper into Explorable Explanations

Think about your favorite writers. When you read their stuff, they seem to have an uncanny ability to be writing just for you, and answering questions that they somehow know you have. First they entertain you, pulling you in and simultaneously educating you on a subject. Once they've set the stage, they pull the rug out from under you and say: "Hey, we're not just going down your garden trail. We're actually going down another garden trail and here's another."

If we think about media from this standpoint, wouldn't it be beneficial to have a book that helps you read it? Helps you learn it somehow? Maybe what we need is "some form of mentor that's an integral part of the user interface."<SideNote id='kay2'>[The father of mobile computing is not impressed](https://www.fastcompany.com/40435064/what-alan-kay-thinks-about-the-iphone-and-technology-now?position=2&campaign_date=09162017): A Q&A with Alan Kay</SideNote>

> "The power of the unaided mind is highly overrated... The real powers come from devising external aids that enhance cognitive abilities." - Donald Norman

Bret Victor argues that readers will learn and remember better when they are engaged in the learning process as "active readers." This active reading requires "reactive documents" with text and visuals enriched with interactive "handles" for the user to play around with and develop an intuition for how the system at hand works. The visuals give direct feedback when the controls are manipulated. "A reactive document allows the reader to play with the author's assumptions and analyses, and see the consequences."<SideNote id='rise'>[What is Bret Victor Trying To Do?](https://notes.fringeling.com/WhatIsBretVictorTryingToDo/)</SideNote>

<MainColumn image='/images/explorables/ten-brighter-ideas.gif' height={403} width={800}>

Via: [Ten Brighter Ideas](http://worrydream.com/TenBrighterIdeas/)

</MainColumn>

Here are some use cases for Explorable Explanations:
- In newsrooms, data journalists, developers, and designers work together to make complex news and investigative reporting clear and engaging using interactive stories
- Educators use interactive textbooks as an alternative learning format to give students hands-on experience with learning material.

<MarginFigure id='pretty-print' image='/images/explorables/pretty-print.gif' height={685} width={800}>

Via: [Omar Rizwan](https://omar.website/pretty-print/)

</MarginFigure>

Explorable explanations utilize visualization as more than just a tool for finding patterns in data. This visualization leverages the human visual system to augment our intellect — we can use it (our visual system) to better understand these abstract processes. With this technology we can walk people through space and time (visualizing something across time), and take advantage of what Ian Bogost called "procedural rhetoric,"<SideNote id='bogost'>[In his book, he explores how] videogames are an expressive medium and a persuasive medium; they represent how real and imagined systems work, and they invite players to interact with those systems and form judgments about them. (Via: [Persuasive Games](https://www.amazon.com/Persuasive-Games-Expressive-Power-Videogames/dp/0262514885))</SideNote> which pointed out the comparative advantage a game/interactive system has over other types of media.

## Critiques of Explorable Explanations

There are a couple things that hold back the mainstream adoption of Explorable Explanations, mostly surrounding the resources and research required to create and further develop a new medium for thought.

Similar to the hurdles that Kay and Englebart ran into, the conditions for researching and developing this new medium is left up to researchers and passionate open-sourcers and not corporations because this kind of long-term research that benefits humanity rarely happens within settings that are obsessed with quarter-by-quarter financials.

Companies like [Observable](https://observablehq.com/) and [Khan Academy](https://early.khanacademy.org/open-ended/) are trying to bridge this gap of providing educational opportunities while simultaneously creating sustainable business for themselves. There are libraries like [Tangle](http://worrydream.com/#!/Tangle) and other frameworks (like [scrollytelling](https://vallandingham.me/scroll_talk/examples/) <SideNote id='scrolly'>“Scrollytelling” is when content (e.g., a graphic) is revealed or changed as the user scrolls. It does not alter scroll behavior, but simply monitors it</SideNote>) that are trying to provide the building blocks for others and lower the barrier to entry to creating an Explorable Explanation.

In a similar vein, if the concept does indeed prove effective (for retention) there is a potential for exploitation of the idea (moving away from education towards consumption/consumerism) in a way that makes the concept mass-produced and superficial.

Currently a huge barrier to entry exists for creating an explorable explanation, as it requires a certain level of expertise in a slew of different fields:
> Explorable explanations are highly multidisciplinary. They draw on, in no particular order, data visualization, information design (and graphic design, and video game design, and user interface design, and design generally), programming, mathematics, journalism, education, nonfiction writing, storytelling, museum studies, and artistic expression. EE’s are the confluence of all these previously-independent fields.<SideNote id='multidisplinary'>[Exploring “Explorable Explanations”](https://medium.com/@Max_Goldstein/exploring-explorable-explanations-92f865c8d6ba)</SideNote>

Another critique of explorable explanations comes from Andy Matuschak, in that they are not true sandboxes, "That's because such environments are primarily designed to help the author get their point across-rather than as a generally-useful environment to help the reader (or the author) think about problems in that domain."<SideNote id='andy'>[Most dynamic representations developed for communication aren’t very enabling](https://notes.andymatuschak.org/Most_dynamic_representations_developed_for_communication_aren%E2%80%99t_very_enabling)</SideNote>

A counterpoint: as explorables grow in popularity, authors will develop frameworks for creating “enabling” environments for different types of learners, and different depths of learning/experimentation. Continued success and maturation of the medium will depend on **enabling creation of more Explorables** by:
- Creating sandbox environments that support widely-used programming languages (particularly JavaScript).
- Creating the legos (libraries, frameworks, and boilerplates<SideNote id='boilerplate'>In Information Technology, a boilerplate is a unit of writing that can be reused over and over without change. By extension, the idea is sometimes applied to reusable programming, as in “boilerplate code.” (Via: [What is boilerplate and why do we use it?](https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/whats-boilerplate-and-why-do-we-use-it-let-s-check-out-the-coding-style-guide-ac2b6c814ee7/))</SideNote>) for people to build on<SideNote id='observable'>For Example: Observable recently released [Plot](https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/plot), an open-source JavaScript library for exploratory data visualization</SideNote>
- Creating pipelines to populate Explorables with data that is either interesting or personal/“relevant”<MarginFigure id='excalidraw' image='/images/explorables/excalidraw.gif' height={360} width={640} noWrapper={true}>A demonstration of how different visualizations can provide insights that a wall of text cannot (Via: [Conor White-Sullivan](https://twitter.com/Conaw/status/1368573737176506368))</MarginFigure>

### Notable Examples
- [Explorable Explanations](http://worrydream.com/ExplorableExplanations/) (Bret Victor)
- [Communicating with Interactive Articles](https://distill.pub/2020/communicating-with-interactive-articles/) (Aggregation of examples)
- [How can we develop transformative tools for thought?](https://numinous.productions/ttft/) (Andy Matuschak, et al.)
- [Neurotic Neurons](https://ncase.me/neurons/) (Nicky Case)
- [The Structure of Standup Comedy](https://pudding.cool/2018/02/stand-up/) (The Pudding)

## Next Steps for Explorable Explanations

Even though we seem to have lost our way with our present day technology, there is a huge opportunity—especially with this burgeoning creator economy—to invent the future by thinking deeply about the intent behind the designs of past computer pioneers. Bret Victor has inspired a generation of engineers (including myself) to imagine a future where our media and modes of communication (and collaboration) are dynamic and expressive.

If we can upgrade our tools and techniques to help us understand the complexity of our world, we'll be able to develop new thoughts and new solutions to the most pressing issues we face today.


<script>
	console.log('script ran');
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A new digital medium—an explorable explanation—has emerged with the potential to make learning more accessible to a broader range of people using active learning techniques. It makes systems intelligible, and complex behavior visible and useful; it allows direct manipulation of dynamic representations

Why Explorable Explanations Have The Potential to Revolutionize the Learning Process

We Are Made to Explore (With Childlike Wonder)


*Monday, 8:20 AM - Energy is coursing through my veins. My hands are clammy. All of my senses are heightened. My thoughts are racing, and I’m starting to panic. I know that I waited until the last minute to study for this exam, but this visceral, overdramatic response seems far too excessive for what I am facing.*

<MarginFigure id='sinking' image='/images/sinking-bed.png' height={253} width={343}>

Depression: A Sinking Feeling

</MarginFigure>

*Thursday 6:15 AM - I wake up. Another dreary day. I lay there glued to the bed. Gravity seems to be working 10 times as hard on me today. I can practically feel myself sinking into the bed. I feel a massive amount of energy buzzing around me. But instead of compelling me into action, it feels like it's actively trying to hold me down.  I feel trapped. Paralyzed. So uncertain, so overwhelmed that not moving seems like the only option available to me.*

## Background: Struggling with Stress

This is how anxiety and depression manifests in *me*. And for so long I thought something was wrong with *me*. But what if I told you that these fight, flight, or freeze responses were natural reactions? What if I told you that this is my brain’s attempt to take care of me? That it—my brain—is actually practicing compassion towards me, but these survival mechanisms are maladapted for today’s cultural environment. What if I told you that we all share this struggle? And that our relationship with this stress has huge implications on our health and longevity?

### Why This is Important

> A research study tracked 30,000 adults in the United States for eight years. And they started by asking people, “*how much stress have you experienced in the last year?*”  They also asked, “*Do you believe that stress is harmful for your health?*”  And then they used public death records to find out who died.
>
> People who **experienced a lot of stress** in the previous year had a **43% increased risk of dying**. But that was **only true for the people** who also **believed that stress is harmful for your health**. People who experienced a lot of stress but **did not view stress as harmful** were no more likely to die. In fact, they **had the lowest risk of dying of anyone in the study**, including people who had relatively little stress.<SideNote id='stresstudy'>[How to Make Stress Your Friend](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcGyVTAoXEU), Kelly McGonigal</SideNote>

People don't have to suffer as much as they do. Trauma (and previous conditioning) makes the past overdetermine the present and conjures up a future that identifies with doom and chaos. BUT, you change your perspective about these past experiences by changing your interpretive frameworks.

For most of my life I had been shackled by these overwhelming feelings, so coming to this realization earlier this year was a crucible moment<SideNote id="crucible">A crucible moment is a transformative experience through which an individual comes to a new or an altered sense of identity</SideNote> for me. I feel like this changed perspective upgraded my operating system, and unlocked this high-performance mode within me that I never knew existed. Just think: when our ancestors were still hunter-gatherers, this “stress” could actually have been considered “vigilance” because (at the time) it was a useful instinct that improved their chances of survival.

Armed with this new awareness, my hope is that you can begin to:
1. Stop shaming yourself
2. Start healing
3. Start using this newfound energy to propel yourself

## Problem: The Software Got Upgraded, The Hardware Did Not

In our advanced civilized society, we have become so disconnected from what it means to feel human. We mistake negative emotions, like stress, and its cousins—procrastination,  anxiety and depression—as weakness of character. In reality, these are beacons, signals that something isn't right. If we can reframe how we look at these stressors, we can change our brain and our body's response to them.

<br/>
<FullWidth image="/images/deer-headlights.jpg" height={600} width={2500} />

### Constantly Feeling Like a Deer in the Headlights

> When a deer sees an incoming car, it *freezes* [instinctively]. For us, it looks stupid. [But to the deer, freezing] would be the best reaction if the car were a predator: **too big to fight, too fast to outrun**. By freezing it hopes that the beast fails to spot it, or gets distracted.<SideNote id="piotr">[Don't fight, flight (or freeze) your body and emotions](https://pmigdal.medium.com/dont-fight-flight-or-freeze-your-body-and-emotions-96f5aa30b299), by Piotr Migdał</SideNote>

The panic right before an exam, or the pulsating paralysis of waking up and thinking of all the things I’m behind on, all the things I *haven’t* done yet—my body instinctively thought these were the right reactions. *Just like the deer in the headlights*. And for so long I couldn’t figure out the point of these reflexes. As I dug deeper into our human biology, I began to realize that these were manifestations of energy (albeit negative)—remnants of a time long ago when humans did not rule the planet.

The human brain did not evolve to live in a delayed-return environment. It spent hundreds of thousands of years evolving in an immediate-return environment. Within the last 500 years it all changed.<SideNote id='evoanx'>[The Evolution of Anxiety](https://jamesclear.com/evolution-of-anxiety), by James Clear</SideNote> The new delayed-return environment has led to chronic stress and anxiety for humans, because those emotions are no longer useful to help us take action in the face of immediate problems.

We essentially have an ancient alarm system that is often triggered by things that aren't true threats to us. Paradoxically, the way to fix that hairpin trigger is tuning in—with loving awareness—and letting ourselves fully feel all of the fight, flight, or freeze trauma that our body is carrying with us at that moment. And once we’ve done that, we can thank our brains for trying to protect and keep us safe.<SideNote id='fakenews'>[The Fake News of Your Own Mind](https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/19-the-fake-news-of-your-own-mind), Your Undivided Attention (Podcast)</SideNote>

## Solution: What to Do About It

### How to Recognize & Respond (With Compassion)
<MarginNote id="howtoadhd">This section was inspired by How to ADHD's video on How to Deal with Rejection Sensitivity</MarginNote>

_**Step 1 - Recognize**: Where you're at emotionally_

Whenever you become distressed—try to check if it feels like a fight, flight, or freeze response. Focus on the sensation; observing and experiencing, but not judging.

<MarginFigure id='fff' image='/images/fight-flight-freeze.png' width={1000} height={568}/>

Below are some emotions and their corresponding fear responses: <SideNote id="piotr2">[Don't fight, flight (or freeze) your body and emotions](https://pmigdal.medium.com/dont-fight-flight-or-freeze-your-body-and-emotions-96f5aa30b299), by Piotr Migdał ([Image Source](https://kidshelpline.com.au/teens/issues/why-do-i-freak-out))</SideNote>

- FIGHT: anger / pushing
- FLIGHT: distracting oneself
- FREEZE: numbness, depression, learned helplessness

After you’ve become aware of being triggered, determine how intense the emotions are because that will inform what strategy to use. To do this, check in with your body:
- Are your fists clenched?
- Are your teeth clenched?
- Is your stomach tight?
- Are you fighting back tears?
- Is your face feeling flushed?

<MarginFigure id='red-yellow-green' image='/images/red-yellow-green.png' height={1054} width={1360}>Emotional Intensity Meter</MarginFigure>

_**Step 2 - Respond**: with a strategy that makes sense for your level of emotional intensity_

1. **Red**: our emotions are so high that we're entering fight, flight, or freeze mode
	- This is the time to use time-tested strategies to help us feel safe, [I recommend box breathing<SideNote id='boxbreathing'>Box breathing is a technique used to calm yourself down with a simple 4 second rotation of breathing in, holding your breath, breathing out, holding your breath, and repeating.</SideNote> as a way to return breathing to its normal rhythm] <MarginFigure id='boxbreath' image='/images/box-breathing.gif' height={400} width={600} noWrapper={true}/>
	- This is not the time to engage others or make any brash decisions
2. **Yellow**: emotions are heightened, but we're somewhat in control
	- This is the time to use strategies to slow us down and calm our brains (like focusing on breathing, going on a short walk, drinking some tea)
1. **Green**: emotional intensity is normal, we're thinking clearly
	- This is the time when we feel our safest and most rational—a good time to work on issues that previously couldn't be handled because emotions were too high

_**Step 3 - Practice**: Telling your body that you are not in danger_

When you are “in the green” (emotionally), that’s a great opportunity to practice some exposure therapy—to practice telling your body that it’s not in danger. Exhausted muscles after intensive exercise, burning sensation from chili peppers, the heat of a sauna—these are all great examples of stimuli that you can use to help retrain your reactions to stress.

These self-awareness skills are not innate—they are like a muscle and need to be strengthened with exercise. When we practice telling our body that it’s not in danger, we are leaning into the discomfort and reducing its power. At the same time, it’s important to be patient with, and forgiving of, yourself as you go through these motions.

Treat your broken parts like a wounded puppy. Give them time to recover, and don’t push them to walk before they are ready. Don’t you deserve to treat yourself with the same level of compassion as you would this hypothetical puppy?<SideNote id="puppy">I borrowed this concept from Piotr Migdał’s aforementioned article</SideNote>

## Carrying This Awareness Forward

<MarginFigure id='stigma' image='/images/stigma.jpg' height={400} width={690}>

[Image Source](https://patientengagementhit.com/news/understanding-stigma-as-a-mental-healthcare-barrier)

</MarginFigure>

Culturally, when we look at people with depression or anxiety, we often label their suffering as irrational and unnecessary, stigmatizing them and robbing them of hope.

But when we begin to understand that these manifestations of negative energy are adaptive responses to adversity and not mental disorders, we begin to lift the shame around them. And when that shame begins to lift, people who struggle with these emotions can start feeling like courageous survivors, and not damaged invalids.<SideNote id="depressionwrong">[We've Got Depression All Wrong. It’s Trying to Save Us](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/shouldstorm/202012/we-ve-got-depression-all-wrong-it-s-trying-save-us)</SideNote>

We often have this illusion that we’re the only one’s feeling whatever we're currently feeling, but we can reframe this by asking ourselves, "would anyone else in this situation feel the same thing?" When we reflect, we realize that what we’re going through is what all human beings go through. We are not crazy or specially defective in any way.

I believe that by cultivating self-awareness and self-compassion we can channel our negative emotions into life energy and be able to harness them to our advantage. **Because the right amount of *stress* is called <u>stimulation</u>**.


Energy is coursing through my veins. My hands are clammy. All of my senses are heightened. My thoughts are racing, and I'm starting to panic. I know that I waited until the last minute to study for this exam, but this visceral, overdramatic response seems far too excessive for what I am facing.

This Is What Courage Feels Like

The Right Amount of Stress Is Called Stimulation


If you've ever seen my immaculately clean desk at work, or my meticulously organized apartment, the first thing you'll likely say is, "Whoa. How are you so organized?”  If you somehow made your way into my digital home, you'd likely be asking the same question.

## Clean Space, Clear Mind?

There is something to be said about how organized someone's living and working spaces are, and how that can often be a manifestation of their psyche. In fact, [a Princeton University study](https://www.jneurosci.org/content/31/2/587) found that the more clutter in your field of vision, the more you're going to find yourself getting distracted. Most people think that organization is about freedom from the burden of superficial excess, but it's actually about inner freedom (liberation of the mind).

<MarginFigure id='Workspace' image='/images/organized-workspace.jpg' height={1280} width={1920}>

Photo by [Norbert Levajsics](https://unsplash.com/photos/gCUOkv04kbI)

</MarginFigure>

This borderline obsessive level of organizational discipline is not some gimmick though — it's the way I've learned to cope with my ADHD, and a subsequent brain that is maladapted for the domestic, sedentary, delayed-gratification knowledge-worker-life I now live.

But if you've never struggled with tending your metaphorical digital or analog gardens, you're probably wondering how this relates to you. So let's reframe the question from earlier: **How do we free up our brains to focus on what's important? How do we prevent technology companies from exploiting our visceral impulses and derailing us from our pursuit of real value and meaning in life?**

> "I had always thought my ADHD made me different from others [but in reality] my condition simply forced me to address something early on that has since become a common malady of the digital age: a lack of self-awareness.
>
> In the most connected time in history, we're quickly losing touch with ourselves. Overwhelmed by a never-ending flood of information, we're left feeling overstimulated yet restless, overworked yet discontented, tuned in yet burned out." <SideNote id='bujo'>Ryder Carroll, [The Bullet Journal Method](https://bulletjournal.com/pages/book)</SideNote>

My belief is that through self-awareness and an understanding of how our (lizard) brains operate, we begin to uncover how technology can work both for and against us. And armed with that knowledge and perspective, we can put systems and processes in place to keep us on track with what's truly important to us.

## Hunter vs. Farmer: A Short Background on ADHD

<MarginFigure id='ADHD Intersection' image='/images/adhd-intersection.jpg' height={720} width={1280}>

[Explaining the ADHD Brain](https://www.additudemag.com/adhd-brain-prefrontal-cortex-attention-emotions/), Attitude Mag

</MarginFigure>

The prefrontal cortex is one of the more evolved areas of our brains — it governs the more-uniquely human cognitive functions (like predicting outcomes, or making short and long term decisions). If the brain was a series of roads, and attention, behavior, judgment, and emotional responses were all cars on it, then the prefrontal cortex would be the intersection which all of these vehicles drive through. For the neurotypical brain, all of these cars abide by traffic lights and stop signs. For people with ADHD, there are no traffic lights, or stop signs.

During hunter-gatherer times my brain would have been well suited for "an ever-changing environment where the dangers were as unpredictable as our next meal" <SideNote id='NYT ADHD'>Richard A. Friedman, [A Natural Fix for ADHD](https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/02/opinion/sunday/a-natural-fix-for-adhd.html)</SideNote>. In this modern era, in order to remain a functional, semi-successful member of society I have had to come up with a series of "mental hacks" to circumvent a brain that is only interested in novelty and short-term gratification.

> "You see, ADHD is obsessive, and we don't get to choose what we're obsessed with. It's not a conscious decision and it's not based on our personality. It's whatever our brains want right this second." <SideNote id='gekk'>Gekk, [ADHD - A Lifelong Struggle](https://gekk.info/articles/adhd.html)</SideNote>

In reality, having a brain like this has just forced me to confront earlier what others are experiencing now with exploitative, extractive technology.

## How Certain Technology Exploits Our Base Instincts
Attention is now the world's most valuable resource. During most of man's current epoch, big business was concerned with exploitation of natural resources (oil, natural gas, rare earth minerals). But with the advent and maturation of the internet, they discovered that extraction of our attention was exponentially more valuable to them.

<MarginFigure id='slot-machine' image='/images/iphone-slots.jpg' height={520} width={519} />

Under the guise of “connecting the world” or “organizing the world’s information”, certain misguided megalomaniacs have morphed their platforms and technologies to leverage our deeply embedded survival instincts against us. They prey on our need for approval (to be accepted by our tribe) with their "like" counters. Their intermittent reward systems have turned our phones into slot machines. Their algorithm-driven feeds calculate that the invoking of negative emotions (anger, jealousy) keeps users more engaged, so they show us more and more upsetting content with no regard for psychological or societal consequences.

So, while I can't call up Zuck and try to talk some sense into him, or email Jeff and ask him how many small businesses he's going to trample before he decides to call a quits. I can give you some tips and tricks that have worked for me, and together we can take the power back.

## Lights at the End of the Tunnel

Here are a few practical tips for common productivity problems that I’ve learned over the years.

### Struggling with procrastination?
**Commit to doing something for 15 minutes**: If at the end of those 15 minutes, you've had enough - that's fine. The key is getting over that initial hurdle.

### Struggling with self-control or staying on track?
**Create a sense of urgency and accountability**: Use a pomodoro timer. I recommend [Be Focused](https://xwavesoft.com/be-focused-pro-for-iphone-ipad-mac-os-x.html) for digital folks, and a [Time Timer](https://www.timetimer.com/collections/timers/products/time-timer-mod) for those who prefer analog.

Or have software automate the blocking of distracting websites for you: RescueTime offers [FocusTime](https://www.rescuetime.com/focustime) in their premium subscription, [Self-Control](https://selfcontrolapp.com/), and [Intention](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/intention/dladanhaondcgpahgiflodhckhoeohoe/) (for Chrome) are both free alternatives.

Turn off all notifications except from *people*. Visit Settings > Notifications and turn off all notifications, banners, and badges, except from apps<SideNote id='apps'>Messaging apps like WhatsApp, FB Messenger, Signal, Telegram, WeChat etc.</SideNote> where real people want your attention.<SideNote id='humanetech'>[Take Control](https://humanetech.com/resources/take-control/), Center for Human Technology</SideNote>

### Mindlessly scrolling through social media, or watching Youtube videos?

**Create some “consumption hurdles”**: delete social media apps off of your phone, and just use the browser version. Adding some friction to the experience will make it harder to get hooked. Removing these apps also means less distracting, petty notifications.

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Setup [ScreenTime](https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT208982) on your phone and put limits on whole categories of apps, or add custom limits to specific apps/websites For example, I set a 30 minute daily limit of YouTube.

<MarginFigure id='ivy-lee' image='/images/ivy-lee.png' height={1240} width={1058}>The Ivy Lee Method</MarginFigure>

### Struggling with prioritizing? Too many things on your plate?

**Create some constraints:** use the [Ivy Lee Method](https://jamesclear.com/ivy-lee). Which says: at the end of each work day, write down the six most important things you need to accomplish tomorrow (no more than six), in order of their true importance. Work until the first task is finished before moving on to the next one. Repeat. At the end of the day, move any unfinished items to a new list of six tasks for the following day.

### Struggling with time management? Or planning how long things will take?

<MainColumn image='/images/brad-frost-calendar.png' height={532} width={845} />

**Create some structure**: time block your calendar. “Time blocking is the practice of  the practice of planning out every moment of your day in advance, and dedicating specific time ‘blocks’ for certain tasks and responsibilities.” <SideNote id='timeblocking-101'>Jory MacKay, [Time Blocking 101](https://blog.rescuetime.com/time-blocking-101/)</SideNote>


### Struggling with burnout?
**Create some boundaries by taking breaks**: [Aware](https://awaremac.com/) puts a timer in your menu bar showing how long you've been using your computer uninterrupted without a break.

The Pomodoro system calls for a long-break after completing four 25-minute sessions.

### Struggling with keeping track of everything you need to do? Trying to keep too much in your head?
**Develop a single “capture” system that you trust**: Try out the various "input-capture and processing" systems ([BASB/PARA](https://maggieappleton.com/basb#:~:text=Much%20like%20it%20sounds%2C%20Building,information%20into%20Good%20Creative%20Output), [GTD](https://hamberg.no/gtd), [Bujo](https://bulletjournal.com/pages/learn)) and find out what works best for you. If you’re just starting off, the value of having a single system (that you trust, and will consistently prune/organize) is that you will know where to look for things in the future when you need to find them.

My “inbox” (or ubiquitous quick capture system) involves a mixture of dumping thoughts, tasks, notes into [Drafts](https://getdrafts.com) or [Field Notes](https://fieldnotesbrand.com/products/pitch-black-memo-book), that then get processed and transferred to [Roam Research](https://roamresearch.com/).

**Reduce cognitive load**: (ie. the amount of things we need to remember) Offload minutiae to digital systems. Both [Next Meeting](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/next-meeting/id1017470484?mt=12), and [Fantastical](https://flexibits.com/fantastical) will display your next meeting in your menu bar.

### Struggling with digital clutter?
Use [Bartender](https://www.macbartender.com/) to clean up your menu bar, and [Divvy](https://mizage.com/divvy/) to maximize your screen real estate.

### **Most importantly: take care yourself**
Make sure to slot in **recovery time** on your calendar.

Remember that stress and anxiety are evolutionary **protection mechanisms**.

**Be compassionate to yourself** (and your brain). Be mindful that "the negativity bias is a survival mechanism [that looks] for all the possible dangers (predators) and possible negative outcomes - and protects us from them".

Exercise! **Find an outlet** for that (negative) energy. When your body is in fight or flight mode, don't try to suppress it.

**Practice mindfulness:** I use Sam Harris’ [Waking Up](https://www.wakingup.com) app on a daily basis. [Calm](https://www.calm.com) and [Headspace](https://www.headspace.com) are also good alternatives.

"What helps is to fully feel [a] feeling. In the body. Understand the stories that it generates in the mind. And to be able to hold all of that with some measure of kindness, or at least willingness to be present with it. And then it can move through us.<SideNote id='fake-news'>[The Fake News of Your Own Mind
](https://your-undivided-attention.simplecast.com/episodes/the-fake-news-of-your-own-mind)</SideNote>


If you've ever seen my immaculately clean desk at work, or my meticulously organized apartment, the first thing you'll likely say is, "Whoa. How are you so organized?”  If you somehow made your way into my digital home, you'd likely be asking the same question.

itsjustmath.net

Observations and advice on navigating the ever-changing digital landscape.