Infinite possibilities Dec 28, 2020

Naively, for instance from the perspective of me as a child, it seems like a person has vastly many possible options at each moment, leading out in every direction, where many of them surely lead to amazing things, and thus it should be very easy to have an incredibly great life and make a huge positive difference to the world.

An open Christmas card to my stepfather Dec 27, 2020

Happy Christmas!

I made you a link post of things you might find interesting on the internet. (Please don’t feel obliged to look at them!)

Lots of love, Katja oxo

(Picture: Christmas Eve, by Carl Larson, 1904-5)

An open Christmas card to my brothers Dec 26, 2020

Dear Brothers,

Happy Christmas! I made you a list of things you might like on the internet. I won’t tell you which of you any was intended for, so feel especially free to skip any that don’t look interesting.

Love, Katja

(Picture: nearing Christmas in New York 2017)

Open Christmas card to my father Dec 24, 2020

Dear Daddy,

Merry Christmas! I got you a list of things on the internet I thought you might find interesting. No obligation to look at them. (Many things I’ve enjoyed lately are old or about history, so there’s a good chance that you have seen them or seen much better things, but oh well.)

Lots of love from Katja oxo

(Picture: our Christmas tree)

Open Christmas card to my mother Dec 23, 2020

Dear Mama,

Happy Christmas!

Rather than be so bold as to give you a further object to take care of, I gathered for you a collection of things I think you might like on the internet. I CC the world, in case they are interested, or want to add anything.

Lots of love, Katja xox

(Picture: Geboorte van Christus, Robert van den Hoecke, after Jan van den Hoecke, 1632 - 1668)

Moral moralizing Dec 22, 2020

Most people get their ethics from a combination of trusting what is normally done in their society and doing what they feel is right.

It seems to me that this has been utterly discredited as a reliable source of ethical advice, because it is the same one that recommended to the average person slavery as labor, and genocide as standard geopolitical strategy, and rape as prize, and torture as entertainment.

What is food like? Dec 22, 2020

I have an Anki¹ deck of things I feel like a failure regarding. Instead of each card having a question that I see if I can remember the answer to, it has a potentially shameful thing that I see if I still feel bad about. Each time I look at one, as well as marking it correct to the extent that I no longer feel bad about it, I briefly do a little bit to make it better. (Learn about the thing I’m embarrassed to not know about, practice the skill that I don’t have, think about whether it’s a real problem, etc). My sense is that one can often feel bad about something for a long time which one could alternatively make marked progress on in a very short time.

Elephant seal Dec 21, 2020

Opposite attractions Dec 19, 2020

Is the opposite of what you love also what you love?

I think there’s a general pattern where if you value A you tend to increase the amount of it in your life, and you end feeling very positively about various opposites of A—things that are very unlike A, or partially prevent A, or undo some of A’s consequences—as well. At least some of the time, or for some parts of you, or in some aspects, or when your situation changes a bit. Especially if you contain multitudes.

Examples:

Thesauring Dec 19, 2020

Sometimes I really enjoy opening a thesaurus. I don’t know why. It’s just a moment of opening it, anticipating feeling around amongst the meanings of different words, weighing their rightnesses, which seems like a kind of heavenliness, sometimes. I think it was better in 2018, and now I’m mostly remembering that.