There is a significant ongoing cultural debate about whether identity is an individualist thing or a collectivist thing.

It's both. There is not an either/or binary, rather there is a both/and interplay.

The remaining question then is what is the mix? How is that decided?

The answer is "It depends." It is complicated -- different people are feel need for either more differentiation or more integration.

But just recognising that the binary is a lie is a good place to start.

The internet has opened up whole new vistas of opportunities for people to seek and find vulnerable, authentic human connection.

It has also opened up a mindboggling array of hollow, simplistic and platitude-laced pandering.

Meh.

You win some.

You lose some.

Innumerable times per day on social media:

"Who says [insert something that nobody ever says]?"

I've witnessed a phenomenon many times in my life, where people look at another country and call out something utopian or dystopian about it, and totally miss that whatever they're noticing is also true about their own country.

I say country, but this happens in nearly any in-group/out-group dynamic.

It's far beyond "greener grass" wistfulness. It's a heightened awareness of the other -- from the posture of the presumptive moral arbiter -- accompanied by a diminished awareness of the self.

I recently saw a sentiment that I will paraphrase here as "Always outraged, never ashamed."

It's a profound problem, and is the exclusive domain of the self-unaware.

Synthetic outrage can fuel a movement, but it will not last as long as the harm it causes.

“There is absolutely no inevitability as long as there is a willingness to contemplate what is happening.”
― Marshall McLuhan

I remember when I was about 30-35 feeling pretty despondent because I didn't want to be a grumpy old person, and those were the only examples I was exposed to.

It was about then when I met someone who had built a whole community of eager, curious artists, thinkers and dreamers.

It changed my whole perspective. I realised I could choose what kind of person I want to be as I age.

As I get older and look around though, it's entirely apparent that a whole lot of people aren't on the same journey.

I'm just copying this headline because I can't do anything to top it:

"World’s First ‘Miss AI’ Competition Announced With $5,000 Cash Prize"

https://petapixel.com/2024/04/15/worlds-first-miss-ai-competition-announced-with-5000-cash-prize/

I've been thinking about the word ideology. It has strayed so far from its original definition. In its current form, it's almost never used positively. Yet as an accusation, it is also a confession.

One key way that we can use to identify whether a movement's ideology has become dangerous is to watch who it villainises.

So many realms in our world seem to exist only to mobilise an "us" to attack a "them."

Idealism is a necessity for humanity. Yet there are many ways that idealism turns toxic.

Someone recently asked me "Do you think our generation will be as overwhelmed by technology as our parents are when we're their age?"

Yes. Resoundingly, yes. What we're at the cusp of now is deeply overwhelming...and it's just getting started.

@Alfred Could you generate a blurb of marketing gobbledygook?

We are living in a moment where a lot of people with money and power have "earned" it explicitly by being reckless with it.

People are eagerly feeding chaos with their money, their votes and their attention.

Have you ever been surprised by #AI art? I have.

I've seen artists encourage other artists to explore AI to lift them out of their creative ruts.

If AI was no more than just merely remixing reality, we would not be surprised. It would be powerless to help us be less predictable.

Indeed, there is a remarkable synthesis happening in it that we are witnessing. Some folks try to brush this off trivial and iterative. While I'm not sure what to make of it all, I'm convinced that that's a mistake.

People's minds are changing about #ClimateChange. Acceptance is now mainstream.

But there is precious little self-awareness accompanying these changing minds.

There is limited concern for all the powerful people and organisations who have been manufacturing denial for decades. There will be no reprisals. No comeuppance. No consequences.

On one hand, we cannot afford to waste any time or energy wishing it was different.

On the other, we need to recognise that this change isn't that deep.

We are surveying ourselves to death.

In the past month, I have had so many service providers asking for positive reviews of their work making it sound like their continuing employment depends on it.

I have deep mistrust of the impersonal nature of quantitative data in general, and this perpetual strategising around it by corporations just seems bizarrely dystopian.

There has to be a more generative way to get feedback, and make decisions.

#WakingThought: we need to prioritise value over purpose.

People conditioned to believe in the supremacy of purpose can be led to do awful things with no perspective on their own intrinsic worth, and the intrinsic worth of others.

Only when value is established can purpose do its work.

In my repressive boys-only high school, there was a rule that my hair wasn't allowed to touch my collar, ears or eyebrows. (My profile pic shows how well that stuck.)

I got a step cut into my hair because, why not? All of a sudden I was faced with a new rule: also no steps. The rationale given to me what that hair shouldn't be that big a deal.

Even as a teenager I could see that the adults, and the system, had turned hair into a control issue, and were blaming me for it.

This is a parable.

Speaking and writing tip: saying "myself" when "me" would fit comes across as contrived, insecure and impersonal.