After reading this excellent essay, I’m starting to understand why my commitment to writing and self education has helped me bring the rest of my life into order. I must’ve established a micro philosophy - or replaced the one I had held in college.
This commitment came only after a year of reading and exposure to great books and the role models in them.
Brilliant essay Paul. Action is the single most important thing in a person’s life. Through it, you sift through those that work and apply to your specific circumstances, and you drop values or beliefs that were simply taking up space.
Otherwise you are left with a labyrinth of hypotheses and concepts that simply clog up your mind, and prevent you from iterating into the lean concepts that actually matter.
In that sense a micro-philosophy is minimalism in a sense.
One of my mantra's in the last year has been "act first, think second". This is an antidote to a decade of "think first, act second". Unfortunately, this led to a lot of inaction!
This reminded me of a recent conversation between David Brooks and Scott Galloway (referenced below), where Brooks said:
“All sorts of organizations got out of the moral formation business and into the self actualization business.”
Most of our institutions are focused on actualization and optimization of careers or learning technical expertise. I applaud your effort because it seems like you are, one of the few, in the "moral formation" business.
Thanks for this Rick. This is right up my alley. I think that self-actualization and moral formation go hand in hand, but I agree that optimizing for optimizing sake leads us nowhere and that is a general trend online.
I was really impressed by chapter 2 of atomic habits where James Clear argues that true habit change requires belief and identity change. He doesn't go into that at all, but that is a gap I am trying to fill.
Thanks Ian. My posts have been rather dense lately, as I am trying to map out a large conceptual terrain. Moving forward, I will move more slowly through smaller points so that, hopefully, readers don't need to dwell too long on a single post that is packed with useful information.
Paul: I got confused by the similarity of names of your channel and a second one in Substack. Due to that I messaged them instead of you. I would like to continue applying your method to build my micro-philosophy, but got confused as the sequence of your posts that should be followed. Can you help with that? Many thanks.
I am curious which other substack you mixed this one up with?
Right now the order in which I wrote my posts provides a general sequence to follow, but I plan to develop a complete online course that systematically lays everything out in one place.
There is also my free email course which is a mini version of this at: micro-philosophy.com
The thing is that you can go in multiple directions and make progress. For example, you can start with atomic beliefs and deduce values, or start with actions and work backwards towards atomic beliefs. Both directions are valuable.
I’ve been struggling to reduce my core values from ten to five. About a quarter into this essay a light came on! My core values within Micro-Philosophy should reflect the type of person I want to become, not the type of person I am. For example, I listed kindness and helpfulness as two of the ten. Generally, I'm kind but my first instinct isn’t always helpfulness. So helpfulness takes a spot and kindness is taken off. I listed Liberty as a value but I have plenty of Liberty, so that’s off the list. I believe Liberty is an essential value for a well-functioning society, and I can champion that, but it doesn't have to be part of my Micro-Philosophy.
"It should be understood that the karmas or habit patterns of every individual are effective at every level : physical, emotional, mental, unconscious, subconscious, waking, dreaming, and sleeping. And those karmas extend beyond the individual body-mind to include others, objects, and environments on every level, visible (or gross) and invisible (or subtle), known and unknown - past, present, and future. These karmas are universally effective.
The real business of life involves the purification and release of all these karmas to enable the development of true psychophysical equanimity thus enabling the being to clearly see and feel (even) what is before ones eyes.
After reading this excellent essay, I’m starting to understand why my commitment to writing and self education has helped me bring the rest of my life into order. I must’ve established a micro philosophy - or replaced the one I had held in college.
This commitment came only after a year of reading and exposure to great books and the role models in them.
Anyway, thought provoking read!
Thanks Sam.
Writing and reading together is a potent combination for sure and can bring us clarity and order.
I am curious what books you have read? Also what kind of writing did you do?
Brilliant essay Paul. Action is the single most important thing in a person’s life. Through it, you sift through those that work and apply to your specific circumstances, and you drop values or beliefs that were simply taking up space.
Otherwise you are left with a labyrinth of hypotheses and concepts that simply clog up your mind, and prevent you from iterating into the lean concepts that actually matter.
In that sense a micro-philosophy is minimalism in a sense.
Thanks Soul.
One of my mantra's in the last year has been "act first, think second". This is an antidote to a decade of "think first, act second". Unfortunately, this led to a lot of inaction!
This reminded me of a recent conversation between David Brooks and Scott Galloway (referenced below), where Brooks said:
“All sorts of organizations got out of the moral formation business and into the self actualization business.”
Most of our institutions are focused on actualization and optimization of careers or learning technical expertise. I applaud your effort because it seems like you are, one of the few, in the "moral formation" business.
https://substack.com/@rickfoerster/note/c-114666891?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=3uceyo
Thanks for this Rick. This is right up my alley. I think that self-actualization and moral formation go hand in hand, but I agree that optimizing for optimizing sake leads us nowhere and that is a general trend online.
I was really impressed by chapter 2 of atomic habits where James Clear argues that true habit change requires belief and identity change. He doesn't go into that at all, but that is a gap I am trying to fill.
Well said Paul and thank you. Much to learn here...clearly the writing that emerges from a wealth of experience. Thank you.
Thanks Ian. My posts have been rather dense lately, as I am trying to map out a large conceptual terrain. Moving forward, I will move more slowly through smaller points so that, hopefully, readers don't need to dwell too long on a single post that is packed with useful information.
Paul: I got confused by the similarity of names of your channel and a second one in Substack. Due to that I messaged them instead of you. I would like to continue applying your method to build my micro-philosophy, but got confused as the sequence of your posts that should be followed. Can you help with that? Many thanks.
Hey Roberto,
I am curious which other substack you mixed this one up with?
Right now the order in which I wrote my posts provides a general sequence to follow, but I plan to develop a complete online course that systematically lays everything out in one place.
There is also my free email course which is a mini version of this at: micro-philosophy.com
The thing is that you can go in multiple directions and make progress. For example, you can start with atomic beliefs and deduce values, or start with actions and work backwards towards atomic beliefs. Both directions are valuable.
It could be “The micro-philosophy.” I am not sure.
I’ve been struggling to reduce my core values from ten to five. About a quarter into this essay a light came on! My core values within Micro-Philosophy should reflect the type of person I want to become, not the type of person I am. For example, I listed kindness and helpfulness as two of the ten. Generally, I'm kind but my first instinct isn’t always helpfulness. So helpfulness takes a spot and kindness is taken off. I listed Liberty as a value but I have plenty of Liberty, so that’s off the list. I believe Liberty is an essential value for a well-functioning society, and I can champion that, but it doesn't have to be part of my Micro-Philosophy.
Thank you for this excellent essay, Paul!
But what is our Always Already Real condition.
http://www.consciousnessitself.org
Does conventional left-brained philosophy even begin to take into account the full spectrum of human possibility as described here:
http://www.integralworld.net/reynolds6.html
And the fact that we are karmic entities.
"It should be understood that the karmas or habit patterns of every individual are effective at every level : physical, emotional, mental, unconscious, subconscious, waking, dreaming, and sleeping. And those karmas extend beyond the individual body-mind to include others, objects, and environments on every level, visible (or gross) and invisible (or subtle), known and unknown - past, present, and future. These karmas are universally effective.
The real business of life involves the purification and release of all these karmas to enable the development of true psychophysical equanimity thus enabling the being to clearly see and feel (even) what is before ones eyes.
http://beezone.com/current/mind_as_separate_self.html
http://spiralledlight.wordpress.com
Everyone is also dramatizing an unconscious invisible emotional-sexual Oedipal pattern on a moment to moment basis.
http://beezone.com/adida/transcendyourinvisiblescriptedit.html
http://beezone.com/current/beyoedip.html
I am confused about what this has to do with my essay.