this reminds me of the time i told you that the best way to never have regrets about a decision is to simply act in a way that makes it so your decision was correct after making the decision
>being tired of being reduced to a soundbite. But if you don’t, how do people remember you? Want to get to know you better?
This is a really crisp way of putting something I've wondered about a lot. I don't know if there's a good answer out there.
As someone particularly averse to being soundbitten/legibilized/categorized, ime ..you just are known by less people and this seems sorta an inescapable tradeoff. I will think about it more :)
great point!! but sometimes its a bit unavoidable :(. its okay though I think I am not surrounded by these people mostly. a grad student ik's ex was tho and that was what inspired this sentence LOL
ooo omg the concept of "outgrowing a town" is sooo interesting. bleachers has this song we're gonna know each other forever and he has a line where he asks "does anybody ever leave their hometown and actually survive?" ahhh i think there's sometihng so romantic of leaving the small town into big city, but at the same time only in the small town did we find ourselves. idk for me i moved sm sm and never really had this so i'm not sure how it actually feels
I really enjoyed this piece. I think what we admire determines what we want to be, which is basically ambition. What we admire is determined either extrinsically through our surroundings or intrinsically through which narratives resonate the most within us - the hero's narrative as you mentioned. To me, a lot of existential angst comes into play when ambition inspired by extrinsic means (think gunning for an investment analyst internship because your peers are all going for high-status internships) vs ambition inspired by intrinsic means come into conflict with each other (if you wrote a story with yourself as the main character what life would you give yourself).
ooo I love that idea of writing a story for yourself independent of what others around you think! but also do u think you can ever have ambition if not at least partly defined by what people around you respect? idk
hmmm I feel like a lot of that depends on what kind of people surround yourself with, which can be arbitrary. do the people around you respect money and prestige (finance, ivy league, most of society), entrepreneurship (silicon valley), security (asian parents lol), social justice (activists), creative output (artists and creators), or social media clout (influencers and hollywood)? if you’re really intentional about surrounding yourself with people that match your core values, I think it’s ok to have ambition defined by what the people around you respect. but more often than not, I think that source of ambition is unsustainable and may lead to feelings of being lost, especially if the people that surround you change over time or you discover your values change / don’t match the people around you. but who knows I may just be projecting as well LOL
LOL I may have read that essay 2 days ago because I was going through some of your old posts and you linked it in your 2023 year in review post, it's a good article! (and probably subconsciously influenced my comment now that I think about it)
this reminds me of the time i told you that the best way to never have regrets about a decision is to simply act in a way that makes it so your decision was correct after making the decision
wait deadass u were cooking with that one
AAAH THE FRUITS OF YOUR LABOR! finally. i am so excited, this is a beautiful post, artfully written and quotes well used and placed
THANK YOU I LOVE YOU NINA <3 you were one of my og feedback givers i love u
i loved this piece ... & ur writing is so sincere 💌
>being tired of being reduced to a soundbite. But if you don’t, how do people remember you? Want to get to know you better?
This is a really crisp way of putting something I've wondered about a lot. I don't know if there's a good answer out there.
As someone particularly averse to being soundbitten/legibilized/categorized, ime ..you just are known by less people and this seems sorta an inescapable tradeoff. I will think about it more :)
please let me know what you think :) curious to hear how people who might have a better or stronger sense of self deal with this question
u really just made all us bio peeps feel seen <3 u really cooked with this one.
god i love you you are so powerful
do not let the AI safety people tell you your research is useless; do not let the scientists tell you that your art is meaningless » OMG DYING
i recommend simply not being friends with ^ people :')
great point!! but sometimes its a bit unavoidable :(. its okay though I think I am not surrounded by these people mostly. a grad student ik's ex was tho and that was what inspired this sentence LOL
us bio nerds gotta stick together cuz it be rough out here <3
aw claire
i love this
i love u so much
(Thing™)
https://open.spotify.com/track/5fVqumMSkKG5hPaV6vqWLR
ooo omg the concept of "outgrowing a town" is sooo interesting. bleachers has this song we're gonna know each other forever and he has a line where he asks "does anybody ever leave their hometown and actually survive?" ahhh i think there's sometihng so romantic of leaving the small town into big city, but at the same time only in the small town did we find ourselves. idk for me i moved sm sm and never really had this so i'm not sure how it actually feels
I really enjoyed this piece. I think what we admire determines what we want to be, which is basically ambition. What we admire is determined either extrinsically through our surroundings or intrinsically through which narratives resonate the most within us - the hero's narrative as you mentioned. To me, a lot of existential angst comes into play when ambition inspired by extrinsic means (think gunning for an investment analyst internship because your peers are all going for high-status internships) vs ambition inspired by intrinsic means come into conflict with each other (if you wrote a story with yourself as the main character what life would you give yourself).
ooo I love that idea of writing a story for yourself independent of what others around you think! but also do u think you can ever have ambition if not at least partly defined by what people around you respect? idk
hmmm I feel like a lot of that depends on what kind of people surround yourself with, which can be arbitrary. do the people around you respect money and prestige (finance, ivy league, most of society), entrepreneurship (silicon valley), security (asian parents lol), social justice (activists), creative output (artists and creators), or social media clout (influencers and hollywood)? if you’re really intentional about surrounding yourself with people that match your core values, I think it’s ok to have ambition defined by what the people around you respect. but more often than not, I think that source of ambition is unsustainable and may lead to feelings of being lost, especially if the people that surround you change over time or you discover your values change / don’t match the people around you. but who knows I may just be projecting as well LOL
i hate to be a techbro but so true: https://paulgraham.com/cities.html :D
LOL I may have read that essay 2 days ago because I was going through some of your old posts and you linked it in your 2023 year in review post, it's a good article! (and probably subconsciously influenced my comment now that I think about it)