(Ed. Note: there are no answers in this essay, just thoughts and ideas) I’ve been feeling an increasing sense of what I can only describe as liminality recently. I don’t mean that in any sort of dystopian way, like the world is becoming one big waiting room for Armageddon or something—rather it’s a feeling that…
Tag: ramblings
Earworms as memory triggers
Is anyone else’s earworm kind of an asshole? After having the intro to a particular Grateful Dead song (not going to name it for fear of it making a repeat performance) on repeat for nearly a week, I started to think about how certain songs can come to be tied to very specific memories, complete…
Know Your Why, Part I
If you don’t know why you’re doing what you’re doing—how can you counter someone who says you’re doing it wrong? My grandma used to say something that drove me, and the rest of the family, nuts. “You’re right, I can’t.” That is one of the most deceptively simple-sounding, yet incredibly complex and, the more you…
Freewill? Determinism? Entropy?
Quick heads up: this one got away from me, but I like the point I eventually get to, so I’m leaving it as is to give you an idea of how these things swirl around and eventually come out as written essays whether the words are in the right order or otherwise. “The ability to…
Yes, and…
This simple heuristic comes from improv theater (among other places, I’m sure) and is used to keep a scene going. When it looks like a scene may be coming to an end prematurely, one actor can say (or think to themselves) “yes, and…” and this often spurs the group to find a new direction to…