
Letter of Recommendation: Digging a Trench - js2
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/16/magazine/letter-of-recommendation-digging-a-trench.html
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mirimir
Yes, very Zen. And good exercise, if you're young enough.

But me, I'd have just found the shutoff valve for the sprinkler system.

And actually, something like that happened to me. We'd bought this very old
house. With an electrical box that had evolved since ~1900. It met code, but
was a rat's nest. So we hired an electrician to bring order.

Long story short, we found a circuit that led to an old iron pipe, which had
supplied a long-gone outbuilding. The circuit hadn't shorted out, but the pipe
was so rusted out that the circuit drew ~5A whenever it rained.

Edit: spelling

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mirimir
Belated edit: It looks like _Bring Out the Dog_ is a must read.

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bonoboTP
This is probably deep and profound, but I'm not advanced enough to get the
point. Guy found some leakage of water in his backyard, went digging around to
find the source and meanwhile had some existential epiphanies of epic scale.

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magpi3
With writing like this, I think trying to "get the point" is... missing the
point for lack of a better expression.

For me the question is simply does this piece make you feel something or not?
A piece like this invites the reader to make their own connection to what the
narrator is experiencing, and if a reader doesn't make that connection then
that is okay, and it certainly does not mean that the reader is in any way
less "advanced."

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mlthoughts2018
I used to think that writing or storytelling that “doesn’t have a point,” so
to speak, was more profound or enduring, but later in life I no longer feel
this way and have come to regard the modern trend to create film and written
artwork like this as a mistake.

Maybe it goes in cycles? If society is prepccupied with formulaic narratives
that stick to a tight setvof themes, then material written without a specific
aim in terms of “a point” might help broaden discourse or generate discussion.

But if society is already floundering around with aimless discussion in a lot
of areas, with big conflicts in terms of the basic moral or ethical premises
of the world, then writing succinct, direct stories that have a point may be
more useful.

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magpi3
> But if society is already floundering around with aimless discussion in a
> lot of areas, with big conflicts in terms of the basic moral or ethical
> premises of the world, then writing succinct, direct stories that have a
> point may be more useful.

Maybe more useful, but I think purely utilitarian writing does less to broaden
a reader's mind than more ambiguous writing that they have to struggle with. I
know it did for me. But I understand what you are saying, and I too outgrew
reading "challenging" novels because I feel like my mind has been broadened
enough and also I feel like I just have less time (although maybe I am just
getting older).

I haven't read this essay in a while, but as I remember it Jonathen Franzen's
essay "Perchance to dream" takes on this exact subject and is an excellent
read. Regrettably it is not available online.

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klagermkii
I fully support challenging writing that has a deeper meaning and that forces
you to think about it to truly understand the author's larger concept. But
there's an awful lot of stuff that is closer to a Rorschach test, where by
thinking hard enough you can create your own signal from the noise.

It's much easier to create the second type than the first, and superficially
it's really hard to tell them apart. Like a complicated looking puzzle that
turns out to have no solution, your mind may manage to make some random
connections, but ultimately it's not teaching you any kind of better way of
thinking. You can waste a lot of time trying to extract the true deeper
meaning when there's none there.

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mlthoughts2018
> “But there's an awful lot of stuff that is closer to a Rorschach test, where
> by thinking hard enough you can create your own signal from the noise.”

This is a close match to the spirit of my comment, well put.

It’s very easy to write drivel that essentially means anything the reader
wants it to mean, and then try to weasel out of it by claiming there is no
point, and that pointlessness is part of the artistic merit.

Another thing that irks me is that quite often there really is an intentional
thought process by the artist as they create something. Why make Bob say such
and such to Alice at that moment? Why choose a certain style of paint that
introduces a texture? You literally can go ask the artist to explain the exact
intentionality beyond various choices.

Except in cases where the artist uses some sort of free association /
subconscious technique, usually resulting in abstract or surreal art, there’s
no intellectually honest way for an artist to claim there’s no “true” meaning,
because at bare minimum there is the brain state of the artist at the time
they used willful intention to create it one way and not all other possible
ways.

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ggm
In praise of CBT. By doing, feeling becomes meaning.

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AnthonBerg
Yes!! Thank you! I’ve been fumbling with trying to put that thought into a
form as succinct as that.

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ggm
I think other koans could be better. Nice game to play reducing acronyms down
to short non acronymic description.

Maybe it's doing through meaning becomes being?

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AnthonBerg
Yes, nice game.

The first koan resonated more with me :) However I see beauty in that “be” is
there twice in the second one. If we prune the second, we get: Doing through
meaning becomes.

That’s not full capture of the thing.

I think this might be closer: “Meaning through doing becomes.”

It’s a little stilted and unnatural, but to me it indicates a loop, which is a
life mechanism or pattern which CBT has pointed me towards.

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true_tuna
I did some car work yesterday. Struts, so nothing hard, just needed to put in
the time. The next thing to do was always obvious. I don’t think I had a
complex thought the whole time. I was just there. I came back to myself
feeling like my mind was awakening from a long nap and my body had just done
something difficult and wondrous without me. I felt more refreshed than I
usually do after a vacation. I can think of no better reason to write than to
share such feelings. To grant meaning to the effort, and share that meaning
with others.

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mcnichol
Wow, so well written. I really enjoyed that!

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NotSammyHagar
A real writer. I've never been able to achieve something so... fluid,
complete, interesting.

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chrisweekly
Lovely piece of writing.

