Great article. There's a lot of themes here I write about and strongly agree with.
I think so much of our mental health suffering comes from our cultural model that instils this idea that your worth is measured in performance. When people try to source their self-worth from external sources, they're in for a bad time.
Also friction as a feature is such an important point. I think the bulk of human meaning that we derive from live comes from overcoming friction in the pursuit of goals. When technology takes away that friction, we end up miserable.
That's a beautiful way to put it. I increasingly think our culture's fixation on performance isn't simply exhausting—it's ontologically confusing. We begin to believe that our value resides in what we do rather than who we are. Once that happens, every moment of friction feels like a verdict on our worth instead of part of the process of becoming. Perhaps the deepest gift of friction is that it reminds us we were never meant to be machines.
Great article. There's a lot of themes here I write about and strongly agree with.
I think so much of our mental health suffering comes from our cultural model that instils this idea that your worth is measured in performance. When people try to source their self-worth from external sources, they're in for a bad time.
Also friction as a feature is such an important point. I think the bulk of human meaning that we derive from live comes from overcoming friction in the pursuit of goals. When technology takes away that friction, we end up miserable.
Thanks for writing, great perspective.
That's a beautiful way to put it. I increasingly think our culture's fixation on performance isn't simply exhausting—it's ontologically confusing. We begin to believe that our value resides in what we do rather than who we are. Once that happens, every moment of friction feels like a verdict on our worth instead of part of the process of becoming. Perhaps the deepest gift of friction is that it reminds us we were never meant to be machines.