jererobles.me

the reverse truman show problem

if a tree falls in the middle of the forest and there's nobody to see or hear it, did it fall at all.

the reverse truman show problem aka do things really matter if they go undocumented, unnoticed? I suspect they don't. journaling is hard because it requires a non trivial amount of conscious effort of recalling one's actions and thoughts. personally I struggle a lot keeping a consistent routine for almost anything, I am able to do it it's just hard for my brain to sit down and do the thing.

even if you're consistent with the ritual of journaling the outcome itself is not, your environment and mental state directly effect the quality and quantity of your log.

automation is king #

we see this everywhere everyday from home lights to groceries to brain surgery. nowadays people (mostly) unconsioulsy document their lives through social media, this is good because things like Instagram have become so ubiquituous that documenting one's life is rewarded with social status and the instant gratification of those little hearts, turning it a low-friction feedback loop. but it's also bad for several reasons, mostly steming from he fact that it's social media: content is selected for what your social circles want to see leaving behind enormous amounts of raw material which, in turn, directly impacts the kind of content that you put out.

most people don't go write down the interactions they had during the day, film themselves brushing their teeth, or take a picture of the book they're currently reading. you can argue that these small actions don't matter as much as the result of their sum as a whole: making long-lasting friendships, having a mouth that is free of cavities, or learning something new.

why aren't our lives journaled automatically for us? we have the tech to do it.

a thousand tasks #

it's quite the opposite in fact, you might not care about the thousands of tiny moments that made Elon the most influential living guy but it's precisely those moments who put him here and now.

so, why don't we care? lack of time? not interesting enough? I'd say it's a mix of both. an hour spent watching Elon walking around Starbase is an hour I could spend learning about the air density in Mars and how to adapt the equations that we use down in Earth to work there too.