Obscure Curiosities

Tag: ideas

  • Forming a Hierarchy of Ideas: Foundational, Expressive, and Transient

    When I stumbled upon an early draft of what I titled “Hierarchy of Ideas” I realized this was  perfect Obscure Curiosities material. In just a few paragraphs, I had the bones of a schema that can sit alongside my CRAP framework as a kind of “compass” for orienting ideas. So, I decided to sketch this…

  • How Do We Make Our Ideas Become Real to Us?

    Here’s a wild thought: most of the things rattling around in our heads aren’t real. By “real,” I mean you can’t physically poke at them. It’s all just synapses firing off inside our skulls, telling us stories about things we think exist. Still, real or imagined, we love to give those intangible ideas a physical…

  • How Do You Know When Something is Profound?

    I’ve been watching a lot of philosophy videos on Khan Academy. I’ve dabbled in philosophy a lot over the years. Yet I’ve never actually sat and read many original philosophical works. When I have, I find myself lost. It seems like I can’t put myself into the right state of mind very often to understand…