{"id":14004,"date":"2023-02-28T10:40:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-28T10:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/?p=14004"},"modified":"2024-09-16T11:37:34","modified_gmt":"2024-09-16T11:37:34","slug":"reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/2023\/02\/28\/reality\/","title":{"rendered":"reality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>This post was a stub that evolved into <a href=\"https:\/\/visakanv.substack.com\/p\/reality-is-unrealistic-take-1\">&#8220;reality is unrealistic&#8221; substack essay<\/a> a few months later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cBut please remember: this is only a work of fiction. The truth, as always, will be far stranger.\u201d\u2015 Arthur C. Clarke<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/visakanv\/status\/1630429121657331712\">original thread<\/a>) Reality is repeatedly wilder than people\u2019s expectations. The stories we tell ourselves mostly have to make sense; reality doesn\u2019t. Reality can <em>seem<\/em> unrealistic, but this is mostly a failure of our expectations. Our perceptions are substantially influenced by our expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My goto example for this is: consider how &#8220;unrealistic&#8221; it would\u2019ve seemed to make a reality tv show host become president of the USA. like try pitching that as part of a serious prestige tv show in 2014. Nobody would\u2019ve taken you seriously. Or like, \u201cNintendo CEO Doug Bowser\u201d. Or consider the map of New Orleans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Holy cow\u2014if you like fantasy maps, spend some time looking at New Orleans. WHAT IS EVEN GOING ON WITH THIS CITY?! If this came in from a freelancer, there are half a dozen things that would raise my eyebrows. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ApqYYWlE8d\">pic.twitter.com\/ApqYYWlE8d<\/a><\/p>&mdash; James L. Sutter (DARKHEARTS out now!) (@jameslsutter) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jameslsutter\/status\/975550946884268032?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 19, 2018<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Now. because people expect reality to be Realistic, there\u2019s a systemic filtering that takes place. And it ties back to the good\/great dichotomy I\u2019ve talked about recently. Good is Realistic. Great is unRealistic. So people will ignore, overlook and forgo great outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you successfully solve your problem in a Good way, people who have that problem will be curious to learn from you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you successfully solve your problem in a Great way, people who have that problem will accuse you of never having had that problem in the first place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Great solutions\u2013 which are often generative and valuable far beyond the problem they initially are meant to solve\u2013 are authored by people who aren\u2019t constrained by Realistic Expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To not be constrained by Realistic Expectations\u2026 socially speaking, that\u2019s indistinguishable from being delusional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, this does not mean that being delusional guarantees greatness, positive deviance, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>tbc<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2731<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;facing realty part 2&#8221;, 2024may2<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/f_auto%2Cq_auto%3Agood%2Cfl_progressive%3Asteep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3779ea34-4bb3-4253-a484-d77b03f50757_1100x711.jpeg?ssl=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/w_1456%2Cc_limit%2Cf_auto%2Cq_auto%3Agood%2Cfl_progressive%3Asteep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3779ea34-4bb3-4253-a484-d77b03f50757_1100x711.jpeg?w=770&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>this post could maybe be \u201cfacing reality pt2\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/visakanv.substack.com\/p\/facing-reality-pt-1\">a sequel to pt 1)<\/a>, but the idea of starting with that doesn\u2019t quite appeal to me. I just want to talk about stuff without being overly attached to a starting frame at the moment. but i do want to talk about things like lifting weights and running, and tidying up messes, and maybe about caring for a baby, all of which do fit into the overarching frame of \u201cfacing reality\u201d. what else\u2026 notes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have a note on my phone where I said I\u2019d dump the Lego on the floor in a series of bullet points:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/visakanv.substack.com\/p\/reality-is-unrealistic-take-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reality is unrealistic<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 this is a substack post I published in June last year, which contains several of the following quotes<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>John Salvatier: \u201cReality has a surprising amount of detail\u201d (<a href=\"http:\/\/Reality has a surprising amount of detail\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">2017 blogpost<\/a>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>everything vague<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Huxley<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Philip K. Dick: \u201cReality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn&#8217;t go away.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ray Dalio: \u201cI learned that failure is by and large due to not accepting and successfully dealing with the realities of life, and that achieving success is simply a matter of accepting and successfully dealing with all my realities.\u201d I cited this quote in a 2016 Medium post I wrote titled \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@visakanv\/the-subtle-multi-layered-relationship-between-ego-and-failure-4a4a3c45cc91\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">beating yourself up is egotistic<\/a>\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>George Orwell: \u201cThe point is that we are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2731<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I feel like all of that is metacommentary, and I\u2019d rather just dive right into talking about specific problems. I suppose I could talk about fitness, though that feels slightly premature. I could talk about writing essays, but that feels\u2026 too meta, and kinda cheating, since I want to be writing essays that aren\u2019t just about writing essays. I could talk about the physical mess I am currently inhabiting, after maybe taking some time to tidy up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m writing this at my desk, so the first thing I\u2019d like to tidy up is my desk itself. There\u2019s a baby bottle that I just fed my son a while ago, I\u2019ll put that away. There\u2019s a portable charger I must\u2019ve used to charge something a while ago. I\u2019ll put that away too. I have a big stash of books on an overhead shelf\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>went diving into more of my shelves, found some camera equipment i bought in 2021 that i haven\u2019t used&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>tbc<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This post was a stub that evolved into &#8220;reality is unrealistic&#8221; substack essay a few months later. \u201cBut please remember: this is only a work of fiction. The truth, as always, will be far stranger.\u201d\u2015 Arthur C. Clarke (original thread) Reality is repeatedly wilder than people\u2019s expectations. The stories we&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[733],"class_list":["post-14004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-twitter-thread"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s5gxNz-reality","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14004"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14380,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14004\/revisions\/14380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}