Me right now
In Post-truth: Why facts don't matter anymore, someone in the audience says:
[CGP Grey] has this idea that you should think of your opinions like papers in a box. And if you find another opinion that is better than the opinion that you have in the box, you should switch it out. You should not believe it. You are not your opinions. Your opinions are just like stuff you carry with you. And that should be easily changed.
It has been a while since I first watched this video, but this thought has stayed with me: our ideas and beliefs don't have to define who we are. Instead, we can think of them as pieces of paper in a box — we can add new papers and remove existing papers over time. We can change our minds, and it does not mean that we have betrayed our identity.
For years, I have sporadically word vomited thoughts — scribbles in old notebooks, posts in private blogs, half-written notes in cloud documents. When I revisit these old writings, I am always surprised — because I don't recall ever believing, thinking, or feeling the things I've so evidently recorded. I feel like such a different person from the person who originally wrote the words — and I enjoy seeing and exploring that difference.1
In that spirit, this brain dump captures me right now — my current box of papers — for future me to look back on and consider.
Past me is so cringe sometimes. Okay, maybe most of the time. 🫣 Okay, fine. Current me is pretty cringe too. ↩