Hi Sindhu, I've been an admirer of your writings for a while. Your sentence structuring coupled with timely references to others work is refreshing! Incredibly resonate with everything you put out as a part of the conviction series. Would love for you to explore on separating stubbornness from conviction. I believe your exploration on the fine nuance over there would make way for a worth-while read :)
Hi Siddartha, love that question! While stubbornness and conviction both involve holding firmly to a position or a principle, I think stubbornness is more closely tied to protecting the ego than conviction is. I've also noticed that people with strong convictions can "adapt and improvise", like I mentioned in the essay. So while their core values remain the same, they are more amenable to change and flexibility if it is in service of those values. Stubborn people, on the other hand, are often rigid not just in their beliefs but also in their methods and approaches.
I might end up diving deeper into this in a future essay so do keep an eye out :)
I'm curious how pretending to be a different self is or isn't utilized by you and why.
Im also curious about the non-peer pressure type of agency. I have more struggles fighting distractions than going against the grain usually. Do you think it's the same 'agency', or is it just the same word bt two different things?
Thank you for reading! I think pretence can only go so far before it starts to actually *feel* like pretence. The idea is that somewhere along the way, you develop the muscle to display this sense of agency actively rather than through another self. Training wheels instead of a crutch, as it were.
On your second question: the core idea of agency—the capacity to act independently and make free choices—underpins both the 'social" and "personal distractions" types of influences. That said, I think fighting distractions is more specifically about self-control which, to be fair, is a tool of agency. Making your own choices will involve exercising some amount of active resistance towards things that you might have passively consumed before.
"That one act radically changed my worldview, because it made me realise just how far ahead I could chart my path myself." - The visual that I imagine from this situation is an interesting one, where putting yourself in modes of autonomous agency allows for clarity in your thought-process and future... very interesting concept. This was very well written and I look forward to more in this series!
I think a rabbit-hole to be explored is how societal influence becomes baggage that wears you down until personal awareness realizes otherwise. I wrote about this years ago, with the analogy that your mind is a hard drive that stores data as you age from child to adult, but eventually needs to learn how to clear space for new files and rewrite data as you learn more. I would love to hear your take on how external influences can benefit/detract from our personal agency - and maybe even how respect/familial nature weaves into that.
Hi Sindhu, I've been an admirer of your writings for a while. Your sentence structuring coupled with timely references to others work is refreshing! Incredibly resonate with everything you put out as a part of the conviction series. Would love for you to explore on separating stubbornness from conviction. I believe your exploration on the fine nuance over there would make way for a worth-while read :)
Hi Siddartha, love that question! While stubbornness and conviction both involve holding firmly to a position or a principle, I think stubbornness is more closely tied to protecting the ego than conviction is. I've also noticed that people with strong convictions can "adapt and improvise", like I mentioned in the essay. So while their core values remain the same, they are more amenable to change and flexibility if it is in service of those values. Stubborn people, on the other hand, are often rigid not just in their beliefs but also in their methods and approaches.
I might end up diving deeper into this in a future essay so do keep an eye out :)
Couldn’t agree more. Stubbornness as an ego preserver is an astute observation! Eagerly awaiting your next :)
This is really good!
I'm curious how pretending to be a different self is or isn't utilized by you and why.
Im also curious about the non-peer pressure type of agency. I have more struggles fighting distractions than going against the grain usually. Do you think it's the same 'agency', or is it just the same word bt two different things?
Thank you for reading! I think pretence can only go so far before it starts to actually *feel* like pretence. The idea is that somewhere along the way, you develop the muscle to display this sense of agency actively rather than through another self. Training wheels instead of a crutch, as it were.
On your second question: the core idea of agency—the capacity to act independently and make free choices—underpins both the 'social" and "personal distractions" types of influences. That said, I think fighting distractions is more specifically about self-control which, to be fair, is a tool of agency. Making your own choices will involve exercising some amount of active resistance towards things that you might have passively consumed before.
"That one act radically changed my worldview, because it made me realise just how far ahead I could chart my path myself." - The visual that I imagine from this situation is an interesting one, where putting yourself in modes of autonomous agency allows for clarity in your thought-process and future... very interesting concept. This was very well written and I look forward to more in this series!
I think a rabbit-hole to be explored is how societal influence becomes baggage that wears you down until personal awareness realizes otherwise. I wrote about this years ago, with the analogy that your mind is a hard drive that stores data as you age from child to adult, but eventually needs to learn how to clear space for new files and rewrite data as you learn more. I would love to hear your take on how external influences can benefit/detract from our personal agency - and maybe even how respect/familial nature weaves into that.
Thank you for writing this and sharing it.
Thank you for reading!