I had to spurn the "sunk cost fallacy" to leave a tenured job, and academia. Haven't regretted it. Among the many joys of being a reader and a creative is exploring lives I didn't live, and feeling like I did. Among the ideas I discuss with kids in schools, who are always being ordered to "make good choices" is that I've made "bad" decisions that turned out to be good in terms of having an interesting life, and that we are more often called to make decisions rather than pick "choices" freely anyway! Thanks for this, Mike.
I hear this. Isn't reading one of the great "hopping across the multiverse" skills, except with ideas and with imagination? I've always felt that way about books - how they're portals to the experiences of being other people (real and fictional) and the longer you stay in a good book, the more it changes you in subtle and mysterious ways, so when you "return to the real world" (ie. finish that book), you've brought something back. Something important.
>>"Among the ideas I discuss with kids in schools, who are always being ordered to "make good choices" is that I've made "bad" decisions that turned out to be good in terms of having an interesting life, and that we are more often called to make decisions rather than pick "choices" freely anyway!"
This is such a good reframing. Yes - decisions that keep us moving forward, because forward momentum is the only way to live properly.
I also feel like it has something to do with the way we're taught at school: where it's taught there's a "right answer" and a "wrong answer", and how somehow that's become the template for every question, and THAT turns into this preconception that we're like cars racing down a superhighway, and we have one chance to take the right turnoff, and if we miss it we're screwed. But that's - not how anyone actually learns anything? Or achieves anything worth achieving?
Loving both of these comments! So, so much about the choices versus the decisions -- "make good choices" is literally part of the motto at one of my kids' schools. What's a good choice? Probably very different from what the accepted metrics allow us to think.
Yes! And isn't that so great? One of the roles of scifi and fantasy is to prepare us for how bizarre the future is going to be. (Also: comedy! How many times has The Simpsons been cited as making an accurate prediction about the future?) It's like this kind of fiction is a gym for our imaginations...
And yes, I approve of this world's Michael Jensen. The rest of us definitely picked the right universe in this regard.
I loved this so much I had to read it three times! Wonderfully, it accentuates rather than detracts from the 3 days completely offline I had at a cabin by myself (no electricity or mobile service, etc., etc., but the sunrise and moonrise each day, holy moly), which to me epitomizes why I love your writing so much.
"This, now, is the only place we will ever live, the only place we can ever truly feel anything, and the only place we can work to change things for the better." This is the line. I was already so glad I'd been at the cabin, feeling good, and this nailed it to the ground for me in the best possible way. Thanks, Mike!
Every hooray, all the hoorays for your offline cabin time! I love that you do this so much, and it always reminds me that I want to as well (or at least the Scottish equivalent, which involves Booking. com) but never quite get myself organised enough to do it - and then spend my allegedly-offline-doing-some-reading days doing stuff that's not actually so different to normal, which is how I don't quite get enough things read? Hmm.
So - okay. I clearly need an intervention, and your fine example is perfect for the job.
What I'm saying is: when I go somewhere remote, and end up being eaten by wild, feral haggis, you'll be to blame - and everyone will know this, because of this comment. (I'm all for poetry and inspiration and all that hand-waving nonsense, but legal culpability is *properly* important.)
It probably sounds like I do more than is true! Most of these cabins are limited to 7 nights per person per year, and many of them can be hard to get into. I'd camp more often but it's hard to work outdoors when you're freezing ten months of the year!
Are you seriously telling me Scotland has feral haggis roaming around? Does it come to life when made with really poor-quality whisky? I am very gullible, so if I fall for this I will now hold you liable!
I just saw the film two days ago, still trying to digest it. Your comments are the best I read about, idk, the meaning of IT ALL. Also, thanks for the aurora borealis pictures. As a citizen of the South, I always kind of envy you Northeners for having the privilege to see it.
Thank you so much, Gaia! If that was just the first time you saw it, I am not surprised that your mind is still trying to process! I had to watch it another two times before I knew what the hell I was...even *starting* to think. 😜 And as I said in another comment, I'm sure I'll have a bunch more thoughts when I watch it again. I guess that's just a sign of good art? Or good storytelling, anyway...
Have you ever seen the Aurora Australis? Are you at the right latitudes to see it?
Oh, no. Aurora Australis is only visible in the Antarctic continent. the most southernmost I've ever been to is Isla Navarino, Patagonia, but even there is no south enough.
Thanks for this! Imma re-watch that thing and then re-read this post. I think I *felt* many of the same things, but you put it into words so wonderfully :)
Yes, it's a film of such huge feelings, and the first time I watched it I didn't know how to process most of them. I could only write this after three full run-throughs of the film, and even then - well, put it this way, it's published a week later than I planned. And even now I feel like this is just a version of an interpretation, a "this is what I found after three watches of it", and if I watch it a fourth time I'm going to have to write another newsletter. Blessed is the filmmaking that can do that to us.
"But it’s also about how exciting it is to step into other versions of yourself, where you can discover different skills, different experiences, and where you see the world differently in so many ways - and, ultimately, it’s about how it’s never too late to do that, including when you’ve spent your entire life not doing it." Yes!! Absolutely loved this post Mike. Such a delightful deep dive. Time to go rewatch the film.
Oh wow. Thank you so much, Ali. Praise from the praiseworthy indeed. 🙏
Also, I just discovered that this was the *second* film from the writers who made "EEAAO", and that the first film was the equally bonkers "Swiss Army Man", and somehow everything makes a little more sense, except in a way that makes even less sense. I'm now slightly terrified about what their third film will look like?
Okay. They have been chipping away at the world from underneath for a decade, then. This is starting to make even more/even less sense now. What incredible, mad talent. And what fierce determination and force of will to not just remain that weird, but to *keep getting weirder*, across all that time. Lesson for us all, I reckon.
I am waxing loquacious in my cups, so am writing in this state. I read this post on my systematic way backwards through the archives. I read it on May 13, 2024, when the solar max was maxxed and the auroras were purportedly even more southerly and spectacular. I live on the west coast of USA, in LA, so between the light pollution, and the coastal overcast it’s a lost cause, sad because I have always wanted to see it. But anyway, after a difficult day I have comforted myself with one of Mike’s posts. And because I am loquacious, here is my stream of consciousness appreciation of aspects of this post.
Bla bla bla movie (which I did see, actually).
“… being wise may count more than being smart.”
Oh I quite like that.
“In other words, it was hitting us with tennis-ball-sized packages of air pressure at a rate of a couple of hundred a second.”
As an w engineer, I loved this description , such a riches of measurement.
“…it’s always a different combination of varieties of shit in each case. Anxiety is a constant. Pain is a constant. Everyone’s struggling and everything feels chaotic, because that’s just what being a person is. As the saying goes: the thing about travel is that everywhere you go, there you are.”
That last is a quote I have held to for much of my life and why I stayed in my (admittedly super fabulous) job for 38 years (now retired, which is better than any job IMNSHO)
And finally ending with :
“…Ridicule and trounce me loudly!”
Ha! I love that, so eager and self effacing, one sees such openness to newness in all forms.
So, Mike, in case you see this these years later, I had a lovely evening with this post, thanks, a time of respite into the mind.
This is a wonderful take on a wonderful film. Your “interpretation” of (“riff on”? “appreciation of”?) the movie does it the sort of justice that only expands on the beautiful truth of the original. Everything is amazing, indeed, but the film and your take on it remind us that some things are truly wonderful.
I finally got around to watching and was thrilled to come back and read this post. Thank you for encapsulating such a wonderful and positive message. I’ve had a great thing happen in my life recently and am feeling a tremendous passion these days. I’m so grateful I found your post a year ago. Thanks for the encouragement and exuberance you share. I plan to take you up on your challenge!
I had to spurn the "sunk cost fallacy" to leave a tenured job, and academia. Haven't regretted it. Among the many joys of being a reader and a creative is exploring lives I didn't live, and feeling like I did. Among the ideas I discuss with kids in schools, who are always being ordered to "make good choices" is that I've made "bad" decisions that turned out to be good in terms of having an interesting life, and that we are more often called to make decisions rather than pick "choices" freely anyway! Thanks for this, Mike.
I hear this. Isn't reading one of the great "hopping across the multiverse" skills, except with ideas and with imagination? I've always felt that way about books - how they're portals to the experiences of being other people (real and fictional) and the longer you stay in a good book, the more it changes you in subtle and mysterious ways, so when you "return to the real world" (ie. finish that book), you've brought something back. Something important.
(Hence the importance of studying history! A school made of time, filled with around 117 billion teachers: https://info.nicic.gov/ces/global/population-demographics/how-many-people-have-ever-lived-earth)
>>"Among the ideas I discuss with kids in schools, who are always being ordered to "make good choices" is that I've made "bad" decisions that turned out to be good in terms of having an interesting life, and that we are more often called to make decisions rather than pick "choices" freely anyway!"
This is such a good reframing. Yes - decisions that keep us moving forward, because forward momentum is the only way to live properly.
I also feel like it has something to do with the way we're taught at school: where it's taught there's a "right answer" and a "wrong answer", and how somehow that's become the template for every question, and THAT turns into this preconception that we're like cars racing down a superhighway, and we have one chance to take the right turnoff, and if we miss it we're screwed. But that's - not how anyone actually learns anything? Or achieves anything worth achieving?
Loving both of these comments! So, so much about the choices versus the decisions -- "make good choices" is literally part of the motto at one of my kids' schools. What's a good choice? Probably very different from what the accepted metrics allow us to think.
Wonderful, Mike. Quite wonderful. Thank you.
Thank you, Jon. So nice of you to say. :)
I think that's to science fiction books and movies people really would be about to accept bizarre things now in a way we couldn't have previously.
If I suddenly transported to China in the sixth century in sure I'd be freaked but I'd also think Oh, time travel! COOL!
Ditto aliens and multiverses.
BTW, Blackberry? Oof!
Finally, I think I've been lucky enough to already stumble into one of my better alternate selves....
Yes! And isn't that so great? One of the roles of scifi and fantasy is to prepare us for how bizarre the future is going to be. (Also: comedy! How many times has The Simpsons been cited as making an accurate prediction about the future?) It's like this kind of fiction is a gym for our imaginations...
And yes, I approve of this world's Michael Jensen. The rest of us definitely picked the right universe in this regard.
😜😜😜
Mike, this was absolutely brilliant, incredible, moving. And exactly what I needed to hear right now, in this moment. Thank you!!! 🙌
🙏Thank you so much, my friend. 🙏 Really appreciate you saying that.
Me too!
I loved this so much I had to read it three times! Wonderfully, it accentuates rather than detracts from the 3 days completely offline I had at a cabin by myself (no electricity or mobile service, etc., etc., but the sunrise and moonrise each day, holy moly), which to me epitomizes why I love your writing so much.
"This, now, is the only place we will ever live, the only place we can ever truly feel anything, and the only place we can work to change things for the better." This is the line. I was already so glad I'd been at the cabin, feeling good, and this nailed it to the ground for me in the best possible way. Thanks, Mike!
Every hooray, all the hoorays for your offline cabin time! I love that you do this so much, and it always reminds me that I want to as well (or at least the Scottish equivalent, which involves Booking. com) but never quite get myself organised enough to do it - and then spend my allegedly-offline-doing-some-reading days doing stuff that's not actually so different to normal, which is how I don't quite get enough things read? Hmm.
So - okay. I clearly need an intervention, and your fine example is perfect for the job.
What I'm saying is: when I go somewhere remote, and end up being eaten by wild, feral haggis, you'll be to blame - and everyone will know this, because of this comment. (I'm all for poetry and inspiration and all that hand-waving nonsense, but legal culpability is *properly* important.)
It probably sounds like I do more than is true! Most of these cabins are limited to 7 nights per person per year, and many of them can be hard to get into. I'd camp more often but it's hard to work outdoors when you're freezing ten months of the year!
Are you seriously telling me Scotland has feral haggis roaming around? Does it come to life when made with really poor-quality whisky? I am very gullible, so if I fall for this I will now hold you liable!
I just saw the film two days ago, still trying to digest it. Your comments are the best I read about, idk, the meaning of IT ALL. Also, thanks for the aurora borealis pictures. As a citizen of the South, I always kind of envy you Northeners for having the privilege to see it.
Thank you so much, Gaia! If that was just the first time you saw it, I am not surprised that your mind is still trying to process! I had to watch it another two times before I knew what the hell I was...even *starting* to think. 😜 And as I said in another comment, I'm sure I'll have a bunch more thoughts when I watch it again. I guess that's just a sign of good art? Or good storytelling, anyway...
Have you ever seen the Aurora Australis? Are you at the right latitudes to see it?
Oh, no. Aurora Australis is only visible in the Antarctic continent. the most southernmost I've ever been to is Isla Navarino, Patagonia, but even there is no south enough.
Thanks for this! Imma re-watch that thing and then re-read this post. I think I *felt* many of the same things, but you put it into words so wonderfully :)
Thank you, Tad! So kind of you to say.
Yes, it's a film of such huge feelings, and the first time I watched it I didn't know how to process most of them. I could only write this after three full run-throughs of the film, and even then - well, put it this way, it's published a week later than I planned. And even now I feel like this is just a version of an interpretation, a "this is what I found after three watches of it", and if I watch it a fourth time I'm going to have to write another newsletter. Blessed is the filmmaking that can do that to us.
"But it’s also about how exciting it is to step into other versions of yourself, where you can discover different skills, different experiences, and where you see the world differently in so many ways - and, ultimately, it’s about how it’s never too late to do that, including when you’ve spent your entire life not doing it." Yes!! Absolutely loved this post Mike. Such a delightful deep dive. Time to go rewatch the film.
Oh wow. Thank you so much, Ali. Praise from the praiseworthy indeed. 🙏
Also, I just discovered that this was the *second* film from the writers who made "EEAAO", and that the first film was the equally bonkers "Swiss Army Man", and somehow everything makes a little more sense, except in a way that makes even less sense. I'm now slightly terrified about what their third film will look like?
Yes! I've been fans of them since back in the day when they made videos for the internet. I bet you'd like this one -- https://vimeo.com/110808221
AHHHH THEY MADE INTERESTING BALL
Okay. They have been chipping away at the world from underneath for a decade, then. This is starting to make even more/even less sense now. What incredible, mad talent. And what fierce determination and force of will to not just remain that weird, but to *keep getting weirder*, across all that time. Lesson for us all, I reckon.
I am waxing loquacious in my cups, so am writing in this state. I read this post on my systematic way backwards through the archives. I read it on May 13, 2024, when the solar max was maxxed and the auroras were purportedly even more southerly and spectacular. I live on the west coast of USA, in LA, so between the light pollution, and the coastal overcast it’s a lost cause, sad because I have always wanted to see it. But anyway, after a difficult day I have comforted myself with one of Mike’s posts. And because I am loquacious, here is my stream of consciousness appreciation of aspects of this post.
Bla bla bla movie (which I did see, actually).
“… being wise may count more than being smart.”
Oh I quite like that.
“In other words, it was hitting us with tennis-ball-sized packages of air pressure at a rate of a couple of hundred a second.”
As an w engineer, I loved this description , such a riches of measurement.
“…it’s always a different combination of varieties of shit in each case. Anxiety is a constant. Pain is a constant. Everyone’s struggling and everything feels chaotic, because that’s just what being a person is. As the saying goes: the thing about travel is that everywhere you go, there you are.”
That last is a quote I have held to for much of my life and why I stayed in my (admittedly super fabulous) job for 38 years (now retired, which is better than any job IMNSHO)
And finally ending with :
“…Ridicule and trounce me loudly!”
Ha! I love that, so eager and self effacing, one sees such openness to newness in all forms.
So, Mike, in case you see this these years later, I had a lovely evening with this post, thanks, a time of respite into the mind.
I did see it, and I thank you. :) These are lovely thoughts.
This is a wonderful take on a wonderful film. Your “interpretation” of (“riff on”? “appreciation of”?) the movie does it the sort of justice that only expands on the beautiful truth of the original. Everything is amazing, indeed, but the film and your take on it remind us that some things are truly wonderful.
That movie is divine! In my opinion, it’s a pretty fair representation of a spiritual awakening.
I finally got around to watching and was thrilled to come back and read this post. Thank you for encapsulating such a wonderful and positive message. I’ve had a great thing happen in my life recently and am feeling a tremendous passion these days. I’m so grateful I found your post a year ago. Thanks for the encouragement and exuberance you share. I plan to take you up on your challenge!