2024-10-02

The long and the short of it is, life is not long, it is short, and likely to be shorter for those of us who have already lived a long time. Or, to cite the aphorism attributed to the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, Ars longa, vita brevis.

During that long time, it has become more and more starkly clear to me that there is far too much information, too much knowledge, to be assimilated, or even to be taken into consideration. Just to take an example that weighs on me right now, there are thousands of hours of video conversation on YouTube that maybe I would like to watch, but that is impossible. There are many thousands of blog posts, articles, Wikipedia pages, etc. etc. I cannot read even a significant fraction of what might reasonably interest me.

How do I start to know what is the best use of my limited time? That's a question that, I would say, should engage all of us, even those who are younger. It should go without saying that there is no easy way of solving this in general.

But one can address it. I would like to address it collectively, rather than individually. My approach goes roughly like this:

• Knowing what to attend to is a challenge that is way beyond individual rational thinking.
• Collective discernment is often way better than individual discernment, if the quality of collectivity is good enough.
• We can address this collectively: we can help direct each other's attention.
• This is related to collective ikigai.
• In particular, all of us who have something to offer can collaborate in directing people who come to us.
  • This depends on us knowing each other — an important aspect of a good collective.
  • We also need to get to know those newcomers well enough.
  • If we and they fit really well, we invite them to stay with us.
  • If we (and they) sense that they would fit (even) better with someone else, we send them there, gladly and without holding on. This is where the “non-possessive” comes in.
  • From time to time we do this for each other as well, within the collective.
• In this way, everyone is guided (or nudged) towards resources, and towards people, with which or with whom they can thrive better: contribute more, learn more, do more good in the world.

We are in so much need of a way to navigate through the flood of information to find the pools of knowledge that bring us, and others, alive. I say: let us collaborate in a non-possessive way, to work towards that.

• non-possessive collaboration
• relationships