Emotional sensation isn't meaningless. There's a problem with delusion, but there isn't a problem with feeling renewed inspiration. If anything, that kind of awe usually invokes humbling and calming mindset that reminds me how small and unimportant my problems are in the grand scheme of things. Just don't "run away" to it as a way of escapism.

The interpretation of sensations, moods, and emotions must be done by each individual. If I took a cab into New York City, and felt awe at the possibilities the city seemed to offer me, your "narrative fallacy" idea doesn't not somehow invalidate my experience or my interpretation of my experience. My expectations of opportunity could quite possibly be justified.

I can already see the objection forming in your mind. "But I'm not talking about an anticipation of possibilities". Oh, but you are:

"You could broke or paid on business and the feeling is the same. That the epicenter of the world is open to you, that you matter there."

You are associating a feeling of expectation with an irrational basis - that the feeling would be felt regardless of one's situation. But how do you know what I will feel? Or anyone else but yourself?

The real fallacy here is the "typical mind" fallacy:

http://74.125.113.132/search?q=cache:bHrSvF50-zgJ:lesswrong.com/lw/dr/generalizing_from_one_example/+generalize+from+one+example&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Narrative fallacies do exist, but not as you have described them.

"Just don't "run away" to it as a way of escapism. "

So basically you're sort rephrasing what he said and pretending like you're disagreeing with him somehow? What's wrong with you?
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"But how do you know what I will feel? Or anyone else but yourself"

If you aren't personally feeling what he's describing then this post wasn't for you. And if not, why do you assume he's referring to what you ARE thinking or feeling?

As he said it... "If you feel like the city awaits your arrival" to enjoy it but not to take it to heart, and not to let it affect you, but if that's not what you feel, then it doesn't apply to you. And if that is how you feel, guess what? The city isn't actually waiting for your arrival.

You are actually guilty of the "typical mind fallacy" for believing that he was referring to your frame of thought instead of the one he described. And you're also terrible at writing, so work on that.

I'm "terrible at writing"? Thanks for the assessment Hemingway. If it hadn't occurred to you, I'm discussing his ideas, not writing literature.

My rephrasing of his blog post is only based on what he wrote. I assume only that he has a nominal command of the English language.

For comparison, check out your own rephrasing of this post:

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As he said it... "If you feel like the city awaits your arrival" to enjoy it but not to take it to heart.

--------

But, what he actually wrote was:

"If you lay back in the seat just perfect and stare out the window, the city, it seems, awaits your arrival."

My interpretation is clearly superior. He's claiming that if you [i.e. all who would read his blog] "lay back in the seat just perfect and stare out the window" then the city seems to wait for your arrival.

He is, indeed, making the "typical mind" fallacy.

I'm getting a little confused about why we should be trying so hard to take the meaning out of everything. If we don't have that, then what else is there? I understand we should try to dissect the bad things for what they really are, but why the good things? I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just not pretending I understand. I don't get it.

Luke, it's actually the opposite. The Narrative Fallacy is the tendency to create meaning and story and significance from things that do not inherently have them. Driving into the city makes you feel like you're the most goddamn important person on the planet. The thing is...you're not.

What I'm trying to say is take it for what it is. It's invigorating, inspiring, exciting. It is not, however, a reflection of your personal worth.

Does that make a little bit of sense?

Yeah that makes more sense to me, thanks mate.

I should go over a few of the previous posts in relation to it. I've been thinking about this a bit lately and some days I feel I understand it completely, and then other times I feel like I don't get it at all.

You know, I read a little snippet by a certain porn star the other day. It read "Discrediting ones experiences serves to undercut the very existence of who they are. I very much believe I am in great part the sum total of my experiences."

That is wisdom. If you start denying your own dreams and building mental dams to curb your enthousiasm, you start dying. Stop dying Ryan. I like reading your musings, but this one made me cringe.

Nothing "inherently has meaning"--a big part of being human is imbuing things around you with meaning. That's how our species made the world livable for ourselves. Apparently you hate the basis of humanity. Sweet.

@Anon, yeah that sounds like a reasonable inference.

Notice how everyone is fine going along with my posts until I write a piece that suggests you forgo or give something up, actually be dispassionate or deprive yourself of some easy pleasure. When I do that everybody starts pushing back.

Bummer dude. Maybe it's time to put the Marcus Aurelius down? Like, what other philosophers, poets or sages have you taken up with? Other than like popular science/strategy writers?

"So basically you're sort rephrasing what he said and pretending like you're disagreeing with him somehow? What's wrong with you?"

What's wrong with your comprehension?

I agreed on the part that self-grandiosity is delusion. I disagreed on the part where he said inspiration and sensation are meaningless.
Ryan said that sensation is meaningless, I'm guessing it's because of his guidelines of Stoicism.
There's no sneaky pretend bullshit here.

My interpretation is clearly superior. He's claiming that if you [i.e. all who would read his blog] "lay back in the seat just perfect and stare out the window" then the city seems to wait for your arrival.
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Ah, ok, so your stance here is that Ryan Holiday believes that every single person who has ever been in a car on the way into the city, and reads this, is guilty of feeling like the city is waiting for their arrival.

Nice thinking, pal.

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"I agreed on the part that self-grandiosity is delusion. I disagreed on the part where he said inspiration and sensation are meaningless."

Actually he said:
You should enjoy it. It is, no doubt, a rare and special feeling.

You could argue semantics, but in my opinion you're just being annoying.

Thanks, I had never seen anything about the "narrative fallacy" before you posted something about it in the past and now again. Rings true to me. Most of us are not really as important as we feel like when we either listen to music while running or do something like walking around Manhattan, like you mentioned in this latest post. I take it that you do believe that we could potentially at one point become that person that would have the inherent value to justify the "narrative", in other words, I guess you do believe that we could at one point reach a level of personal growth where we actually put flesh to that imaginary character in the narrative. I hope this makes sense.
RL

I haven't followed this site long, but I like it. But this is my first time scanning the comments section. I find myself fascinated that people would spend their time framing a three-paragraph anecdote that simply aims on arming readers with a stronger sense of reality/humility as some evil treatise against the foundations of mankind. ..Really? Guys, as Palahniuk said, this is your life and it's ending one minute at a time.

Isn't the "Soundtrack Illusion" really just Romanticism and your "Narrative Fix" a sense of situational irony? So the simplistic meaning would be that it's best to keep both in check and find a balance between the irrationality of the former and the sterility of the latter?

"Actually he said:
You should enjoy it. It is, no doubt, a rare and special feeling.

You could argue semantics, but in my opinion you're just being annoying."

Jesus Christ, where do you people come from? He said outright that "this sensation is meaningless."

Ryan:

I guess you and Mr. Vonnegut somehow share a similar position:

"Kurt Vonnegut explains drama with charts | Derek Sivers"
http://sivers.org/drama

And so it goes, in Tralfamadore.

In any case: don't you think that fostering a bit of drama and narrative to our lives can make it more exciting? After all, everything is by itself rather meaningless, but living in nihilism, or in a sartrian neutral existentialism, doesn't make us happier, does it?

The mechanisms to neutralizing what makes us suffer are different from the ones that makes us happy, i.e., they are not in the same continuum. For the former, stoicism is a great tool; but a spark of well-orchestrated drama might spice it up for the latter.

Just my two cents.

Sure, but where did I say we should have NO drama or live in nihilism?

I mean, I only know what I was aiming at when I wrote it, not how it ultimately is perceived but I feel like I was speaking about a particular instance.

Hum, ok.

So, brainstorming together: in your view, when is it healthy to allow drama to creep in? What is the role of drama ("dramatic" personal narratives) in the life of a rational being?

Ryan just discovered your blog and loved this most recent post. I just had this experience of crossing over into NY city last weekend, and had exactly the same sense of personal narrative. Of course I also had flashbacks to Grand Theft Auto 4 because I played a little too much of it, but nevermind that.

I also get this same infusion of narrative purpose right around dusk, and during the change of seasons (especially the advent of autumn). Not really sure why. But it's always that same feeling of empowerment and limitless possibility... something I'm always inspired by but don't get carried away by, as you say.

The discussion in your comments here is, ah, interesting... is this what your readership is always like?

Very nice. Started reading the comments, and though not pointless, after franky's I stopped.