Comments on: Finding New Rabbit Holes

By: Greg

Greg — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 09:55:58 +0000

I’m a bit late on this entry, but I’m reading through the archives, so bear with me.

Your line about “I sot of like arguing, maybe I’ll be a lawyer” is pretty much where my life is at. And really, it’s less satisfying than you might think?

I won’t pretend I know you, but I’m also a 20 year old who devours Greene and every other book I can get my hands on, and I’ve identified a lot of what you’ve written as thoughts I’ve had, or thoughts I should have but haven’t yet.

I think you’re on a better path; holding up law school as the holy grail of good ideas, then reading PhilaLawyer is kind of like kicking myself in the nuts. It hurts, and I have no idea why I’m doing it. (PhilaLawyer is excellent, it’s more the existential distress)

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 17:46:31 +0000

Why don’t you write about politics anymore?

By: Ryan Holiday

Ryan Holiday — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 16:48:58 +0000

For instance, if I am racist, I might assume that everyone hates minorities too. Or, if I think that it is obvious that being healthy is important and just figure that the rest of society has the same priorities or they must be mistaken.

Just because Wikipedia has been therapeutic and helpful for me, it doesn’t mean it will work for everyone.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 16:29:09 +0000

Do you have an example of the false-consensus bias?

By: zach

zach — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 14:54:32 +0000

similarly, i edit urbandictionary definitions, just added a new definition for skeet; but i think my best work was defining “heated”

fuck yea!

By: Glenn

Glenn — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 04:32:42 +0000

One of the best teachers I ever had used to encourage the class to look beyond the textbook and dive into ‘the rabbit hole.’ At that point in time, she was simply encouraging the class to think outside the box, to analyze the content in a historical focus and draw connections, whether or not they were always “right.”

It therefore struck me as interesting to see that same phrase used in a similar light — and your idea seems to be a great way of handling exposure to new information. I am trying to expose myself to a variety of material and experiences beyond the classroom before I go to college, but have had difficulty finding peers with the same goal; you may have proposed the solution I need. Thank you.

By: Ryan Holiday

Ryan Holiday — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 16:14:33 +0000

I’ve gotten that before, but actually no. No older siblings.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 15:18:31 +0000

Do you have older brothers, or did you grow up with any older people that you had to follow in any way?

I ask because I have a really similar way about myself. I don’t want to say “work ethic” because it’s not a strong enough word for it. It’s that need to work hard, to work out, to keep going, to keep busy. I’ve said to friends before that the idea of not working on something or reading something or figuring out something new is unthinkable to me, which they all pretty unanimously agreed was crazy.

Back to older brothers, my oldest brother was a piano/composition prodigy, (by this time next year, in fact, he will most likely be all you hear about if you pay attention to composers). When you have an older brother who is playing in sold out concert halls at 14, you’re inspired to work harder just because…well, you’re a kid and you want attention. Anyway, that’s what happened to me. I developed a constant, steady work habit and when I came to the point where I moved to a place where no one had heard of my older brother, I still had this need for constant work, and I still have it now. At this point, of course, it isn’t about attention or trying to stand out or compete with him, specifically, but that’s where I assume my ethic (need, hunger) comes from.

So…did you have any older siblings? If not, well there goes that theory.