• for: transition, uncertainty, uncertainty - neuroscience, ingroup, outgroup, letting go, lifetime student
• paraphrase
  • Uncertainty brings
    • immune system deterioration
    • brain cells wither and even die
    • creativity and intelligence decrease
  • We often go from fear to anger because fear is a state of certainty.
  • We become morally judgmental, an extreme version of oneself.
    • conservatives become ultra-conservative
    • liberals become ultra liberal.
  • because we retreat to a place of safety and familiarity.
  • The problem is that the world changes.
  • Since we have to adapt or die, if we want to shift from A to B,
    • the first step is not B.
    • the first step is to go from A to not A
      • to let go of our biases and assumptions;
      • to step into the very place that our brain evolved to avoid;
      • to step into the place of the unknown.
      • to step into a liminal space
• comment
  • Uncertainty is uncomfortable
  • and can drive us into our familiar, accepted, insular ingroup
  • In other words, lead to greater social polarization.
  • Adaptation requires us to step into the unknown.
  • Big changes in our lives therefore require us to go
    • from the familiar and comfortable space,
    • to the unfamiliar and uncomfortable
      • movement away from our comfort zone, as is happening as the polycrisis we face gains traction.

During the 16th century there was a transition in educational centers from using the natural and artificial memories to the methodical use of notebooks and commonplace books as a secondary memory saved by means of writing.

This allows people in some sense to "forget" what they've read and learned and be surprised by it again later. They allow themselves to create liminal memories which may be refreshed and brought to the center later. Perhaps there is also some benefit in this liminal memory for allowing ideas to steep on the periphery before using them. Perhaps combinatorial creativity happens unconsciously?

Cross reference: learning research by Barbara Oakley and Terry Sejnowski.

Dave Gray's great screencast. Here it is as a vialogues video: https://vialogues.com/vialogues/play/27163/