Curated Attention
Renaissance Humans, #13
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” —Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough For Love
Welcome to the Renaissance Humans Newsletter, where I focus on sense-making and story-telling in the turbulent twenties. The Renaissance (“rebirth,” in French) spanned from the 14th to the 17th century and marked a period of cultural, artistic, and intellectual renewal in Europe. A Renaissance Human fosters curiosity, creativity, critical thinking, and character in a journey of never-ending learning. They cultivate Mind, Body, and Spirit, in service of Community, and oriented to the Transcendentals.
We live in an informational apocalypse.
We’re all “infobese” now, and I’m trying to recall where I first heard the term (Was it Gurwinder?).
As Taylor Swift sagely noted, “In an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.”1
Increasingly, the curation of other humans aids our ability to orient on important issues and concepts, and attune to the moment.
This week, I’d like to offer some recommendations, in the hopes they may add value to your life in barter for precious attention.
DP’s Quest For Tires by Dan Pace: One Veteran’s Quest For Improved Energy and Mental Clarity. Retired Green Beret doing a public service by documenting his testosterone treatment— also check out his equal parts hilarious and poignant war memoir.
What Then? by Sam Alaimo: Writing original essays on Stoicism | Former Navy SEAL. Excellent writing. Marcus Aurelius-style reflections on how to be a flourishing human.
Worldbuilding From Scratch by Vince Kindfuller: Vince is that rare mind that is master of both science/engineering and humanities/art. Of interest to fantasy writers and gaming enthusiasts.
The Whirl of Reorientation by Mark McGrath: Mark and I are Stepbrothers-style BFFs despite having never yet met in meatspace. Lots of goodness here in applying ye olde American Sun Tzu to business and life.
The Spark: A No Holds Barred Guide to Saving the World by Alastair Luft: A brilliant fiction and nonfiction writer, Canadian SOF veteran. And he has a badass name!
Polymathic Being by Michael Woudenberg: Former Army veteran and deep thinker— on a similar trajectory as my substack in the search for Foxes, rather than Hedgehogs. Also a fiction writer!
Onward With TIMN…STAC, NOO, and CYBOC Too by Dave Ronfeldt: Visionary takes on past, present, and future social evolution (TIMN); people's social space-time-action cognitions (STAC), noöpolitics (NOO); and cyberocracy (CYBOC).
Sounding Slightly Off by Dan Hulter: Thoughtful essays on a variety of issues from a creative Senior Air Force Non-Commissioned Officer.
The Line of Beauty by Tara Isabella Burton and Dhananjay Jagannathan: Tara is a novelist, theologian, and journalist. Dhananjay is a professor, scholar of Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, and essayist.
Create a Future Fit Culture by Geoff Marlow: Great synthesis of organizational understanding and the latest in complexity and cognitive sciences. Also, Geoff is a hilarious, great dude.
Reactionary Feminist by Mary Harrington: Mary is just a fricking thrilling writer to read— utterly fearless against the insanities of the day, from all political directions.
The Free Press by Bari Weiss: Bari is a refugee of ideological purges at the Gray Lady, and has quickly grown the FP to be an organization practicing clear-eyed journalism, without a partisan agenda.
Bellum Aeternum by Cory Zillig: Someday Cory and I will relate our origin stories in the Navy, and the statistically improbable turn our second acts have taken. But not yet, not yet…
Think. Read. Write. Repeat by John Dailey. Salty old Jarhead dispensing solid life advice along mind/body/spirit lines of effort.
Currere Certamen Tuum
You know my methods. Herbert Simon.
Infobese. That's a topic to write about specifically when it comes to how we apply our cognitive biased to sort through so much of it.
Thanks for the rec!