prompt: how to explore without doing what everyone else is

(the original prompt was about “overtourism”, but I’m going to be more general than that)

One of the things that amuses and frustrates me is how many seemingly smart people converge on discussing the same ideas, same perspectives, doing the same things. This strikes me as relatively uninteresting and unproductive, both for the collective and for the individual. It seems to me to be far more sensible if most of the members of a given collective each set out on a different expedition in a different direction, and then gathered periodically to share their findings. Unfortunately, I guess most people’s impulse most of the time is to revisit and review what their peers are doing.

I mean, I know it’s not so straightforward. I found myself drawn into the discussions around the movie Crazy Rich Asians in the leadup to it’s release. There were lots of discussions about privilege and representation. In the grand scheme of things, what came of it? I’m pretty glad the movie was a pretty good one overall, minus the frustrating bits where the Sikh guards were used as props in jump scares. But… now that a few months have passed, does anybody really talk about it? Does anybody really care? We just keep moving on, don’t we? I’m happy that Asian-Americans feel more represented now, and that we got to have the conversations that we did. There was a sense of togetherness , a coming-together of people with shared interests – even the people who disagreed with one another. But all in all, I find myself wondering if I had misspent some of the time I spent reading and keeping up with all the CRA news and takes. I think… no, I think it was worth the effort for me. It helped clarify some things for me. I think maybe the distinction is, because CRA takes place in Singapore, and I’m a Singaporean, I do feel genuinely invested in the outcome, and the discussions. I have a long-term interest in participating in conversations pertaining to Singapore.

So… there is some utility in going through what other people are going through. There is some utility in peopling. I’ve spent a few vomits recently (including this one) using other people’s prompts to get me writing, rather than working entirely from my own mind (which had begun to feel a little repetitive). I guess what I’m getting at is that there’s a sort of balance to be trodden, between checking out the communal points of interest, and seeking out your own randomness, pursuing your own curiosity.

I think there are about 3 steps to “exploring without doing what everyone else is”. I think the first thing to do before anything else is to put together a list of your own curiosities and interests, independent of what else you’ve heard anybody say or think about the thing you want to explore. In the context of travel – suppose I were planning a trip to Russia. I should take some time to sit and brainstorm about the things that I’m curious about. Me personally, I’m curious about novelists, I’m curious about the space race, I’m curious about architecture. I’m curious about the USSR. By making a list of my own interests in advance, and asking questions about what I care about, away from what’s popularly discussed (even if it turns out that most of my interests are aligned with what’s popularly discussed), I get to maintain a sort of personal frame for myself.

Next, I think is actually facing up to what the popular discussions are. The point here I think is to do a quick summary-sketch. If you’re staying some place for a week, I think maybe 2-3 days worth of time could be spent on these things. Get maximum touristy for a short period of time and capture all of that quickly. The equivalent of this with reading is… there’s not much point reading all the popular books that everyone’s reading unless you feel strongly about wanting to get to know a particular book better. It makes more sense to just read the cliffnotes, the blog summaries, the reviews – get enough of a sense and then move on to other things that people haven’t talked about. I still haven’t read Sapiens, and I’m not sure if I’m ever going to. I would much rather read and review books like say, The Argumentative Indian – books that people claim to have said are significant, but you don’t really see people discussing the nitty-gritty of the details and arguments from it.

I guess as a quick aside, sometimes things that are in popular parlance can actually still be read with fresh eyes, and a person’s fresh-eyed take on it is still refreshing. I always like bringing foreign friends around Singapore because it’s nice to see what catches their attention.

Ultimately, what I’d like to avoid, with my reading, and my travelling, and my entire approach to things, really, is to replicate precisely what someone else is doing. I want to do my thing. I want to put together my perspective on the world. And doing that requires introspection. I think it’s in the absence of introspection that people fall into the sort of “Instagram-tourist-trap” situation, where you end up taking the same selfies as everyone else in the same locations as everyone else. Which isn’t to say you can’t take a few iconic selfies! Go ahead, do that, have a picture of yourself propping up the Leaning Tower of Pisa. You shouldn’t be going out of your way to avoid what’s popular just because it’s popular. Rather, seek out what is good, what is interesting. Try and find a local friend to show you around and prioritize whatever they suggest. This works for books and essays, too – rather than trying to pander to some hypothetical general public audience with your book notes, seek instead to gratify yourself, and to do things that your friends will think are cool.

Have I answered the question? I’m not entirely sure. I feel like at this stage in my life I don’t really worry too much about whether or not I’m being authentic enough. I assume that I’m being authentic all the time just by being myself, even if that means eating pasta in Thailand because I felt like eating pasta for a meal. I think if you have a set of questions and curiosities that are on your mind to begin with, then you can just trust that they’ll carry you to interesting places. And if you find that you have the exact same set of curiosities as someone else, great – split it with them, or hand them all to them, even, and think of them as a research partner, and start looking for things that support, or challenge, or complement.

Loosely map out where everyone’s going, and then explore the spaces in between. Pick up where they left off. Dive deeper into the things they skimmed. Train your nose with practice, and follow it. My personal travel goals are basically just to meet people around the world and have long conversations with them about their lives and experiences. That’s always unique.