notesprawl
this was originally a bit of a joke, but i also knew when joking that i was going to want to revisit this (joke about outcomes
you can look it up
The idea for this post came up mid-conversation with @neuranne when I was telling her about how inspired I was by an audio ess
copes
trying to reduce reliance on a cope (cigarettes, screentime, etc) is v difficult. it gets much easier if you define an outcome
do less
this one is a bit counterintuitive: if you’re starting a youtube channel or a blog or something, i believe you shouldn&#
rugpulls
placeholder post for future rugpull content A useful bit of vocabulary from the world of crypto is the idea of the βrugpullβ
discourse cycles
placeholder post for future updates
again
Sometimes repetition is a sign that youβre returning to something important. Sometimes itβs a sign that youβre failing t
sigh
I met an old friend for lunch a while ago. He observed that I was initially tense and weary, but that I then visibly relaxed o
emotional knottedness
you’re unlikely to be less tired tomorrow if your tiredness is actually emotional knottedness, which requires dynamic ac
knowable
(original thread) since i was kid i always wondered why things weren’t better. i’ve probably spent thousands of ho
make yourself comfortable
“When we truly feel comfortable, the desire to improve is naturalβ no antagonism required, no debt incurred.” (d
journalling
I am always recommending to people that they ought to journal. Keep a diary, write your memoirs, it doesn’t really preci
quotes
I’ve thought from time to time that people don’t do a great job of quoting things. I figure I might as well make m
my creative process
βsocial mistake i used to make a lot was, always engaging with everyone the way I wanted to be engaged with, which was to be
What does it mean to “process” an experience?
(original thread) What does it mean to process something? I see versions of this question all the time, and I seldom see anybo
why were you late?
Here’s a story that I often tell people, and it’s useful enough that it’s worth writing up to share with mor
attention metrics
I usually bring up this thread/idea when talking with people about things like optimizing for views or follower counts. The th
the world is big
“Every person takes the limits of their own field of vision for the limits of the world.” β Arthur Schopenhauer
language (orwell, russell)
Aug2023: This threadpost will likely eventually become part of a substack essay I’ve been stewing on titled “In ot
deviants
(original 2018 thread) it’s funny to consider how much of the conversation around things like “what makes you uniq
greatness is deviance
“Nations, like families, have great men only in spite of themselves. They do everything in their power not to have any.
it’s just math
when I was at 50 or 500 followers if I said I was going to have 50,000, people wouldve said Iβm arrogant. (I didnβt say ex
people-shaped
This post is a quick sketch / copy-over of some tweets where I use the phrase “people-shaped”, which I think is so
when “women are people” doesn’t work
(original thread, Mar2023) Sometimes guys say βidk how to talk to girlsβ and the ladies respond (understandably, but unhel
advice for people in their 20s
Transcript: “I asked people a while ago what content I should make on YouTube and somebody said talk about your 20s. And
safety rituals
the meta thing is, this sort of conversation itself will become a safety ritual if you don’t then take some action that
focus on what you want to see more of
This tweet has basically become The Central @visakanv Tweet. focus your time and energy on what you want to see more of &mdash
joke about outcomes you want
one of my riffs on Twitter that’s taken off and embedded in other people’s minds is the idea of “joke about
psychofauna
@BenRatkaj said he wanted a psychofauna bestiary. Etienne Preamble to a Psychofauna Bestiary Khalil Durkheim on the Nature of
Advanced Stupid
I have a lot to say about this, have been sketching drafts of this over and over, never quite satisfied, so here is a dump of
so you’ve been main character’d
the hardest thing about dealing with being main characterβd is managing your psychology, your emotional / physiological resp
take baby steps
this is section 2.5 of introspect. “I always love it when people say ‘baby steps!’ to imply they’re be
the Losev problem
Born in 1903, Oleg Vladimirovich Losev invented LEDs decades before everybody else (in the 1920s). “Unknown and uncelebr
do whatever makes your heart sing
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is peop
how to de-escalate tense situations
A thing i’ve gotten very good at that I just helped a friend in DMs with is de-escalating other people, eg someone DMs y
self-worth
this is one of those things where someone is trying to make you feel good with comforting noises, which is honestly sweet β
happiness
The following is a transcript of the above video, edited for readability. I think thereβs a sort of mainstream understanding
Mint 100 Erasmuses
I’m shocked at how recently I learned about Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (1466-1536), who according to Wikipedia is co
words of power
Original thread here. I loved reading, all my life. Books gave me an interiority; entire multiverses within myself that no aut
write your memoirs
Whenever a friend says something like “I have some time to kill and I don’t know what to do”, I almost alway
the solution to your imposter syndrome is not inside your head
The problem of imposter syndrome (under-estimating yourself) and Dunning-Krueger (over-estimating yourself) are both addressed
“Shouldn’t I want to make the world a better place?”
The following is a section I cut from an old draft of INTROSPECT. Iβm inclined to say no. Not until youβre ready to handle
civilization is potty training
Civilization is a kind of recursive, iterated potty training. See, the great thing about being an uncivilised barbarian is tha
what’s it like to live your dream?
(nov 18, 2021 thread) there are a bunch of things i wish some earnest person would ask me about, tho if i talk about it now it
how to DM your heroes
How to DM your heroes when they follow you 1. specific proof-of-work: βIβve been a fan of your work and writing since the
encourage your friends to ship their ideas
(original thread) friendly subtweet: sometimes when someone has an idea to do something, the best thing you can do is not to s
ayy lmao
a lot of paradoxes might be best resolved with a sense of humor. (eg: dicking around can be productive, but if you’re an
status quo soldiers lose in the long run
Here’s a tiresome thing when some bad shit happens: when people unaffected by it actually spend their precious time and
shamans are meaning-workers
someone asked me for my definition of shaman. to me, a shaman is a meaning-worker. someone who is a deep appreciator, understa
things I learned from my ex-boss Dinesh
in the 5+ years I worked for my ex-boss Dinesh (@dineshraju), he constantly would ask me about my goals & desired outcomes
2,000 copies of F.A.N sold!
2023 update: crossed 3,000 in June of this year! β± Today is October 16, 2021, and I just sold my 2000th copy of Friendly Amb
comms is lossy
It’s amazing that any of us are able to understand each other at all. Communication is lossy. (“Lossy” is a
oblique approaches can achieve what directness cannot
Tell all the truth but tell it slant βSuccess in Circuit liesToo bright for our infirm DelightThe Truth’s superb surpr
Aug29: AGI fire alarm drill day
In October 2017, Eliezer Yudkowsky wrote a post on intelligence.org titled There’s No Fire Alarm for Artificial General
self-loathing
Self-loathing is a form of narcissism it can seem like a harsh thing to say to someone who’s struggling with it, but it&
I use scapple to do my think-out-loud maps
I’ve somehow become an unintentional advocate/evangelist for Scapple, which is a mindmapping tool made by Literature &am
seek excellent peers
Whenever people ask things like “your best advice in 3-4 words” etc, I always go with “seek excellent peers&
accumulating social capital
(1) the creative life is lonely but freeing when nobody cares about your work (2) it gets good when discerning folks like your
Pericles
Pericles (495β429 BCE) was a prominent Athenian general and statesman. He died aged 66, of plague. I find him to be a fascin
“i’m such a failure”
This is a collection of posts and videos about failure and mistakes. learning to be ok with mistakes: Itβs the panicky flinc
narrow utilitarianism
just as it takes the lows to define the highs, and the dark to define the light, if you want to be properly utilitarian, you m
memed into existence
This page is a collection of instances of the phrase “memed into existence”. I’m collecting them out of nerd
thinking is easy, information architecture is hard
This has been a recurring thing for me. There are lots of ways to rephrase this, reframe this. Coming up with the idea for a s
exhaustion funnels
2024-03-17: I find myself wondering, maybe this post should be retitled “why are you tired?”, in comparison to
πΆ a theory of pissbabies
The following post is meant to be fun, silly and tongue-in-cheek rather than serious, and yet at the same time I’m hopin
feral free agents
I’m not a fan of the word “unemployed”. First of all, it’s come to imply that the default state is
the death and life of great scenius
The Death And Life Of Great American Cities is a book by 1961 by Jane Jacobs. It’s criminally underrated. Scenius is a p
π¨ everything is a remix
Everything Is A Remix [37:30] is a video by Kirby Ferguson. It’s one of the most powerful videos I’ve ever watched
coordination does not require conspiracy
Coordination does not require conspiracy. I think it’s great that the word “conspire” literally means “
π½iconography
I think about iconography a lot, I have multiple twitter threads about them. I’ll eventually expand this into a blogpost
don’t be gullible
Seen two separate things recently on the TL about how substack is a scam and how NFTs are a scam and my personal read is that
aesthetics
A loose set of notes about aesthetics. What are aesthetics? Why don’t you just say beautiful, or pretty? Why use this
vision
1 β± We seem to be having a sort of crisis of vision, where hardly anybody seems to have interesting ideas about where weβr
small talk
1jul2024: I have more to say about small talk. people who say they don’t like it, seem to misunderstand it… β± &#
todo lists as narrative devices
every one of us is living in some kind of story. who are you? what is your name? where do you live? are you a student? what do
π±smartphones changed everything
The following is a set of notes for an essay I want to write. β± A common feature in fantasy fiction is powerful magical obje
systems thinking
To me, “systems thinking” is just “thinking”. If one’s thinking does not naturally lead them to
problems are solvable: define, solicit, integrate
(2020feb29 thread) I don’t usually think of myself as a very clear-headed personβ¦ until people come to me with their p
π§΅hyperthreading
Do you have a single document that links to every single thing that’s important to you on the web? Why not? β± From tim
jinky, janky, junky
I think it’s cute how three different words β jinky, janky and junky β all have this venn diagram overlap that I lik
hostage
WIP / buncha notes Thereβs a 2018 video game called Detroit: Become Human. It has its pros and cons, Iβm not sure I would
dealing with losers
(2020nov5 thread) I’m not a fan of divvying people up arbitrarily into winners and losers β one should never be gleefu
influences
Sometimes people wanna know who my influences are. It’s tough to assemble a perfect or exhaustive list, but here’s
talking points
This is a slightly edited repost of a twitter thread I once did at 520am in the morning to try and recap all of the things I t
fumbling the bag
There’s an exchange on Tinder(?) that I once saw on Twitter that I think about a lot. Read this really slowly and closel
“Wrong.”
This is more of my personal approach to things rather than some kind of claim about how the world works, or even how it should
shame
I’ve been thinking about shame lately. Here are some riffs, and maybe I’ll flesh this out into something more subs
pave the desire paths
(2023sep25) Was just talking with @neuranne about creativity and ideas and I found myself naturally bringing up the idea of pa
word magic
β 1 β I have always been very passionate about words. As I said in the library ethos, I grew up reading books and have str
dominoes
I reference and revisit and reuse this tweet a lot so I figured I might as well do a blogpost about it. It’s been surpri
fuckability
fucking is labor, fuckability is capital many (most?) people wanna be fuckable more than they wanna fuck having good sex is a
constructive ADHD
this is a placeholder blogpost that will be updated with all my ADHD content I’m a fan of the phrase “constructive
troubleshooting arrogance
When I was a teenager, the dominant criticism my closest friends had of me was that I was too arrogant, and they were right. I
books
Books I’ve written: The first book that I published is called FRIENDLY AMBITIOUS NERD. The second book that I’m cu
π you are already the monarch of your life
β 1. talismans β A talisman is simply an object that is meaningful to you. Wedding rings are the most widely appreciated t
π§ β you can’t think your way out of a courage deficit
(dec2023: title of this post is a catchy tweet, but do I want it to be a post? idk. maybe i’ll expand on it.) Reflecting
ADHD
this post is now redirected to Constructive ADHD
β± 4 hours
Realistically, I can only ever be *truly* productive for 4 hours a day. Most days, I’m lucky to even have 2 truly good,
play long games
This is an “aggregate” blogpost where I dump stuff from my tweets and notes. β What do I mean by long game? One
Most People
I’ve been sharing this set of notes more and more as time goes by. I suppose you could say most people care too much abo
do 100 things
“Do 100 Thing” is a phrase I came up with when riffing around the idea of being prolific, making lots of stuff. It
talent is not rare, talent is clueless and scared
(see also: greatness is deviance) When I was younger I thought that talent was rare, but as I get older I realize that the ans
πΈ let’s jam!
dec2023 update: I should talk about wooten, werner, mayer, the beatles, paramore, guns n roses… In my cornerstone post T
π the library ethos
John Locke: “Books seem to me to be pestilent things, and infect all that trade in them… with something very perve
iterating Introspect
I came up with the idea for INTROSPECT sometime in 2018 or so, even before I thought of writing FRIENDLY AMBITIOUS NERD (which
risk
post to be updated over time 2024oct19β the question I have for myself here is, how does this usually come up? How do people
after gifted
AFTER GIFTED is an ebook that I’m working on to help formerly gifted kids find success and happiness in life. Optimistic
kids in shitty social graphs
The following is a riff from a twitter thread I once wrote that I reference fairly often. I’m choosing to reproduce some
π£ hecklers
I’ve been thinking a lot about hecklers lately. There are a bunch of related-ish words, with varying connotations: hater
narcissism
Usually, if you ask someone to imagine a narcissist, the first image that comes to mind is someone enjoying how they look. Som
magic junkyard
just doing the thing where I coin a phrase and then track how it spreads “We’ve been called everything from”
π earn self-respect
(see also: self-loathing, self-worth) I think it’s important to earn one’s own self-respect. What does that mean?
β’οΈ the apocalypse test
A thing I do that brings me great clarity is to focus on individual people over everything else. I don’t care much about
βοΈ optimize for survival
The big lesson of survivor bias is that you should optimize for being a survivor. You can’t win if you lose β so learn
unlearning coercion
It took me a long time (maybe 10-15 years?) to properly realize that I was in an abusive relationship with myself, where my se
cold emails
If you get really good at cold emails, comms and positioning, you can run circles around people who rely on warm intros in sma
π€ how I rebuilt my trust in myself
A friend once said, regarding my Twitter, “I like how Visa says he’s going to do something, then immediately does
ππΎ how to ask for help
One of my new personal rules for myself is, if something annoys me, I’m going to funnel that into content that I can ref
πΏ don’t pedestalize people
I use the term Pedestalization to describe the act of putting someone on a pedestal. Hero worship is pedestalization. Some peo
status and status regulation
2024oct15: there was a period of time where this seemed like one of the most important concepts I’d ever heard of, but I
elitism
Itβs interesting how often the phrase βelitismβ comes up when I solicit feedback from others. Iβm aware that this will
β when and why I block people
(I’m thinking about this mainly in the context of Twitter, but there are some general principles here too.) I don’
π the 4 kinds of luck
“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” β apocryphal quote typically attributed to Seneca I&#
π the prestige trap
I’ve had several conversations with friends who’ve been incapacitated by the burdensome bullshit obligation to Hav
learned catastrophizing
I get young people in my DMs all the time. A common thing I notice about their despair is that they do a lot of generalizing (
listen to kids
About once or twice a week I get some long DMs, usually from a younger person, whoβs all stressed out and wound tight about
soften the ground
(Twitter thread) I notice a thing in my media consumption patterns where sometimes there’s something I want to watch or
depression
I’m keeping this post on standby because from time to time people ask me what to do if one is depressed, or thinks they
take deep breaths
The following post is an ongoing-work-in-progress. The goal is for me to make sense of my learnings about breath and breathwor
how to be more optimistic
Optimism to me is not merely a posture or an attitude, but a way of being.
project management
Project management, I think, is one of the most important life skills that I was never quite taught. In a sense, it’s th
thinking
Hey, friends. So for today’s adlib, I’m gonna try and do 2 separate videos back to back or maybe I’ll just d
masculinity
I’m not sure when I first started really thinking about what it even means to be a man, what masculinity is. I think it&
friendly ambitious nerd
My first book, FRIENDLY AMBITIOUS NERD, is now available for sale! gum.co/FANbook You may also be interested in reading about
48 Laws of Power, by Robert Greene
I’ve often encountered 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene being cited as a red flag β “ladies, if your man claims
β‘οΈ pay it forward
When I was a broke teenager, my older friends often insisted on paying for drinks or meals. I used to feel a potent mix of gra
π₯ bestof 2010β2019
These are things that I’ve read or watched that stuck with me in the 2010s. 2010 Ugh Fields [lesswrong.com] Solitude and
π¬ practice good reply game
There is an art to replying and commenting, and probably like 60-70% of people Iβve seen on the internet fail at it. The imp
βοΈ many people like to contribute to vectors, few like to own them
moved to /marketing/vector
π£ talking to people makes you a better writer
A friend asked me for some advice on a massive writing project that he’s had on the backburner for a while now. It sound
βοΈ twitter_rpg_strategy_guide.txt
twitter_rpg_strategy_guide.txt Twitter is a multiplayer real-time virtual world, primarily text-based with limited multimedia
π΅ empty your cup and allow life to surprise you
2024apr29: I think this wants to be a more substantial post about attention. consider my recent conversation with dinesh about
π©πΎβπ representation matters
a recurring point I find myself making in private conversations is that I believe that representation might possibly be the #1
π learn to laugh at yourself
One of my private beliefs that doesnβt translate very well is that true comedy is sacred. And not sacred as in solemn, but s
ππΎ everyone loves to make a great introduction
I think the big secret of social life is that everybody loves to make a great introduction. If you can become someone that peo
π€‘ the world is not kind to those who are tacky
Late night thought: βDonβt be tacky (unless you know why youβre doing it)β is a surprisingly powerful heuristic for me
π friends I met in SF
I was going through my photos and I wanted to keep track of all the people I met. Unfortunately sometimes I met someone and di
β© ages 17 to 29
Dear Visa-17, Visa-29 here. So I recently got on a Singapore Airlines plane (I know, finally!) and flew across the planet to S
πΊπΈ San Francisco [2019]
Dear Visa-17, Visa-29 here. So I recently got on a Singapore Airlines plane (I know, finally!) and flew across the planet to S
β οΈ how to get my attention
(There’s quite a bit of preamble in this post before I get to the answer β just scroll down past the hot dogs if you&#
π± screentime
I had a large amount of screentime as a child. And if I could go back in time and have a do-over, I would have liked even more
π―ββοΈ make friends
I’ve kind of developed a name for myself as “the friendly guy”. My book is titled FRIENDLY AMBITIOUS NERD. I
πΈ VV’s memex β a map of directives to live well
I saw a picture of “Bay Area Memespace“, and for some reason I felt compelled to put together my own “@visak
π« relationships are challenging + a lot of work
Preamble: Hello everyone! This post has been getting shared a little bit, so I thought it might be worth taking some time to p
π€ ‘Smart Writing’ is about cultivating taste, suspending judgement and chasing your curiosity
I saw someone tweet βI wish smart writing came to me as easily as dumb tweetingβ β and so I am here to share my strategy
ππΎ flirting is about signalling interest with plausible deniability
What I tell my nephews: flirting is basically this – give moderately strong signals of interest with plausible deniabili
π I flunked out of the GEP
When I was 13, I flunked out of the gifted education program in my country. I was told that my failure was a disappointment to
βπΎ we need to get better at dealing with assholes if we are to progress as a species
β 1 β As I get older I feel this subtle-but-strong pressure to become more βprofessionalβ – more βcivilβ, mo
#StrugglePorn β is it painting a false picture?
good conversation started here with Nat & Gary I’m not personally a fan of Gary’s overall brand, but I appreci
π± I used to be a picky eater
I saw somebody make fun of picky eaters on Twitter, and I felt compelled to write about my own experiences. I was like this my
π£ mansplaining is sometimes (but not always) innocuous
If I had to do a βthe difference between men and womenβ type of standup set, I think I would focus on the phenomenon of ma
π³ Breakfast AMAs
Every so often I have breakfast alone, and I ask Twitter to ask me questions. I enjoy it a lot β I find it to be a great way
π cultural cosplay: a broader framework for thinking about cultural appropriation
I’ve never quite been satisfied with the overuse of the phrase “cultural appropriation” in all sorts of cont
π different people have different mental models
People typically have high-res models of their own lives and lower-res models of other peopleβs. We are all born clueless wi
π€ do you know what you want?
What do you want? Do you really want what you think you want, or did you inherit it from your parents, your peers, from societ
π Narcissist PR works because we can’t shut up about it
WIP I tweeted a more cautious version of this blogpost in July, and it’s been on my mind so I wanted to take some time t
π§ It’s my fault and that’s a good thing
(notes for a future essay about self-blame, responsibility, the concept of fault) A long term tension in my life: I don't
π₯ a system can only be improved at its tightest bottleneck
I’ve been thinking a lot about Tiago Forte’s point about bottlenecks β that the only meaningful improvement you
πΊ we turn our lives into mostly-predictable sitcoms
(The following is from a conversation with a friend, after an acquaintance told us about feeling suicidal) itβs interesting
π NS helped me appreciate moments with people
Wrote this a few years ago. While I was still in NS. Around Dec 2011. I still remember when I went for my medical check-up a f
π sinister connotations allow people to be assholes with plausible deniability
I like words. It’s a big part of why I’m a writer. I like everything about them. Here are some interesting things
a list of some of my twitter threads
π¨ UPDATE: My book FRIENDLY AMBITIOUS NERD is out! Buy it now: gum.co/friendlynerdbook Hello! I’m @visakanv, my friend
π¦ constraints
I’ve written a lot about constraints over the years, and this blogpost strikes me as the best “master switchboard&
a sitemap of my memoirs
I have always been a somewhat scatter-brained person, and I’ve also always felt this sort of compulsion to catalog every
ππΎ an oral history of my relationship with religion
Thought Iβd write about my thoughts about religion, and how my perspective on it has changed from my childhood to the presen
π reflecting on 4 years of marriage [2016]
Fun fact: Sharan Kaur and I got married 4 years ago today. It was kind of a secret. We did it over milkshakes and hotdogs at a
π₯ hypothesis: the 7 ‘sins’ are really ‘drives’ that can be harnessed
I once extensively dissected all the 7 deadly sins as a mental exercise (I was bored as a conscript, and I wanted to solve the
π when arguing, strive to understand context
β 1. When arguing, seek to understand context β [Published 2016] Roughly between ages 13 and 23 I was thoroughly convinced
π the jetpacks of the 2020s will be whatever helps us navigate information overload
2023 update: feel like doing a little bit of metacommentary on this post. It’s interesting because I started piecing it
an analysis of power and social dynamics in ‘MeanΒ Girls’
Theory: The movie has such enduring power and is quoted so much because it sheds some incredible light on real sociological ph
π Drogon vs Balerion size comparison
The fun thing about this post is I basically cobbled it together out of my own frustration at not having a simple, easy, strai
π€― ideas that expanded my mind
Disorganized notes. (Revisiting this again in 2023… I remember doing a twitter thread in maybe eigen’s repliesR
Politics and the English language [2016]
The following is my attempt to update George Orwell’s essay Politics and the English Language [1946] for modern reading.
β° one must imagine Sisyphus LOL-ing
Life, particularly in modern civilization, is an absurd circus. Weβre all clowns living in boxes trying to amuse ourselves w
beating yourself up is egotistic
I learned that failure is by and large due to not accepting and successfully dealing with the realities of life, and that achi
π the heat death of the universe means legacy is ultimately futile
Pup Ponders the Heat Death of the Universe, (c) Drew Weing (I wrote this in 2013 in a a conversation with a friend, and decide
π¨πΎβπ my journey from underachieving student to moderately competent adult [2016]
An older friend told me that a parent wanted to talk to ‘learn about my educational journey’ and ‘understand
π€ how to build and maintain communities
This blogpost started out as a bunch of notes and links, and I found myself sharing it with people over and over again so much
βοΈ Is Ya Kun Kaya Toast “Authentic”?
Originally posted on Poached Mag. I was having kopi with some friends at Ya Kun Kaya Toast. A friendly auntie spoke to us in c