The Intersection

Good day dear friend. It has been a while since we’ve talked, haven’t it? How are you? Have the past turbulent years treated you well? I pray so, although even if it haven’t, the fact that you’re here tells me that at the very least you’ve made it this far.

“…”

I’ve changed? Ahahaha, yeah. That is what time does to you, even without the world seemingly going faster toward chaos, things will change with the passing of time. I did kinda went through a form of the hero’s journey and was at the metaphorical underworld for a bit though.

“…”

Where have I been? Well, what was the state I was in the last time you met me? It was late 2019 wasn’t it? A young, excited, homeschooler, who is enjoying his first semester in formal education with much to look for, extremely interested in learning the many intricacies of economics and some far off yet seemingly clear goal of being the minister of education. Now, after spending two and a half year having the best intellectual and spiritual conversations the world have to offer, I am here.

No no, I’m not talking about the university that I was enrolled in. There was some interesting conversations happening there, true. But no, that is not what I’m talking about.

I’m talking about my time on Twitter.

“…??!!”

That is a fair reaction. Twitter doesn’t seem to be the best place to have “intellectual and spiritual conversations”, and if you talked to me at the start of the pandemic that I would be spending the next two years doing discussions about epistemology, AI alignment, Carl Jung’s shadow work, the replicability crisis, and a whole host of other philosophical discussions with a bunch of pseudonymous strangers on Twitter, I would have called you mental as well.

For all I know, Twitter is a cesspool where the worst political battles happen, extremist schizophrenics shout at the world government, and people share their most braindead opinions on the recent trending topics. After two and half year here I will say that observation is tinged with truth, but I would like to posit that said observation is less about Twitter and more of a reflection of how we humans function. If you’re willing to disregard them, the most extreme and viral part of humanity that is amplified by social media, and dig a little deeper, you will find loose connections of quirky, interesting, and genuinely smart people that create this community that facilitate what I would argue some of the most interesting intellectual and spiritual discussions available.

No no no, I’m not here to sell you on joining Twitter or whatever. It’s very much not for everyone. These people are probably misfits in each of their respective community, each with their own quirk that makes them who they are. Maybe it’s ADHD. Maybe it’s undiagnosed autism. Maybe it’s a combination of high neuroticism with high openness. Maybe it’s Third Culture Kid. Maybe it’s all of the above or none of the above. But for those of you who might find it interesting, they might might be the people who you didn’t know you were looking for all these time.

“…?”

I wouldn’t say that I’m done with the so called hero’s journey. After all the hero’s journey that I’m describing here is more of a post-event narrativization that very much glosses and cleans the many bumps in the process in order to for me to be able to tell a story out of it. Within that framework I would say I’m somewhere at the start of Act 3: Return, but I have probably said that like three times in the last year so… take what I’m saying here with a grain of salt. Maybe I’m not done after all hahaha.

But. The fact that you’re here, and I’m here, seems like an opportunity where I could try to make sense a little of what have been happening because to be honest, I have zero clue where to start telling people what went down with me. The me that you know from two and a half year ago is no longer me that is talking to you right now, and it is also not any of the me that my stories are going to be talking about. I have went through so many fundamental transformation within the last two and a half year that even I find it hard to fully describe who I am at this very moment.

And so, if you would be interested, my dear friend. Please do make yourself comfortable and help me try to gain an understanding of what the fuck has happened to me these past few years by sitting here with me, asking me questions, and help be a locus of focus that can help me tell this story in a tangible and hopefully clearer fashion than what is currently in my head.

Shall we begin?

art by: @Noriimorii

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