Thread by @webdevMason

The really important stuff is whatever consistently features in interesting + impressive people's world models AND *explicitly not* in the models of sensible but typical people.

#1 for me: Grand Central Station is littered with hundred dollar bills. Almost nobody is looking down

There's plenty to do, profitably, within reach of anyone with *any* real competencies. But we have three problems: a problem with observation, a problem with courage, and a problem with multi-generational transfer of competencies. And we lie or tell bad stories about all of these

There's a natural order to these. Courage comes last because, like self-esteem, it's emergent. We want mantras, we buy into "power poses" (failed to replicate) because as we navigate hierarchies built on fake competence, we come to half-believe that competence isn't real at all

If there were a zombie apocalypse, we'd be fucked, and it's not because we don't "believe in ourselves" enough. It's 'cause we all have roughly the same ultra-limited range & deeply depend on objects made increasingly inscrutable to maximize opportunities for vertical integration

Our entire education system is built on the next big mistake, which is trying to build competencies in a vacuum. Every year we rubber-stamp the equivalent of a bunch of mechanics who've never touched or even seen an actual car. This completely bonkers

Observation & competency-building are inextricably linked. You start with a problem or a mysterious object, and you act on it with whatever tools you have. You begin to see the shape of tools you *wish* you had — the object itself teaches you.

Here's the cool thing: each tool you build this way is a Function You Once Could Not Perform. The tool isn't "the thing that does x," it's the relationship of its own features to the features of the object it acts on. Understand your tools like this & your competencies generalize