Keep asking questions

The last few weeks have felt like a whirlwind and a mess. Inside my head and also everywhere else. So as I'm sorting through and trying to find some signals in a cesspool of noise, I thought I'd pull back the curtain a bit on the process.

I've been thinking a bit about Richard Feynman, curiosity, and the process of self-education outside of traditional academic pathways. Many people know the story of Feynman's Nobel Prize-winning idea arising from observing someone in the Cornell dining hall tossing a plate and watching it wobble. Certainly Feynman is regarded as a brilliant mind and famous physicist, but that kind of insight doesn't just arise magically or naturally from genius. That insight wouldn't have had anywhere to land if not for a curiosity, an unanswered question, a clear catalog of interests and open paths of investigation. It also might not have arisen without an external stimulus: actually existing in the world and taking in information about what's happening.

Yes, there's a lot to learn, particularly after the structure of academic "learning" is long behind you. And even though it's a lot of work to create structure on your own, some of that structure can be supplemented by simply keeping an inventory of your own curiosity, knowing what interests you, and actively observing the world around you.

Jillian Hess wrote a lovely little overview of Feynman's notes last week. His "things I don't know about" list. His index for reading. His scribbles, his musings, his willingness to sit in uncertainty and keep opening questions instead of closing the door on potential knowledge. It ends with some recommendations for what you can do to follow a parallel path, and perhaps that's useful.

I've had the idea (and it's been on the docket for months now, like many other things) to write about what makes a good question. How to ask questions. Why asking questions with each other is important for relationships. For political change. For knowledge production and scientific inquiry. All of that is true and worth writing about. Honestly, unanswered questions have kept me alive in no small way, and they keep doing that even when I don't think it's possible anymore.

There's another edge to that sword, though. When uncertainty is too much, and too many questions are unanswered. When there's nothing to hold on to that feels sure and grounded. That place can be very destabilizing and demobilizing. It's hard to run on sand, after all.

So my addition, for the moment, to the Feynman approach is: yes, keep an inventory of your questions and curiosities, but also keep an inventory of what feels true. As someone who doesn't really believe in "objective truths," I do not mean that you should write down "2+2=4" or the equation for gravity. What I mean is, keeping track of what feels true for you right now is a way of marking where your foot is pushing into the sand. Even if the sand isn't steady and even if you won't stay there forever.

Keeping a curious eye on where you're going and not lingering too long in places that can't support you is important; so is marking the ground beneath you, the you that is rooting into it, the steps that got you there, and the force that will keep you moving.

Links'n'Things

It's time for... more links! To things you may have missed, good or not-so-good.

Things you may have missed

• A cool visualization of Iran's coastal islands and Hormuz
• Robots at war
• Stephen Miller has unveiled something new
• The trickle-down impact of the conversion therapy SCOTUS ruling
• The Internet Archive is under threat, and you should be concerned
• If you didn't grow up a certain flavor of Evangelical, you might feel a bit lost in the sauce on Christian Zionism, among other things. Here's a quick overview of that, and of Trump's new beef with the pope
• The thing about authoritarianism is, it's not contained to nation-states or blocked by borders...
• Just to reaffirm, the nonprofit industrial complex will not save us

Some Good Stuff™

• Viktor Orbán got absolutely trounced at the polls. Dismantling his sources of political strength will take a lot of effort and a long time, if it happens at all. And you should be careful what implications you take for American politics.
• Cats say ACAB, and that includes drones