From now on: skills
In my life so far, I’ve focused on understanding – figuring out how, roughly, things work and interact. I’ve done OK; no doubt I grasp but a fraction of what’s out there, but I have a framework for understanding the world that I’ve yet to find holes in. (The main bits being: an epistemology based on Baysian probability theory, evolutionary psychology, computational theory of mind, basic physics, and emergence.)
But now I’m getting bored and realise I want more skills. To master things, small things. Handling a chef’s knife, writing calligraphy, performing CPR, swimming freestyle, singing a lullaby, telling a joke, explaining something clearly. I possess embarrasingly few such skills and I want more.
Understanding is vital still, but on its own not enough. Misery follows action without thought; nothing follows thought without action.
I’ll turn 27 this week; with that, a new focus.