Issue #48: On Theory Of Evolution, Being Inconsistent, Being Extreme, Story-Telling, etc
Week 48: 2nd June 2025 - 8th June 2025
Here are a few interesting articles I read this week…
[Article: The Role Of Plants In The Theory Of Evolution]
A fun read that tells the account of how botany played a major role in the development of the Theory of Evolution.
Although they resembled the vegetation from mainland South America, almost half of the flora appeared to be endemic, found only in the Galapagos. Even more interestingly, Hooker noted that almost every species of flowering plant and fern that he described was confined to just one island. This “most strange fact,” wrote Hooker, “quite overturns all our preconceived notions of species radiating from a centre.” Rather, each different island had its own similar, yet different flora.
[Article: On The Definition Of Life]
This article is about a new definition of life — something that is capable of assembling into a complex form from its components and then making copies of itself.
Here’s the hook:
But, is this even the right question to ask? If we’re identifying life as we know it on Earth, we’re blinding ourselves to the only instance of life as we know it (with self-replication, cells, DNA, etc.). But, why should we expect life to be the same way in the rest of the universe?
Are cells fundamental? Does life have to be necessarily carbon-based? Sure, we can define life as anything. It’s an overloaded term. But if we keep defining it with traits we observe on Earth, we will be like that guy who only searches for his keys under the street light because that’s the only thing he can see.
[Article: A Case For Inconsistency]
I was emailing back and forth about this with a friend a couple of weeks back on the importance of sticking to your plans and having faith.
My conclusion was:
[From my response] I also think the most important takeaway here is that life is about balance; adhering dogmatically to a system can be as detrimental as system hopping.
Finding the right balance for how, how much, and how frequently to update the system should be the north star.
The point is that too much of anything is bad, and it’s the same with consistency. This article is a good read on the topic.
[Excerpt]
But, like most things, the dose makes the poison.
Blind consistency is just as bad as inconsistency.
Blind consistency is rigid. Formulaic. Stubborn. It clings to original thoughts, mindsets, habits, and behaviors under the guise of virtue.
The consistency that was meant to free you begins to cage you.
[Article: On The Advantages Of Extremities]
A great read on why obsession is necessary.
Here’s the crux of the article:
Only problem is, if you’re well-rounded, you can’t cut through anything. You need to be sharply defined, like a knife.
Let’s look at a bad example first: Your name is Mary and you put out an album called “My Songs”, and the cover is a picture of your face. The music is good quality, and the songs are about your life. When people ask what kind of music you do, you say “Oh, everything. All styles.” You put your music out into the world but nothing much happens. Doors aren’t opening.
Imagine instead: You write nine songs about food. You put out an album called “Sushi, Soufflé, and Seven Other Songs about Food”. You recorded your vocals in the kitchen. You quit cooking school to be a musician. Now you’ve got an angle for promotion. Now people can remember and recommend it. Yes, it’s a silly example, but you see how this would be much easier to promote?
[Images]
\A particularly bright day :)
[Random]
"The beginning is mostly luck. The end is mostly choices." - James Clear
The best storyteller in the world, Matthew Dicks, on the principle of but and therefore: (Source)
“A clear majority of human beings tend to connect their sentences, paragraphs, and scenes together with the word and.
This is a mistake. The ideal connective tissue in any story are the words but and therefore, along with all their glorious synonyms. These buts and therefores can be either explicit or implied.
“And” stories have no movement or momentum. They are equivalent to running on a treadmill. Sentences and scenes appear, one after another, but the movement is straightforward and unsurprising. The momentum is unchanged.
But and therefore are words that signal change. The story was heading in one direction, but now it’s heading in another. We started out zigging, but now we are zagging. We did this, and therefore this new thing happened.
I think of it as continually cutting against the grain of the story. Rather than stretching a flat line from beginning to end, the storyteller should seek to create a serrated line cutting back and forth, up and down, along the path of the story. We are still headed in the same direction, but the best storytellers don’t take a straight line to get there.”
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Next week पुन्हा भेटू!