Disorderly reading

This weekend I've read futuristic society philosophy, the Unabomber manifesto, game engine architecture and a variety of posts shallowly related to "fulfilment". I proudly proclaim I have no idea how to group these into a coherent whole. But that's all right. I'll probably group some of these into their own wholes at some point; after I synthesise something in the future that leads to pointing into these bits of information.

After reading Venkatesh Rao's post on orderly vs disorderly reading I think I've finally figured out why I find Ribbonfarm so attractive. There is no coherent whole or agenda there. It's just text that the writer who wrote it finds interesting / thought-provoking. This makes it easier to use it to provoke my own thinking. And harder to compress. I find information that's harder to compress feels more contentful afterwards. I can't just store a post in my brain under a pointer, because all the posts I read that grazed the topic also talked about multiple other things from other perspectives.

But I can (and do) make mental notes saying "in the future, when reading about future, try to synthesize the thoughts with the existing information on the topic". I'm at my most passionate when I'm distracted with something useful in the grand picture of things, but which's usefulness in the small picture can't be comprehended (for example: when I'm "improving my thinking" by consuming any and all stimulating thoughts I come across).

I bet this is like the feeling of sailing into the unknown. The only thing you can be sure about is that it's going to be an adventure. At the worst a boring adventure, but an adventure nonetheless. And at it's best, something that forever changes how you see the world. A new find. A mental subversion. Change.