Lex Fridman: uncertainty

Transcript context

…I know what you mean. I mean, what does it do? Like, writing, I don’t know. Again, me as a fan of writing, it feels like writing is suffering. When I see these great writers in history talk about writing, it seems like it’s really hard, it’s a kind of torture. You know, Hemingway, and you have the Kerouac stories that it just kind of flows out of you. But a lot of times it’s really disciplined, day after day, you’re really digging and digging. And so it’s interesting what that looks like under the different supplements, right? Stephen King famously, I mean, there’s a lot of people, you know, they go to the drugs, to the alcohol. You have Hunter S. Thompson who, when given the option, just says yes to all of it. And the mind is a weird thing. And a lot of writers talk about, like, they’re not really developing the ideas, they’re plugging into some… They’re channeling- … a voice from somewhere else. And- … with psychedelics, that’s certainly, it feels like you’re modifying the channel or you’re expanding the channel- …or you’re directing the channel to a different direction. That’s why I asked. I think for me, writing has two important parts, and one of them is the actual writing part, and that’s the painful part that you talk about. It’s basically discipline, focus. It becomes harder and harder to focus because of the telephone.…

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