- Author
- Henrik Karlsson and Johanna Karlsson (Escaping Flatland)
- Published
- 26 July 2023
- Kind
- Long Substack essay drawing on creators' notebooks and diaries
- Original
- www.henrikkarlsson.xyz/p/good-ideas
- Subject
- Mind, attention and practice
- Themes
- Getting good
What it is
Henrik Karlsson writes the Escaping Flatland newsletter. The essay is credited to Henrik Karlsson and Johanna Karlsson. The essay says it is a portrait of a few approaches, not a definition.
What it says
- The essay says startup coworking spaces have no famous success stories. It quotes Sam Altman saying great ideas are fragile and easily killed.
- The authors say artists mean solitude as a state free of others' opinions.
- The essay argues Grothendieck's solitary teenage years built a capacity to be alone. That set Grothendieck apart.
- The authors say creative people linger in confusion and surface new questions.
- The essay says Bergman wrote in a workbook daily for three hours. It was a non-judgmental zone.
- The authors list more techniques, such as delayed publication and writing too fast to self-censor.
What evidence it gives
Evidence is quotation and biography. Sources include Grothendieck's Récoltes et Semailles, Bergman's workbooks, Knausgaard, Paul Graham and Altman's interview. The authors say they interpret these notes. The essay offers no systematic study.
Interests and limits
The authors admit the essay is not a definitive description. They say one Knausgaard essay they cite is partly fabulated. The portraits rest on selected, famous figures, so survivorship may apply. The Grothendieck account relies on Grothendieck's own recollection. The essay was read in full, but only two reader comments were loaded.
Connections
These links are this wiki's own reading, not claims the sources make.
- Developing Taste. Kowalski tells readers to surround themselves with great work and tastemakers. Karlsson's essay describes solitude as a state free of others' opinions. Both concern how judgment forms. Perhaps taste needs exposure first, and then time away from it.