12 Comments
User's avatar
Walking contradiction's avatar

Banger article!!! really great analogy to describe emotional contagions as well

Expand full comment
Guy's avatar
May 10Edited

My friend your appreciation encourages me to write more. Thank you.

Expand full comment
Shane Melaugh's avatar

This is so good! I'll be referencing this article many times, I'm sure.

Expand full comment
Guy's avatar

Very happy to hear!

Expand full comment
kyle's avatar

i love this! and i totally agree, except what if i like being mad? how do i create space for being mad/sad/annoyed around others without the problems of contagion? (eg complaining/venting to a friend… or generally developing a sense of healthy outlets: driving like a madman on the racetrack vs highway at rush hour)

Expand full comment
Guy's avatar

Conscious, self-accepting, enlightened big mad. Love it

Expand full comment
Ari Nielsen's avatar

Quite enjoyed!

Here's what I got by combining the above with my prior considerations of karma:

We can consider systems along the axis of quantity of feedback between organism and environment. Karma, that is, patterning of the organism which impacts the integrity of the system, appears differently in the realms of low feedback between organism and environment vs. high.

When the environment is more a pure given, we have loss-of-fit karma: the organism's pattern momentum results in drift between pattern-and-world-fit, such as driving with an automaticity that loses responsivity to the curves of the road. Note that this karma can only degrade the integrity of the system.

When the environment responds strongly to the organism's actions, we have feedback-loop karma: the organism's patterning impacts the world, which impacts the organism, yielding a feedback loop which has its own directionality. This can be either degrade or restore the integrity of a system.

In practice, loss-of-fit karma and feedback-loop karma are usually tangled up: these are two lenses that can deliver actionable insight on how our patterning interacts with our environment in ways that affect the integrity of the organism-environment interactive unity.

Expand full comment
Joe's avatar

Love this. Reminds me of Schopenhauer's Wisdom of Life Chapter II. Personality, Or What a Man Is. Vibes beget themselves in an environment, so choose cheerfulness/happiness/energy etc.

Expand full comment
unremarkable guy's avatar

I’m not mad

Expand full comment
Guy's avatar

#fail

Expand full comment
imit's avatar

excellent work guy!

Expand full comment
Guy's avatar

Thanks, fren!!

Expand full comment