I’m going to have to revisit this thread by Venkatesh Rao, and I’m especially curious about your thoughts, dear readers. Definitely an unusual viewpoint on how to view the “Global Social Computer in the Cloud (GSCITC),” deep work, on being two years ahead of the curve, and the “gonzo option.” Somewhat involuntarily, I seem to be very close to the gonzo option right now and trying to get back into books more, so this is certainly food for though—as an option to scrap or an inspiration remains to be seen.
What those of us who are here are doing is making a deal with the devil (or an angel): in return for being 1-2 years ahead of curve, we play 2nd brain to a shared first brain. We’ve ceded control of executive attention not to evil companies, but… an emergent oracular brain. […]
So my recommendations would be: develop an intuitive ability to tune your GSCITC immersion from full-retreat if you got a big grant to do some work only 3 other people in the world understand… to full-speed-ahead gonzo immersion if you need 2y oracular foresight.