Oshan Jarow
@oshan.bsky.social
Consciousness • Economics • This is all very bewildering, but I’m writing about it.
There’s also this, oshanjarow.com, and this: economicpossibility.org
There’s also this, oshanjarow.com, and this: economicpossibility.org
Never forget when William James said that Nietzsche and Schopenhauer remind him “of the sick shriekings of two dying rats.”
April 8, 2025 at 11:09 PM
Never forget when William James said that Nietzsche and Schopenhauer remind him “of the sick shriekings of two dying rats.”
Imagining the bygone days where...*one major assignment per couple of years* (???) could pay a writer's rent in NYC........
March 16, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Imagining the bygone days where...*one major assignment per couple of years* (???) could pay a writer's rent in NYC........
This is pretty neat — the eruption of phenomenology in the West through a “planetary synchronicity,” in Varela’s phrase, across Husserl, James, & the Kyoto School boys
March 5, 2025 at 4:30 PM
This is pretty neat — the eruption of phenomenology in the West through a “planetary synchronicity,” in Varela’s phrase, across Husserl, James, & the Kyoto School boys
If you want frontier research on the upside of breathing, James Nestor reports the relevant scientific field has "next to nothing."
Pulmonologists "focus on emergencies...that's how the system works."
To focus on positive capabilities, guess you've gotta go hunt in the wild
Pulmonologists "focus on emergencies...that's how the system works."
To focus on positive capabilities, guess you've gotta go hunt in the wild
February 24, 2025 at 7:21 PM
If you want frontier research on the upside of breathing, James Nestor reports the relevant scientific field has "next to nothing."
Pulmonologists "focus on emergencies...that's how the system works."
To focus on positive capabilities, guess you've gotta go hunt in the wild
Pulmonologists "focus on emergencies...that's how the system works."
To focus on positive capabilities, guess you've gotta go hunt in the wild
I wish more great novelists would decide to read the canon of classical economics & tell us what they think.
From Marilynne Robinson's Is Poverty Necessary: "Poverty is static, effectively resourceless, subject to interests that are not its own, therefore valuable to those interests."
From Marilynne Robinson's Is Poverty Necessary: "Poverty is static, effectively resourceless, subject to interests that are not its own, therefore valuable to those interests."
February 21, 2025 at 6:35 PM
I wish more great novelists would decide to read the canon of classical economics & tell us what they think.
From Marilynne Robinson's Is Poverty Necessary: "Poverty is static, effectively resourceless, subject to interests that are not its own, therefore valuable to those interests."
From Marilynne Robinson's Is Poverty Necessary: "Poverty is static, effectively resourceless, subject to interests that are not its own, therefore valuable to those interests."
checking phone for 20min reset ~5 days worth of deepening into meditation mind-space, & took another ~18 hours to (not even) recover from.
considering most of us never go 18 hours (let alone 5 days) w/o phones, how much of our mind-regions are just unknown to us?
considering most of us never go 18 hours (let alone 5 days) w/o phones, how much of our mind-regions are just unknown to us?
February 13, 2025 at 9:07 PM
checking phone for 20min reset ~5 days worth of deepening into meditation mind-space, & took another ~18 hours to (not even) recover from.
considering most of us never go 18 hours (let alone 5 days) w/o phones, how much of our mind-regions are just unknown to us?
considering most of us never go 18 hours (let alone 5 days) w/o phones, how much of our mind-regions are just unknown to us?
Dig this bit from Levin's paper on biology & buddhism — as evolution enables living systems to pursue larger goals, that also creates cognitive space for progressively more complex causes of stress to unfold
February 12, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Dig this bit from Levin's paper on biology & buddhism — as evolution enables living systems to pursue larger goals, that also creates cognitive space for progressively more complex causes of stress to unfold
Bookchin’s take on the abundance agenda — a sheer abundance of goods that would ‘explode capitalism from within’ by permitting the expression of preferences for forms of life that don’t need to also fetch a living wage off of labor markets
January 23, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Bookchin’s take on the abundance agenda — a sheer abundance of goods that would ‘explode capitalism from within’ by permitting the expression of preferences for forms of life that don’t need to also fetch a living wage off of labor markets
There's a fun conflict in how different groups think about awe/wonder.
The 'science of awe' sees it as an evolutionary tool; others see it as a deeper subjectivity that has to shine through evolution's other mind-tools; & psychedelic science think we evolved to keep wonder within a middling range.
The 'science of awe' sees it as an evolutionary tool; others see it as a deeper subjectivity that has to shine through evolution's other mind-tools; & psychedelic science think we evolved to keep wonder within a middling range.
January 20, 2025 at 8:52 PM
There's a fun conflict in how different groups think about awe/wonder.
The 'science of awe' sees it as an evolutionary tool; others see it as a deeper subjectivity that has to shine through evolution's other mind-tools; & psychedelic science think we evolved to keep wonder within a middling range.
The 'science of awe' sees it as an evolutionary tool; others see it as a deeper subjectivity that has to shine through evolution's other mind-tools; & psychedelic science think we evolved to keep wonder within a middling range.
The Other Place can still produce gems
January 14, 2025 at 4:34 AM
The Other Place can still produce gems
When I emailed the authors, it turns out: it's not that the effects of meditation trail off.
Instead, the goals and motivations for practice tend to change over time, something the authors have seen in later research, and teachers like Tucker Peck have seen in students, too.
Instead, the goals and motivations for practice tend to change over time, something the authors have seen in later research, and teachers like Tucker Peck have seen in students, too.
January 7, 2025 at 6:19 PM
When I emailed the authors, it turns out: it's not that the effects of meditation trail off.
Instead, the goals and motivations for practice tend to change over time, something the authors have seen in later research, and teachers like Tucker Peck have seen in students, too.
Instead, the goals and motivations for practice tend to change over time, something the authors have seen in later research, and teachers like Tucker Peck have seen in students, too.
Psychologists surveyed 1,668 long-term meditators, investigating how the benefits of practice change over time.
Across life satisfaction, psych. distress, positive affect, & negative affect, they found most benefits show up in first 500 hours of practice.
Which I found odd..
Across life satisfaction, psych. distress, positive affect, & negative affect, they found most benefits show up in first 500 hours of practice.
Which I found odd..
January 7, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Psychologists surveyed 1,668 long-term meditators, investigating how the benefits of practice change over time.
Across life satisfaction, psych. distress, positive affect, & negative affect, they found most benefits show up in first 500 hours of practice.
Which I found odd..
Across life satisfaction, psych. distress, positive affect, & negative affect, they found most benefits show up in first 500 hours of practice.
Which I found odd..
Each installment has a Q+A w/ an expert; a teacher, or researcher.
Here, Shamil Chandaria shares how the new generation of meditation science actually got started by drawing insights from psychedelic science.
(Shamil is a treasure, the whole q+a is full of goodies)
Here, Shamil Chandaria shares how the new generation of meditation science actually got started by drawing insights from psychedelic science.
(Shamil is a treasure, the whole q+a is full of goodies)
January 7, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Each installment has a Q+A w/ an expert; a teacher, or researcher.
Here, Shamil Chandaria shares how the new generation of meditation science actually got started by drawing insights from psychedelic science.
(Shamil is a treasure, the whole q+a is full of goodies)
Here, Shamil Chandaria shares how the new generation of meditation science actually got started by drawing insights from psychedelic science.
(Shamil is a treasure, the whole q+a is full of goodies)
The emerging science of 'advanced meditation' can be framed in a pretty simple story: meditation deconstructs the predictive mind.
But why would we want to do that?
But why would we want to do that?
January 7, 2025 at 6:18 PM
The emerging science of 'advanced meditation' can be framed in a pretty simple story: meditation deconstructs the predictive mind.
But why would we want to do that?
But why would we want to do that?
There are basically two stories being told about meditation.
The one that gets most of the attention: meditation can make you something like ~10% happier.
The other: it can make you something like 10 *times* happier. And yet, most popular attention goes to the former!
The one that gets most of the attention: meditation can make you something like ~10% happier.
The other: it can make you something like 10 *times* happier. And yet, most popular attention goes to the former!
January 7, 2025 at 6:18 PM
There are basically two stories being told about meditation.
The one that gets most of the attention: meditation can make you something like ~10% happier.
The other: it can make you something like 10 *times* happier. And yet, most popular attention goes to the former!
The one that gets most of the attention: meditation can make you something like ~10% happier.
The other: it can make you something like 10 *times* happier. And yet, most popular attention goes to the former!
In a cross cultural study of experiencing awe, “the individual self was twenty times more likely to be the source of awe in the United States than in China.”
January 7, 2025 at 4:58 AM
In a cross cultural study of experiencing awe, “the individual self was twenty times more likely to be the source of awe in the United States than in China.”
From the outset, entrepreneurial culture was a social technology designed to transform worker consciousness into something more conducive to business.
(Which could* be fine, so long as it’s explicit, so we can ask: what kinds of minds do our economic conditions produce?)
(Which could* be fine, so long as it’s explicit, so we can ask: what kinds of minds do our economic conditions produce?)
January 4, 2025 at 5:01 PM
From the outset, entrepreneurial culture was a social technology designed to transform worker consciousness into something more conducive to business.
(Which could* be fine, so long as it’s explicit, so we can ask: what kinds of minds do our economic conditions produce?)
(Which could* be fine, so long as it’s explicit, so we can ask: what kinds of minds do our economic conditions produce?)
Wrote a 5-part series for @vox.com on the science/practice of deep-end meditation — a bridge to step beyond basic mindfulness.
Q+A's w/ meditation teachers & researchers, practices, & essays sketching the emerging, surprisingly accessible field of 'advanced meditation'
www.vox.com/pages/more-t...
Q+A's w/ meditation teachers & researchers, practices, & essays sketching the emerging, surprisingly accessible field of 'advanced meditation'
www.vox.com/pages/more-t...
December 30, 2024 at 4:41 PM
Wrote a 5-part series for @vox.com on the science/practice of deep-end meditation — a bridge to step beyond basic mindfulness.
Q+A's w/ meditation teachers & researchers, practices, & essays sketching the emerging, surprisingly accessible field of 'advanced meditation'
www.vox.com/pages/more-t...
Q+A's w/ meditation teachers & researchers, practices, & essays sketching the emerging, surprisingly accessible field of 'advanced meditation'
www.vox.com/pages/more-t...
The idea that humans could be motivated to labor by finding their work meaningful, or by releasing their “creative impulse” through work, was, at least in part, a product of early 20th century social engineering
(Erik Baker’s excellent “Make Your Own Job”)
(Erik Baker’s excellent “Make Your Own Job”)
December 28, 2024 at 3:42 PM
The idea that humans could be motivated to labor by finding their work meaningful, or by releasing their “creative impulse” through work, was, at least in part, a product of early 20th century social engineering
(Erik Baker’s excellent “Make Your Own Job”)
(Erik Baker’s excellent “Make Your Own Job”)
there's a meandering lineage of books that try to explicitly analyze the relationship between the structure of society & the structure of mind — or economics & phenomenology.
anyone have tabs on good additions to the canon?
anyone have tabs on good additions to the canon?
December 27, 2024 at 5:28 PM
there's a meandering lineage of books that try to explicitly analyze the relationship between the structure of society & the structure of mind — or economics & phenomenology.
anyone have tabs on good additions to the canon?
anyone have tabs on good additions to the canon?
The 60s were a wild time — giving LSD to patients both before and after having parts of their brains removed.
December 25, 2024 at 8:22 PM
The 60s were a wild time — giving LSD to patients both before and after having parts of their brains removed.
It's frankly unsettling how great a time I had in the Bay Area. The people, the trees, the meditation scene, the little village of cabins with roving turkeys.
Look at this tree and tell me you are not bewildered. and don't even ask me about the moss
Look at this tree and tell me you are not bewildered. and don't even ask me about the moss
December 21, 2024 at 3:49 AM
It's frankly unsettling how great a time I had in the Bay Area. The people, the trees, the meditation scene, the little village of cabins with roving turkeys.
Look at this tree and tell me you are not bewildered. and don't even ask me about the moss
Look at this tree and tell me you are not bewildered. and don't even ask me about the moss
Perhaps you’ve heard of Marx’s idea of “labor power” as capitalism’s twist in our inherent potential for purposive labor.
But have you heard of Abhinavagupta’s “delight power,” aunmukhya, the innate eagerness of all objects perceived in the light of consciousness?
But have you heard of Abhinavagupta’s “delight power,” aunmukhya, the innate eagerness of all objects perceived in the light of consciousness?
December 17, 2024 at 7:22 PM
Perhaps you’ve heard of Marx’s idea of “labor power” as capitalism’s twist in our inherent potential for purposive labor.
But have you heard of Abhinavagupta’s “delight power,” aunmukhya, the innate eagerness of all objects perceived in the light of consciousness?
But have you heard of Abhinavagupta’s “delight power,” aunmukhya, the innate eagerness of all objects perceived in the light of consciousness?
Annie Dillard's greeting for those who land on her website:
December 8, 2024 at 5:00 PM
Annie Dillard's greeting for those who land on her website: