Henrik Karlsson
Swedish essayist who writes Escaping Flatland, a newsletter of essays on relationships, thinking, writing and homeschooling.
Henrik Karlsson did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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Their wordsif art is what happens when a certain prompt (a song, an essay, a painting) interacts with a certain mind, the experiences that artists can create is strictly limited by the quality of their audiences.
↗How is music possiblehenrikkarlsson.xyz 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsMost of the landscapes we would find if we enumerated all possible musical grammars would be barren. There are an infinite number of possible musics, and only a very small subset of them will resonate with the human soul.
↗How is music possiblehenrikkarlsson.xyz 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordswhen you put them next to the endless diversity of art and world music, it's clear that commercial pop, hip-hop, and rock are really three villages in the same small valley.
↗How is music possiblehenrikkarlsson.xyz 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 5 weeks earlier
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Their wordsWhen you're in a phase of experimentation, it's not particularly surprising that you will feel very generative and, at the same time, that nothing will be of production-grade quality, so to speak.
↗Some remarks on being stuck, with digressions on David Hockney, developing style, and gardenshenrikkarlsson.xyz 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsThe problem with his old images, and with photography, was that that is not at all what the world looks like to us.
↗Some remarks on being stuck, with digressions on David Hockney, developing style, and gardenshenrikkarlsson.xyz 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsBut life, if we're lucky, is very long. We have plenty of time to try different things, to live different lives, to be confused, and figure things out, and then be confused again.
↗Some remarks on being stuck, with digressions on David Hockney, developing style, and gardenshenrikkarlsson.xyz 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 2 weeks earlier
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Our reading
A feedback loop that reinforces a behavior pulls it toward whatever improves the loop's own score.
AI alignmentreinforcement learning
Their wordsIf there is a feedback loop reinforcing a behavior, it is hard not to go in the direction that improves the score.
↗First we shape our feedback loops; then they shape ushenrikkarlsson.xyz 1st of 2 in this piece
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Our reading
The feedback loops a person allows to operate on them shape who they become to an unsettling degree.
Their wordsThe lesson is that the feedback loops that we let work on ourselves shape us to an unsettling degree.
↗First we shape our feedback loops; then they shape ushenrikkarlsson.xyz 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 2 weeks earlier
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Our reading
Working under a constraint one resents, rather than none at all, produces more creative results.
Their wordsGiving yourself constraints is helpful when searching for ideas, especially if the constraints are annoying.
↗On having more interesting ideas, pt. 2henrikkarlsson.xyz 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsThe things you arrive at by exploring small seeds, on the other hand, lead you further astray and tend to produce more life.
↗On having more interesting ideas, pt. 2henrikkarlsson.xyz 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 13 days earlier
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Their wordsSo if you experience stress or fear, your contractions will often grow weaker and less coordinated, slowing the labor, sometimes stalling it.
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Our reading
Deepening your understanding of a situation helps you maintain a sense of control over it.
Their wordsIt is always useful to deepen your understanding, to maintain a sense of control.
- 5 weeks earlier
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Their wordsBut in order to actually live in accordance with what you believe in long-term, you must make it a habit.
↗How not to forget what mattershenrikkarlsson.xyz 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsIt is common to think that what we do achieves what we want it to achieve, even if there is no evidence for it.
↗How not to forget what mattershenrikkarlsson.xyz 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsThere are many practices that promise to transform and improve us-therapy, meditation, psychedelics-, but that branding doesn't mean that they actually do much for us: it is common to see people use these techniques for years without any obvious progress on their problems.
↗How not to forget what mattershenrikkarlsson.xyz 3rd of 3 in this piece