Miles:
I'd love to make a cultural impact
I think it's less about having a platform or being a 'celebrity'- even in the smallest sense, and is much more about contributing something of worth to the culture.
Chris:
is it similar to how an art piece can provide cultural impact? or more of a lifestyle?
Miles:
like an art piece, ya
Chris:
i guess my understanding of art is that its a depiction of what was going on throughout that time through the artist eyes
Miles:
da, I agree with that. And frankly I don't know if it's reasonable to think that I could contribute to the culture without embracing my subjectivity and making that a part of the contribution.
ie; if you take the subjectivity and individuality of Jackson Pollock out of his artwork, they become these pretty bizarre and meaningless paint spatterings. But with him in the equation and via his understanding of the state of art & culture among his contemporaries, his art becomes really meaningful.
Chris:
Curious if you’ve thought about why you have the urge to have a cultural impact?
Miles:
Yeah, quite a lot. Bear with me for a sec, there's a thought framework that's really useful that divides along two axes, this is the basic outline of it:
I tend to prefer this form of it; it's the same information but presented slightly differently:
And here's how that maps to something a little more 'concrete'.
The individual or subject is, well, me. In my case. It's you, in your case.
Culture is the inter-subjective; society is the inter-objective (and this is a semantics thing; you may understand society to mean something different, but here it's being used to mean the structures, infrastructure, systems and material phenomenon that humanity has built together). The Objective is the physical world as it pertains to the subject.
I'd really like to contribute something significant in all four quadrants.
I've already done that in the Subjective & Objective; simply choosing to grow and change and develop changes me. Building a car or a bicycle or my home; well all of that is a contribution to the Objective.
But the Inter-Subjective; Culture. and the Inter-Objectie; Society. Those are the places I'd really like to contribute.
It's a bit napoleonic, this desire to have significant influence or to contribute significantly to the world en masse, but I sure do want to.
You can take the cultural contributions of someone like Michael Jackson or Quentin Tarantino or Thomas Kuhn and it's very clear that those things have had a macro-scale impact on the world. Of varying degrees, ofc, but they're significant and they have a place in the 'collective mind', globally.
Or you can take the social contributions of Isaac Newton or Martin Luther King Jr. or John D. Rockefeller, and once again it's very clear that those things have had a macro-sclae impact on the world. Once again, of varying degrees, but they're significant, and they have contributed to the functioning of society. Without Newtonian mechanics we couldn't engineer bridges. MLK helped revolutionize race relations and undo segregation. Rockefeller contributed immensely to the function of capitalism and the availability of oil and it's infrastructure.
Now, these things are very intertwined. MLK's efforts and contributions were hugely cultural. There's always interplay.
My aspiration is to contribute in ways where I can step back and say 'this is culturally significant' and 'this is socially significant'.
Chris:
I remember you bringing up this diagram before during one of our lifting sessions
I guess another follow-up question would be more related to the "how" I don't want to just ask "how do you plan to have a cultural impact" because I think its still really broad. For question clarity, the example people you brought up I would think they had someone of a super passion for something in their timeline that the believed in to fight for. Do you have any concepts/ideas like that?
Miles:
That's a good question, and it really opens a whole can of worms.
There's layers to answering it, and the first is this core sense or insecurity that the reason I want to have an impact at scale is simple narcissism or egotism. I know I'd like to have a positive or good impact, but I worry that simple egotism isn't an appropriate 'fuel' to accomplish great things. It's the sort of motivation that is easily corrupted and rather fickle.
There's a quote from Arcane that I think speaks to that dilemma, said by Viktor to Jay; "In the pursuit of Great; we failed to do Good."
As for social or objective contributions to humanity, there are ideas and technologies that I really believe in and I would love to play a part in realizing their potential. I regularly find myself contemplating how to be a part of their realization, and considering what actions I could take to better align with them. I don't know if that's enough, but I do tend to believe in success by attrition; baby steps towards success will eventually get me there.
Culturally, I'm less certain of what sort of contribution I want to have. Right now I'm focused on developing a sense that any art I may create may actually be worth sharing with the world. And, to serve that, just developing the habit of making art.
I'm not sure if that answers your question well. There's a Helen Keller quote worth including, that maybe does answer the question, or at least how I'm trying to view it:
“I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.”
Chris:
I think that answer was great. wasn't looking for anything specific
To be honest, it fascinates me a bit that you have such an ambition to be culturally impactful because I myself don't. I'm not sure if im just super selfish lol
Miles:
It may be worth your time to read the book 'Enough' by John Bogle. It's another book relevant to the greater discussion of What is success? that we were going to discuss in the recording.
I of course want to be successful and prosperous by conventional metrics; an abundance of resources, money, opportunities, etc.. However, there are decreasing returns on more & more prosperity, and so I'd rather ask "how can I make the world better for other people" than "how can I acquire more for myself".
See the included 'spectrum':
Anywhere between 'austerity' and 'abundance' is healthy and reasonable.
Think of food; an inadequate supply of food and you'll starve. But an austere supply of food an you'll simply lose weight. An abundance of food will enable you to build muscle. An excess of food will make you fat.
Now, apply that same spectrum to any other resource; money, power, cars, status items, etc. etc. etc. and the same pattern emerges.
Chris:
Hmm I have an instant reaction of "Its not worth thinking about right now" because I haven't reached abundance yet. Not that I can't but even if I were to put it into words I think there is an 95% chance of changing once I reach excess if that makes sense
I was evaluating Success when looking at the spectrum
Miles:
I've never actually thought of 'success' specifically as the thing on the spectrum, that's an interesting one to evaluate along the spectrum, only because it's so subjective.
I usually think of it as a spectrum along which I place the metrics for my success.
I know what an excess of cars or an excess of money or an excess of food looks like, but what would an excess of success look like?
Chris:
oh maybe I misunderstood when trying to evaluate success on the spectrum. But an interesting one for me is money, because if you view money as a tool to do other things is there really any excess? To answer my question yes there is but I don't know if I personally would ever reach it because I would just roll the money into my next endeavour.
But someone like jeff bezos who buys billion dollar yachts I would say that is excess
Miles:
ya, I agree with that. Success is sorta dependent on your relationship with the resource, not just the resource or metric without that important context.
even a million dollars would probably be excessive for me at present. A billion would for sure be. A few hundred thousand? That'd be an abundance.