Jumping off cliffs

content/posts/2024-06-02-cliffs.md

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+---
+title: "Jumping off cliffs"
+date: 2024-06-02T01:00:36-07:00
+draft: true
+tags:
+- Art
+- Quotes
+---
+
+<p align="center">
+<img src="/images/grand_canyon.jpg" alt="Grand Canyon (1924) by Gunnar Mauritz Widforss" width="1000">
+<a href="https://artvee.com/dl/grand-canyon#00">Grand Canyon (1924) by Gunnar Mauritz Widforss</a>
+</p>
+
+> We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.
+
+This quote by [Kurt Vonnegut](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut) has been on my mind since I encountered it about a month ago. Good quotes can capture a truth about the world with an elegant and poetic phrase, always making you wish you had come up with it yourself. The difficulty in trying to describe certain truths is that they cannot, by their very nature, be expressed in language.
+
+So what truth does this quote gesture at? Why must we continually jump? And how does one develop wings?
+
+In my own way of gesturing at these underlying ideas, I will reflect on a few other quotes.
+
+From *[Destiny](https://dynamic.wakingup.com/course/C96FE0?code=SC2F01AF8&share_id=0933DE54&source=content%20share)*<sup>1</sup>, a poem by [David Whyte](https://davidwhyte.com/):
+
+> Strangely, every person always lives out their destiny no matter what they do, according to the way they shape the conversation... [our destiny's] promise may depend upon a brave participation, a willingness to hazard ourselves in a difficult world, a certain form of wild generosity with our gifts;...
+
+Our experience of life "may depend upon a brave participation"—the courage to admit ignorance while striving to eliminate it, the courage to say "I love you" even if you're unsure you'll hear it repeated back to you, and the courage to look like a fool while you're improving your trade.
+
+<p align="center">
+<img src="/images/the_gust.jpg" alt="A Ship on the High Seas Caught by a Squall, Known as ‘The Gust’ (c. 1680) " height="650">
+<a href="https://artvee.com/dl/a-ship-on-the-high-seas-caught-by-a-squall-known-as-the-gust/">The Gust (c. 1680) by Willem van de Velde the Younger</a>
+</p>
+
+From [Michael Nielsen](https://michaelnielsen.org/) on *[Conversations with Tyler](https://conversationswithtyler.com/episodes/michael-nielsen/)*:
+
+> You're constantly expanding the legible, and when you do that, there's this penumbra of illegibility that surrounds it. That moves, but it gives you access to those other spaces.
+
+To think "I'm done, that's it" is a terrible mistake; we must always be vigilant and ready to learn. As the "other spaces" around you expand, you must face them with renewed bravery and a deeper appreciation of what came before.
+
+From [Wayne Gretzky](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Gretzky), NHL hockey player (and me after my missed jump shot):
+
+> You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.
+
+You develop into a shooter by taking shots; there is no other way. This understanding unlocks a certain freedom; to grow, one needs to be challenged, and ultimately, it's not personal.
+
+<p align="center">
+<img src="/images/laundress.jpg" alt="The Laundress (1863) by Honoré Daumier" height="650">
+<a href="https://artvee.com/dl/the-laundress-6/#00">The Laundress (1863) by Honoré Daumier</a>
+</p>
+
+And why must we *continually* jump off cliffs? Isn't once enough?
+
+From [Dean W. Ball](https://www.mercatus.org/scholars/dean-ball) on *[Hyperdimensional](https://www.hyperdimensional.co/p/on-ai-alignment-and-superalignment)*:
+
+> We do not know the answer, and it doubtful that there is such a thing as "an answer" to problems of this kind. It is not just that finding the answer will be a process. The answer _will be_ the process.
+
+Essential processes that don't evolve to survive in the new environment die. Adaptability is, has, and will likely always be an important ingredient for success. To be good at adaptation, you need to continually adapt.
+
+And from [Maya Angelo](https://www.mayaangelou.com/):
+
+> Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently.
+
+Doing something once doesn't require the same courage as doing it consistently does. We must continually admit ignorance, say "I love you," and feel like fools because doing so continually is the only way to improve and find new cliffs to jump off of.
+
+<p align="center">
+<img src="/images/yosemite_valley.jpg" alt="Looking Down Yosemite Valley (1865) by Albert Bierstadt" width="650">
+<a href="https://artvee.com/dl/looking-down-yosemite-valley-california#00">Looking Down Yosemite Valley (1865) by Albert Bierstadt</a>
+</p>
+
+---
+
+<sup>1</sup> Or a [link to the poem on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/PoetDavidWhyte/posts/destinyalways-has-a-possessor-as-in-my-destiny-or-your-destiny-or-her-destiny-it/1802668076425854/?paipv=0&eav=AfbJoXMWgUxf9y1woxqM0Doi5KXIuBke4W0wvmE50aZBv05optV92rDZgr2M6vQfHh0&_rdr).