Feb 11Liked by Michael Woudenberg, Lisa Woudenberg
It is a complex thing to write a piece with another person. The blending of two voices and two points of views. Incredible work on this post. The narrative itself embodies the themes you are writing about, or is that too meta?
The narrative actually does embody that. Lisa and I talk about these topics all the time and I structure it into an essay and she rips it apart and makes it better so I can pin down the important bits 😀
Feb 12Liked by Lisa Woudenberg, Michael Woudenberg
It is interesting to note that the cultural definition of man or woman revolves around “successful.” It may be useful to remind ourselves that success defined in Western culture revolves around one’s ability to do commerce. In a white collar world, this negates the males’ physical attributes, and the competitive field is now even between the genders. As we enter a new era of robotics and AI, we may see a society where “working-for-a-wage” may no longer be necessary. It then begs the question, what should the male or female human experience ideally be?
Feb 11Liked by Lisa Woudenberg, Michael Woudenberg
I’m reminded of David Deida, whom I’ll revisit, on the masculine and feminine, and I’m curious to know more about how you support the goddess/feminine in child rearing. It also reminds me of a quote of Caroline Myss, that I happened upon yesterday that says, “Chaos is divine order. Change is divine order.” Maybe slightly off topic lol.
I have two daughters and a son. My goal isn't to force anything on them and also to avoid them having others do the same. I want my daughters to be natural in who they are in a way then can understand and articulate while not being at the whim of others.
Hard to put words in but I want my daughters to be Gia and my son to be a Good King.
Feb 11Liked by Lisa Woudenberg, Michael Woudenberg
I really like the idea of a balance of order (structure) and chaos (creativity). I'm left unconvinced that either of these things has any connection whatever to biological sex, but I read this much more as an analogy, not a literal "men do order well, women don't" kind of thing. In my personal experience, women can be much more structured than men, and men can be much more chaotic than women.
The balance of chaos/order is interesting in the context of LLMs, too. AI is such a great proxy for thinking about ourselves.
It's not a hard binary but it is a bimodal distribution. In the middle you'll have a lot of cross over but in general there are two clearer modes. It also does help to contextualize otherwise we just blend it all together and miss that there is power in the uniqueness.
AI is a great platform to explore this all against.
Feb 11Liked by Michael Woudenberg, Lisa Woudenberg
Wonderful piece Michael. Society today is obsessed with dichotomy and neglects nuance. Chaos and order are not in contradiction with one another, they are compliments, necessary parts of the whole.
Yet, while reading the essay, feels fresh, even though I listen to the podcast. At times, I multi-task keeping myself busy while listening to the podcast. I notice I can miss out some information while focusing some other stuff.
Feb 11Liked by Lisa Woudenberg, Michael Woudenberg
There is so much to say about this...and it is so difficult to express.
The masculine type of being creative; move fast and break stuff, is not the feminine creative force at all. It is the water that is the active, flowing part. Not the glass used as a hammer. So much is rooted so deeply. Why does fragility need to be countered? Is it bad? Or might it exactly be what this artificially overly ordered human construct needs? More surrender, less fighting. This very feminine moving along with while being the ultimate power to reshape even the most hardened glass. Fragility is a superpower too.
Would love to see more hymns on the good and the beauty of chaos. Because if we do not seek the chaotic voluntarily, it will come to flood our houses while sleeping....
Loving how you made this a co-creation, please keep going.
Have just published a piece on colour which explores the two perspectives of light and matter. Very similar to water and glass. Might be interesting to read it with this post in mind.
It is a complex thing to write a piece with another person. The blending of two voices and two points of views. Incredible work on this post. The narrative itself embodies the themes you are writing about, or is that too meta?
The narrative actually does embody that. Lisa and I talk about these topics all the time and I structure it into an essay and she rips it apart and makes it better so I can pin down the important bits 😀
We need balanced chaos, freedom of choice and kindness
100%
It is interesting to note that the cultural definition of man or woman revolves around “successful.” It may be useful to remind ourselves that success defined in Western culture revolves around one’s ability to do commerce. In a white collar world, this negates the males’ physical attributes, and the competitive field is now even between the genders. As we enter a new era of robotics and AI, we may see a society where “working-for-a-wage” may no longer be necessary. It then begs the question, what should the male or female human experience ideally be?
It's a great question and one I struggle with.
I’m reminded of David Deida, whom I’ll revisit, on the masculine and feminine, and I’m curious to know more about how you support the goddess/feminine in child rearing. It also reminds me of a quote of Caroline Myss, that I happened upon yesterday that says, “Chaos is divine order. Change is divine order.” Maybe slightly off topic lol.
I have two daughters and a son. My goal isn't to force anything on them and also to avoid them having others do the same. I want my daughters to be natural in who they are in a way then can understand and articulate while not being at the whim of others.
Hard to put words in but I want my daughters to be Gia and my son to be a Good King.
I really like the idea of a balance of order (structure) and chaos (creativity). I'm left unconvinced that either of these things has any connection whatever to biological sex, but I read this much more as an analogy, not a literal "men do order well, women don't" kind of thing. In my personal experience, women can be much more structured than men, and men can be much more chaotic than women.
The balance of chaos/order is interesting in the context of LLMs, too. AI is such a great proxy for thinking about ourselves.
It's not a hard binary but it is a bimodal distribution. In the middle you'll have a lot of cross over but in general there are two clearer modes. It also does help to contextualize otherwise we just blend it all together and miss that there is power in the uniqueness.
AI is a great platform to explore this all against.
excellent post!
Ironically I am working on a Duality series..And the first one is Chaos and Order...no plagiarism it all but eerily similar to this article.
Have you published it yet? Please share a link when ready.
Wonderful piece Michael. Society today is obsessed with dichotomy and neglects nuance. Chaos and order are not in contradiction with one another, they are compliments, necessary parts of the whole.
Yes. Odd to have to state it but it resonates when stated.
Great post.
Ok, no more skipping essays like these! I skipped many essays thinking "I may not need this info" to find out I'm wrong.
Going back to read the essays I missed out.
Lol. FYI, there are recorded voiceovers in the app and pushed to almost every podcast platform as well under Polymathic Being.
Yet, while reading the essay, feels fresh, even though I listen to the podcast. At times, I multi-task keeping myself busy while listening to the podcast. I notice I can miss out some information while focusing some other stuff.
That makes sense.
There is so much to say about this...and it is so difficult to express.
The masculine type of being creative; move fast and break stuff, is not the feminine creative force at all. It is the water that is the active, flowing part. Not the glass used as a hammer. So much is rooted so deeply. Why does fragility need to be countered? Is it bad? Or might it exactly be what this artificially overly ordered human construct needs? More surrender, less fighting. This very feminine moving along with while being the ultimate power to reshape even the most hardened glass. Fragility is a superpower too.
Would love to see more hymns on the good and the beauty of chaos. Because if we do not seek the chaotic voluntarily, it will come to flood our houses while sleeping....
Loving how you made this a co-creation, please keep going.
Have just published a piece on colour which explores the two perspectives of light and matter. Very similar to water and glass. Might be interesting to read it with this post in mind.
https://bertus.substack.com/p/the-colour-scheme
It is a tough concept to grapple with! Thanks for the thoughts and the link. I'll take a look.