Aphorisms

Extractions and Allusions

Published in

From the Diaries of John Henry

5 min readMar 24, 2018

An aphorism is a condensed form of writing in which one can find the theme of a novel, the lesson of an age, or a pithy diversion.

An aphorism verses prose is like a physics equation to a textbook, a tweet to a newspaper, a shot of espresso to a pitcher of fresh brewed tea.

To demonstrate the form, here are a few misc selections.

A foolish journey once embarked is only a mistake if one remains a fool to the end.
The mark of a fool is haste where not warranted.
Commitment negates options. Optionality is usually a far undervalued asset.
Employment should always be looked at as a means to an end, never an end.
A salary should be evaluated not just by currency, but also in opportunity costs (such as time to explore).
The best way to get a promotion is to deserve one.
A marker for a failing democracy is the transition of politics from a contest of ideas to a contest of personality or identity.
When you get to a fork in the road, run an A/B experiment.
The more of consequence a decision, the less faith should be put in heuristics (and vice versa).
Every psychological tendency, besides being a potential source of misjudgment, is also a valid heuristic.
In decision-making, the more familiarity with a domain the more emotions can be trusted (and vice versa).
The automation of society narrows the window of human agency.
Would you rather drive a car with a single window onto the road or be a passenger in a vehicle with a panoramic view?
Just as there is no benefit to maintaining any outlook other than optimism, the belief in fate serves no purpose and is itself a form of surrender.
If there is a hell, it’s right next to heaven with an overlooking window’s panoramic view.
Logic is just a subset of human thought, and not one that we’re particularly good at for that matter.
Cellular automata of sufficient complexity exhibit irreducible behavior that can only be predicted by simulating the full progression of intermediate transformations.
Consciousness is a process with no discrete points — only observed coarse grainings.
Different thoughts are accessible to a consciousness in the acts of writing, speaking, singing, or running.
The difference between a conversation and an essay is like the difference between sex and masturbation.
To avoid eye contact for a day is meditative, for a week is a challenge, for a year is an affliction.
A hunger to be known and a hunger to connect both draw water from the same well.
In order to function at our peak, we need a hunger that cannot be experienced in conditions of plenty. A stressor is required.
Writing is not a sport for teams.
The difference between speech and talk is like the difference between entrepreneurship and academia.
A true entrepreneur risks much more than just capital.
One way to clip the tail of an otherwise fragile position with potential for ruin is to establish a reputation to fall back on.
In serving the hierarchy of tribes (e.g. self, family, congregation, city, etc), as the connections grow fainter the nobility of individual sacrifice grows stronger.
The highest form of charity is that which becomes self-sustaining.
It is a difficult boundary to navigate between noble speech promoting charity and boastful talk implying sacrifice.
The mark of a good writer is the coherency of those things left unsaid.
There is a sweet spot in between complexity and coherence of prose. Most err to the side of the latter.
Although a fractal is self-similar at different scales, that does not mean it must be identical at different scales.
Most modern songs, in isolation, have the poetic complexity of a haiku.
Of the classes of cryptographic encodings, poetry has the highest Shannon Entropy value.
A passage that can be interpreted in two ways should be read at least two times.
The reward of speaking in metaphors is the potential to be deeper understood. The cost is the material risk of not being understood at all.
Seeing as you can never know how you look through other people’s eyes, it’s fortunate that you’re better off not knowing.
The surest way to dissuade a sense of understanding for what makes for an aphorism is to try writing a few yourself.