huit regarding the above:

Quotewhen you mention that big commitment mindset, I totally agree that you don't need to resist it, I just meant that that mindset might play a role in the insurmountability you feel confronted with heaps, but other people don't feel overwhelmed because they don't feel pressured by commitment, but you can relieve yourself of the insurmountability without resisting the commitment, and I think it's good to have that commitment,"

Quote from: meperhaps i have a hard time getting into the 'heaps' because i find myself habitually falling back into the "big commitment" mindset that you have identified, as much as i seek to escape it. and -- if i find myself falling back into that mindset, is it right to expend such energy resisting it?  i believe these small games to be 'better' and more interesting for many reasons, both for players and for developers.  so i keep on trying."

this plays nice with my mild revulsion to the semantics of Thinking in Systems's use of 'function' or 'purpose'; when it is suggested that a system has a function or, in particular I dislike this word, purpose, it feels to me only a short hop away from 'wishing they stood for something more.' Often, actually, I find myself drawing conclusions much sooner than I ought to. In the linked forum post, I am already backing myself away, looking for a way out of the feeling.

It is alright to feel the feeling and not to draw any closing remarks.

Or rather, maybe it is OK even not to ever aspire to any closing remarks. If they come then they come, but if they never come... maybe that is alright too. Can I embrace a feeling without resolving it? Simply let it move on.

Chapter 6 discusses the white whale's facelessness, Ahab's desire to penetrate "through the mask" to something concrete that lies behind -- the book argues, there is nothing behind, "Divine truths . . . must be changeable and never completed".

p163-"Ishmael's amazing strength is that he is able to live in these surface meanings and find a genuine range of joys and comforts there, without wishing they stood for something more. . . . The ability to live at the surface, to take the events of daily life with the meanings they present rather than to seek their hidden purpose, to find happiness and joy in what there already is"

Quote from: p153Divine truths, . . . insofar as there are any, must be changeable and never completed. . . because they are revealed only by the current mood.
 .
 .
 .
To take seriously our moods—both our highest soaring joys and our deepest, darkest descents—to live in each of them as moody Ishmael can, to do this is to be open to the manifold truths our moods reveal.

~ backlink In Search of Mystery

I am as far as chapter 6, now.
I'm stunned at how this book too seems fascinated at Melville's work. I guess the book is a classic for a reason.

This quote from P152 about Ishmael is really starting to get me onboard with Dreyfus' "head open to the world" metaphor for how to be:

QuoteIshmael. . . is moody and constantly redefined by his moods; . . . And in all of these moody flights some godlike truth and meaning is revealed.

I started to have an inkling:
@Huitziofpain on twitter was talking to me about, "Why are the droqever games temporary?" then later mentioned . . .

QuoteI never shared the "you can't play DS for the  first time again" sentiment, it never seemed so mysterious to me, it's a pretty railroaded game in the end

Here I started to get the idea that Dark Souls' unfolding into something understandable and unmysterious was part of the appeal.

[AB]

[ A. There is a point at which some specific feedback is needed, which may not be provided from every source. (In fact, never is.)
   B. Consider all sources of feedback as a Marie Kondo-like intuitive process. Choose according to gut feel, and reflect on how it went. Was the feedback actionable? Was I hurt? Did it distract me from what what really matters? ]

I know many people and I like to talk with them about things, but each person offers a different tenor of sounding board. I am tempted to make a catalogue for people and what we've done before, but it should be simpler than that... i ought to Dreyfus it: if I take a moment to judge a candidate playtester, I will know whether I feel good or bad about it. About them playtesting, that is.

i said in paradise and immediately connected to this;
it is ok to be confused. it is ok to be lost.

also related: my old blog name:
lose your way

the articulator, the reconfigurer
Jesus the reconfigurer! revealing morality of the inner life, rather than adherence to laws
Descartes the reconfigurer! revealing the subject and object

Moving away from quotes, evidence, material... moving towards my experience of reading the book... I was surprised. Suddenly we were no longer speaking of the specific case, and into the realm of artworks as gods, and gods and madmen.

An inhuman maker of meaning, a thing that attunes mere mortals.

Speaks of changing, with little material about the change:
P90

Quote. . . the transition from one scientific paradigm to the next is a complete Gestalt shift that is inexplicable . . . We can say something about what each has that the other does not, but we cannot tell a story about why and how . . .

Chapter 4. From Aeschylus to Augustine: Monotheism on the Rise

[AB]