Breaking the Cycle of Overthinking - CourtneyR.dev's 2nd Brain

Breaking the Cycle of Overthinking ![rw-book-cover](https://img.youtube.com/vi/lj8wBAJV4p0/maxresdefault.jpg) 🔗 **Source:** [Breaking the Cycle of Overthinking](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj8wBAJV4p0) > [!note]+ Document Notes > tags: #creativity #writing #artistic-anxiety #faith #racial-identity #social-media #perfectionism #art-making > author: NPR > source: It's Been a Minute > reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj8wBAJV4p0 > date created: 2024-12-19 10:30 > > # 🏷️ Title: Breaking the cycle of overthinking >  ## 🧰 Action Inbox - [H1] Develop strategies to separate creative work from audience reception — creative process #creativity - [H2] Examine how social media creates "double consciousness" in daily life — self-awareness #social-media - [H3] Practice extending grace to collaborators and community members — relationships #faith ## 🧭 Table of Contents - [[#📝 Summary]] - [[#📖 Main Content]] - [[#🗒️ Notes]] - [[#📚 References]] - [[#🗣️ Paraphrase]] - [[#📰 Newsletter]] - [[#✅ Action Items]] - [[#🧪 Hypotheses]] - [[#📊 Methodology]] - [[#❓ Questions]] - [[#🔮 Future Research]] - [[#💡 Implications]] - [[#🧠 Learning Styles Assessment]] - [[#📊 Accessibility Assessment]] - [[#🌍 DEIB Assessment]] - [[#✅ Logical Validity]] - [[#🛡️ DARVO Analysis]] - [[#🎯 Conclusion]] ### 🔗 References - [Minor Black Figures by Brandon Taylor](https://www.amazon.com/Minor-Black-Figures-Brandon-Taylor/dp/1250890578) - [It's Been a Minute NPR](https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510317/its-been-a-minute) ## 📝 Summary - NPR's "It's Been a Minute" interviews novelist Brandon Taylor about his new book "Minor Black Figures" and creative anxiety - Taylor discusses how audience awareness can paralyze artists and the challenge of maintaining authentic creative motivation - The conversation explores themes of faith, racial identity in art, and finding grace in community relationships - Key insight: Social media creates a "double consciousness" where everyone walks around with both self and observed self - Bottom line: Overcoming creative paralysis requires faith in community and choosing to be helpful rather than right ## 📖 Main Content Brandon Taylor's novel "Minor Black Figures" follows painter Wyth, who has stopped painting due to anxiety about how his work will be received. The book explores how contemporary culture's emphasis on constant visibility and judgment can derail artistic creation. Taylor argues that social media has created a universal "double consciousness" where people constantly monitor themselves as if being watched. The novel also examines racial identity in art, questioning the difference between depicting "black figures" versus "black people" - with the former being abstracted from lived human experience. Taylor acknowledges the complexity of "race grifting" in art while exploring his own relationship to these dynamics. Faith emerges as a central theme, with Taylor defining it as choosing to be present and helpful for others even when it costs you personally. He describes grace through the story of his father teaching him to ride a bike while injured - continuing to help despite personal pain. ## 🗒️ Notes #### ⏱️ [00:00](https://youtu.be/lj8wBAJV4p0?t=0) — [H1] Creative paralysis from audience awareness - Key idea: Publishing creates an audience in your mind that can derail the creative process - Evidence: "Every time I've sat down to write and not been able to write, it's because I've been thinking about what the 18 internet socialists who hate me are going to say" #### ⏱️ [03:45](https://youtu.be/lj8wBAJV4p0?t=225) — [H2] The invention of internal audience - Key idea: Publishing transforms hypothetical audience into real people with opinions - Evidence: "That process invents an audience that then lives in your mind. An audience that is no longer necessarily purely hypothetical" #### ⏱️ [06:30](https://youtu.be/lj8wBAJV4p0?t=390) — [H1] Questioning artistic motivation destroys creativity - Key idea: Once you start questioning why you're making art, you spiral into paralysis - Evidence: "Once you begin to question your motivations for why you're making the art all is lost because that's all you spiral over" #### ⏱️ [08:15](https://youtu.be/lj8wBAJV4p0?t=495) — [H2] Universal double consciousness from social media - Key idea: Everyone now experiences being watched and judging themselves constantly - Evidence: "The weird thing is we all have double consciousness now. Like we all kind of are walking around constantly with like the self and then like the self who's being watched" #### ⏱️ [11:20](https://youtu.be/lj8wBAJV4p0?t=680) — [H3] People reduced to narrative widgets - Key idea: Social media reduces complex humans to simplified identity narratives - Evidence: "People aren't even people. They're widgets of like identity and like personalized history and like little cubits of trauma" #### ⏱️ [14:45](https://youtu.be/lj8wBAJV4p0?t=885) — [H2] Black figures versus black people in art - Key idea: Art depicting "black figures" abstracts from lived human experience unlike art about "black people" - Evidence: "When black life has become so abstracted and has been so detangled from any kind of social reality or any kind of like personal lived human experience" #### ⏱️ [18:30](https://youtu.be/lj8wBAJV4p0?t=1110) — [H3] The complexity of race grifting accusations - Key idea: Artists struggle with whether they or others are exploiting racial identity for commercial gain - Evidence: "There is a part of me that is like it's all a grift... but also what is the unique and particular difference between what I think I'm doing and what I think they're doing" #### ⏱️ [22:00](https://youtu.be/lj8wBAJV4p0?t=1320) — [H1] Faith as vulnerability to unanswerable forces - Key idea: Faith requires making yourself vulnerable without guarantee of answers or reciprocity - Evidence: "Faith is another one of these like tricky propositions where to have it requires making oneself vulnerable to forces that are subsequently unanswerable to you" #### ⏱️ [25:45](https://youtu.be/lj8wBAJV4p0?t=1545) — [H2] Growing optimism through community faith - Key idea: Despite cynicism, believing in collective betterment becomes necessary for survival - Evidence: "It feels impossible to go on living if I don't have faith in our betterness together somehow" #### ⏱️ [28:30](https://youtu.be/lj8wBAJV4p0?t=1710) — [H1] Grace as bicycle seat metaphor - Key idea: Grace means keeping promises to help others even when they hurt you - Evidence: "He didn't let go. And then eventually I was like, 'Okay, I got it'... I saw that I'd run over his foot when I was like pushing up, but I didn't know... because he didn't say anything" #### ⏱️ [30:00](https://youtu.be/lj8wBAJV4p0?t=1800) — [H2] Being helpful versus being right - Key idea: Grace chooses helpfulness over personal vindication - Evidence: "Do you want the points for being right? Do you want it in the tally? Or are you there when someone needs you because you've promised to be there?" ## 📚 References - [Minor Black Figures by Brandon Taylor](https://www.amazon.com/Minor-Black-Figures-Brandon-Taylor/dp/1250890578) - [Margaret Atwood quote on internal voyeurism](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/236957-male-fantasies-male-fantasies-is-everything-run-by-male-fantasies) - [Toni Morrison on racism as distraction](https://www.oregonlive.com/books/2019/08/toni-morrison-the-function-the-very-serious-function-of-racism-is-distraction.html) ## 🗣️ Paraphrase - Creative paralysis often stems from artists becoming too focused on how their work will be received rather than the act of creation itself - Social media has created a universal experience of self-surveillance where people constantly judge themselves as if being observed by others - Authentic faith in community relationships requires choosing to help others even when it costs you personally, prioritizing collective wellbeing over individual recognition ## 📰 Newsletter **Breaking Through Creative Anxiety: Lessons for WordPress Creators** Brandon Taylor's insights about creative paralysis hit close to home for anyone building in the WordPress ecosystem. Whether you're developing themes, writing plugins, or contributing to Core, the fear of community judgment can freeze your best work. **Key Learning**: Taylor's "bicycle seat" metaphor for grace offers a powerful model for WordPress community interactions - showing up consistently for others even when it's difficult, choosing helpfulness over being right. **Practical Application**: Before publishing that controversial RFC or launching a new project, ask yourself: "Am I creating this because it matters to me, or because I'm anticipating a particular response?" The difference between authentic contribution and performative work often lies in that distinction. Resources: [WordPress Community Guidelines](https://make.wordpress.org/handbook/), [Contributor Mentorship](https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/wordcamp-organizer/planning-details/contributor-day/), [Core Values](https://wordpress.org/about/philosophy/) ## ✅ Action Items #### DevRel - Developer advocacy: Create content addressing creative anxiety and impostor syndrome in tech - Education: Develop workshops on maintaining authentic motivation in open source work - Community management: Establish feedback mechanisms that reduce performance anxiety for new contributors #### Community - Contributors: Design onboarding that emphasizes learning over perfect output - Maintainers: Practice "grace" in code review - focus on helping rather than being right - Sponsors: Fund mental health resources and burnout prevention for open source maintainers #### WordPress - Community: Develop resources addressing anxiety and perfectionism in WordPress contribution - Training: Create lesson plans about handling criticism and maintaining creative confidence - Support: Establish peer support networks for contributors experiencing creative blocks ## 🧪 Hypotheses - Creative anxiety decreases when artists focus on process rather than reception - Social media engagement correlates with increased self-surveillance and creative paralysis - Community support systems that emphasize helpfulness over correctness improve contributor retention - Faith-based approaches to collaboration reduce competitive dynamics in open source projects ### 📊 Methodology - Survey WordPress contributors about sources of creative anxiety and blocks - A/B test community feedback approaches emphasizing helpfulness vs. technical correctness - Longitudinal study tracking creative output before and after social media breaks ### ❓ Questions - How can online communities structure feedback to reduce performance anxiety? - What specific practices help creators separate their work from their social media presence? - How do we scale "grace" and helpfulness in large distributed communities? ### 🔮 Future Research - Explore meditation and mindfulness practices for open source contributors - Investigate correlation between community support quality and creative output - Study successful models of faith-based collaboration in secular contexts ### 💡 Implications - Practice: Regular social media breaks may improve creative output quality - Policy: Community guidelines should emphasize helpfulness over technical perfection - Education: Contributors need training in managing audience awareness and reception anxiety - Funding: Mental health support should be considered essential infrastructure for open source projects ### 🧠 Learning Styles Assessment Reading level estimate: 12th grade #### 👀 Visual learners - Present: Metaphorical language (bicycle seat, double consciousness) - Improve: Diagram showing cycle of creative anxiety, visual representation of "grace" concept #### 🔊 Aural learners - Present: Audio podcast format with conversational tone - Improve: Timestamped discussion guide for listening groups #### 🗣️ Verbal learners - Present: Rich literary analogies, clear definitions of complex concepts - Improve: Glossary of terms like "double consciousness," "race grifting" #### 🧩 Kinesthetic learners - Present: Concrete bicycle teaching example - Improve: Practical exercises for identifying audience anxiety, grace practice activities #### 🧠 Logical learners - Present: Clear cause-effect relationships between social media and anxiety - Improve: Decision tree for evaluating creative motivations #### 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Social learners - Present: Community-focused discussion format - Improve: Book club discussion guides, peer reflection exercises #### 🧘‍♀️ Solitary learners - Present: Personal reflection on creative process - Improve: Journaling prompts about artistic motivation, self-assessment tools #### 🌿 Naturalistic learners - Present: Father-child teaching relationship, community ecosystem thinking - Improve: Connect to broader cultural and social environments ### 📊 Accessibility Assessment #### Screen reader semantics - Present: Clear interview structure with speaker identification - Improve: Transcript with proper heading hierarchy, speaker role descriptions #### Keyboard navigation - Present: Standard podcast player controls - Improve: Chapter markers for easy navigation to specific topics #### Contrast and readability - Present: Audio format accessible to visual impairments - Improve: High-contrast transcript formatting #### Text resizing and reflow - Present: Responsive transcript display - Improve: Adjustable text size options #### Media and captions - Present: Full transcript available - Improve: Highlight key quotes, add visual cues for emphasis ### 🌍 DEIB Assessment #### Cultural breadth - Present: Discussion of African American artistic experience, universal creative struggles - Improve: Include perspectives from other marginalized creative communities #### Inclusive language - Present: Thoughtful discussion of racial identity without stereotyping - Improve: Define academic terms like "double consciousness" for broader audience #### Neurodiversity support - Present: Clear section breaks, conversational pace - Improve: Content warnings for discussion of anxiety and creative paralysis #### Representation - Present: Black author centered as expert on his own experience - Improve: Include additional voices on creative anxiety from different backgrounds #### Psychological safety - Present: Respectful exploration of mental health and creativity - Improve: Resources for listeners experiencing similar creative blocks ### ✅ Logical Validity #### Strong reasoning - Deductive strength: Social media creates audience awareness → audience awareness creates anxiety → therefore social media contributes to creative anxiety - Inductive strength: Personal experiences with creative blocks support broader patterns - Causal reasoning: Clear links between external pressure and internal creative paralysis - Analogical strength: Bicycle teaching story effectively illustrates grace concept #### Fallacies - None identified: Discussion acknowledges complexity and avoids oversimplification #### Tone of voice - Overall tone: Thoughtful, vulnerable, intellectually honest with personal examples ### 🛡️ DARVO Analysis - Deny: No denial patterns present - Attack: No attacks on accusers present - Reverse victim/offender: No victim/offender reversals present - Emotional cues and rhetoric: Conversation maintains vulnerability without manipulation ## 🎯 Conclusion - Creative paralysis often stems from excessive focus on audience reception rather than the intrinsic value of creative work - Building authentic community relationships requires extending "grace" - choosing helpfulness over being right, even when it costs us personally - The antidote to social media-induced creative anxiety lies in developing faith in collective betterment and focusing on the process rather than the product ## 🧱 Refactor Appendix ### 📚 Literature Split Pad Purpose: Stage CEE units that become Literature notes. Split level: H3 ### [H1] Publishing invents internal audience that paralyzes creativity > [!quote] [Breaking the cycle of overthinking](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj8wBAJV4p0) by [[NPR]] via [[It's Been a Minute]]. Published 2024. Accessed 2024-12-19. > "That process invents an audience that then lives in your mind. An audience that is no longer necessarily purely hypothetical." Understanding how publication transforms creative process from private to public performance. [view highlight](https://youtu.be/lj8wBAJV4p0?t=225#H1) #creativity #audience-anxiety ID:rw_001 ### [H2] Social media creates universal double consciousness > [!quote] [Breaking the cycle of overthinking](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj8wBAJV4p0) > "We all have double consciousness now. Like we all kind of are walking around constantly with like the self and then like the self who's --- ## Full Transcript [00:00] This message comes from NPR sponsor [00:02] Carvana. Making buying a car 100% online [00:05] with real, transparent pricing and [00:07] customizable financing that fits your [00:10] budget. Browse thousands of cars and get [00:12] yours delivered. Visit carvana.com [00:15] today. Delivery fees and terms may [00:17] apply. [00:20] I'm going to be honest with you. [00:23] Putting out this podcast every week [00:26] means that sometimes we can get stuck in [00:29] the creative process, agonizing over [00:32] whether what we're making is good or [00:34] right or meaningful, wondering what you [00:37] all will think about every episode. [00:40] Maybe you've been there, too. Too [00:42] paralyzed by a perfectionist complex, [00:44] unable to get out of your own way. If [00:47] this sounds anything like the inside of [00:49] your brain, well, this episode is [00:52] dedicated to you. [00:55] Every time I've sat down to write and [00:57] not been able to write, it's because [00:58] I've been thinking about what the 18 [01:01] internet socialists who hate me are [01:03] going to say about this or that or the [01:05] third. Every year I get a little closer [01:07] to throwing my phone into the sea. It's [01:10] got to go. [01:11] >> This is Brandon Taylor. For you longtime [01:14] IBAM fans, you may have heard him on the [01:16] show before, which means you also [01:18] already know he's one of my favorite [01:21] authors. And his novel, Minor Black [01:23] Figures, is all about the joys and the [01:26] horror of creating. Minor Black Figures [01:30] is about a painter, Wyth. [01:33] We encounter him at the start of the [01:36] novel in 2022. He's in New York. He's in [01:40] the midst of a really bad artistic block [01:43] and his friends suggests that he go look [01:46] at some art that they know he will hate [01:49] and he does that and in the course of [01:51] that evening he meets another man [01:54] Keading who he very quickly discovers is [01:56] a priest and then they spend the whole [01:58] summer doing one of my favorite things [02:01] to do which is to sort of walk and talk [02:03] about God, about life, about art, about [02:06] literature. uh and in the course of that [02:08] talking maybe falling in love a little [02:11] maybe. Maybe maybe [02:13] >> obviously I love this book otherwise I [02:15] wouldn't be sharing it with you. But I [02:17] loved it not only because it was [02:18] beautifully written but it made me think [02:21] about how to push past my anxieties to [02:23] create this show. Yes. But also how to [02:26] show up more fully in my own life. [02:30] Brandon, welcome back to It's Been a [02:31] Minute. [02:32] >> I'm so thrilled to be back. [02:37] Hello. Hello. I'm Britney Loose and [02:39] you're listening to It's Been a Minute [02:41] from NPR, a show about what's going on [02:43] in culture and why it doesn't happen by [02:46] accident. [02:54] And a reminder, if you love It's Been a [02:56] Minute, which from the sweet comments [02:58] y'all have been leaving, it sounds like [03:00] maybe you do, be sure to follow or [03:02] subscribe to the show on your favorite [03:04] podcast app. That way you get new [03:06] episodes the moment they drop. [03:09] This is definitely a book about art and [03:12] figuring out what it means and how you [03:14] can make it freely if you can make it [03:16] freely. Um, you know, our main character [03:17] Wyth is a painter and when we meet him, [03:20] he doesn't really paint anymore at the [03:22] beginning of the book because he's so [03:23] caught up in how he thinks he's going to [03:29] be interpreted and what that might mean [03:30] and how it's going to affect his life. [03:32] Talk to me about how the culture around [03:35] art [03:37] sort of preempts how people, I mean, [03:39] including yourself, make it. [03:41] >> Yeah. I mean, I think that there are a [03:43] lot of artists who get hung up on that [03:45] question of reception almost at the the [03:48] very outset of of setting out to make [03:51] anything, right? I know that act of [03:53] publishing and making my work public [03:55] that process invents an audience that [03:57] then lives in your mind. An audience [03:59] that is no longer necessarily purely [04:01] hypothetical. You're like, "Oh, I hope I [04:03] get read someday." Suddenly people are [04:04] reading and they are having opinions and [04:06] they're talking about you and you are [04:08] suddenly aware of the the social [04:12] reputation of your art [04:14] >> and you become not just the artist [04:16] separate from the world but like a [04:18] person whose work has become a thing [04:20] that people consume. And it does sort of [04:22] engender a lot of anxiety around like [04:26] why am I doing this? Am I writing this [04:28] because I want to write this or am I [04:30] writing this because I know that there [04:31] are 30,000 people who will read it and [04:34] like will give me snaps on the internet. [04:36] Right? M [04:37] >> it can be incredibly tricky to parse out [04:40] like your motivations for writing a [04:43] thing and then once you begin to [04:44] question your motivations for why you're [04:45] making the art all is lost because [04:48] that's all you that's all you spiral [04:50] over because honestly the answer is [04:51] unknowable like why am I is my [04:55] motivation pure it's like there's no [04:57] sufficient answer to that question and [04:59] then you know suddenly you're no longer [05:01] an artist you're a person who is anxious [05:04] about your reception and it can become [05:06] really destructive to the art making [05:08] itself. [05:09] >> Oh, that reminds me of something that [05:10] that you wrote um in the book from [05:12] Wyatt's perspective. He says like when [05:14] I'm working, I don't want to be thinking [05:16] about how someone is going to perceive [05:18] what I'm doing. I don't want to be [05:19] thinking about well they think I'm being [05:21] insular or elitist or whatever because [05:23] of my subject or technique. I want to [05:25] paint and I want to paint things that [05:27] matter to me and I feel like everything [05:30] is too mediated now. I feel like I'm [05:32] living my life at a totally dehumanizing [05:34] scale against my will. It's some of what [05:37] you're talking about. They sound like [05:40] that dehumanizing scale. [05:43] >> The dehumanizing scale at all. I mean I [05:45] I mean I think most often of social [05:47] media which is how a lot of these things [05:48] are relayed or experienced in my own [05:51] life. The sort of intense mediation of [05:53] life where like you could say something [05:54] like I love pancakes and someone's like [05:56] oh so like waffles are like the the [06:00] worst, right? Yes. [06:01] >> And so the response to that is to kind [06:04] of internalize it. And so I mean the [06:06] weird thing is we all have double [06:08] consciousness now. Like we all kind of [06:11] are walking around constantly with like [06:13] the self and then like the self who's [06:15] being watched, right? It's like that [06:17] Margaret Atwood quote like inside of [06:19] every woman is a man looking at a woman. [06:22] >> Oh yeah. Totally. Totally. The the exact [06:24] quote is you are a woman with a man [06:27] inside watching a woman. You are your [06:30] own voyer. [06:31] >> Yeah. And so like there's something [06:33] about that, the sort of abstraction of [06:35] our own experiences fed back to us that [06:37] feels really dehumanizing in which [06:39] people aren't even people. They're [06:41] they're widgets of like identity and [06:45] like personalized history and like [06:47] little cubits of trauma. um where [06:51] everybody is reducible to a narrative [06:52] and you are the narrative that you carry [06:54] around with you and that you dispense to [06:56] others via your Instagram or your Tik [06:59] Tok or your whatever. And I find that [07:01] like really hostile to the human spirit. [07:06] There's something about it that like [07:07] really like um really really estranges [07:12] me from from [07:14] human reality. It must be really hard [07:16] for painters and and other artists to [07:18] sort of make art [07:20] when they have the person in them that's [07:24] looking at an iPhone. You know what I [07:25] mean? [07:26] >> But do you feel that though? I imagine [07:28] that you feel similarly or you [07:31] experience some of that same dynamic. [07:33] >> Definitely. And it's so hard to to to [07:37] get away from it. I mean, the truth of [07:40] the matter is that I do in fact feel [07:42] that way for large amounts of time. And [07:46] I find it a little harder each time I [07:48] have to like fight for a little modicum [07:50] of internal privacy. [07:53] >> Yeah, it's interesting how that shows up [07:55] in the book. I mean, for example, there [07:56] is this Southeast Asian art collective [07:59] called Mango Wave, and they're kind of [08:01] doing a little bit of a race grift or [08:03] like race art grift where they are kind [08:06] of mining their racialized experience to [08:09] make art of very little depth um but art [08:12] that they also hope will make a lot of [08:15] money. [08:15] >> Yeah. [08:16] >> Or or even people that Wyth talks about [08:18] in the book who paint black figures [08:20] rather than black people. Like I feel [08:22] like there's uh kind of sometimes like [08:25] like a know it when you see it kind of [08:27] race art grift. I know I've seen it [08:29] before. I'm sure you've seen it as well. [08:31] But but what's the difference there [08:33] between maybe black figures and black [08:36] people? [08:37] >> Yeah. Yeah. That's like one of the [08:39] things that the book is constantly [08:41] turning over, right? And and and I think [08:43] it has a lot to do with like when black [08:45] life has become so abstracted [08:48] and has been so detangled from any kind [08:50] of social reality or any kind of like [08:53] personal lived human experience and [08:55] instead becomes this set of social [08:57] extrapolations where you're talking [08:59] about black people as though they were [09:00] objects that engenders like a kind of [09:03] like a black figure not like a black [09:05] person and to me it has to do with the [09:06] social reality and the interpersonal [09:08] reality there. I was trying to think [09:10] through like like my own feelings about [09:15] race grifting because there is a part of [09:17] me that is like it's all a grift. It's [09:20] all these people like wielding race in [09:23] service of like commercial interests [09:25] >> or do I resent them because I think [09:27] other people are going to think that I'm [09:28] doing what those people are doing [09:30] >> but also what is the unique and [09:32] particular difference between what I [09:33] think I'm doing and what I think they're [09:34] doing [09:35] >> what other people are doing. Yeah. Is [09:36] there a kind of like internalized bias [09:38] there where I'm kind of ashamed to be [09:41] associated with the artists of my ethnic [09:44] peers? Is the very notion of an ethnic [09:47] peer an absurd racist idea in and of [09:50] itself? Right? So the book is constantly [09:52] turning over all of this and like every [09:54] time Wyth thinks that he comes to like [09:56] an answer on which he can rest, he's [09:58] like, well, are they the racist? Am I [10:00] the racist? Is society the racist? Is [10:02] the question of is this whole question [10:05] an illusion that's like meant to like [10:06] derail me like Tony Morrison said like [10:09] >> Tony Morrison said [10:10] >> Tony Morrison [10:11] >> it's the greatest distraction [10:13] >> and it I mean it kind of is but I did [10:16] know that like one way to sort of fall [10:18] in the trap was to write a book that [10:20] took racism like so seriously that you [10:22] couldn't appreciate the absurdity of [10:25] like a 30-some black painter in America [10:28] who's had some modicum of success being [10:30] totally derailed by the very question of [10:32] like why am I doing what I'm doing? Like [10:34] there's something kind of inherently [10:35] like funny and absurd in that [10:37] experience. Like that sort of duality [10:39] where you're just kind of like minding [10:40] your business, living your own life, and [10:41] then like something happens and forces [10:43] you to contend with the fact that your [10:47] personal particular experience to an [10:49] outside viewer is like a black [10:52] experience. And you're like, I I didn't [10:54] sign up for all your feelings about what [10:58] you think black people. [10:59] >> I wonder if that's how my goldfish felt [11:02] when we took it outside of the tank to [11:04] clean it. It's just like I didn't even [11:06] know I was in water until you took me [11:08] out. [11:09] >> Like what is this? I [11:12] >> take me back. [11:16] >> Coming up. [11:18] >> Do you want the points for being right? [11:19] Do you want it in the tally or are you [11:23] there when someone needs you because [11:25] you've promised to be? [11:26] >> Stay with us. [11:31] >> This message comes from Thumbtac. [11:33] Avoiding your unfinished home projects [11:35] because you're not sure where to start? [11:37] Thumbtac knows homes so you don't have [11:40] to. Don't know the difference between [11:42] matte paint finish and satin or what [11:44] that clunking sound from your dryer is. [11:46] With Thumbtac, you don't have to be a [11:48] home pro. You just have to hire one. You [11:50] can hire top rated pros, see price [11:53] estimates, and read reviews all on the [11:55] app. Download today. Why does AI now [11:58] appear alongside nuclear war as one of [12:01] humanity's biggest risks? I think it's [12:03] the scale of it that makes it sound [12:05] absurd. [12:05] >> Episode two of Are We Doomed? explores [12:07] simple steps to get there. And uh we [12:10] might all need to hear this. If it's [12:12] going to happen, it might happen very [12:14] soon. Are We Doomed? Understand our [12:16] biggest problems and what we can do. [12:18] Part of the NPR network. Listen wherever [12:20] you get your podcasts. [12:21] >> This message comes from the United [12:23] States Postal Service. In business, [12:25] there's no room for guesswork. Every [12:27] shipment and deadline matters. When [12:29] you're trying to keep operations running [12:31] smoothly, the last thing you need is [12:32] uncertainty. That's why reliability is [12:35] at the core of USPS Ground Advantage. [12:38] Each package moves through a secure [12:40] nationwide network tracked from dock to [12:42] door. It's delivery you can depend on. [12:45] Visit usps.com/ground [12:48] advantage to learn more about how you [12:50] can start shipping with confidence. [12:53] >> This message comes from Jerry. Many [12:55] people are overpaying on car insurance. [12:58] Why? Switching providers can be a pain. [13:01] Jerry helps make the process painless. [13:03] Jerry is the only app that compares [13:05] rates from over 50 insurers in minutes [13:07] and helps you switch fast with no spam [13:10] calls or hidden fees. Drivers who save [13:12] with Jerry could save over $1,300 a [13:15] year. Before you renew your car [13:17] insurance policy, download the Jerry app [13:19] or head to jerry.ai/npr. [13:30] I want to talk about faith because this [13:31] is a book there's a lot of god talk. I [13:34] mean there's a literal you know hot [13:35] former priest that we mentioned earlier. [13:37] Uh and there's a lot of talk around [13:39] these you know which explores how to [13:41] reconcile the suffering of the world [13:42] with the existence of a good benevolent [13:45] god. I mean that very idea is something [13:48] that is discussed over and over again [13:50] with between characters in this book. [13:52] the, you know, the hot priest kind of [13:54] lost his religion during the pandemic, [13:56] you know, which is a horror that [13:58] >> we are still unable to reckon with as a [13:59] culture. I don't know. I I I I wonder [14:02] what does it mean to have faith [14:04] >> during bad times? [14:06] >> O, I mean, as I think as Kading says in [14:09] the book, people have fought wars over [14:11] over that question. Um, [14:16] >> um, [14:16] >> not an exaggeration. Yeah. And I mean [14:18] truly not which is wild to contemplate [14:21] you know like I wanted to write this [14:23] book because [14:25] like you know we are all familiar with [14:27] that phrase a crisis of faith right um [14:31] and I think we we often you know it's [14:34] often now taken as a sort of [14:35] tongue-in-cheek secular thing. I'm [14:37] having a crisis of faith about my email [14:40] job. I'm having a crisis of faith about [14:42] like am I going to ask this person out [14:44] or whatever. having her crisis of faith [14:46] >> um about my my political allegiance to [14:49] to various parties in this country. But [14:52] I wanted to sort of take it like very [14:53] seriously like what happens when there [14:55] is an artist who is having like a crisis [14:58] of faith about his vocation, his like [15:00] secular vocation, the thing that he [15:02] feels called to do. And what happens [15:03] when there is a priest who had a literal [15:06] spiritual calling and he also had to [15:08] >> to struggle with that. And so how do [15:10] these two men in sort of very different [15:12] walks of life like make their way [15:15] through this crisis in their faith? The [15:17] sort of fundament questions about the [15:20] fundamental thing that they feel they [15:22] were called to do. And what does that [15:24] look like in a world where everything [15:25] feels so relativized and like there's no [15:27] like nothing means anything because [15:29] anything can be anything. And so I I [15:31] wanted to take very seriously this [15:32] question of like faith, right? Because [15:34] faith is another one of these like [15:35] tricky propositions where to have it [15:37] requires making oneself vulnerable to [15:41] >> to forces that are subsequently [15:44] unanswerable to you. You know like God [15:46] doesn't owe us any answers. [15:48] >> The world doesn't owe us any answers, [15:51] right? And we are expected to believe [15:55] to put ourselves on the hook [15:57] >> and just to take whatever comes, right? [15:59] It's such a vulnerable position to find [16:00] oneself in. Um, I think but at the same [16:05] time, I mean, and to me, like I as a [16:07] millennial who like grew up with [16:08] financial crisis and like the sort of [16:10] Obama of it all and the Obama backlash [16:12] of it all and the drone strikes and all [16:14] that, [16:15] >> like I find the very notion of like [16:16] believing in anything like deeply silly [16:18] and like suspicious. I'm like, why would [16:20] I ever believe in anything? That's so [16:21] horrible. Um but at the same time I [16:26] think as I've matured as a person I've [16:29] felt the need to imagine the other side [16:32] of that that there are reasons to have [16:35] faith in the world and in our community [16:38] and like if that isn't something worth [16:41] having faith in like what is right cuz [16:43] otherwise the only answer is like [16:44] despair to sort of sit in abject despair [16:46] and to believe that nothing will ever [16:47] get better and that we'll never be able [16:49] to overcome things and like that [16:51] certainly is not what the ancestors did. [16:53] Um, and I think if you look at my books, [16:57] if you look at them in publication order [16:59] and they grow increasingly optimistic [17:01] about this project of like what is it [17:03] that we're all on this planet doing to [17:05] each other, doing for each other, doing [17:07] with each other and I think, you know, I [17:09] don't have answers, but I one answer I [17:11] do know is that like we are better [17:13] together and that we will that we can [17:15] get through anything together. And I [17:16] think like it feels impossible to go on [17:19] living if I don't have faith in [17:23] our betterness together somehow. Like [17:26] that that to me feels crucial. And I [17:29] think like each of the characters are [17:32] working toward an answer to the question [17:33] of like what do you have faith in? What [17:35] can you have faith in? [17:38] >> Yeah. I that makes me think about um [17:41] like this one passage I really loved in [17:43] the book where Keading the former priest [17:45] recalls how he explained the concept of [17:47] God's grace back when he was teaching [17:49] children in Sunday school and he said [17:51] grace makes it so God is always on your [17:54] side. It doesn't mean you weren't wrong. [17:56] It means that God is on your side in [17:58] hopes that you will come to see what you [18:01] need to see in order to make things [18:03] right. I mean, it's it's a very simple [18:04] way to describe a very complex idea, but [18:07] what you're talking about like our [18:08] betterness together, it feels like God's [18:12] grace is something that we can extend to [18:16] each other. [18:17] >> Yeah. I mean, as a sort of exaptist gay [18:21] atheist, I do I do feel that way. I do [18:24] feel that grace is a thing that we can [18:27] offer each other. I was asked recently [18:29] in an interview to sort of describe what [18:31] grace feels like to me. like how would I [18:33] articulate Grace? And the way that I [18:35] explained it was that my dad taught me [18:37] to ride a bike. And it was 3 weeks after [18:40] he'd had ankle surgery cuz he'd broken [18:41] his ankle. And so he was like hobbling [18:43] in a cast still holding my bicycle seat [18:46] as he was like pushing me along until I [18:48] got the courage to sort of keep going. [18:49] And he said, and I said like, "Don't let [18:51] go. Don't let go. Don't let go." He [18:52] goes, "You can do." I'm like, "Don't let [18:53] go." And so he didn't let go. And then [18:55] eventually I was like, "Okay, I got it." [18:57] And I sort of like rolled on a fair [18:58] distance and looped back around. And I [19:00] saw that I'd run over his foot when I [19:03] was like like pushing up, [19:06] >> but I didn't know that I had run over [19:07] his foot because he didn't say anything. [19:09] He was still holding the bicycle seat. I [19:11] had no idea cuz he didn't yelp. He [19:13] didn't do anything to alert me to this [19:14] fact. And to me, like that is what grace [19:15] is. Like grace is [19:18] holding on to the bicycle seat because [19:19] you've promised to be holding on to the [19:21] bicycle seat. That to me is grace [19:23] somehow, right? That thing that let my [19:25] dad hold on to the bicycle seat after I [19:27] run over his foot is still healing foot. [19:31] Right. [19:33] >> It's like, do you want to be right or do [19:34] you want to be helpful? [19:36] >> Yeah. [19:36] >> Do you want the points for being right? [19:37] Do you want it in the tally? Right. [19:40] >> Yeah. [19:40] >> Or are you there when someone needs you [19:44] because you've promised to be there? [19:45] Like that to me is grace is it doesn't [19:48] matter that you get the point. Like what [19:50] matters is that that person is okay and [19:52] that you've helped them to be okay, [19:54] right? [19:58] >> Well, I felt it. I felt it and and I am [20:01] excited um for for people to read this [20:04] and feel it themselves. Um Brandon, [20:06] thank you so much. Thank you for writing [20:08] the book and thank you for coming back [20:09] on the show. [20:09] >> Oh, it's a pleasure. Thanks for having [20:11] me. [20:11] >> That was novelist Brandon Taylor. Minor [20:14] Black Figures is out now. This episode [20:17] of It's Been a Minute was produced by [20:19] >> Corey Antonio Rose, [20:20] >> Liam McBain. This episode was edited by [20:24] Nina Puk. [20:25] >> Our supervising producer is [20:26] >> Barton Gerwood. [20:27] >> Our VP of programming is Yolanda [20:30] Sanguini. [20:31] >> All right, that's all for this episode [20:32] of It's been a minute from NPR. I'm [20:35] Britney Loose. Talk soon. [20:41] This message comes from Designer Shoe [20:43] Warehouse. You know that feeling when [20:44] you find shoes you love at a great price [20:47] and want to tell everyone about it? Find [20:49] something to brag about at Designer Shoe [20:51] Warehouse, like the latest styles from [20:53] brands you love, the trends everyone's [20:56] obsessing over, and shoes that make you [20:58] feel like you. Head to a DW store or [21:01] dw.com today for shoes that get you at [21:05] prices that get your budget. DW, let us [21:08] surprise you. [21:10] >> This message comes from Jerry. Many [21:12] people are overpaying on car insurance. [21:15] Why? Switching providers can be a pain. [21:18] Jerry helps make the process painless. [21:20] Jerry is the only app that compares [21:22] rates from over 50 insurers in minutes [21:24] and helps you switch fast with no spam [21:26] calls or hidden fees. Drivers who save [21:29] with Jerry could save over $1,300 a [21:32] year. Before you renew your car [21:34] insurance policy, download the Jerry app [21:36] or head to jerry.ai/npr.  📄 **Full text:** ![[Full Document Contents/Articles/Breaking the Cycle of Overthinking.md|Breaking the Cycle of Overthinking by YouTube]] ## Highlights - own voyer. >> Yeah. And so like there's something about that, the sort of abstraction of our own experiences fed back to us that feels really dehumanizing in which people aren't even people. They're they're widgets of like identity and like personalized history and like little cubits of trauma. um where everybody is reducible to a narrative and you are the narrative that you carry around with you and that you dispense to others via your Instagram or your Tik Tok or your whatever. And I find that ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01krgqafsscs671sdwn4b0ax0b)) - Tags: 👻 ai highlighted - experience some of that same dynamic. >> Definitely. And it's so hard to to to get away from it. I mean, the truth of the matter is that I do in fact feel that way for large amounts of time. And I find it a little harder each time I have to like fight for a little modicum of internal privacy. >> Yeah, it's interesting how that shows up in the book. I mean, for example, there is this Southeast Asian art collective called Mango Wave, and they're kind of ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01krgqaftwyv6k3gn84gxqqsd3)) - Tags: 👻 ai highlighted - what does it mean to have faith >> during bad times? >> O, I mean, as I think as Kading says in the book, people have fought wars over over that question. Um, >> um, >> not an exaggeration. Yeah. And I mean truly not which is wild to contemplate you know like I wanted to write this book because like you know we are all familiar with that phrase a crisis of faith right um ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01krgqafwdjqdw8x646ythp389)) - Tags: 👻 ai highlighted - and I think we we often you know it's often now taken as a sort of tongue-in-cheek secular thing. I'm having a crisis of faith about my email job. I'm having a crisis of faith about like am I going to ask this person out or whatever. having her crisis of faith >> um about my my political allegiance to to various parties in this country. But I wanted to sort of take it like very seriously like what happens when there is an artist who is having like a crisis of faith about his vocation, his like ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01krgqafyxctscfvcrxhdmkydg)) - Tags: 👻 ai highlighted