The key to a successful life is to embrace reality. Constructed worlds are a form of kryptonite – draining us of our life force and leaving us addicted to jam instead of fruit.

Does anyone else feel similarly?

https://notes.lauraevans.io/permanent/Prefer+reality+to+constructed+worlds

Research @ Atomic | @astorventures, @mohrdavidow, @kernel0x, cs @harvard

And while there's nothing wrong with these qualities themselves, they're beautiful, there's a dysfunction in experiencing these qualities vicariously. Instead of enjoying them in our own lives, we find ourselves sitting on the couch… satisfied, yet starved.

Hollywood is an especially powerful producer of constructed worlds. It excels at distilling, condensing, focusing, and enhancing the seductive qualities in life.

I appreciate the feedback. That’s fair re: balance — truth resides in paradox. And re: books, I hear you. I derive an unreasonable joy from the classics, but Paul Graham offers a nice counterpoint in the notion that reading virtuous books is not always a virtuous endeavor: http://www.paulgraham.com/island.html

To be more accurate, you’re right, I should soften the language, but in an era of increasingly engrossing television, somehow the sharper language feels helpful? David Foster Wallace’s concept of “the entertainment” feels cautionary here.

I understand what you're trying to say, but I think it's too harsh an assessment and would benefit from a more balanced perspective. The comparison to kryptonite is overly cynical in my view, and I don't think the jam-fruit metaphor you're making is doing what you want it to.

I subscribe to Jay Z’s never give up on the dream of being the exception,” combined w/ relentless action. He neither denied nor accepted his reality, he worked to transmute it. 

I look at greatness as a measure of bridging from vision to reality. From this view, it’s our divine calling and mandatory to pursue.