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1/ #roamcult Who is doing Feynman's 12 Favorite Questions?
— Roam-fu (Kahlil Corazo on 🧠⏩ 🌏) (@Roamfu) August 27, 2020
Let's do it collectively!
This will be a key starting point for Fabricating Serendipity v3.
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Norm
Transcript
[00:00:05]Norman Chella: Hello there. This is Norm. Reviving this podcast in the midst of overhauling, the website, thatsthenorm.com. I am turning it into the official podcast to cover the audio version of all the posts that I'll be doing on this website from now on. So. Look forward to that, as I'll be explaining more about where this episode or this show rather, where does show we'll be going?
[00:00:28]In this episode, I'll be splicing the audio from my newest YouTube video for the 12 problems by Richard Feynman,
[00:00:36] These are the 12 problems that have been circling my mind for so long for so many years. And I will let the video version of myself.
[00:00:44]Explain what that is.
[00:00:46] Don't worry, the audio will explain most of the things. Um, but I will pop in a link for the YouTube video. Right below in the show notes to this episode without further ado, this is YouTube me.
[00:00:57] Hello there, Norman here. And in this video, I want to talk about my 12 questions or my 12 favorite problems to think about throughout the course of my life. These have been issues or, uh, fields that I've been really interested in throughout my time studying and or working and on the pursuit of trying to learn more about this world, uh, have come to arrive at these questions, which are derived from Richard Feynman.
[00:01:25] Uh, and also, uh, prompted, uh, by, at, @roamfu on Twitter. So of course, as the host of RoamFM, I am compelled. And anyway, I have done it as already, um, to actually want to share with the rest of the world, my 12 questions. So shout outs to at @roamfu shoutouts to Kahlil, uh, for prompting me with this, And the 12 questions.
[00:01:53] Uh, I will give you a very brief summary of what it is. It's a dozen of your favorite problems constantly present in your mind. Uh, even if you're not actually working on them right now, even if, you know, you may not have enough resources or power or influence to tackle them at the moment, you still have them right there in your brain somewhere.
[00:02:17] Just waiting for you to tackle it. Once you have gained enough resources or knowledge or insight, or, uh, there's a certain level of clarity behind what you want to do about them. So I think that this is really important because by tackling these problems or by actually having these problems as a foundation for what you will do throughout your career or what you will do as a passion or a for what you will do, uh, throughout your time.
[00:02:44] In this world, not to get a little bit too morbid. Uh, I think that it's still very, very important since it will shape your actions, or it will narrow down the decisions to the ones that you with full intent are willing to execute and go forward. So without further ado, let's dive into my Roam. So, uh, I have my12 problems right here, and these are the problems that are most relevant to me.
[00:03:13] Right. So they don't necessarily have to be in any way, shape or form succumbing to the needs and expectations of society. And all these are just problems that I want to tackle myself. So even if I don't gain any monetary benefit from it or anything like that, I'm still going to be thinking about these all the time.
[00:03:33] So these are split into multiple. Uh, words or definitions, uh, of mine that are personal to me. And I want to talk them, tackle them one by one. So the first word is home. home to me is a, it's an, it's kind of a very difficult. Question to answer, uh, what is home? And the very first problem is how do I build a place for my wide range, self, and serve others? To me, by being able to tackle that I, as a result or as a side effect will find home.
[00:04:12] Is it on the internet? Is it a hybrid, digital, physical life where I have so much space, self that I am willing to. Serve others from the comfort of my own bastion or a sanctuary this little castle within the digital world where I can create anything and I can help and serve others. So I feel that that is home somewhere in there.
[00:04:35] Some, some form of that, I'm still on the way to trying to articulate that. So that is a constant problem with mine. Um, some of the solutions have been the creation of this. Brand that's the norm, uh, and uh, something else called 18 BTE. So this is a personal mantra of mine, which is in relation to the 18th episode of tempered fables, which is my short story fiction podcast, which is probably put it somewhere on this video, uh, where it is the story of a painter who hears a vinyl record, uh, of a song that compels them to.
[00:05:14] Paint all the memories of his life or his, or her lives, in many different colors and they go beyond the edge and by, beyond the edge, it means that beyond what is possible beyond the realms of imagination, all, and all you are left with is nothing. And from the void of nothing, there comes this voice that answers back at you.
[00:05:34] Uh, so it, it is sort of an interpretation of once you. Pull yourself away from your body, your consciousness. There is a flow that is articulated in the form of a third person that possesses you. And therefore you will create you will write, you will converse with someone or talk or create videos or whatever you will flourish because you allow whatever that voice is, whatever that entity is from that, nothing to come back to you.
[00:06:04] So that's a quick reminder for me there. I feel that home is somehow related to that in some way, because with that, that voice from nothing is also a part of me. So our habits or our pursuit of trying to find flow is our pursuit of trying to allow that nothing to possess us and just do without hesitation, without worry, without fear, without these humane barriers or obstacles that stop us from, you know, creating, which is fundamental, what the point of a home is.
[00:06:39] It's a place where he can create and live. And flourish and relax and be calm and be in a state of bliss without the expectations of anyone else. So that is a home.
[00:06:51] Foolishness is another way of me to say that I want to reduce the, the chances of me being ignorant. Or being full of assumptions and tackling anything, uh, or to reduce expectations from anybody or anything.
[00:07:12]when I call myself a fool or to be less of a fool in life, I try my best to humble myself down to the position of a beginner's mindset. As most people would call it. And from there, learn from any person learn from any field, from any individual, a few people who have. Interviewed me on their podcasts have actually found that out that, uh, that, uh, that aspect of mind, the pursuit of trying to be more of an Antifool, which is someone who pursues the antidote to foolishness.
[00:07:46] So the question here or the next problem is how do I build the antidote to foolishness? How do I create a set of principles and values that allow me to learn anything from everybody?
[00:07:56] And to allow me to live a life full of bliss. From a humbling position, and essentially create this synchronicity. I think that's the word for it. The synchronicity between my true self and my ability to do some self-introspection. Can I catch myself with negative feelings? Can I bounce back? Can I recover?
[00:08:17] Can I thrive? Can I execute? Can I relax on the need to, um, to be. Very Olympic or to be at an Olympian level and maintaining my humane self. That is basically what I'm trying to think. The antidote to foolishness is, um, some ways to tackle that will be Antifool, which is on the podcast. I do a roam FM as well, which is another one.
[00:08:38] Uh, and, uh, other interview shows like Podlovers Asia and many more. Another one on the realm of foolishness is trying to find out the hardest question. Ever I'm I love questions. Like I love questions so much. I have a feeling or I'm going to under the firm belief that culture cannot exist without questions.
[00:09:01] As in the very first step towards creating a culture or creating a community is a question. And you can always try to find your way to articulate that right. For in the case of say a tribe or a village is. Who belongs here or how do we welcome each other? Or what do you mean to me as a, as someone part of this village or in the case of making a friend, it's like, Oh, what do I believe about this person to warrant them being a friend, or to allow them to be part of my circle in life?
[00:09:28] So if you zoom out a little bit and you go right to the end and or on our death beds, or when we face our lives or when we meet ourselves at the end of our journeys, the last question is. What is it right? What is the hardest question to answer ever in life? So I forgot what I wrote through here. Oh, right.
[00:09:49] Yeah. It's uh, in the course of me writing up more notes, uh, through my Roam for my thought mine, I thought that writing this out would be pretty awesome. The next one is conversations. So conversations as well, another aspect of humanity that I love, what can I do to become a professional conversationalist, uh, is the other problem.
[00:10:12] Under the problem under the realm of conversation that I am trying to tap into or answer. And I haven't really fully formulated this notion yet, or this concept of a professional compensation lists. I mean, professional just means you get paid to do something. So would you think that, would you say that professional conversationalists are paid to talk to you?
[00:10:35] Right. Like are therapists considered professional conversationalists? Are counselors considered professional conversationalist? Um, interviewers hosts, et cetera. Uh, those who write, do those who ask the right questions, those who do the correct prompts, those who respond in kindness, dozer respond appropriately.
[00:10:56] Those who respond in an empathetic matter. These are elements of a professional conversationalist and. I want to be in the path to try to pursue that as a career. So what can I do to become that? Still not sure might as well be creating content around that for the time being either through YouTube or Twitter or through podcasts.
[00:11:13] So here I am. Um, and the other question is how can I interact with the most forward of thinkers, creators and superhumans examples include the interview shows that I do. So RoamFM definitely Antifool can be pretty much anyone and responses to my writing and or my interactions on Twitter. Through myself, so through thatsthenorm.
[00:11:34]Another one is how do I build a space where otium can be achieved? So otium is the pursuit of intellectual engagement or intellectual curiosity to be in a space where it is a forum. And. People are already filtered through. If they're in that forum, you know that they are willing to talk about anything and everything.
[00:11:53] So it's a space where more engaging high quality conversations can be allowed. How do I build a space where otium can be achieved in a practical manner? That could be a summit, a community on circle app. It could be a, I don't know, a Slack or a discord or something like that, but I'm thinking more of longterm.
[00:12:12] So this would be a problem that I will go through sooner or later.
[00:12:17] Imagination only has one question underneath that. How or what can I do to allow my different imaginations to enter the world? I bolded different here mainly because there are two types of imaginations. There are nonfiction and fiction.
[00:12:33] So there's non fictitious imaginations and fictitious imaginations for fiction. Tempered fables is the brand that I. I put all of my stories underneath. So through my creative alter ego N.T. Clover, I write stories through the show and it create a world of its own. So sooner or later, once I do more videos about roaming in public, which is something I will explore later on, I will be creating more within the realm of Rome stories that connect with each other and fictitious characters.
[00:13:06] That mean certain things. And that is. Articulated or refined or expressed through tempered fables for nonfiction imaginations. These could range from thoughts or observations about the world. So I would actually put this under under the sun, which is another, a narrative show that I do. These are more like imaginations surrounding culture.
[00:13:29] So as much as I imagined about these things, these are two ways where. I can choose to let out or express what I'm imagining right now into a packaged format that other people can understand and say, Oh, this is what he's been thinking about recently. Right? It could be, Oh, in the context of this blog post, he's been thinking about, say fear, or he's been thinking about, say personal knowledge management or something like that.
[00:13:54] Right. So what can I do to allow that? And an extension of this is what can I do to allow. The habit of that, doing that, like every week, something along those lines.
[00:14:05] Memory is another one. That's another realm that I would love to tackle sooner or later. Uh, how can I resolve my fear of forgetting and memory loss and help others with remembering their own lives?
[00:14:16]memory has been something that I've been obsessed with for multiple years. And I am in the middle of writing an essay about the fear of forgetting, uh, which I will touch on later on. And as a superlearner certified coach, I help other people with their memory and speed reading and stuff like that.
[00:14:34] Uh, and a lot of these applications are more towards remembering a ton of knowledge or information or diagrams or data sets and using memory palaces to link them all together, create markers. And from there you're like, Oh, I'm, you know, I I'm much more knowledgeable, right. I I've become a human Wikipedia within the insides of my head,
[00:14:54] But I w I put this field, uh, from a humane perspective, it's more about remembering the memories of our lives. So beyond the knowledge that we know about, you know, our chosen specialties, this is more about what can I do to remember to things that I've done when I was a teenager or when I was five or when I was 12 or, uh, what can I do to note down ore record these amazing conversations that have been happening within my life or this video that I saw. And I thought it was amazing. I wanted to record it. Right. I don't want to lose that memory because that is the, that's a part of my life. Right. I think it was Brendan toner from Roman FM that, that said that when I read a.
[00:15:39] Or when I consume knowledge, I want it to become a part of me. It's the same aspect here or says, same concept here. If we take that framework and put it into the realm of experiences, how can I resolve my fear of losing that experience, forgetting what I've learned, what I felt, what, you know, engaged me or what provoked him or what excited me and help others do to the same.
[00:16:01] I want them to remember everything that has been happening in their lives. And, you know, it's, it's like that.
[00:16:09]Society this is more on the money relationship conundrum. I think I did a podcast episode about this years ago and, uh, I wrote a few articles actually about our relationship with money or the philosophy of money, why we are slaves to money. Uh, why do we assign numerical value to the work given to, uh, those who are doing.
[00:16:34] You know, like a service or even like a job in why is there such a huge skew or imbalance between different works? Like, you know, those sorts of things. Um, how do I make it so that the money isn't so that money isn't a problem anymore in my life. Um, I wrote this question and it's put under this topic mainly because the, uh, my relationship with society I feel is proportional to my relationship with money.
[00:17:03] Because money is money exchange for goods or as exchanged for value or efficiencies created by other members of society. So whether it global or whatever, and that's my relationship with it. So how do I make it so that money isn't really a problem. Whenever I need to tap out of society and the tap into society to get a few things like pay for a software or get groceries or subscribe to someone, something like that.
[00:17:28] Now the simple answer to this is to get rich. Right. But I still want to be, I still want the answer to this question to be synonymous with the answers to the previous questions so that I don't become like a money grubbing, like money grabbing landlord, or, you know, some greedy guy and just search for money at the cost or at the sacrifice of my loved ones.
[00:17:50] So this is more of a balance question, right? That don't want to be too dependent on becoming rich, although it would be nice.
[00:18:00] And the last one is unity. So unity is more like the environment to allow for conversation, which is a little bit connected to the previous question within the conversation topic, I'm building a space for Otium So unity is more about serendipity and creating a collective of humans that really create that help create win-win situations for each other. beyond the realm of borders, nations, I think backgrounds, languages, et cetera. What is the way to unite humans under one banner and make planet earth be a country of humans.
[00:18:45] Right? That's, that's sort of like that, that kind of a thing. So maybe I may be thinking a little bit too far ahead, right? Like if we're talking about relations between humans and other aliens, right? We, are we still going to be talking about different Wars across different countries within planet earth?
[00:19:00] Or should we unite under one banner and then have relations with other aliens and that sort of thing? Anyway, I might be a little bit too insane with this problem, but the first one is how can I connect harness and introduce polymath and polymathic thinking. Uh, one aspect of ensuring, unity is the acceptance of those who are wide range.
[00:19:18] Those who are broad, those who are in multiple fields. And I feel that that is extremely important. So how can I connect and harness and introduce them? I think I have a few notes on there. Yeah. I have a project coming up, uh, that is trying to connect all of this together. Um, but I've had to pause it for a while because I want to make anything.
[00:19:37] A few things that are related to Roam more full time. So I could dedicate to that, pull the funds from said efforts and then pushed out into a polymath project. So I am excited for that. Um, so this, this question will be answered sooner or later. It's just problem.
[00:19:54] Another one is how can I help grow the Asian podcast ecosystem?
[00:19:57] To me, podcasting is extremely important because it's the. Fastest way or the easiest way to share and distribute conversations. And of course, conversations are a big part of what I do. it's the empirical medium of choice. Anything can be turned into conversations. It could be you reading a book as you talking with the author, but the author is expressing it through this book, right.
[00:20:24] It could be a podcast. It could be a video. If I'm watching a video, it's more like the person is conversing with me through the video. And my response to that video is an asynchronous conversation, but it's up to them if they actually meet. So that is another thing altogether. But anyway, how do I grow the Asian podcast ecosystem?
[00:20:43] So I'm doing that through Podlovers, Asia, which is all about the Asian podcasting thing. Um, you're starting to see a little pattern here, right? It's a lot of conversations and episodes and shows and all that. And the pursuit of trying to create all this content. I came across this. So yeah, I really wanted to help with growing the podcast ecosystem and create win-win situations for any budding podcaster, uh, because Asia is a huge untapped market, but that's for a whole other thing.
[00:21:09] And the last one is what can I do to help reduce the distance between every human being on earth of this is pretty selfish of me. I know a lot of people all around the world and they're pretty far away. Time zones suck. I don't want to call at like midnight, right? Like you have a lot of salons and amazing talking events.
[00:21:29] And a lot of my interviews are done at like 1:00 AM in the morning. So it kind of sucks that the distance is so far and pandemic aside, that there is still the willingness to want to meet in person, but you know, geographically speaking, there are a lot of disadvantages that I saw, what can I do to help reduce the distance between every human being on earth?
[00:21:50] And this is actually the oldest question or the oldest problem that I've had, because I was. Interested in smart cities a few years ago. And I entered into view conferences and I was so interested in what people are doing. So it was really fantastic. And I realized that the reason why I like smart cities, it's not because of the notion of like, Oh, I can, you know, my entire life can be put on an app and then I can vote and do my taxes, et cetera, from, uh, anappe, my phone or anything like that.
[00:22:15] It's not of the actual tech behind it. It's more of the accumulation of knowledge synthesis through these inventions. And the benefits that it will have nationwide or community-wide or at state level. That's the huge, important thing, just because we have driverless cars doesn't mean that he may or may not have an impact on, Transport within society or transport within a country like that, that sort of thing.
[00:22:40] Like it is a marvel to see driverless cars out there in the world for people to use and utilize, et cetera. But how much of an impact does it give in the safety of its citizens using it and the distance it takes to go to a final destination destination for someone going from a to B. like how much of an impact does it have on the country itself?
[00:23:03] Right. It's stuff like logistics, stuff, like smart cities things, uh, even like video conferencing software, like zoom, zoom and Loom, uh, helps with reducing the speed for communication, even new email softwares, like, Hey, which is fantastic, but it's expensive for me are helping people with reducing that, uh, Having greater, intentional, positive barriers for communication, whether it's lowered barrier, so it's a lot faster, you know, faster internet means it's easier for people to have calls of each other, uh, or mobile phone development allows for people to call a message on the go, things like that. Right?
[00:23:42] It's like all of these things result in the reduced distance of every individual on earth and reduce distance between the privileges and or the advantages of someone who is from say a developing country, but gets access to all these amazing benefits that we can get in, uh, a more affluent area. Yeah. But due to the distance reduced through technology, they can then, uh, flourish in their own manner and gain, So many potential advantages, uh, if they actually tap into it.
[00:24:18] So to allow for that to happen is what I'm thinking of with this question. So yeah, that's, that's pretty much it for unity. Like my inbox of these things are growing over time and I have a few other, a few other potential problems as well. Like how do I become immortal? So this is, uh, on the notion of trying to change my definition of immortality.
[00:24:39] It's not just physical immortality, it's also mental. It is also cultural immortality, which is something I will cover in another time. Cultural immortality, meaning the amount of impact that I have on other people that they won't forget about my contributions, that they won't forget about my works.
[00:24:56] How do my words affect your life? Things like that, or how do they affect a culture or a subculture. Right. And, uh, yeah, that's pretty much it. I think that the 12 problems is a really good way to do a little self-introspection as to what you really want to do. So, pretty much any decision that you make with like your career or any side project or a passion.
[00:25:25] I feel should address these 12 problems. And I think with that, not only do you have these tasks that are set out to you, you can narrow them down. So as long as they answered the problems in a certain way, then it's just the fine, right. You're not procrastinating, or it's a distraction in that anyway. And not only that, even if it's something that may be a bit of a struggle, maybe it's something you don't like a task that you don't like to do.
[00:25:51]Having it there and having this as a way to aim yourself at, uh, at this like horizon of amazing problems that you can potentially solve. It's enough encouragement that you can. Execute like it's enough encouragement to push you towards executing said tasks or set projects or set ideas, because you know that these projects and these tasks are a reflection of who you are and what you do and what you focus on.
[00:26:20] So I feel that these 12 problems really do help. So if you really want to do your own version, like, I'll link this tweet, uh, right here, and I will thank of course, thank roamfu for it. And let me know what are your 12 problems? It may or may not be 12 problems. You may just be like 11 or 10. And the way that you articulate said problems may not be the same as me.
[00:26:49] It may not be questions. It may not be in these fields. It could be the 12 questions or 12 problems. In the same field and that's perfectly fine. all I ask is I would love to hear what they are because your problems, your 12 problems define my impression of you. It lets me know what you pay attention to.
[00:27:10] And there are only a few currencies in life that we cannot take away from each other. And that is attention, time and energy. Right? It's, it's pretty much that. Then again, a lot of like marketing strategies are geared towards trying to pull that from each other because we find, you know, it's kind of a transaction when you try to pull a lot of click bait articles, but that's a whole other thing to get it.
[00:27:30] But yeah, that's pretty much it from this. I hope you enjoyed this. Uh, let me know by sharing with me what your 12 problems are and norm here from that's the norm. See you soon.
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