Barista Prep and Nascent Ideas

Brahhhh! I'm busy busy.

I'm competing in the big western regional barista competition in 10 days and I'm feeling jazzed about it but it's taking up a lot of my time!

I am staying late at work, I'm thinking about it a lot.

The only problem is that I feel spread thin! I want to spend time with people I like! I want to read books that excite me! I want to write an essay that I began and am feeling excited about!

In particular, I really want to be reading Bergson's The Creative Mind. I've already digested parts of it in the past 6 months, but I'm going back through it, reading a bunch of the essays, trying to wrap my head around what Bergson was all about.

It's going well. It led me to the idea for an essay about Bergson, Collingwood, and Clausewitz. All three very explicitly made the claim that we needed to greatly reduce, if not close, the gap between theory and practice. Bergson speaks more of speculation and action, but sometimes gets closer to the language of theory and practice. Collingwood and Clausewitz both used the language of theory and practice explicitly.

For all three of them the union of theory and practice was above all a way to have a rawer experience of reality, one unmitigated by general concepts (ie theories). For them the real challenge was to use theoretical, speculative thinking, as a way to gain a clearer and richer experience of reality. Skepticism about general concepts and an acknowledgement of the limitations of language seems to be central to all three of them. Reminds me of Taleb and Bloom, too.

I think it is going to be some really exciting writing. But alas, I must compete. I must represent Visions. I must make my friends and peers and self proud.

I'm excited to go to LA and do this!

Yayyyyyy!