The Practice Problem

Flash philosophy on the lost art of living.

Self-awareness has condemned us to an ongoing labor of self-fashioning. We see life’s demands and we know we can do a better job of living up to them. We all intuit a more beautiful world and the best among us try and live in it. Doing this requires practice.

Practice is the process by which human beings transform themselves. We do this to enhance our fidelity and artfulness in a given domain of experience.

A musician practices the piano to increase her fidelity with music. She repetitively trains motifs, scales and progressions until they are embodied. With time, she can intuitively deploy her musical vocabulary during a live performance and create art.

Similarly, the human condition entails the opportunity to practice the art of living. We can embody the fundamental actions of a good life and choice-fully deploy them as the moment requires.

But learning to live is more complex and less legible than learning the piano. In modern times, living lacks a culturally agreed-upon direction to inform the practice (Sloterdijk’s “vertical tension”). Classical music has a lineage of mastery for contemporary pianists to aspire to, but what about the rest of life? To what end must we practice?

“The Practice Problem” is the present-day inability to consciously transform ourselves for the betterment of the whole. Moderns suffer from the demands of life without a clear direction of how to practice living. Moreover we are faced with true existential risks that depend on our collective transformation.

Despite the high stakes, our lack of direction means:

• We can’t construct an appropriate practice regime (what do I even practice?)

• We lack the will and vitality to persist with our practices (where’s my soul?)

• We lack institutions of virtue to support our practice (where’s my gang?)

• We perpetuate needless suffering by failing to become competent

In simple terms, we know life would be better if we did certain things but we usually don’t do them. It’s hard to do them and we aren’t entirely sure what to even do. This engenders existential angst while the meta-crisis continues.

—Daniel

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If you’re interested in this puzzle, Peter and I are exploring it in a 4 part series at The Stoa starting August 7th.

• Beyond Self-Discipline: The Practice Problem. August 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th @ 12:00 PM ET. RSVP here. 45-90 mins.

At the sessions, we will be collectively engaging in a week-to-week accountability system with one practice: the most important practice you have been neglecting. It could be waking up earlier, a certain diet, a specific exercise, or a meditative practice. Whatever you sense is wise to experiment with. If you are called to step up your life, in a way that is orientated towards wisdom, you can RSVP to the series here.