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Constructing Meaning

Interesting reading this David Foster Wallace commencement speech. The lines that stood out most for me:

 ..learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed. 

 Reading this reminded me of my father and traits I have inherited from him. We are both guilty of extreme tunnel vision at times and overthinking some small and random thing to death. Its never clear what will end up sticking in our head like a burr but once it does we do pay disproportionate attention to it. I started to see my father in myself about a decade ago and have since fought to pay to attention to things that are of actual use and value in my life, so I tend to agree with Wallace " if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed." In the least you will never realize your full potential

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