iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

When did you first discover the malleability of social reality? For me, it was when I did my Eagle Scout project (building a boardwalk). I was advised to call up lumberyards and ask for wood for free. I did and the lumberyards were just like "OK"

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Here’s a really simple tip a teacher gave me which blew my mind at the time. According to him, outside of the West meditation is often seen as something that you do with your *body* rather than something that you do with your mind. His advice to me was “meditate with your body.”

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The strategy of many of my friends is to hide from egregores. Reasonable, because a bad egreg interaction can wreck your life. But eventually the task is to create egregs that are less anti-life. For this, we need field researchers brave enough to learn through egreg interaction.

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

People are fundamentally good. But a lot of the mental software we run is contextually bad. Believing this will allow you to connect with anyone on earth, including assholes.

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

There is complete sadness and incomplete sadness. Catharsis is the fruit of the sadness that you complete. Agony is the punishment for the sadness you did not allow to complete.

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Note to self: Try solving the coordination problem of “get people in house to wash dishes” before attempting the coordination problem of...“international collaboration on existential risk.”

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Should you dare hold diverse political opinions, know that every side will find a way to pattern-match you to Enemy. To the right you're a libtard. To the left you're a f-word. To the center, you're an extremist. Stamina to persevere is found in understanding their perspectives

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

There is a person I judged be be bitter, annoying, and immature. Then they fell in love, and revealed themselves to have been very profound and very sweet all along. After a life of self-disgust, they simply needed their worth reflected back to them.

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The science of conscious rationality remains overhyped while the art of preconscious rationality remains underexplored

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

What are the most psychoactive pieces of writing you’ve encountered?

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I’ve never resonated with the surface aesthetics of gay culture, but I deeply resonate with how it’s one of the few modern liberal cultures where you don’t have to hate yourself

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

TIL if you're already in the middle of taosurfing, dont be like "Oops, am I doing it right?"

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

If I become a gazillionaire I’m just absolutely giving all my close allies $1m each because I know they’ll spend it in value-creating ways I’m confused about why I don’t know of any stories of this sort of thing

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Guys deadlines aren’t soft or hard, they’re blurry or sharp. They’re *lines.* Please share this with every MBA you know.

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

If you encounter a fascinating idea and find that its adherents are lame, you're probably interacting only with the degenerate outer circle. There are further concentric circles. Keep going inward.

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

How to tell your friend to stfu SF: I have a story that I’m triggered by my perception that you are saying more words than makes me comfortable, that’s just what’s true for my body right now NY: stfu

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Am I allowed to say this?: Outside of maybe 5-10 classics, anime is bad Terrible writing, cardboard characters, and generic aesthetics That said, everyone needs to watch cowboy bebop

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Sex is a way of teaching and learning modes of being. I rarely see this talked about.

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

One big problem with "intentional communities" : Their founders hate normies Normies are the ones who buy into and maintain the social fabric. You need normies. You must come to love normies.

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

"Down with hot people privilege!" said no one

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Hotness is mostly a consequence of believing that you’re hot. It transcends physical attractiveness, which plays a much smaller role than people think.

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

The only way to love someone non-coercively is to accept that if you lost them, you would not lose yourself, that if they died, you would not

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I get high off of people perceiving my potential. I get terrified from the demand to actually fulfill it.

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

You are not a noun. You are a set of correlated verbs.

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I don’t like this association between dirtiness and sexiness. What I find sexy is wholesome, earnest, tender, pure

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Have you ever tried the mental move of “tuning into the cat wavelength” near a cat? The cat will very suddenly change its behavior toward you

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Solarpunk has to be the least generative celebrated artistic movement in years. The movement consists of like 5 pieces of digital art that get feverishly reposted over and over.

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

It’s sad for me that old people – who are the most experienced parents & who seek meaningful activities – are exiled to retirement communities rather than made co-parents. We give the skill-intensive job of child-rearing to the most inexperienced candidates: biological parents.

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

“Smart people” is a psyop. The smart people are actually dumb. They are trapped in abstractions that no longer refer to meat, sex, and sound. The truly smart people are the ones who have the vibe of being “real.” They are paying direct attention to the stuff of life.

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was decidedly high variance times.

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Generative narratives of the 2010s: • Wokeness • NRx • Transhumanism • EA • XRisk • Crypto utopia • SV is the future • Social media influencer life These have all either gotten stale or co-opted. What are the generative narratives of the 2020s?

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

• The Invisible College • Lunar Society • Bloomsbury Group • The Inklings • Villa Diodati • CCRU • Kit-Cat Club • The Vienna Circle • The Philosophical Society • The Stein Salon • Reality Club • SL4 • Olympia Academy • Transcendental Club Start the next one.

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I don’t know that I’ve ever enjoyed a group conversation with more than 3 people. Advice on doing so?

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

There is only one to-do list system that has stuck for me: Every day I open a new note called “Today” and put tasks on it based on what feels important This eliminates having a list of dozens of tasks I can’t quite let go of

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

What if whales are actually smarter than us but they just suck at creating technology because of their floppy, fingerless actuators

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

A riddle from the book War in Heaven: "How do you capture a bird without killing its spirit? You become the sky."

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Postrationality might be defined by a very basic idea: There is intelligence beyond the intellect, but doesn't mean we should abandon the intellect.

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

We are shocked when a famous spiritual teacher is found guilty of misconduct. But then it’s worth asking, on average, what kinds of people have the will to engage in the relentless self-promotion required to become famous?

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

The right amount of coffee for most people is not a cup, but a few sips What are other things we do in wrongly-sized portions?

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

You can move through the day as if you’re exploring a sculpture park, and the objects around you are works of art

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

It’s weird watching skater kids because 90% of the time they fail to pull off their moves. It’s kind of odd to have a culture organized around a thing most of the participants can’t even really do.

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

21st century spouse desiderata: Fulfills me romantically, sexually & intellectually Compatible w friends & family Best coparent I can find Business partner in finance Good roommate Is my therapist Is my best friend Is this too much to ask? Yes.

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

What has produced the biggest upgrades in your overall vibe?

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I don't know what the meaning of life is, but notably I only care about that question when I'm not in a state of love

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Me: There's no such thing as supernatural magic Also me: Magical rituals might not work if you don't allow yourself to believe in supernatural magic How does one square these two?

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Revolutionaries destroy systems they don’t understand Reformers bandaid systems that are flawed at the OS level What’s the noun for people who build independent alternative systems?

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Let’s say you want to go modern Medici and start a 21st cent. Art renaissance. You have (a) at least $1m and (b) are down to get your hands dirty (Eg networking, throwing events) How do you go about it? (Not a hypothetical question. I know a creative person in this position.)

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Tyler Alterman @tyleralterman.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I wonder if ADHD is often just the mind’s revolt against forces which seek to control its attention in ways that are demeaning The teacher telling you to finish a meaningless worksheet. The parent commanding you to finish your ballet lesson when Your Thing is actually painting

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