Dialectic with Jackson Dahl

/dialectic 19: Henrik Karlsson - Cultivating a Life that Fits

A special one for me: I flew across the ocean to interview one of my favorite writers.

Henrik Karlsson wrote two essays I've recommended more than nearly any others—one on finding your wife and the other on designing the rest of your life.

Henrik lives a dual-life. Half is intimate and slow: a rural farm on a Danish island with his wife and daughters. The other is connected and wide: he writes to tens of thousands and has created his own corner of the internet. 

Highlights:

- the burden of freedom and the challenge of iteratively designing a life that fits you

- what focus really means in practice

- why strong opinions and looking foolish help you learn

- a nudge to do less "not that" and more "maybe this?" in your criticism

- why writing online creates a world of serendipity

- what it feels like to spend time with people who expand your world 

- living in concert with your past and future selves  

https://dialectic.fm/henrik-karlsson

I read a bunch of Henrik Karlsson’s writing just before listening to this and it really enriched the conversation for me. 

Lots of noteworthy stuff from the pod and the writing but one that my mind keeps coming back to is how Henrik turned a $200k job offer to pursue his writing, and wrote in a room so cold that he couldn’t feel his fingers so that he could iterate towards a reality that’s an exceptionally good fit for him.

Looking forward to checking out more of the Dialetic pod.