Riva Tez: Becoming A Free Thinker | How I Write Podcast

[@DavidPerellChannel]

Riva Tez is a true Renaissance Woman. She writes, paints, studies ancient manuscripts, invests, and has never watched Netflix. Her writing roars with spirit and rips with authenticity. Here are some highlights from our conversation about writing and the modern age: 1. Passion makes poets out of all of us. You don't need a thesaurus if you write with enough heart. When you care about what you're saying, the language comes out fresh. 2. When everyone’s numb, everything is loud. Since people can no longer feel the delicate subtleties, pop culture has become noisy but also hollow. Riva says: “I’d rather read the Odyssey a hundred times than watch Netflix.” 3. But actually... why watch Netflix on the daily when you can read the entirety of human history? 4. Skip most news and read stuff that’s been around for a long time: the Bible, but also the Aeneid and the Odyssey. 5. Ancient authors like Euripides and Homer did something similar to Riva’s favorite author Ayn Rand: they documented the clashes between people living out different worldviews. This is a classic way to write, read, and understand philosophy: via embodied drama. 6. Choose fanatical obsession over moderation. Riva doesn't try to force her curiosity, research, or writing. But when she feels a strong desire to get to the bottom of something, she doesn't hold back. She frees her calendar and lets her curiosity rip. 7. Riva re-reads Atlas Shrugged every few years. She’s been doing this for 15 years, and each time she discovers new under-appreciated facts in the book. We’re trapped in the “Never-Ending Now,” always consuming content produced in the last 24 hours, but re-visiting the great books that have shaped our worldview has a far better ROI. 8. Riva is bored of our contemporary worship of homogenous and streamlined minimalism (which shows up in writing too). Medieval people were driven by faith and legacy, and built cities and cathedrals so beautiful that we hop on Boeing 747s to see them. Modern people have optimized for drab convenience and efficiency, and most writers follow the same formula: plain words, short sentences, and research papers to justify every obvious intuition. 9. Plato said beauty is a natural superiority. This message is uncomfortable for us who worship equality above all. But better an unequal world where we try to maximize beauty, detail, and excellence than a world in which we’re equally depressed and lost. 10. The word genius is related to the word genie. In Latin, a ‘genius’ refers to an attendant spirit that’s present in somebody from the day they’re born. 11. Such mystical ways of talking about creativity have gone out of style, but there's almost definitely an esoteric aspect to it that’s often discounted in our age of reason, logic, rationality, and skepticism. Stay open to divine inspiration. 12. Riva, on why creativity demands an openness to chaos: "Something I notice when I watch people trying to think creatively is this huge psychological barrier against allowing any form of chaos to seep in. Maybe creativity needs you to be at least receptive to a little bit of chaos, even if the chaos never comes?" 13. Be alone more often. When you’re in solitude, stay in solitude. Don't open your phone. Riva sometimes walks 8 miles in the morning to clear her mind and let her thoughts percolate. 14. Intellectual sterility begins in school. People are rewarded for vomiting out predetermined answers in exams, not for original thinking. We prioritize mechanical repetition over everything else, and we get what we deserve: mindless drones over imaginative writers. 15. Riva once read an 11th century medical textbook. The thing that stood out to her? The calligraphy was beautiful and the diagrams were striking, while today's textbooks have lots of dry data but no aesthetic flair. 16. Riva calls this the “sports bra syndrome”-everyone walks around L.A. in sports bras because no one feels the need to dress up, and in a world where no one is trying, what can you get but dullness? 17. When did it become cringe to try? 18. Science is not all logic. Often it is inspiration in strange places, dreams, and accidents. Riva: “Scientific progress is often generated by serendipity-someone reads something here, an odd conversation there and voila-the whole world changes forever.” 19. Riva's house has one of her favorite Rilke quotes on the wall: “Let everything happen to you, beauty and terror.” This receptivity is a prerequisite for anyone who wants to do creative work. Original work is always preceded by openness to new experience. 20. Forget the economic recession-Riva says we are suffering from a “creativity recession.” 21. Writing is word painting. You’re stitching together an argument, yes, but you’re also eliciting a mood. The formal and logical aspects of your writing should not overpower its poetry and soul.

[@itsmanishaaa]

This conversation tickled all the right parts of my brain and i completely resonate with Riva, somewhere amidst all of this advancement and "optimisation", we've forgotten to breathe, savour and make our best mistakes! Thank you David for pushing the right buttons and asking great questions!

[@saadalizeb]

Riva is a beautiful human.

[@Wildenhaven]

Been bingeing your content. Writers talking about writing. What a joy. Thankyou. Have sought out the work of the writers you've showcased. Keep going❤.

[@brahmbah]

Riva is a force. Really nice chat and exploration of ideas.

[@mkhjr]

Riva inspirational as always - great conversation

[@joeingram1]

I hope Riva talked about her world class interior decorating ability

[@josue.guevara]

Riva is so chill.

[@philbanno]

Loving these conversations David! Really opening my eyes to the beauty of writing. I feel like I’ve found a crack in an interest that’s ready to be wedged open :)

[@arkadiyserezhkin4612]

one of the best podcasts, thank you David

[@stacyanne31]

By 29:51 in this exchange I feel a call to disengage from all media and trends, and begin to build relationship with God and listen for inspiration. I've liked and subscribed to your channel but will not return in 2024. This is the episode I have been seeking for a very long time.

[@ArlinMoore]

Loved

[@talialavor8411]

@davidperellchannel i LOVE that you talk about maximalism in writing and life in general. I feel that all I hear about when it comes to qriting and editing is remove, remove, remove. This just doesnt feel natural to me. Of course, we dont necessarily need superfluous additions, but we've gotton to this dumbed down, stripped down place. And most writers are forgoing what feels natural to them to fulfill what the masses want. Sometimes we want the details. Sometimes we want more.

[@rawbinmo]

Wow. Finally found a likeminded thinker ❤

[@jackmahady]

Amazing conversation.

[@cag1]

Why would the time stamps not be on Spotify?

[@nickcammarata1233]

1:02:18 the thing about ai researchers pushing back against any interesting views of consciousness is fully real. I’ve talked to hundreds and 95% have read nothing nor investigated their own and are convinced that consciousness is a talking guy in your head that has some handwavy connection to reinforcement learning loops. And all the interesting prior art they consider religious nonsense

[@mchu7371]

riva

[@VipulVaibhaw]

loved it

[@theblakex]

the Queen

[@David.F.Ansara]

Maximalist writing can easily become flowery and obtuse. Minimalist writing can be too austere. Rather strive for clarity of expression and let the style emerge organically.

[@colecalfee]

@david could you share a link to the video you guys reference, that she made?

[@TomekSw]

"The best cure to Christianity is reading the Bible" - Mark Twain

[@expeditioner9322]

Walking is good for you may be commonsense but you still need to do a study to find out the why, when and how walking is good for you. This is the difference between scientific knowledge and all other forms of knowledge that we have.

[@amralalawi]

Great

[@omoghano]

As we talk about Christianity, do we pause to recall that the story of the Nazarite, is the story of european colonialism in Palestine? The Romans and the Palestine Jews

[@keithwins]

26 minutes talking about the muse and giving space to discover our best thinking

[@markzaraza8345]

Spent 90 minutes wanting to buy socks

[@keithwins]

29 minutes thinking for hours each day and long walks

[@richystocles]

The stupidity is strong in this podcast. The closing point about that Art nouveau building in LA being so great while the surrounding street where "the paint is chipped and there's no care to the outside"... is a great exemple. You know, just like, if there was some great things at this time, it means that everything was great and people did appreciate quality ... and the streets were paved with rose petals.You remind me of that architecture student who was complaining that architecture didn't move and no one was doing any great things like the Art deco did... in1996 !!!! Precisely when architecture was going throught a transformation that was making the italian renaissance look pale. Yes there are many thoughtful remarks about so many things that are wrong about our society, but don't let the truth nuggets and the smart citations fool you into thinking that this is wisdom. It is not. It is an energetic mix of frustrations, clever autodidact discoveries and autosatisfaction outbursts that will not take any of us any further. It is understandable that people feel lost in our times, baked in blind capitalism and the cult of money. It is also understandable that a come back to some spriritiality might sound like the only alternative to consumerism. I feel you are lost but I can promise you that those intellectual strategies you came up with won't get you any further than "you happy place".

[@epictetus__]

pseudo intellectuals