I’ve always associated equanimity with stillness. This essay reframes it entirely. It’s a mobility of the mind, says the author, not stillness.

Equanimity is best recognised by its inherent mobility of perspective-taking. As a mode of perception, equanimity is on the move, looking over things (internal and external) with hovering attention. Equanimity is not about serenely settling. It is not averse to the presence of judgments, just to their rigidifying. It ranges over whatever may appear, fluidly noticing, for example, both the disturbing and the tranquil with the awareness that one depends on the other for its meaning.

Why does it matter? Because, in our polarized landscape, anything that helps dissolve hardened dogmatism is a gift.

I appreciate this “mobility of the mind” perspective even more after reading Paul Ford’s piece, Accepting All the AI Opinions. We’re missing empathy in the AI debate. We’re too quick to pick sides when we should be trying to imagine other people’s corners:

“AI” is not just one big thing, but a set of intense, wild, overlapping reactions to a technology that humans created. As I’ve learned more, I’ve come to realize that I, too, can only see my little corner of the weird new world.