Henrik Karlsson
Swedish essayist who writes Escaping Flatland, a newsletter of essays on relationships, thinking, writing and homeschooling.
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What they believe
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Feeling highly generative during a phase of creative experimentation tends to coincide with producing nothing of finished, production-grade quality.
When you're in a phase of experimentation, it's not particularly surprising that you will feel very generative and, at the same time, that nothing will be of production-grade quality, so to speak.
henrikkarlsson.xyzSaid 10 Sept 2026This on korrents
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A feedback loop that reinforces a behavior pulls it toward whatever improves the loop's own score.
If there is a feedback loop reinforcing a behavior, it is hard not to go in the direction that improves the score.
henrikkarlsson.xyzSaid 26 Aug 2026This on korrents
The bold line is korrents’ wording; the quote is theirs. These 2: what they wrote before what they said aloud, one per source, newest first.
Feed
As its own page →Hiding
15 October
1 October
28 September
24 September
10 September
From one piece Some remarks on being stuck, with digressions on David Hockney, developing style, and gardens 3 beliefs · henrikkarlsson.xyz
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korrents.com
A long life gives enough time to try many different pursuits, get confused, and start over more than once.Their words
But life, if we're lucky, is very long. We have plenty of time to try different things, to live different lives, to be confused, and figure things out, and then be confused again.
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korrents.com
Photographs do not represent the world the way human perception actually experiences it.Their words
The problem with his old images, and with photography, was that that is not at all what the world looks like to us.
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Their words
When you're in a phase of experimentation, it's not particularly surprising that you will feel very generative and, at the same time, that nothing will be of production-grade quality, so to speak.
9 September
26 August
From one piece First we shape our feedback loops; then they shape us 2 beliefs · henrikkarlsson.xyz
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korrents.com
The feedback loops a person allows to operate on them shape who they become to an unsettling degree.Their words
The lesson is that the feedback loops that we let work on ourselves shape us to an unsettling degree.
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korrents.com
A feedback loop that reinforces a behavior pulls it toward whatever improves the loop's own score.Their words
If there is a feedback loop reinforcing a behavior, it is hard not to go in the direction that improves the score.
11 August
From one piece On having more interesting ideas, pt. 2 2 beliefs · henrikkarlsson.xyz
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Their words
The things you arrive at by exploring small seeds, on the other hand, lead you further astray and tend to produce more life.
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korrents.com
Working under a constraint one resents, rather than none at all, produces more creative results.Their words
Giving yourself constraints is helpful when searching for ideas, especially if the constraints are annoying.
10 August
9 August
29 July
From one piece On child birth 2 beliefs · henrikkarlsson.xyz
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korrents.com
Deepening your understanding of a situation helps you maintain a sense of control over it.Their words
It is always useful to deepen your understanding, to maintain a sense of control.
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Their words
So if you experience stress or fear, your contractions will often grow weaker and less coordinated, slowing the labor, sometimes stalling it.
8 July
25 June
22 June
From one piece How not to forget what matters 3 beliefs · henrikkarlsson.xyz
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Their words
There are many practices that promise to transform and improve us-therapy, meditation, psychedelics-, but that branding doesn't mean that they actually do much for us: it is common to see people use these techniques for years without any obvious progress on their problems.
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korrents.com
People tend to assume their habitual practices achieve what they intend, even without evidence that they do.Their words
It is common to think that what we do achieves what we want it to achieve, even if there is no evidence for it.
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Their words
But in order to actually live in accordance with what you believe in long-term, you must make it a habit.
8 June
2 June
20 May
6 May
27 April
14 April
1 April
25 March
23 March
22 March
17 March
13 March
Nothing matches.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 12 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
Recent
Feeling highly generative during a phase of creative experimentation tends to coincide with producing nothing of finished, production-grade quality.
When you're in a phase of experimentation, it's not particularly surprising that you will feel very generative and, at the same time, that nothing will be of production-grade quality, so to speak.
Some remarks on being stuck, with digressions on David Hockney, developing style, and gardens Said 10 Sept 2026
Photographs do not represent the world the way human perception actually experiences it.
The problem with his old images, and with photography, was that that is not at all what the world looks like to us.
Some remarks on being stuck, with digressions on David Hockney, developing style, and gardens Said 10 Sept 2026
A long life gives enough time to try many different pursuits, get confused, and start over more than once.
But life, if we're lucky, is very long. We have plenty of time to try different things, to live different lives, to be confused, and figure things out, and then be confused again.
Some remarks on being stuck, with digressions on David Hockney, developing style, and gardens Said 10 Sept 2026
Show 9 more
A feedback loop that reinforces a behavior pulls it toward whatever improves the loop's own score.
If there is a feedback loop reinforcing a behavior, it is hard not to go in the direction that improves the score.
First we shape our feedback loops; then they shape us Said 26 Aug 2026
The feedback loops a person allows to operate on them shape who they become to an unsettling degree.
The lesson is that the feedback loops that we let work on ourselves shape us to an unsettling degree.
First we shape our feedback loops; then they shape us Said 26 Aug 2026
Working under a constraint one resents, rather than none at all, produces more creative results.
Giving yourself constraints is helpful when searching for ideas, especially if the constraints are annoying.
On having more interesting ideas, pt. 2 Said 11 Aug 2026
Starting creative work from a small, specific detail produces more original results than starting from a big overarching idea.
The things you arrive at by exploring small seeds, on the other hand, lead you further astray and tend to produce more life.
On having more interesting ideas, pt. 2 Said 11 Aug 2026
Experiencing stress or fear during labor weakens and slows uterine contractions.
So if you experience stress or fear, your contractions will often grow weaker and less coordinated, slowing the labor, sometimes stalling it.
On child birth Said 29 Jul 2026
Deepening your understanding of a situation helps you maintain a sense of control over it.
It is always useful to deepen your understanding, to maintain a sense of control.
On child birth Said 29 Jul 2026
Living according to one's values long-term requires turning the realization into a habit, not just having the insight.
But in order to actually live in accordance with what you believe in long-term, you must make it a habit.
How not to forget what matters Said 22 Jun 2026
People tend to assume their habitual practices achieve what they intend, even without evidence that they do.
It is common to think that what we do achieves what we want it to achieve, even if there is no evidence for it.
How not to forget what matters Said 22 Jun 2026
Practices marketed as transformative, such as therapy, meditation, and psychedelics, often produce little real progress despite years of use.
There are many practices that promise to transform and improve us-therapy, meditation, psychedelics-, but that branding doesn't mean that they actually do much for us: it is common to see people use these techniques for years without any obvious progress on their problems.
How not to forget what matters Said 22 Jun 2026
What is a korrent?
A korrent is a belief a person has stated in their own words: one sentence stating the claim, backed by a quote and a source, kept at korrents.com.
Under a name here, the quoted block is what they actually said. The korrent beneath it is the claim those words support, in korrents' wording — tap it to see the record, its source, and who else holds it.
Nobody here wrote their own korrents. They are compiled from public statements, and a person can change their mind, which is recorded too.
Recommends rcmnd
rcmnd What they recommend 7 things — each backed by an exact quote.
Compiled by rcmnd.app, not by them: the quotes are theirs, and each links to the post it was copied from.
Recent
Loved Pillow Book
A surprising number of my favorite books were not meant to be published. They were private notebooks, or fragments from works-in-progress that never got finished: among them Pascal's Pensées, Simone Weil's private essays, Lichtenberg's waste books, Herzog's Conquest of the Useless, Kafka's diary, Joubert's Carnets, Wittgenstein's Brown and Blue Notebooks, and Sei Shōnagon's Pillow Book.
escapingflatland.substack.com 15 Jun 2025
Loved Brown and Blue Notebooks
A surprising number of my favorite books were not meant to be published. They were private notebooks, or fragments from works-in-progress that never got finished: among them Pascal's Pensées, Simone Weil's private essays, Lichtenberg's waste books, Herzog's Conquest of the Useless, Kafka's diary, Joubert's Carnets, Wittgenstein's Brown and Blue Notebooks, and Sei Shōnagon's Pillow Book.
escapingflatland.substack.com 15 Jun 2025
Loved Carnets
A surprising number of my favorite books were not meant to be published. They were private notebooks, or fragments from works-in-progress that never got finished: among them Pascal's Pensées, Simone Weil's private essays, Lichtenberg's waste books, Herzog's Conquest of the Useless, Kafka's diary, Joubert's Carnets, Wittgenstein's Brown and Blue Notebooks, and Sei Shōnagon's Pillow Book.
escapingflatland.substack.com 15 Jun 2025
Show 4 more
Loved Conquest of the Useless
A surprising number of my favorite books were not meant to be published. They were private notebooks, or fragments from works-in-progress that never got finished: among them Pascal's Pensées, Simone Weil's private essays, Lichtenberg's waste books, Herzog's Conquest of the Useless, Kafka's diary, Joubert's Carnets, Wittgenstein's Brown and Blue Notebooks, and Sei Shōnagon's Pillow Book.
escapingflatland.substack.com 15 Jun 2025
Loved Pensées
A surprising number of my favorite books were not meant to be published. They were private notebooks, or fragments from works-in-progress that never got finished: among them Pascal's Pensées, Simone Weil's private essays, Lichtenberg's waste books, Herzog's Conquest of the Useless, Kafka's diary, Joubert's Carnets, Wittgenstein's Brown and Blue Notebooks, and Sei Shōnagon's Pillow Book.
escapingflatland.substack.com 15 Jun 2025
Liked Harry Potter
There are children's books that have summoned this energy for us—Torbjørn Egner, The Little House on the Prairie, Harry Potter—but generally speaking, children's books are a drag.
escapingflatland.substack.com 2 Apr 2024
Liked The Little House on the Prairie
There are children's books that have summoned this energy for us—Torbjørn Egner, The Little House on the Prairie, Harry Potter—but generally speaking, children's books are a drag.
escapingflatland.substack.com 2 Apr 2024
Where they publish
Newsletter Escaping Flatland His essay newsletter, also served at escapingflatland.substack.com.
Recent
- How is music possible 15 Oct 2026 If you take a scene from a horror movie and add funny music, the killer suddenly looks hilarious. Isn’t it strange that that happens?
- The hyperlocal 24 Sept 2026 Notes on art, machine intelligence, and paying attention to one’s immediate environment
- Some remarks on being stuck, with digressions on David Hockney, developing style, and gardens 10 Sept 2026 If something feels wrong, it is useful to articulate very precisely why that is
Show 17 more
- First we shape our feedback loops; then they shape us 26 Aug 2026
- On having more interesting ideas, pt. 2 11 Aug 2026 Cutlery designed by Salvador Dalí
- On child birth 29 Jul 2026 "It is interesting how feelings have real consequences like this."
- How can we rejuvenate the social fabric? 8 Jul 2026
- Escaping Flatland meetups summer 2026: times and places 25 Jun 2026 There has been a flurry of activity in the chat over the last two months, and we now have meetups arranged in 47 cities in 22 countries!
- How not to forget what matters 22 Jun 2026 1. Every few months I will read a tweet, or have a conversation, that makes me feel this is important, I must remember this.
- Notes on Bakhtin 2 Jun 2026 La Grande Plage à Biarritz, Jacqueline Marval, 1923
- Love is about being invested in someone’s continual expansion 20 May 2026 This is one of the joys and challenges of love: the more skillfully you love someone, the more held, encouraged, and accepted they feel, the more they change.
- The world reveals itself to those who travel by foot 6 May 2026 Nothing was as scary as we thought, and everything was weirder and more friendly.
- Thoughts about making a career as a writer 27 Apr 2026 How you can finance your creative work and how you can find an audience and peers and mentors who help you develop.
- How to walk through walls 14 Apr 2026 On hacker mindset
- Days are enormous 1 Apr 2026 + personal update and reading recommendations
- Some relationships deepen when you tell the truth and some end 11 Mar 2026 I asked people to send me stories about situations where they had done what felt right to them, even though they feared social pushback.
- Getting a better sense for when you’re thinking well and when you’re faking it 26 Feb 2026 Notebook. On mental proprioception
- The need to make art 18 Feb 2026 The work was what connected him to himself.
- Things that connect us to ourselves, and things that don't 6 Feb 2026 Notebook + recommendations
- On political power 28 Jan 2026 Reflections on Robert Caro’s LBJ biography
Link verified 5 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
x.com @phokarlsson His X account, listed as the byline's Twitter handle on his own newsletter.
Recent
- What is the best that has been written about why music can evoke emotions and landscapes inside of us? 1 Oct 2026
- I find it marvellous that in a lot of cave paintings there will be parts that are painted thousands and thousands of years apart. Imagine walking into a piece of art that is five thousand years old and go, “I have an idea for what could improve this.” 28 Sept 2026
- So one argument for why it makes sense to race toward AGI that you hear is that if the US labs don't, China will. What are the best write ups of what people expect will happen in a world where AGI is 1) aligned / controllable, and 2) China "wins"? 9 Sept 2026
Show 17 more
- Any recommendations of really good interview books? I just finished reading the three that Martin Gayford did with David Hockney; they were fun! Another interview book, which I like even more, is the one Paul Cronin did with Werner Herzog. 10 Aug 2026
- which are the most labor intensive essays ever written? 9 Aug 2026
- It is interesting how little freedom there is in creativity if you take it seriously. If I’m writing a song, I have some freedom when I make the first one or two choices—picking the first section of the melody, say. But after that the form really demands what comes next: 9 Aug 2026
- A portrait of a person written purely by describing the imprints they have left in other people, the ways others are different because of their encounter. 9 Aug 2026
- At my favorite café, they don’t have any signs on the doors of the toilet to make sure all new guests have to ask around when they need to use it, and so have an excuse to talk with others. 8 Jun 2026
- Something most strong film directors have in common is that they can do all of it at a pro level - write, handle cameras, compose music, edit, create props, etc. It is only by getting into the details that you can develop deep enough taste to do great work. True in other work too 25 Mar 2026
- It is rare to meet someone who actually knows what they think and acts on it 25 Mar 2026
- Most people, myself included, will often let the opinions of others decide what we should do—if there is no one around, we will even fantasize what others would think and let that decide it. 25 Mar 2026
- I met up with @jacksondahl in Copenhagen and had a conversation about the value of lingering in confusion, using constraints to enable more creative work, how I journal, why love is like eating dogs, and many other things. You can find a recording below. 23 Mar 2026
- If something feels bad, it is useful to articulate very precisely why it feels bad. This helps extract a lot of valuable information. For instance, 22 Mar 2026
- my two cents on the introspection discourse 17 Mar 2026 henrikkarlsson.xyz
- everything you put online is a search query 13 Mar 2026
- It is your job is to figure out what you think 7 Mar 2026
- Some relationships deepen when you tell the truth and some end 6 Mar 2026
- There's a fairly common assumption that to know yourself better, you should attend to yourself more—journal, introspect, meditate on your patterns. And there's something to this. But also. The more you make yourself an object of attention, the more you reinforce the narrating self—the self that has problems, the self that needs fixing, the self with its story of development. I notice that when I, instead, sort of forget about myself and attend deeply to the outer world (when I unself as Murdoch would say) I actually see myself more clearly in a paradoxical way. If I engage fully with somethin… 5 Mar 2026
- An underappreciated thing about Substack is that it has slow virality. That social media thing where you have to churn out content because it is forgotten after three days is much less the case here. If you want to, you can put in serious effort into making a properly good piece, and it will keep getting read for years. This is a very good thing for both readers and writers, and I wish more people leaned into making few but exceptional pieces: doing things well is a viable strategy here in a way that it wasn’t on older platforms. 4 Mar 2026
- One thing that I notice that my wife does and that works well when teaching our 8-yr-old certain things, is that she’ll talk to me when we’re all in the same room, and then she’ll say, “One thing I didn’t really understand when I was young…” and you can just feel the 8-year-old turning her entire being toward us, to try to figure out what secret knowledge we adults are trading in. 3 Mar 2026
Link verified 5 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
About the English under a post
Some people here publish in a language other than English. Where they do, this site shows a machine translation beneath the post, in this typeface — the site's own, not theirs.
The post itself is never changed, moved or hidden: what is set in the serif above is exactly what the person published, and it is what to quote them on. A translation can be wrong in ways that matter, especially about tone.
Only the post's own words are translated. A quoted post, a linked article and a belief on korrents.com are left in their original language.