‘Objectively True’ Is Not Very True, Actually

Fluency is better.

James Taylor Foreman
5 min readSep 16, 2024

I know a toddler who gets angry when his babble isn’t received as poetry.

Before you’re fluent in a language, it would be easier to point and grunt than to set out to learn the dozens of vocal postures, inflections, and how these inky marks correspond to those grunts. Each word, each letter, objects to you, like a non-Newtonian fluid, becoming solid by the force of you pushing on it.

But, as you gain fluency, the language melts, becomes fluid, and you phase through it. The object vanishes. Your desires conform effortlessly to the container of your language.

Think about all the objects that have vanished between me and you, right now. The computer, the pixels, the letters, the WiFi waves. All of that, hopefully, melts away and all there is left is me and you, communing (hello).

Ultimately, what you want is, your spirit — whatever has possessed you — to move through all objects (or, objections) toward its desired outcome. The spirit could be as simple as hunger or as complex as Christmas.

Trial and error is the way. Children wildly babble every single sound a human can make before finally settling on their native language. Their deviations falter widely at first, but over time, narrow and smooth.

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James Taylor Foreman

Reality is narrative and our only job is to make it beautiful. Subscribe to move me directly to your inbox --> https://www.taylorforeman.com/