ABOUT SMOL DETAILS

Smol Details is a blog about condensing a big range of detail on a highly eclectic range of topics into a “smol” and nuanced package.

I’ve always had a deep and abiding need to write and express my thoughts, going back to early childhood. Part of this comes from my father, whose work in patent appeals litigation required him to become an absolute expert on a new subject every case he argued or consulted on. A lot of it comes from the underlying neuroarchitecture that both my highly-neurodivergent parents passed down.

I don’t think in words, but I’m hyperlexical. I have no internal distinction between inside-the-box versus outside the box, the big picture versus the small details, or even the qualitative versus the quantitative. I have what I’ve sometimes described as every kind of synesthesia—including overlaps between senses most people don’t even know they have—and other times described as a permanent psychedelic trip-like state in which I interact with things like so-called DMT entities within my normal, everyday perception.

When your cognition is this unusual, you don’t have the option of relying on “normal” models of perception and reality in order to function. Nothing anybody says makes sense, and the signal-to-noise ratio for many kinds of perception is an absolute clusterfuck. My parents used to joke that if I’d gotten all of their weaknesses instead of all of their strengths, I would have been profoundly mentally disabled.

The joke is that each strength is its own weakness, and every such attribute is a double-edged sword. In childhood, I was lucky enough to be able to brute-force my own weaknesses with sheer processing power. Over my lifetime, I’ve developed more useful models of interacting with my own outlier consciousness, such as the concept of being a “manual transmission human.”

This all results in an unusual set of perspectives that tends to expand far beyond any preconceived social or political model.

What I explore in my writing can essentially be summed up as:

What if everybody is right about everything and everybody is wrong about everything simultaneously, and what does that mean for [topic at hand]?

Ready to subscribe? Great! Let’s go:

Why subscribe to Smol Details?

This is a place where I can be much more authentic than on Facebook, where I’ve casually published my thoughts for years. By subscribing to my new blog, you’ll get access to longer-form, more refined writings than I’ve shared on social media at least once per week, as well as some of my off-the-cuff writings in the style of what I’ve previously done on my Facebook profile.

But what do my existing readers have to say about my work?

Well, here’s a small selection from a folder I’ve kept of mostly-unsolicited feedback from friends, colleagues, and other associates.

From an entrepreneur friend I advised on social signaling:

Some of the best insights into how to see myself better, and to tame that for my greater potential, come from Melody Arayi.

I am in debt to you for your time, insights, and thoughtfulness. You have helped me to sort much out in my mind, perspectives, self, and more. Thank you.

You have done wonders in helping me to see myself clearly so that I may find peace, sort myself out and the power that comes with that, my insecurities and how to tame them, and how to be more.

From a beloved friend I’ve known since my World of Warcraft raid leading days:

…you’ve always thought about problems on a really high level. A lot of people look around and think about how their life is, and how they want it to be. Some look at their neighborhood or city. And some look at the world.

You tend to look at the world.

From one of my favorite Facebook friends I met through a group friending thread:

If you enjoy a smorgasbord of critical thinking and high-level linguistic presentation on topics that span the gamut of human potential, Melody is 10/10 the content provider of your dreams. Her contributions to socialogical, psychological, and physiological discourse are analytical and insightful; her writing is vigorous and requires muscle from the readership. Melody is a curious genius who attracts curious genius. A truly unique friend and a gift to those who seek intellectual companionship.

From a dear friend and colleague with extensive accomplishments in media work:

You are probably the single most rational person I have met on Facebook. And by that I mean your rationality is a process and deliberate practice with the intention of BEING rational and expanding your rational capacity.

And mind you…I am friends with world renowned thinkers and writers in real life and on FB. And I still cast you as the MOST rational person I personally interact with. So thank you and I aknowledge and appreciate your effort to be so.

I’m humbled and grateful to have received such amazing compliments from some of my favorite people on- and offline. I hope you'll enjoy my work just as much.

Join the awesomest community (yes, I’m biased)

If you’ve read to the bottom of this About page, what are you waiting for? Delightful levels of pedantry and weird meta-explorations of complex and controversial topics await at every corner—and I’d of course appreciate it if you’d share my work with anybody you think might be interested. My friends and readers tend towards the high-functioning neurodivergent, but truly come from all paths of life. What they have in common, above all, is an interest in nuanced and truthful perspectives that go beyond the typical politically polarized or obsessively-neutralized views common in public discourse today.

Thank you, and I look forward to interacting with you here the way I previously have on social media. It’s an honor to write for you. :)

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Turning the big details of complex ideas into a "smol" picture.

People

so basically i am very smol