The truth is, I think, […] for me inspiration comes from a bunch of places. (Counting on his fingers …) Desperation, deadlines … A lot of times, ideas will turn up while you are doing something else. And most of all, I think, ideas come from confluence. They come from two things flowing together, they come, essentially from day-dreaming. It’s … it’s something I suspect that’s something that every human being does. ...
August Ultralearning, Scott H Young (must read. if you are looking to tackle something foundationally important, this book gives you one solid approach. it’s mostly common sense. but common sense that is laid out in a really logical manner. i learnt to plan my project, that hard learning is normal, that failure is normal, and that persistence is a prerequisite. all critical things, since learning no longer “comes naturally” to me.) ...
Peter Kaufman, editor of Poor Charlie’s Almanack, on why is it important to be a multidisciplinary thinker. Because as the Japanese proverb says, ‘The frog in the well, knows nothing of the mighty ocean.’ You may know everything there is to know about your specialty, your silo, your “well”, but how are you going to make any good decisions in life … the complex systems of life, the dynamic system of life … if all you know, is one well? ...
My dad was a carpenter. Well everyone called him that, but I know him for what he truly was. A craftsman. Be it his work with wood, or the little works of art and craft he made for us or his drawings in my book; everything he did, was slow, and measured, and full of deliberation and intention. Which is why this episode struck such a chord with me. Jocelyn articulates beautifully, exactly what my father did. I still remember his slight rankle, followed by this expression of sorrow, whenever I would rush him, tell him this much was good enough. Thank God, he never listened to me. He may not be here now, but everything he built, makes it like he is. ...
Seeing as you folks are reading my newsletter, I know I am preaching to the choir, but this article, summarises my thoughts on social media excellently! from the Art of Manliness, At first, it wasn’t so bad. But then I started noticing that I wasn’t seeing all the updates from pages I followed on Facebook. Come to find out, Facebook started changing their News Feed algorithm so that only the content Facebook thought you’d be interested in the most showed up in your feed. Facebook claimed they were just trying to help users sift through the firehose of information being blasted at them. Critics argued Facebook was just trying to keep people more engaged on Facebook because that makes money for Facebook. And that they were trying to force pages to pay money for their content to show up in the News Feeds they had once shown up in organically. I was just ticked that I wasn’t seeing all the stuff from Facebook pages that I had deliberately opted into getting updates from. ...
“However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poorhouse. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the almshouse as brightly as from the rich man’s abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace.” ...