Month: February 2021
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Never mind the mood
The work doesn’t begin or end at the mercy of mood. Feeling lazy or prepared is neutral — both are non-starters. The mood’s texture remains unchanged. Having a daily discipline is the best way to keep the shipping alive. Habits are stronger than moods. If your emotions or conditions get in the way because you’re…
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Imagining life without work
Some people are obsessed with work. It defines them, gives them a structure. Without work, they’d sail away at the mercy of the waves and get lost at sea. But technology facilitates creativity. The accountant becomes a music producer at night, a photographer, or YouTuber on the weekend. He or she identifies more as being…
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Through the wire
The world grows numb to the air of distraction. We’ve left the world of 2-D consciousness in exchange for the anesthesia of the brite lite’s bits and bytes. Freedom to do anything is the freedom to do nothing. Technology makes us more curious and ever-more cautious. But like a video game, unfettered space uses up…
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Be wary of advice
The fallacy of giving advice is that what works for one person rarely works for another. Advice is unique and personal, a collection of warnings we tell ourselves about how to avoid past mistakes, synthesized and abridged for a recipient. “Unsolicited advice is the junk mail of life.” Bernard Williams The best advice we can…
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No-makeup makeup
It’s easier to be oneself behind a mask to conceal the messy workings underneath. But the shame in acting is suppressing the person that we are. We can only mask our insecurity and vulnerability for so long until we yield to the unmasking powers of authenticity. Honesty is liberating. There is no stage nor carousel of personas…
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J.K. Rowling revisits her masterpiece
J.K. Rowling reflects on annotating the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. “I wrote the book … in snatched hours, in clattering cafés or in the dead of night … The story of how I wrote Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is written invisibly on every page, legible only to me. Sixteen years after…
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The art of delay
You can’t make Bitcoin go up just as you can’t coax a train out of a tunnel. Good things take time and a lot of patience. If you ever get tired of waiting, do something else instead. You could try to relax your tight face a bit or distract yourself into another project. Remember, the goal is…