Categories
Life & Philosophy

The hunt for lost desires

The hunt for lost desires

We humans hunt for desires, only to realize that chasing the same materials leaves us feeling empty.

Consuming in a desultory fashion is not what the doctor ordered.

People are meant to be unique machines, versatile with no fixed shape.

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but without venturing into the unknown we fail to evolve.

The victim stands still, faced by the conformist pressure of fitting in.

The same rebelliousness that encourages people to opt out is the same one that sparks them to live with intention.

At the peak of our abilities, we mature into death.

Ironically, the sheep survive. But to what end? The conundrum persists.

“The price of being a sheep is boredom. The price of being a wolf is loneliness. Choose one or the other with great care.”

— Hugh Macleod, Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity

Categories
Creativity Life & Philosophy

Creating a life of constant surprises

Creating a life of constant surprises

Every blogger wants to be an author. Every Instagrammer seeks to be a photographer. Every kid that plays FIFA wants to be Leo Messi.

The path to professionalism in real life is arduous and unlikely. Success takes a lot of talent, excitement, and some luck. But at least we can use web platforms as launch pads of interest.

If you’re a writer, write. If you’re a photographer, go out and capture. If you’re a football player, play.

Make constant mistakes, with good intentions. Everything is practice.

You don’t need permission to make stuff and share it with the world

One of the greatest advantages of the Internet is the ability to share your work and get feedback. The edgier you are, the likelier you are to stand out and get noticed.

You already have a Facebook profile, so you’re already naked; no one is truly anonymous anymore.

The world doesn’t want you to challenge it. It vows to impede your curiosity with short-sightedness.

So imagine if you could just learn and do the work, staying open to new possibilities. One thing leads to the next if you’re willing to use all the colors in the palette.

Categories
Life & Philosophy Photography

How we decode reality

How we decode reality

We are not born with information.

The severity of an illusion lies within its shadow of a doubt. Objects as artifice are as credible as our eyes make them out to be.

The gut loves to sensationalize fear. The beating heart frustrates under the tick-tock of boredom. The mind interprets thoughts that drive reality.

What makes the external world feel real?

From the outer world to the inner state, sculpting perception is irrational but intentional as we all seek to decode reality into meaning.

What is the external world but just a bunch of code that exists in our heads, sorting out the facticity of objects?

Our impulse intends to give experience the benefit of “truth, both in matter and in mode.” We use our pragmatist razor to cut comprehensions down ruthlessly.

Categories
Life & Philosophy Social Media Tech

Inward and outward, all at once

Inward and outward, all at once

We do nothing until it’s too late.

You’d think such calls for immediacy would drive us into action.

Passivity begs a slap in the face.

The way to light life back up without a disaster first coming into your path is to avoid the contagion of disengagement.

Television and social media are low bandwidth activities that dull the brain into inanition.

Get unstuck from the madness that is pure entertainment.

The urge to create turns loafers into participants

It takes energy and discipline to escape the lure of doing nothing.

Detach yourself from the comfort of the stream.

Instead, decide to entertain yourself on the broad view of what you can do.

Categories
Productivity & Work Social Media Tech

One too many chips

One too many chips
via Twitter

Continuous partial attention makes it too easy to snack. Instead of waiting for the main meal, we fritter our hunger away on too many chips and salsa. We’re full before the entree.

Replace chips with social media, and you start to see the excess wear and tear we put on our bodies and minds. We can’t possibly consume all this information and still devour the main meal. It’s like eating all the popcorn before the movie starts.

Unless we plan on taking the food home with us or putting on some extra weight, we better slow down and refocus our attention on why we decided to eat out in the first place.

If you’re going to snack, do it in moderation, so you still have plenty of room left over to absorb the good stuff.

Categories
Creativity Life & Philosophy

Mental clarity begins in cleaning out the basement

Mental clarity begins in cleaning out the basement

The basement gets a bad rap. It’s the relegation zone. It’s a mess, with cobwebs on the door handles and mountains of dust building in the corners.

There may be mysterious sounds and unidentifiable creatures living in the cracks. But the basement also presents the biggest opportunity to turn disorder into something presentable.

When you start at the bottom, you’re working in reverse.

In cleaning out the canvass, you empty the head and suddenly envision how to fill in the blank slate with something more meaningful. You will give a new meaning to emptiness.

Anyone can emerge from the darkest places back to life if they’re willing to start from scratch. Accepting the Herculean task of debugging your messy ways can help reprogram your mind so you can breathe fresh thinking into the void.