WellsBaum.blog

Writing about life and arts

Celebrate the story you tell yourself

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Conformity will always be the safest choice. But honesty is a passport to freedom. As long as you’re living your best self, you’ve got nothing to worry about. #gif #amwriting

You either fit in or strive to stand out. There’s promises in both approaches.

You’re more likely to feel more secure in the first route as society rewards mimetic behavior. Every obedient dog gets a treat.

Success is harder on the fringes. Whether you’re an iconoclast, a contrarian, a ‘weirdo’, or innovator, you can expect to be misunderstood for long periods of time.

Walking through the labyrinth requires acceptance of uncertainty. Thinking different from the norm will always require more courage than jumping through hoops.

“It’s as though people expect you to blow one note all the time, and I guess a lot of people can only blow one note. But there are people who can blow two or three notes, and I guess I’m one of them.”

Frank Gehry

Yet, rarely is one unique individual every truly alone — the internet swims in collaborative niches. Different is attractive.

Conformity will always be the safest choice. But honesty is a passport to freedom. As long as you’re living your best self, you’ve got nothing to worry about.

The fog of the present

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Attaching yourself to the coming and going will steal your future. You have to listen to your life and follow its intuition.

Introspection is your observatory. The depths of inner space needs no telescope but your own attention. You can already see far enough.

“You must always know what it is that you want,” the old king had said. The boy knew, and was now working toward it.

PAULO COELHO, THE ALCHEMIST
Galileo Galilei‘s telescope

With such belief, landmarks pave themselves along the way. Routines build confidence.

The challenge is in seeing the world as many angles as possible while simultaneously having the courage to act on your own volition.

Like a rough draft, you experiment and reshape it later. It is the spirit that guides you settles you in, on purpose.

What imprints the outlook

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You have to cultivate everything: awareness, happiness, aloofness, sadness, the yin, and yang.

Nothing comes naturally, although genetics are known to preprogram our inclinations. 

People are constantly surveying, digesting the world around them. So they must also decide what sticks and what doesn't.

Inner and outer feelings express themselves as lifestyles. Fashioning one as an outsider gives them their edge. Being an insider gives one all the answers.

Humans signal their desires and struggles. A lousy sleeper wears their restlessness on them the next day.

When the try becomes a habit, the unconscious controls take over. The body is in concert.

Shaggy but sure — that’s when you know that the desired perspective is a part of you.

Vladimir Lagrange, photo artist

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rabihalameddine_2017-Jun-11.jpg
Vladimir Lagrange, Tomorrow Morning, 1969

Vladimir Lagrange took artistic photos of ordinary Russians for the “Soviet Union” Magazine. He also captured a bunch of personal photos that never saw the day of light because of Moscow's censorship.

In reading up on Vladimir and looking at some of his pictures, it reminded me of this Bertolt Brecht line from War Primer (1955):

“The camera is just as capable of lying as the typewriter.”

The rise of mobile photography unleashes the citizen reporter, making it even harder to assess truth from propaganda. The world speaks in images to which people latch on to their own cocoon. Beware the blind spots.

Life is a pendulum of experiences

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It was miserable. It was wonderful. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.

You can't experience one high without experiencing another low.

Life doesn't work on a scale of 1 to 10. It ebbs and flows.

A step forward reverts in a step back, and vice versa. Life is a pendulum of experiences.

Embrace the swings. The chaos is why it works.

Want to focus? Seek ambient sound

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A gif of woman stirring coffee in coffee shop
The gentle hum of a coffee shop

One of the greatest myths of our time is that silence is golden. But complete silence will keep you from working effectively. It may even put you to sleep.

J. K. Rowling left the solitude of her own home to write the Harry Potter series in a coffee shop amid the cacophony of people chatting over grinding espresso machines. The noisy environment inspired her to get to work. Just enough sound creates an ambient environment conducive to working by drowning out any other unpredictable racket in the background.

Studies show that learning to play an instrument makes it easier for children to learn how to read. Additionally, the “Mozart Effect” is said to improve concentration and study habits. Popular music is used during operations to relax both patient and doctor. Muzak takes the awkward silence out of the elevator.

The right type of noise is critical to working effectively. In fact, many CEOs expect disruptions in the form of email and calls to ensure the business is actively operating. Silence is the antithesis of productivity.

In order to stay motivated and remain productive, we need perpetual sound rather than peace and quiet. Sound is productive. It is the silence that can be deadly.

art via giphy

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