Ernst Haas

“Still, I don’t want to declare there are no highways of fruitful directions. In learning there are. Follow them, use them and forget them. Don’t park. Highways will get you there, but I tell you, don’t ever try to arrive. Arrival is the death of inspiration. Beware of direct inspiration. It leads too quickly to repetitions of what inspired you. Beware of too much taste as it leads to sterility. Refine your senses through the great masters of music, painting, and poetry. In short, try indirect inspirations, and everything will come by itself.”

Marvin O’Clock

There should be a name for that time of the day when you find yourself trapped in a deep understanding of futility.

“Why does anyone do anything? What is the point?”

The late, great Douglas Adams really nailed it. Sometimes I feel like no one could possibly understand but Marvin. But what’s the point of understanding, anyway?

Life in Digital Remains

Sometimes I think about our generation and the generations that follow us. Mostly I try not to, because - come on, who wants to think about that, right?

Back in the olden days, people learned who they were by doing things: having a profession, or a community, or a family. Now, we learn who we are by endlessly creating and recreating digital facsimiles of ourselves. 

If we are the stories we tell ourselves of who we are, but digital artifacts are telling the stories… who are we? 

I can’t get over how good this article is. “The Accidental Bricoleurs” by Rob Horning encapsulates everything I’ve ever said about my profound hatred/fear towards what fast fashion and social media are doing to us - to our personhood, and our selves. We’re so busy seeking praise for and constructing our identities that we’ve forgotten how to live.

“We have more capability to share ourselves, our thoughts and interests and discoveries and memories, than ever before, yet sharing is in danger of becoming nothing more than an alibi that hides how voracious our appetite for novelty has become.”

“Why is it often difficult to experience disagreement with another’s point of view without getting upset? Is it not possible to express that one would not have made the same choice, without tearing down what another has done?”

This perfect quote came from an unlikely online conversation about home decor (original post here).

My take: Our cultural need to - at all costs - be agreed with is almost pathological. I hate myself every time I’m forced by a paycheck to cater to this profoundly childish cultural insecurity.

The Myth of the Muse

She doesn’t exist, folks. 

You can be inspired by selective traits of another human being without reducing them to a high-functioning cardboard cutout. Remember how women are people too? 

For those of you who were rubbed the wrong way by craptastic movies like 500 Days of Summer and Garden State: Tropes vs. Women: The “Manic Pixie Dream Girl”

The Simple Secret to Identifying Your Strengths

This article is a quick read, but it’s a good one. If you’re like me, constantly slapped with the “jack of all trades” label, you know it’s hard to identify your true strengths. The trick: becoming aware of those activities so intrinsic to you, you don’t even notice that you do them. 

So what are my strengths? Learning, and Organizing. I can slay almost anyone at picking up a new thing, and putting it (or anything else) in order. 

Now what?