Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec
January, 2023
January 29 The Earth spins about itself, and we act as if the sun abandons us at night. The sun doesn't rise and set; it is persistent. We are the turbulent ones, as in stillness you see.
Maybe at the heart of life, too, is light.
January 27 My top 10 tweet-length quotes from Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance."
January 21 There is no best way to go. There is only the worst way, which is to follow.
The horizon is all we have, and it's something we'll never reach. What matters is whether we move towards it.
We can sail toward the horizon or stop on a comfortable island and never see what lies beyond that beach. Those with The greatest self-understanding are those who sail forever and die at sea.
January 19
An Ode to Unconditional Art
- Screw story structure, forget convention.
- As long as you make something cohesive with form, it doesn't have to have an expressed purpose, a desired take-way, or a CTA.
- Art is aesthetic. It is meant to be experienced, not consumed. Individuals have experiences, mobs consume. The value of a piece should vary by the individual who experiences it — and not just who they are but at what point in their life they encounter the art.
- I would never make it as a critic because as long as art inspires me, provokes some interesting thought within me, I value it. It doesn't matter the Goodreads or Rotten Tomatoes score.
- Just like any experience, art is as valuable and as impactful as you make it.
[[Prometheus and Unconditional Living]]
January 18 Editing requires that we question what we know so that what we have created can be made better.
Writing Tip
Amount vs. Number
"Amount" refers to singular nouns, "number" to plural.
Examples:
- You have the greatest number of pets in our building.
- The number of friends you have doesn't matter, only the amount that they care about you.
- That's a large amount of money. That's a large number of bills.
Writers need:
Quantity for Reach + Response
Quality for Resonance + Retention
I need to inhale editing and exhale writing.
January 16 We are the most free in free-fall. When we take a decisive leap into the abyss, we manifest our freedom in action.
Dive into the unknown. Dive inwards.
Simple Sleep Tips
- Find the most comfortable/natural position, and use it every night
- Eliminate screen time before bed
- Make your bed every morning and don't use it during the day
January 15
Writing Tip
It's not more or less. It's more, less, or fewer.
Use "less" for singular nouns, "fewer" for plural nouns and "more" for either.
— — Examples:
- Would you like more or less money?
- Please give me fewer grapes next time.
- I wish I had more skis, but maybe I should have fewer.
- Could there be more people here? There should be fewer people here.
- He has less free time than me because I have fewer meetings.
January 14
Text-Generating AI Won't Get Better Than This
I am not naïve. I know that the technology will improve, that AI will sound more alike humans. But text-generating AI is better right now than it will ever be in one important way.
Today's AI are trained on words written on humans. Everything on the Internet before now, stretching back to the entire history of humanity before the Internet, was created by humans. But today, in the midst of content-generating AI, the training set will be saturated by words from the metal-minded.
AI spits out quantity, at a quality that will improve overtime. But as the AI-to-human ratio increases, AI will start to train on AI-generated content. It will imitate itself rather than learning to imitate us. And then we will enter a hell for readers and consumers, where real, breathing beings will be buried. Language will have been hijacked by non-beings that have never spoken.
January 11 What does it mean to live like the sun won't rise, like today is your last?
It doesn't mean spending all your money, jumping off a cliff, or gorging on a feast. It means living unconditionally.
It means, today, doing only those things that you would do even if you didn't make it to tomorrow.
January 10
Narrative vs. Nostalgia
When did we stop sharing the stories of our dreams and only those in our memories?
Remakes, sequels, reboots — that's all there is. But are there fewer creative people? Are we artistically uneducated? Have we been made lame by some universal lobotomy?
When did we become servants of the stories instead of their creators, instead of using characters and a narrative to explore our inner worlds rather than to squeeze dry the sponge of nostalgia?
January 9
Comprehending vs. Understanding
You can understand an idea with a thought, but to apply/integrate it, you have to feel it.
The ineffable is accessible because we can feel it; we just can't speak it.
You can know what someone said without knowing what it means (or why they said it).
January 8 There are greater pleasures than those I have sought. They come when the seeking subsides — from simply being.
What you do only matters as much as it makes you who you are.
Everything is impermanent — every pain and pleasure, each agony and ecstasy, all grief and glory.
This too shall pass, so enjoy it while it lasts.
Nothing is guaranteed but the present. Live now as if you don't have tomorrow. Do something you find meaningful, and close loops when you have the opportunity.
That means:
- Say what you know is unsaid. Have the uncomfortable conversations.
- Say goodbye when you part from people, even a partner, coworker, or barista that you plan to see tomorrow.
- Find stillness, exercise your freedom.
January 7 Chaos pendulums illustrate the question of free will.
Chaos pendulums are the perfect illustration of this idea: Stillness is a prerequisite for freedom.
We have freedom, but not every act is one of free will. Most of the time, we are riding along some cause-and-effect chain. Yet, there are these moments of freedom that initiate an entirely new series of phenomena.
Our freedom is the ability to pause the seining chaos pendulum. We can hold it in our hands by finding stillness. And by pausing it in motion, we initiate a new series of movements that would have never existed otherwise.
The bad things that happened to you you don't deserve. They don't happen because of who you are but because you believe that's why they happen.
Change your self-image, change your experience.
January 6 Loose writing loses readers. Technique matters.
You could: • Slather glue between your sentences and hope they stick. OR • Use proper grammar and mechanics to make your sentences click like Lego bricks.
Sticking isn't enough. Make your writing click.
January 4
Curiosity as Curriculum
What if education weren't some simple, pragmatic program to land a lucrative job? What if it, instead, encouraged the personal pursuit of knowledge?
You can become an expert in anything. And any expert can make a living. So, why not study what you love?
Instead of sticking to some strict syllabus, create a curriculum from your curiosity.
January 3
Please, Fewer Pleasantries
Pleasantries reverberate, but they don't resonate. They're comforting words that placate rather than provoke or inspire.
2025: Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | July | Aug
2024: Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec
2023: Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec