“I’ve wasted a lot of time journaling on “problems” when I just needed to eat breakfast sooner, do 10 push-ups, or get an extra hour of sleep. Sometimes, you think you have to figure out your life’s purpose, but you really just need some macadamia nuts and a cold fucking shower.” (Timothy Ferriss, Tools of Titans)
Yep. My “ExiSTeNTiaL” problems usually have a painfully basic solution. Becoming a runner since the beginning of the year has made me feel 10x better.
My goodness. I just peeked at my Now page and realized I haven’t updated it since October of 2024.
Where does the time go?
I’m going to have to update that soon. There has been a lot of change in my life since then!
“Creating the conditions for success is a very different project than finding a heroic move that saves the day.” (Seth Godin, Analyzing the Last Move)
This old highlight stood out to me today. I’ve been noticing more “success” popping up in my life from conditions I set up months or years ago.
This is a good reminder for me to keep planting seeds and watering them, even though it will be a long while before I see the first sprout.
I love that AI doesn’t judge me when I send it messages like:
CAn yuo kep it shorteR?
“You are not simply your own possession to torture and mistreat. This is partly because your Being is inexorably tied up with that of others, and your mistreatment of yourself can have catastrophic consequences for others.” (Jordan B. Peterson, Norman Doidge (Forward), Ethan Van Sciver (Illustrator), 12 Rules for Life)
I like a simplified version of that first sentence “you are not your own possession”. That’s something to think about. I was discussing that with some friends in Bible study yesterday, related to how we’re called to be light-givers in our community.
“The Internet is a novelty machine that pulls us away from age-old wisdom. Even though we’re just a click away from the greatest authors of all time, from Plato to Tolstoy, we default to novelty instead of timelessness.” (David Perell, The Ultimate Guide to Writing Online)
I find it hard to strike the right balance between novelty and good literature. I don’t think all novelty is bad, the tricky bit is that it has a much stronger gravitational field than classics, at least for me.
Hot take. I like it.
“People commonly use the word “procrastination” to describe what they do on the Internet. It seems to me too mild to describe what’s happening as merely not-doing-work. We don’t call it procrastination when someone gets drunk instead of working.” (Tim Ferriss, 5-Bullet Friday — January 26, 2024)
“Few people ask from books what books can give us. Most commonly we come to books with blurred and divided minds, asking of fiction that it shall be true, of poetry that it shall be false, of biography that it shall be flattering, of history that it shall enforce our own prejudices.” (Maria Popova, Virginia Woolf on How to Read a Book)
I often come to books with a blurred and divided mind. But I come to the book asking it to help me un-blur and un-divide. That the slow process of reading would give me clarity and a singular focus, free from the distraction of short-form or digital media.
