October 2011
1 post
July 2011
3 posts
“The open secret of real success is to throw your whole personality at a problem.”
– George Pólya
Substrate
You already know how to do it. You just don’t know that you know it yet. Beneath the uncertainty, inelegance, and insecurity is success. It’s hidden and you you refuse to see it, but it’s there.
So where is it?
It’s in the thing you already know how to do well. It’s in the things that you’re already passionate about. The patterns are there, you need to apply...
June 2011
3 posts
“The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none.”
– Thomas Carlyle
Anonymous asked: Where are you?
Be lazy
You think you’re smart. You create things. You write. You produce. You generate.
Well don’t.
You need to filter what you create. Throw most of it away. Toss out the ideas before they become the drivel you normally produce. Curate the shit out of your shit.
Better yet: be lazy. Don’t start something until it’s interesting. Don’t tell anyone about it until...
January 2011
2 posts
“You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man...”
– Naguib Mahfouz
November 2010
3 posts
Blinded
You can’t see your weakness. It’s right there in front of you, but you look past it. You dance around it. You ignore it. You pretend that it doesn’t exist. Wishing that it didn’t exist. It does, and it always will.
Everything you do is flawed in some way. Accept it. Learn to see it, to enjoy it. Every imperfection is a chance to learn, a chance to do better. And every fault can...
“When solving problems, dig at the roots instead of just hacking at the leaves.”
– Anthony J. D’Angelo
September 2010
3 posts
Do it well or go home
So you want to do it well? The things you build, the things you create, you want to craft each one with care? Well, you’re not doing it.
And how can you do anything well when you’re splitting yourself so many ways? How can you learn with the TV on in the background? How can you focus when you check your email and Twitter feed every half hour? Your choice to devote so little of your...
“Being busy is a form of laziness – lazy thinking and indiscriminate action.”
– LifeHacker
June 2010
1 post
The mountain and the man
There is a mountain between you and your work. You look up, gazing beyond it to where you want to be, and you give up. It’s too far. Too difficult. Too steep. Too much.
You look back. The path is easy, known, and downhill.
Then you look at your immediate surroundings. It’s warm and comfortable. There are many things to do.
Do you stay? Do you go back? Or, do you approach the mountain?
It...
May 2010
2 posts
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”
– Aristotle
March 2010
3 posts
It's out there
Something have you stumped? Can’t figure it out? Ready to walk away? Then you’ve failed. You’ve quit. Not because it’s impossible, but because you’re lazy and you don’t believe you can do it. Are you really that person?
Everything is simple, given understanding. Understanding is easy to find, given time and effort. All problems are soluble. Every single one....
“There’s nothing in this universe that can’t be explained....”
– House
February 2010
6 posts
Pushing through it
You hit a wall. Not just any wall, the wall. You’re deflated and your productivity is shit.
So what happened? What tripped you up? A bad day? A bad play? A tough problem? A tough break?
Well, suck it up. You’ll get over it eventually, so make it now.
Think about what you’re not doing. About what’s not getting done. About how trivial the problem is. About how the...
“A likely impossibility is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility.”
– Aristotle
The joy of doing
Don’t just do it, enjoy it. Every last line and dot: take pleasure in the parts.
You get lost in chaos of the project. The chase takes it out of you. You are tired, and you sleep through what seems like the mundane parts. Except that they’re not. You’re missing the real joy of doing. You’re missing life.
Each step is interesting. Each breath is new. The dishes. The...
“Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtasked.”
– Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
January 2010
3 posts
Failure is optional
You tried. You failed. You gave up. It’s done; you’ve given up.
Loser.
Failure is all you. It’s the simple choice to stop trying, forever.
It isn’t in the trying. It isn’t in the sucking at it. It isn’t even in the not winning at something. It’s the giving up and never ever trying again. It’s a choice to fail. It’s your choice to fail. ...
“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Design is knowing which ones...”
– Scott Adams
August 2009
1 post
Search out inspiration
You’re uninspired today; tired, dazed, and confused. Why?
You choose to be uninspired. Your actions, your thoughts: both reveal inspiration. And yet? You remain uninspired.
You must seek it out, that spark of imagination. The thing that gets your mind racing. The stuff that puts a rhythm in your step. You choose to be inspired, so do it.
Just fucking do it. Be inspired.
March 2009
2 posts
“In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into...”
– Albert Schweitzer
February 2009
3 posts
Focus. Discipline.
Where’s your discipline? Where’s your focus? What are you doing stumbling around in the dark? You think you know where you’re going. You think you know what you’re doing. You think you understand discipline and focus, but clearly you do not.
Discipline isn’t something that you want to do. It isn’t something that you wish you’d do. And it...
“Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving...”
– Lin Yutang
December 2008
3 posts
Just one thing
So have you done it yet? That thing. That one new thing. Something done better than you’ve ever done before. Have you created today? Do it.
Build it. Write it. Paint it. Throw it against the fucking wall. But do one thing every single day. And do it well.
It’s just one thing. It doesn’t have to be big. It doesn’t have to be great. But it’s got to get done. And...
“Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust...”
– Alfred Adler
November 2008
3 posts
Ignorant by choice
You’re stupid. You’re inexperienced. You’re maladjusted. You’re human. You deny your flaws, frustrated at yourself. Make peace with your limits and look for ways to grow. Or, ignore your flaws, and choose to foster your own ignorance.
And don’t just make peace with your humanity, use it to your advantage. Use it to teach others. Use it to fuel your own creativity....
“No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can...”
– Albert Einstein
September 2008
2 posts
Feed the muse
It’s the background thread that feeds your consciousness. It’s your ideas, your inspirations, and your motivations. It’s moody. It’s ferocious. It’s hungry. It’s your muse, and it’s dieing.
And you’re killing it. Do you even know it exists? Don’t you realize that it’s the you you’re proud of? And everything you loath about...
July 2008
1 post
Something great
You stand on the edge of an abyss. Behind you a wasteland, a world of meaningless excess. You despise the waste and the numb sustenance it provides, and yet it’s your home. It’s your comfort. It’s you.
The abyss ahead is your unknown. Dreams. Ideals. Inspirations. A new life. It’s who you want to be. And you’re just standing looking at it, wishing to be...
June 2008
3 posts
“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable...”
– Mahatma Gandhi
Think about it. No, really.
Stop and think about it for a moment. Think about one of those things that you assume to be true, that’s stopping you from doing something interesting. There’s a good chance that it’s nonsense. Horse shit even.
Turn that thing on its head. Smash it. Stretch it. Throw it against the wall. Figure out what you actually think, then reason the hell out if it. Of what it is. ...
May 2008
3 posts
“Who gives a shit how it looks? It doesn’t matter. I look like what I look like.”
– What I’ve Learned, Michael J. Fox
