Agalia Tan

hers is the right attitude: you do not like a category. You like individuals. And you’re not born knowing which kind.

For an idea to resonate, it needs to do the following:

Something in my subjective experience or previous insight connects to the idea in front of me and gives it potency. The connection between two ideas always carries the possibility of a third, new idea.

It moves me through language. I might find the phrasing particularly harmonious, the choice of ... See more

American society’s extreme individualism, electronic financial system, and thoroughly impersonal consumer retail setup mean that most adults can obtain 99% of their essential needs without real social networking of any kind. The system we live in is established mostly on impersonal trust. Every ordinary product or service in America is available wi... See more

Let go of self-delusion, which is maybe the hardest thing of all to let go of. Shape the thing you’re making into a pure expression of the thing you’re making: “Cut away, strip away the unnecessary, and strip away what people expect.”

He heard the phrase from the philosopher Alan Watts, who saw the universe not as a machine, but as something alive and wriggling. Embrace the wiggle, he taught, and you'll find yourself moving in harmony with the world.

At our best moments it’s not just that we’re on the right path. It’s that we let the wiggle take us there.

I know that it’s easy to observe when people are feeling insecure. Notice how much they are mentioning their positive attributes, material possessions, or important friends, when there’s no conversational reason for this to be occurring other than a status claim. It is harder to spot yourself doing this, but it is worth the effort — you are likely ... See more

Has love fallen into the realm of planned obsolescence? Where beautifully packaged, terribly fragile emotions are evidence of having reached the summit of our aspirations, only to be left yearning, craving that next big hit? Desire is the newest addiction. The feeling of “want” being much more thrilling than the comfort of being satisfied. Craving ... See more