Brandon Dang

It’s disorienting that I don’t really have the experience of “choosing” anymore. It’s also hard to even really imagine the old way of being, which involved mentally simulating some future existence I might want to have, and then mentally flailing against the present moment in a futile effort to drag myself towards that imagined future.

Scarcity is, we don’t have what we need, and so there’s a way of thinking that’s like, in that moment in time, you felt a need and you kind of threw a container at it.

The problem is, as achievement-subjects, not only do we burn ourselves out, but the meaning and value of our lives is always deferred. Once we have our dream job, the perfect home, a perfectly optimised life – once we are productive enough, efficient enough, successful enough – only then will we arrive at meaning. But just like the fruit that... See more

meaning making disproportionately happens at the last 5% of an experience. “What transpired here? What did we learn here? How have I been changed by what somebody said in this room? And then how do I also exit? What can we share with everybody else? What are my follow-up steps? How do I move forward now having this time with these people?” And so... See more

There is no other way work of artistic worth can be done. And the occasional success, to the striver, is worth everything. The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.

What we are trying to do influences what becomes salient to us. If you are looking for a friend in a crowd, faces become salient to you, faces that would have otherwise passed you by. If you are making videos, you will notice patterns in the videos you watch. If you’re not, you can watch a thousand videos and have them pass through your head

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