*Commonplace Book

“We, as a society, would be better off if our politics could become re-centered around a collective process of searching for answers to solve problems, made possible by exploring evidence, and then learning from it.”

Brian Klaas

• robust immersion in quality connection marked by vulnerability, self-disclosure, and empathetic listening, experienced in a concentrated form, can fast-track a friendship into existence in a shorter amount of time.




• taking action to be vulnerable with the other person first is key to deepening feelings of trust.

from We Should Get Together: The Secret

Hans Zimmer’s advice to musicians:

I think you have to have a lot of courage and a certain amount of foolishness to want to become a musician. You have to be completely and utterly insane and passionate at the same time, because to make a living as a musician is very difficult. On the other hand, to live a playful life, the way a musician does, is m

To come up with new ideas, you have to have space to be messy, to procrastinate, and to let your mind wander and free-associate. But there needs to be a balance. You eventually need to channel it into something concrete, or you won’t produce anything.

from Jon Rafman and Dasha Nekrasova on the Horror We Call Life by Dasha Nekrasova

“You are allowed to take up space. Own who you are and what you want for yourself. Stop downplaying the things you care about, the hopes you have. Own your passions, your thoughts, your perceptions. Own your fire. Stop putting your worth in the hands of others; stop letting them decide your value. Own saying no, saying yes. Own your mood, your feel

"Although losing is never fun, there is a certain satisfaction that can be found on the other side of losing — but only when you give your all. To lose with half effort offers no pleasure in the moment and no peace in the long run. But if your ambitions were full and your attempt was genuine, after the sting of losing wears off you'll be left

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.

William James

People love attention, almost more than anything. Part of what makes people open up, conversationally, is the sense that someone is paying them more attention than normal. This is usually conveyed by shared body language, shared speech patterns, and granular responses— like, for an incredibly banal example, if someone tells you they used to live in

...let me make a general observation—the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise.

F Scott Fitzgerald