Here for the Wrong Reasons | Are.na Editorial

62. And Maybe You’re Trying to Do Two Things at Once The first thing is making exactly what you want, for you. And the second thing is making something for those you seek to connect and change. Pursuing either is fine. Pursuing both is a recipe for unhappiness, because what you’re actually doing is insisting that other people want what you want and see

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Over the last six months, as I’ve been looking for things that will interest me, I’ve done it coldly. I’ve kept a list of things that makes me say, “Hm. That’s interesting.” That is, I’ve looked for things that match the pattern of how an Interesting Idea is supposed to look. But I’ve forgotten to ask myself what feels interesting, as in, “I can’t ... See more

A lot of people think that photography disconnects the viewer from the world, imagining for instance the person holding their phone at a concert, but I think often it’s the opposite. Practicing photography compels you to ponder what is meaningful and beautiful in your surroundings. Once you gain this aesthetic self-discovery, it stays with you for

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1) It must be exhausting to read things in order to get mad at them. 2) The social-media internet was built around finding things to get mad at. 3) That motivation ultimately made everything bad. 4) I don’t want to do that; I want people to read newsletters (or articles) because they want to be surprised and delighted by them, because we’re on simi... See more