both are true
on holding two conflicting ideas at once
both are true
There is so much mystique around the creative life. It’s fetishized and coveted and seen as mysterious even by the people who inhabit it. We have a cultural script that says: There’s too much consumption, not enough creation! If you want to be a [tasteful/interesting/admirable/happy] person, you should make more things. But then also: Social media... See more
Ava • Making Things Is Hard
Two conflicting perspectives I’m trying to reconcile:
Having a “north star” mission is critical.
Difference between success and failure on everything I've worked on has always been in persisting and getting unsexy details right.
Are we idealists or pragmatists? Do we have principles we hold dear, and a vision for the future we want to create? Or are we fumbling along, tinkering, finding what works, and forever allowing contact with reality to rearrange our mental furniture, make a mess on our conceptual floor, and occasionally punch so many holes in the walls that need to... See more
Chris Best • Principles and pragmatism
on pragmatism vs. idealism
The worst kind of company is usually not the one where there's too much real work to do, but the kind where there's not enough. It's in this realm the real monsters appear. Without enough real problems to go around, humans are prone to invent fictitious and dreadful ones.
This is the root of David Graeber's Bullshit Jobs analysis. That a shocking
... See moreThere’s a lot of speculation and rhetoric these days about whether AI democratizes creativity or advances it. However, it is abundantly clear to me that both are true.
On the one hand, humanity’s creative confidence for humanity has gone up as people of all ages are able to prompt whatever is in their mind’s eye and express themselves visually.... See more
On the one hand, humanity’s creative confidence for humanity has gone up as people of all ages are able to prompt whatever is in their mind’s eye and express themselves visually.... See more
Scott Belsky • The Era of Abstraction & New Creative Tensions
on the shift from being skills-constrained to being imagination-constrained
“Life is not like formula fiction. The villain has a heart, and the hero has great flaws.”
— Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
Logic requires that people find universal laws, but outside of scientific fields and once human psychology has a role to play, it is perfectly possible for behavior to become contradictory. A tax rise can cause you to work less because the returns of your labor are lower, or work harder to maintain your present level of disposable wealth. There are... See more
Reconciling Opposites Jul 02
Reconciling opposites in various aspects of life, such as freedom-order, individual-society, and rationality-sentiment, is explored through various perspectives and philosophical ideas.
Linka beautiful doc with compilations from Lorenzo Servitije, the founder of Grupo Bimbo (and one of the richest men in Mexico) shared by a newsletter reader in response to the “both are true” issue.
Bryce Roberts describing Soleio:
The "culture of Soleio” seems to contain a bunch of contradictions — care for craft with an obsession for speed. A clearly massive ambition coupled with a desire to be a “trim boat” that can be lean and focused.