increasing my surface area
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increasing my surface area
as far as you can manage it, you should make sure your psychological centre of gravity is in your real and immediate world – the world of your family and friends and neighborhood, your work and your creative projects, as opposed to the world of presidencies and governments, social forces and global emergencies.
This will make you happier. It will ma
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I’ve found one tried-and-tested mindfulness exercise to be helpful here. Become consciously aware of your feet – of their position in space and their temperature, their contact with your footwear or the ground. Come out of your head for a moment, and especially out of other people’s heads. Here you are. Here. On the ground. Now: what feels like it
... See moreSatisfaction comes not from chasing bigger and bigger things, but paying attention to smaller and smaller things.
Arthur C. Brooks • From Strength to Strength
I think another driver of this sentiment and behavior is that chasing scale strips you of some humanity. It puts your head too high up in the clouds. It removes you from what happens in the real world with real people. Pursuing something that can’t scale does the exact opposite: it grounds you. It’s a comforting and healing next act.
Anu Atluru • Pursuits That Can’t Scale
Whenever I get caught in “make-a-dent-in-the-universe” thinking, I ask myself WIIWAF (what if I were a frog?)
A natural response to death is to aspire to rupture space-time: found a company, or a name-recognition indie band, or a book that sells beyond your life. But who really makes a dent in the universe? Steve Jobs? Jonas Salk? Genghis Kahn? Doe
... See moreAdvice for introducing yourself: Mention three things about yourself that people can hook onto (e.g. what you do, what you’re passionate about, where you come from) — this way, you’re increasing the surface area they have to find a point of resonance/connection.
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Large quantities of something can transform the nature of those somethings. More is different. Computer scientist J. Storrs Hall writes: “If there is enough of something, it is possible, indeed not unusual, for it to have properties not exhibited at all in small, isolated examples.
Kevin Kelly • The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future
we cannot assume that everything interesting is at the same scale as ourselves.