reminders to trust the process

Certainty is an act. Uncertainty is an art.

We are obsessed with the need to control, to minimize or erase uncertainty. But “uncertainty isn’t a void,” Isabella Martin writes, “it’s the wellspring of evolution and regeneration. Resilience doesn’t live in checklists or abstract models. It requires more from us than our ability to calculate. It is a... See more

George Leonard on how mastery is nothing but a series of plateaus with brief spurts of progress:

“The most important lessons here — especially for young people — is that even if you’re shooting for the stars, you’re going to spend most of your time on a plateau. That’s where the deepest, most lasting learning takes place, so you might as well enjoy... See more

There’s no harm in feeling unfinished. The harm is in assuming that’s a problem.

If I look at things that have turned out well in my life (my marriage, some of my essays, my current career) the “design process” has been the same in each case. It has been what Christopher Alexander called an unfolding .1 Put simply:

• I paid attention to things I liked to do, and found ways to do more of that. I made it easy for interesting people

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