Reminders for myself

Which is to say: lots of people think they need to get better at writing, but nobody thinks they need to get better at thinking, and this is why they don’t get better at writing.

As an experiment, for one continuous month, make the focus of one in every three things you share on social media — wherever you normally share, however regularly or irregularly you do, however many people you reach — something other than yourself or your own work: a friend’s art project, a stranger’s poem, a record by a musician you love, the tree... See more

Avoiding playing pretend during your valuable learning time is important and psychologically difficult. A lot of people’s learning is limited by their insecurities and need for their social status to be reinforced. It often feels amazing to pretend to learn things, and unpleasant to actually learn. People are drawn to activities that make them feel... See more

If this strategy is good enough for Žižek, it’s good enough for me. Writing: it’s simply notetaking! It’s simply reading, and being interested and invested in your reading, and accumulating reflections and reactions to the reading, and then synthesizing that into a work.

I don’t read for career advancement. I don’t read for skill building. I don’t even read for fun—at least that’s not my main priority.

I read in search of wisdom. I’m sure that sounds goofy to some people. Or naive or old-fashioned. But you don’t pursue these lifelong goals without sufficient motivation—and the pursuit of wisdom is that for me.

So I ... See more