Thought provoking
Measure your composure every day.
Let's break this down.
There are two important components here:
1.) The distinction of composure , and
2.) Measurement as an improvement mechanism.
Composure is straightforward enough: it’s the extent to which someone is in control of their behavior.
If we get swept away by our emotions or impulses, we have low... See more
Let's break this down.
There are two important components here:
1.) The distinction of composure , and
2.) Measurement as an improvement mechanism.
Composure is straightforward enough: it’s the extent to which someone is in control of their behavior.
If we get swept away by our emotions or impulses, we have low... See more
On Composure
Interesting concept from hte Better Questions Newsletter
You need a very strong container to hold the contents and contradictions that arrive later in life. You ironically need a very strong ego structure to let go of your ego.
Richard Rohr • Falling Upward
Reaching our boundaries is not the same as limiting our growth. Sometimes we find our edges and an amazing thing happens; capacity is rebuilt, old wounds are healed and we grow further and more beautifully than before. The process is analogous to mineral growth in rock. Without a surface and a set of containing edges, minerals that we prize for... See more
Donald Winnicott • Article
"Let everything happen to you: Beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final." - Rainer Maria Rilke
How to Get Lucky, The 4 Quarters Technique, & More
(“What an astonishing thing a book is,” said Carl Sagan. “It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside... See more
The power of enjoyment
October 2024
I'm usually reluctant to make predictions about technology, but I feel fairly confident about this one: in a couple decades there won't be many people who can write.
One of the strangest things you learn if you're a writer is how many people have trouble writing. Doctors know how many people have a mole they're worried about; people who... See more
I'm usually reluctant to make predictions about technology, but I feel fairly confident about this one: in a couple decades there won't be many people who can write.
One of the strangest things you learn if you're a writer is how many people have trouble writing. Doctors know how many people have a mole they're worried about; people who... See more
Paul Graham • Writes and Write-Nots
Writing is hard.
I.
"When dreaming, imagine success.
When preparing, imagine failure.
When acting, imagine success."
"When dreaming, imagine success.
When preparing, imagine failure.
When acting, imagine success."
3-2-1: How to learn faster, what you put into the world, and the value of numerous attempts
20 END OF YEAR REFLECTION QUESTIONS
Exit 2024 With Closure and Control
Heather Maietta
How did I live up to my definition of success?
What was my greatest accomplishment this year?
What was one skill I improved upon in 2024?
What about my daily routine worked for me?
What was one thing I spent money on that was invaluable to my career?
What was the biggest
In his 2012 essay, “More people should write,” writer and programmer James Somers described this process as creating a mental bucket for an idea, thereby unleashing a magnetic force between that idea and the world:
When I have a piece of writing in mind, what I have, in fact, is a mental bucket: an attractor for and generator of thought. It’s like a thematic gravity well, a magnet for what would otherwise be a mess of iron filings. I’ll read books differently and listen differently in conversations. In particular, I’ll remember everything better; everything will mean more to me. That’s because everything I perceive will unconsciously engage on its way in with the substance of my preoccupation. A preoccupation, in that sense, is a hell of a useful thing for a mind.
Once you’ve discovered the right mental buckets, or containers, for your creative work, it’s time to maximize the potential for unexpected connections. But to surface those connections, you also need the right tools.