work

So the lesson there is... look for any sort of excuse, however silly or arbitrary, to make anything at all. Because everything we do tends to leave some traces of everything that we are.

“Robustness is when you care more about the few who like your work than the multitude who hates it (artists); fragility is when you care more about the few who hate your work than the multitude who loves it (politicians).”

“The best protection is always to be working on hard problems. Writing novels is hard. Reading novels isn’t. Hard means worry: if you’re not worrying that something you’re making will come out badly, or that you won’t be able to understand something you’re studying, then it isn’t hard enough. There has to be suspense”

“Instead of working back from a goal, work forward from promising situations.”

“As I said, to put our faith in tangible goals would seem to be, at best, unwise. So we do not strive to be firemen, we do not strive to be bankers, nor policemen, nor doctors. WE STRIVE TO BE OURSELVES. But don’t misunderstand me. I don’t mean that we can’t BE firemen, bankers, or doctors— but that we must make the goal conform to the individual, ... See more

Hop from cool thing to cool thing as you get better at determining which cool things will actually be cool before you start them. This is how live your ideal life.

A recent study found that e-bike riders, on average, get more exercise than riders of traditional (acoustic?) bicycles.

How can that be?

By amplifying the rider’s effort, the e-bike takes its rider further, faster. The rider who goes further, faster ultimately rides more than their unassisted counterpart. Their heart, lungs, and muscles grow stronger... See more

Creativity: “I can’t get new ideas staring at a blank page. Creativity, for me, requires motion. When you go on a walk, you can turn your world into an idea-generating sensorium, and ideas will spring up from the most unlikely sources. There is one thing that’s absolutely certain about creativity: It’s an active process, not a passive one. The best... See more