Erlank Pienaar
@erlank
•leave•no•path•untaken•
Erlank Pienaar
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The most intelligent men, like the strongest, find their happiness where others would find only disaster: in the labyrinth, in being hard with themselves and with others, in effort; their delight is in self-mastery; in them asceticism becomes second nature, a necessity, an instinct. They regard a difficult task as a privilege; it is to them a recre
... See moreSometimes it’s nice to remember all the other people one has been. Especially when settling into hard-core middle-age. I love being this me, but I loved being that me, too.
Emma Straub • I Loved Smoking
“It can be hard to appreciate just how much the world will give you what you want after you stop waiting for it to give you what you deserve.
Stop waiting for the world to recognize your potential; start giving the world something positive. Don’t wait for a friend’s apology; reach out and reconnect. Instead of waiting for the perfect partner, become... See more
Stop waiting for the world to recognize your potential; start giving the world something positive. Don’t wait for a friend’s apology; reach out and reconnect. Instead of waiting for the perfect partner, become... See more
Farnam Street • Cold Water
Meanwhile, some of the most serious people I know do their serious thing gratis and make their loot somewhere else. My dad, whose photographs sit at the top of every Experimental History post, quit his job at the newspaper and went to work as a postal carrier instead. Why? As he puts it: “I could afford better lenses delivering mail than I could ta... See more
Adam Mastroianni • Surely You Can Be Serious
A man of letters… post / mail / words working hard for UBI - serving the commons, in order to facilitate personal expression. Work to live, not live to work.
“Fall in love with some activity, and do it! Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn’t matter. Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough. Work as hard and as much as you want to on the things you like to do the best. Don’t think about what you want to be, but what you want to do.... See more
Attention Required! | Cloudflare
Alexi Pappas on how the story you tell yourself is the most powerful one in the world.
“How you talk about your experiences will dictate how you feel about them. Reframing our goals and rewriting our stories are powerful tools. Nobody can tell us how to feel about something. We can make our shortcomings into something beautiful if we want to. How w... See more
Attention Required! | Cloudflare
“We are a landscape of all we have seen.” This quote by the Japanese-American artist Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988)
Writer and designer Edith Wharton, the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize, on what causes old age:
“The producer of old age is habit: the deathly process of doing the same thing in the same way at the same hour day after day, first from carelessness, then from inclination, at last from cowardice or inertia.
Habit is necessary; but it is the habit ... See more
“The producer of old age is habit: the deathly process of doing the same thing in the same way at the same hour day after day, first from carelessness, then from inclination, at last from cowardice or inertia.
Habit is necessary; but it is the habit ... See more
3-2-1 Thursday newsletter - James Clear • 3-2-1: How to Connect With Others, What Causes Old Age, and the Recipe for Success
Traveling light means high uncertainty, but also high flexibility, high opportunity. Habit is hanging on, possessed. Letting go of possession(s), become light and open to possibility.
Writer and scholar C.S. Lewis on what why small choices matter:
“Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never d... See more
“Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never d... See more
James Clear • 3-2-1: Two ways to grow, how to criticize, and a simple recipe for finding good opportunities
The examined life
What if our worst qualities are actually our best? Recently I listened to an interview with Irish theologist and poet John O’Donohue from 2006 in which he asked what would happen if the things we hate about ourselves, the qualities we despise and can’t stand, are actually the best things about who we are. It was a powerful reframe... See more
What if our worst qualities are actually our best? Recently I listened to an interview with Irish theologist and poet John O’Donohue from 2006 in which he asked what would happen if the things we hate about ourselves, the qualities we despise and can’t stand, are actually the best things about who we are. It was a powerful reframe... See more
Good Billionaires and the Last of Silicon Valley’s Original Founders
When up is down…