The best writing prompt for when I'm stuck is simply "be more honest".

Takeaways from Jerry Seinfeld on Tim Ferriss:

• To survive in comedy you have to be a writer

• “As any writer can tell you it’s 95% re-write”

• “I think I could solve just about anyone’s life, I don’t care what you do, with weight training and transcendental meditation” Jerry Seinfeld

• “If you could take your experiences and ask to trade them in, the las

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He is careful of what he reads, for that is what he will write. He is careful of what he learns, for that is what he will know."

— Annie Dillard

the world contains many kinds of infinities and so much nonsense, that when you find something that means something in this chaos, realize what incredible luck it is to encounter something so so rare and beautiful.

"It is rarely a mysterious technique that drives us to the top, but rather a profound mastery of what may well be a basic skill set." —Josh Waitzkin Mastery of basics, not secret techniques, makes legends. Look at Roger Gracie's BJJ dominance—leverage and positioning. Jiro Ono's 3-star sushi hinges on rice and fish quality. Dieter Rams' design? 1... See more

Therefore, creativity does not happen inside people’s heads, but in the interaction between a person’s thoughts and a sociocultural context. It is a systemic rather than an individual phenomenon.

It’s almost like boredom doesn’t exist, like difficulty doesn’t exist, scarcity doesn’t exist. And a feeling I’ve been having a lot lately is that scarcity is often what creates meaning. When you’re surrounded by infinite possibilities, when you know around the next corner is another video that might be funnier, you’re never going to sit with the t

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One interpretation of Bourdieu is that we like things when it benefits us to like them. Tastes are just a matter of:

Understanding the consequences of liking stuff in your social context, and

Having the cultural knowledge of how to like things “correctly”.

Basically, your brain does game theory: Do the cool people around you like potatoes? Would you b... See more