Paxton Shell
@paxiepants
Paxton Shell
Not knowing what we don't know is a constant problem.
This quote from Tony Hsieh contains so much truth: “Happiness is really just about four things: perceived control, perceived progress, connectedness (number and depth of your relationships), and vision/meaning (being part of something bigger than yourself).”
Esther Crawfordx.comThe way to greater confidence is not to reassure ourselves of our own dignity; it’s to come to peace with our inevitable ridiculousness
— Alain de Botton in ‘On Confidence’
We're all little thinking monkeys hurtling through emptiness on a rock.
Books you read are sending you input. Your friends modeling behaviors for you. Newspapers. Tools. People you follow on Twitter. The architecture of a Gothic church beaming serenity into you—that is input too.
At the same time, you are also sending output to other nodes. Now, I am sending these ideas into my pocket notebook, which will send them to... See more
At the same time, you are also sending output to other nodes. Now, I am sending these ideas into my pocket notebook, which will send them to... See more
Henrik Karlsson • First We Shape Our Social Graph; Then It Shapes Us
We are made of the external world as much as our internal. Social technology, tools, we make and are made by the environment.
Jim Simons: "I’m not an extremely fast thinker myself; I just work hard."
That was all I needed to do—work hard, not fast. A paper I published in '68 took me five years. But it has had 1,850 citations. For a math paper, that’s an awful lot.
There’s too much emphasis on a person’s being able to answer questions quickly."
Slow and deep thought is necessary
Slow down enough to see how life is good. Today is a good day to be alive.
Experience. Don’t observe.
Inhale. Don’t read.
Transfigure. Don’t shift.
Advocate. Don’t ponder.
Prove. Don’t promise.
Encourage. Don’t cut.
Imagine. Don’t worry.
Do. Don’t analyze.
Hear. Don’t listen.
Show. Don’t tell.
Give. Don’t take.
Brian Collins • 101 Design Rules
Kurt Vonnegut, talking about when he tells his wife he’s going out to buy an envelope:
“Oh, she says well, you’re not a poor man. You know, why don’t you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet? And so I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I’m going to have a hell of a good time in the process of
... See moreWandering way to live
The antidote to envy is one's own work. Always one's own work. Not the thinking about it. Not the assessing of it. But the doing of it… [T]he work itself. It drives the spooks away.
-Bonnie Friedman