Steyn Viljoen
@steyn
Designer at CustomerOS. Gardener. Dad. Write at Viljoen Space about product, gardening and parenthood.
Steyn Viljoen
viljoen.space
In 17th century France, the monarchy expressed its royal, God-given prowess through the total subjugation of natural ecology. Wilderness was reduced to clipped hedges, topiary, seriality and flatness. All hail king boxwood.
Wilderness and Garden-Making, Post-Internet - Wonderground
Things should be costly (either in materials or the effort we put in) because it proves love and sacrifice went into it — for the benefit of all.
Culture Critic • Tweet
The highest reward for a person’s toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it. —John Ruskin
A home is so much more than a structure. It is your life and refuge. Sometimes I go back and forth in my mind, "is design just vanity - or does it matter and what's its proper place?" I know beauty matters. I am an unabashed advocate for that - we don't have nearly enough of it. But home matters a LOT - and good design is just simply making a beautiful functional home. Where is the line between your home and your life? Impossible to define, they are woven together. That's why design matters.
“I cannot say exactly how nature exerts its calming and organizing effects on our brains,” the poetic neurologist Oliver Sacks wrote in the dawning years of the twenty-first century, “but I have seen in my patients the restorative and healing powers of nature and gardens, even for those who are deeply disabled neurologically.”
Maria Popova • The Healing Power of Nature and Beauty: Florence Nightingale on Expediting Recovery from Illness and Burnout
That linear time is a method of colonial control is perhaps the greatest lesson to be learned in the fight to undo the horrors of capitalism. Before imperialists descended on the United States, there were no clocks. No second hands tick tick ticking our lives away. These are constructions that whiteness created to ensure our lives were ruled by the... See more
I guess that’s the beauty of adding value; the more you create, the more others are inspired to create in return. The cycle repeats itself. Wouldn’t it be nice to live in a world of more value not more stuff?
I think bookstores turned out to be weirdly sticky simply because people like being in bookstores. Going to a bookstore is an aesthetic experience. It's fun. It's something to do with your family. It is a pleasant feeling to be surrounded by physical books. It is a pleasant feeling to browse. It is a pleasant feeling to be the kind of person who... See more
Define Your Way of Life
"But beware of looking for goals: look for a way of life. Decide how you want to live and then see what you can do to make a living WITHIN that way of life."
This is my favorite insight from the letter: Identify how you want to live, not what you want to achieve.
So often people focus all their energy on the summits—but
... See more