Zach Kirshner
@zachkirshner
forever flow
open.substack.comZach Kirshner
We are writers, and we never ask one another where we get our ideas; we know we don’t know.
Stephen King • On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft (A Memoir of the Craft (Reissue))
NON NEGOTIABLES
Of the place
Less is more
Vibrant collaboration
No repeat ingredients
Consolidation + speed
Confidence + competence
In + out service
Pursuit of excellence
Details matter
Know your shit!
FOCUS
Service
Time
Not about you
Perfect means perfect
No excuses
Respect tradition
Push boundaries
Clean as you go
Break down boxes
Shirts perfectly pressed
Personal hyg
He who jumps into the void owes no explanation to those who stand and watch.
– Jean-Luc Godard
Czech president and writer Vaclav Havel:
“Hope (...) is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but, rather, an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. The more unpropitious the situation in which we ... See more
“Hope (...) is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but, rather, an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. The more unpropitious the situation in which we ... See more
The joy of aging isn’t about abandoning our youth, it’s about balancing learned wisdom with childlike wonder, grounded confidence with conscious curiosity, and innate depth with delicious delight.
Amanda R. Martinez • Many People Have A Fear Of Aging; These Helpers Ask: What If We Aged With Joy Instead?
I think we are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind’s door at 4 a.m. of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends. We forget all too soon
... See more“I know that talent doesn’t feel like you’re amazing. It feels like the difficulties that trouble others are mysteriously absent in your case. Don’t ask yourself where your true gifts lie. Ask what other people seem weirdly bad at.” Sasha Chapin
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).”
There are some things that spontaneity simply cannot offer—a steadiness and stability which, at its very least, has the emotional reward of familiarity and, at best, creates the possibility of investing time with special meaning, experience with special value, and life with a moment of transcendence.
Blu Greenberg • How to Run a Traditional Jewish Household
there is one thing we can draw from where we are now and where we were then, it is that the unimaginable is ordinary, that the way forward is almost never a straight line you can glance down but a convoluted path of surprises, gifts, and afflictions you prepare for by accepting your blind spots as well as your intuitions.