Step up
A sign at the Franklin Institute food court, “Please, step up and help yourself,” turned into a reminder to me that your days should be what you want and only you can change them.
All posts tagged: philosophy
Sometimes I tag very loosely or obscurely so the link might not be obvious.
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AC Sludge
A puddle by the basement air conditioner cost me an evening of repairs and exposed how overcommitted I’d become, resentful of emergencies that were my own duty.
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The government as Robin Hood
I start with a thought experiment about who really pays taxes and argue that taxing the rich punishes the productive, since nobody has a right to wealth others must create.
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When no politicians agree with you
Voters pick the candidate who shares one value, then defend the whole platform like sports fans, and I argue that joining a gang this way makes the rest of your ideas a non-factor.
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The reason for being
After a quiet spell, I give the site a purpose: writing in order to learn, starting with a study of Objectivism, and leaving something for my children.
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Perpetually getting organized
I’ve been trying to get organized since high school, and my habit of letting the best destroy the good keeps turning a simple GTD system into an elaborate software project.
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NPR RSS Feeds & the Tao of Depression
NPR offers RSS feeds, and a Morning Edition story on depression management sounded to me like it would add stress to the condition it was meant to treat.
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The joy of focus
Today I forgot to eat breakfast and got moving very late because I was immersed in what I was doing. Spending so much time being interrupted and allowing myself to be interrupted I had started to forget the pure and simple joy of focused, productive work. I intended to try and achieve that state as often as possible. I need to blow off a few meeting reminders, phone calls and the like. It’s good for the soul.
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Coming Soon
I am planning on resurrecting this site and posting regularly. I have recently been made explicitly aware of the cognitive benefits of writing. So in writing down my thoughts, especially if I intend to stand behind them and have them represent who I am, I am forced to clarify and organize the process behind my thinking. I have decided that this practice will primarily help me to integrate new ideas. Secondary benefits include improving my ability to communicate and will allow me to have more interesting interactions because it could be based on information I have already thought through.
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Bliss
“Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.” -Charles Darwin
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Closing the Door
The best thing you can do for your craft is to close the door. This may be a literal door, signing off of IM, closing your email client, or pulling out your internet cable. It may also be metaphoric, especially once you have practiced enough. It is concentrating your focus so severly on what you are doing that nothing else matters. I have received this advice from much of my reading, and from some very successful people. Don’t believe me, who the hell am I? Just try it, try for 5 days, try for 3 hours. Look at the results and honestly compare to your other work. Practice closing the door.
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geeky self help
This attempt at defining how human conciousness works is worth a read: The Multiple Self. It would be interesting to find other thoughts along these lines.
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Concise
Inspired by my brother’s NFL season preview, I am going to strive to be more concise in my explanations, descriptions and opinion expression. From what I can see it brings more interesting response, and sure you will be misinterpreted, but at least you will know people read what you wrote. I know many of my work related emails have been skimmed and archived, because, who has the time.
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Greatness
Yet another thought provoking article from Paul Graham: Great Hackers.
I’ve found that people who are great at something are not so much convinced of their own greatness as mystified at why everyone else seems so incompetent. The people I’ve met who do great work rarely think that they’re doing great work. They generally feel that they’re stupid and lazy, that their brain only works properly one day out of ten, and that it’s only a matter of time until they’re found out.
Yeah, I know anyone who reads my blog already saw this somewhere else, or doesn’t really care to read it. Well I want to be able to find it again. And I haven’t found a good way to do bookmark sharing between many different machines. Maybe a good idea for a firefox plugin.
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Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter can be said to remedy anything. -Kurt Vonnegut (1922 - ), Cat’s Cradle (Source)
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Seen in fortune(6)
Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owesyou nothing. It was here first.
– Mark Twain
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Litany of Fear
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see it’s path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.Only I will remain.
– The Bene Gesserit Litany of Fear from the novel Dune by Frank Herbert
To all the fear mongers who work for the popular media companies:
I am not scared.
I don’t care who you think has weapons of mass destruction, or what eating a specific food item will do to me, or how bad it’s going to rain tomorrow. At least not to the overhyped levels to which you are pumping these and other popular memes. Specifically when you provide no real news, other than a misinterpretation of a press release from the day before. Do you feel even a little pang of remorse as you prey on fear to sell advertising space?
I am NOT scared.
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Getting Religious
When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my religion.
Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865), (attributed)
Easily accomplished consistent reading of the Quotes of theDay is just one of the many reasons I enjoy using Bloglines
By the way is this similar to how G.W. Bush decided to take our country to war? I am of course referring to the President reportedly quoted as saying: God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam …. Source: here.
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Anthem
“Iam. I think. I will. …”
“What must I say besides? These are the words. This is the answer.”
“I stand here on the summit of the mountain. I lift my head and I spread my arms. This—my body and spirit—this is the end of the quest. I wished to know the meaning of things. I am the meaning. I wished to find a warrant for being. I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction. …”
—Ayn Rand
So be it.