Category: blog

ten recent thoughts

blog

1. Most of our problems are imaginary problems.

2. It would be nice to enjoy, for once, being here, rather than always wanting to be somewhere better and doing something more interesting.

3. What we have now is what we used to want.

4. Just because other people are doing A, doesn’t mean I need to start doing A.

5. There are no real obligations in this world.

6. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity.

7. Perfectionism is more toxic than you imagine. Watch yourself and notice how often you’re being a perfectionist without even realising it. And see how it chips away at your happiness.

8. Read everything but don’t be afraid to give up anything that turns out awful or mediocre.

9. Writing is the medium of learning (not the other way around).

10. Find opportunities to be kind. Every day.

Bonus thought: Practise what you believe as much as you can, but always be kind to yourself when you can’t.

cheesy affirmation of the day

blog

Be grateful for life today. LIVE, LIVE, LIVE! Live with passion! (Go chase your curiosities, go tumble down rabbit holes of your own choosing!) Live with joy! Be unabashedly in love with this fleeting life! And finally, live with peace and acceptance, knowing that everything is part of this human experience that we’re meant to have.

May you be less afraid today to taste the goodness of life.

After all, afraid or not, this is all gonna end one day.

We might as well make the most of it.

your life is no longer consumed by hunger

blog

“When you take the time to draw on your listening-imagination, you will begin to hear this gentle voice at the heart of your life. It is deeper and surer than all the other voices of disappointment, unease, self-criticism and bleakness. All holiness is about learning to hear the voice of your own soul. It is always there and the more deeply you learn to listen, the greater surprises and discoveries that will unfold. To enter into the gentleness of your own soul changes the tone and quality of your life. Your life is no longer consumed by hunger for the next event, experience or achievement. You learn to come down from the treadmill and walk on the earth. You gain a new respect for yourself and others and you learn to see how wonderfully precious this one life is. You begin to see through the enchanting veils of illusion that you had taken for reality. You no longer squander yourself on things and situations that deplete your essence. You know now that your true source is not outside you. Your soul is your true source and a new energy and passion awakens in you.”
— John O’Donohue

Again and again, I go back to John O’Donohue. He clears out the cobwebs in my soul.

#1 Start somewhere

100 notes on creativity, blog, creative work

Everything starts from somewhere.

Books start from the momentum of the first word, then a sentence, then one paragraph, then a page. It builds from there.

Movies begin from a writer sitting in a dark room dreaming up the first line of a dialogue, or one scene sketched out on paper.

Paintings arise from one uncertain stroke that leads to the next.

Start somewhere. It doesn’t matter where. Begin small and gently.

The bar — one word, one line, one stroke — is so low you cannot help but succeed.

the future is written

blog, futuretech

Have you heard about GPT-3 yet? The language-generating AI? The AI that “writes”?

Here’s a screenplay it wrote, given this prompt –
Below is a screenplay for a film-noir hard boiled detective story by Raymond Chandler about the boy wizard Harry Potter:

“Scene: A small dingy office, early morning, furniture of the Salvation Army store variety. Sordid atmosphere. Harry Potter, in ratty tweed suit, unpressed shirt, and unshined shoes, sits behind the desk looking haggard, rumpled, and embittered. In one corner of the office a torn shade rattles at the wind gusts outside. Harry has one long index finger on the butt of a .38 and he broods over a photograph. The photograph shows a gorgeous blonde wearing an evening gown. She is holding a cocktail in one hand and looking pensively at a cigarette in the other. A tear adorns her cheek. Harry looks at her for a long moment, sighs, then puts his gun down and stands.”
— GPT-3

I’m kinda scared.

More here and here.

real feeling

blog

It’s not enough to do things, but I must do them with real feeling, with heart. Sometimes I catch myself coasting, nodding without real feeling, falling into things I don’t care for. But it’s all a waste of time.

Invest your entire being into the things you care about and you no longer need to wonder about the meaning of life. Meaning becomes the air you breathe — a basic, unquestionable element of life.