A weekly serving of 7 things for you to savor

Human collaborators

And so we did the math, and it was really at the same time that I had lost [my idea] that she had gotten [her idea]. And we like to think that the idea jumped from my mind to hers during our little kiss that we had when we met. That’s our magical thinking around it. But it’s — there is no explanation for that other than the one that I’ve always abided by, which is that ideas are conscious and living, and they have will, and they have great desire to be made, and they spin through the cosmos, looking for human collaborators.

~ Elizabeth Gilbert from, https://stevenpressfield.com/2022/09/the-muse-strikes-again/

Obviously that's not how any of it really works. But it is a sublime, inspiring idea! I know that if I focus (or worse, fixate) on where some idea came from it's easy to lose the delight of the overall thing. This cosmic perspective from Gilbert reminds me to simply take things and run with them. If I can. If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.

If I can't run with it, well, that's okay too. It is simply okay. But, if I still need some self-convincing, that cosmic perspective gives me the comfort I need to let go.

Gravy

To fulfill a dream, to be allowed to sweat over lonely labor, to be given a chance to create, is the meat and potatoes of life. The money is the gravy.

~ Bette Davis

Enhancing relationships

HomeNet could be (and has been) interpreted as an indictment of the internet, or screens, or modern communications technology in general. In truth, it illustrates a much simpler truth about love and happiness: Technology that crowds out our real-life interaction with others will lower our well-being and thus must be managed with great care in our lives. In order to reap their full benefits, we should use digital tools in ways that enhance our relationships.

~ Arthur C. Brooks from, https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2022/09/technology-happiness-communication-relationships/671586/

I'm reminded of some comments by Rafe Kelley.

If junk food is flavor divorced from nutrition, then pornography is sexuality divorced from the context of relationships. Video games are thrill divorced from physicality. And so you take these boys who have this inherent aggression and you let them play Fortnite, and they can play all day without any self-regulation from having the physical demands of actual rough and tumble play. The problem is that it so easily out-competes the actual thing that we need, which is the real physical play.

~ Rafe Kelley from a video short from an Instagram post, so I'll just link you to his Evolve. Move. Play. project.

Brooks and Kelley are talking about different technologies, but I think they're both pointing toward the "divorce" being the actual issue. The arrival in the living room (mentioned by Brooks) divorced [I'll say] the mental stimulation from the other people in the house.

Love

You want my opinion? We're all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness—and call it love—true love.

~ Robert Fulghum

What scales

efficiency scales but isn't memorable

inefficiency is memorable but doesn't scale

~ "Gaping Void" from, https://www.gapingvoid.com/blog/2022/09/20/core-human-motivations-thoughts-inspired-by-kunal-shah/

This post over on Gaping Void is a great tour of their illustration style. There are several fun and interesting take-aways from a podcast episode from a different favorite site of mine, Farnam Street.

The point (from Shah, in the podcast) about what scales and what doesn't has always fascinated me. If I try to imagine how to build something (whatever it is) in a way that it will scale up to "huge" it never works out well. Planning for scale up front, involves huge amounts of time, and then huge amounts of building. Instead, I like to think of technology (or any system) as a force multiplier; can I, by my own linear work, do something whose affect can be multiplied through technology?

Not forever

At some point in our lives we realize that we aren’t spring chickens anymore and we become a bit less interested in looking good naked and more interested in feeling better and making the most of the rest of our lives. It’s a hard thing to slowly realize you aren’t going to live forever.

But once you accept it, you can start to address it.

~ Jarlo Ilano from, https://gmb.io/live-forever/

I talk a lot about movement, and the people over at GMB are top-notch. If you're looking for something (to inspire you, get you moving, solve a specific issue, etc.) then go there.

I also talk a lot about sleep. In recent months I've decided my mattress is done. I've been refusing to spend the insane amount to replace it (and yes, I've heard of that brand you're considering telling me about.) Instead I chose to lean into sleeping on really hard surfaces.

I've been sleeping on a 2-inch-thick air mattress, on the floor, for a week. Thoracic extension— delightful. Hip extension as an antidote to desk-sitting— delightful. Even lying on my side requires new adaptations— delightful. As it happens, I already have a platform bed with Tatami mats. Based on my week's experiment (and countless nights sleeping on my air mattress on host's floors) I've shoved the western-style mattress off the platform and ordered a traditional "floor mattress" which goes atop tatami mats. We shall see.