This right here is just fine →

Published November 13, 2023  ·  All posts on Nov 13  ·  ,

There are only two things which seem to work for me: Plain old discipline, and regular, high-intensity exercise. Make a plan. Work the plan. Follow through. I don’t have to finish it all. (That used to be a huge problem too.) Each day, make a plan. And yes, some days the plan is, “today there’s no plan just follow your nose.” Where the mental freedom to believe that’s a good plan is banked during the days with a more plan-looking plan. The exercise acts as a baseline reset.

The result? An inevitable sense of disappointment. A sense that other people are doing better than us. We feel guilt. We feel pressure. We think “Oh, if only I had more money, or a better job, or lived in France where the child care benefits were different, if I had more custody, then things would be good…”

~ Ryan Holiday from, When You’re Too Busy Aiming For It, You Miss The Moments In Front Of You

Elsewhere, this is 4uryai1. — slipbox

Slowly, daily, my false sense of urgency ratchets up. It’s not healthy, but going out and doing something high intensity resets my personal brand of insanity. Every time I’m in the worst of moods, all I have to do is head out and just start running like I hate myself. (This is rare, but frequent enough that it’s useful to have a strategy ready.) I can go just a couple minutes running like I stole something, and then my crazy-brain starts bargaining… okay, uh, if we can just slow down a bit, I promise to stop acting crazy. I’m pretty sure that’s not the best way to deal with things, but it’s definitely a coping strategy that works well. And the side effects are awesome.

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Success →

Published November 13, 2023  ·  All posts on Nov 13  ·  

Basically, when you get to my age, you’ll really measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you. I know people who have a lot of money, and they get testimonial dinners and they get hospital wings named after them. But the truth is that nobody in the world loves them. If you get to my age in life and nobody thinks well of you, I don’t care how big your bank account is, your life is a disaster.

~ Warren Buffett

Elsewhere, this is 4a1330. — slipbox

November 12, 2023 — #58 →

Published November 12, 2023  ·  All posts on Nov 12  ·  

Reading time: About 5 minutes, 1000 words
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This issue is https://7forsunday.com/58

Our experience of time →

Published November 12, 2023  ·  All posts on Nov 12  ·  

Sometimes I sit in a chair on the patio in the afternoon sun. If I’m just the right combination of tired, relaxed, and comfortable, and if the wind, sun, temperature, and soundscape are just so, I can drift into a trance. Time passes. After which, I have no clear sense of whether it was a moment, or ten minutes. It doesn’t seem that time had stopped, rather it feels like time had ceased to affect me. Did I breath? Did I move? Did I even think in that time?

It’s not only that our experiences of space are different. Our experiences of time are likely different, too. We think about the passage of time through our terrestrial experience of unidirectional motion through space – our metaphors of time are almost all grounded in the way our bodies move forward through the environment. Given this fact, how would an octopus, who can easily see and move in all directions, conceptualise time?

~ David Borkenhagen from, Octopus time

Elsewhere, this is 4uaeea18. — slipbox

Sometimes I find things on the Internet and there’s a clear takeaway for me, or a clear new-to-me idea or connection. This isn’t one of those times. Instead, I dipped into this article one day, came out the other end aware that it had to be included in a post.

And, perhaps I just fell asleep?

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Happiness →

Published November 12, 2023  ·  All posts on Nov 12  ·  

You are genuinely happy if you don’t know why.

~ Joseph Mayer

Elsewhere, this is 4a1329. — slipbox

Wrong →

Published November 11, 2023  ·  All posts on Nov 11  ·  ,

Until we know we are wrong, being wrong feels exactly like being right.

~ David McRaney

Elsewhere, this is 4a1328. — slipbox

The illusion of control →

Published November 10, 2023  ·  All posts on Nov 10  ·  ,

What is the opposite of play? …the opposite of playing an infinite game? I can’t think of a better candidate than the desire for control. My desire for control—when it rears its ugly head—stems from insecurity. (But let’s leave my insecurity for another day.) When I grasp for control I start trying to prepare for every contingency. When I grasp for control I start trying to control the contexts around everything I’m doing, everything I’m experiencing, and how others see me. And when I don’t grasp for control, I’m able to play.

The site you’re reading, Raptitude, is essentially an attempt to convey certain kinds of embodied knowing, having to do with the subtleties of being human, rather than driving a car or doing long division. I’m trying to get people to have some of the same perspective shifts I’ve had.

~ David Cain from, Knowing is Doing, Not Remembering

Elsewhere, this is 4urako1. — slipbox

Experiencing that embodied knowing is what I enjoy about conversation. It’s not vacuous, and it’s not an attempt by me to control. It’s play, and it’s learning.

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Experience →

Published November 10, 2023  ·  All posts on Nov 10  ·  

Experience is not what happens to you; It is what you do with what happens to you.

~ Aldous Huxley

Elsewhere, this is 4a1327. — slipbox

Moving →

Published November 9, 2023  ·  All posts on Nov 9  ·  , ,

So much to lose or so it seems
These idle games and children’s dreams
How they confound and split the seams
Inside my mind, I just keep moving on
Into the unknown

~ Max Collins

Elsewhere, this is 4a1326. — slipbox

We close our eyes →

Published November 8, 2023  ·  All posts on Nov 8  ·  ,

My journey of growth has been ascending levels of perspective shifts. Some of us don’t get to go on that journey because of external and evil forces or because of the random, initial conditions they drew at the beginning of their lives. While I don’t understand what my self even is, I do understand that hiding—ignoring reality—is not going to move me further along on my journey of self-discovery.

“Daytime” is us closing our eyes and pretending it makes infinity go away.

~ Randall Munroe from, xkcd: Under the Stars

Elsewhere, this is 4uxoaa3. — slipbox

Munroe has gone on quite a journey. I think everyone far enough along on their needs-satisfaction curve (anyone who’s ever watched entertainment or played a video game is far enough along) would be moved, inspired, made to laugh and cry, by reading all of Munroe’s cartoons.

This cartoon is number 2,849. He publishes a cartoon Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. So, he’s published cartoons for about 950 weeks. About 18 years.

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