Perspective

Wait, that’s absolutely backwards →

Published December 4, 2024  ·  All posts on Dec 4  ·  

“Do you have any ideas in mind?”

I was talking with someone recently, and they asked me what ideas I had in mind. I described a visual that had recently come to mind for me, and I then, as a followup to that visual, I added a few ideas as single words.

(I’m very intentionally, not being specific here…)

When I finished—it all took but a few moments—it struck me…

Dude, those single words really are the ideas I want to convey…

But that imagery? It’s exactly the opposite of those ideas. That visual is a terrible idea…

Let’s set aside the confusion I may have caused to my friend. (Although, I did point out that I saw the contradiction.)

It seems to me it’s really rare to have a moment of such clarity around something important: If I hadn’t been explaining it to another person, I might have hung onto that visual imagery.

Where are you hanging on to the wrong details?

ɕ

Infinite →

Published November 30, 2024  ·  All posts on Nov 30  ·  ,

Man’s unhappiness, as I construe, comes of his greatness; It is because there is an infinite in him, which with all his cunning he cannot quite bury under the Finite.

~ Thomas Carlyle

slip:4a1485.

Oh, good →

Published October 26, 2024  ·  All posts on Oct 26  ·  

I’ve never worked a day in my life! I don’t! These days I get up every morning and say, “Oh good, another day!”

~ Ridley Scott, from Ridley Scott

slip:4uteie21.

I hope the key-phrase in there is, “these days.” Because I definitely do not get up every morning thinking that. Presuming I ever reach that point of “oh good”, the challenge for me will be not piling more “should”s onto myself and forcing myself backwards. We shall see.

ɕ

I wish →

Published August 18, 2024  ·  All posts on Aug 18  ·  

I wish when I was younger I knew what I know today, what I feel like today, a kind of ease with myself. Because when you’re younger you are much more intense and everything’s much more important and you look back and you think, “Oh what was that all about?” Nothing is that important, just live your life because we’re here so briefly.

~ Anthony Hopkins, from Anthony Hopkins

slip:4uteie16.

Oh good, it’s not just me who thinks this. Because, if I could take that knowledge with me, I’d really like to again be the age I was, when I thought I’d surely have my shit together by the time I was the age I am now.

ɕ

What will change your mind? →

Published August 14, 2024  ·  All posts on Aug 14  ·  ,

What are you working on? When will you change your mind? What can you learn, what can you challenge?

~ Seth Godin, from What are you thinking about? | Seth’s Blog

slip:4usewa1.

As is often the case, Godin asks really good rhetorical questions. Me? In recent weeks I’ve been challenging myself to shift my focus to longer timeframes. I’ve reached a level of sophistication where—give or take—what I do on any given day does not matter; I don’t go off the rails. What I do, is get anxious about “all the things” when I get lost thinking about too many things.

Instead of hyper-focusing on the right-now, I need to zoom out. What I just accomplished moves me towards a goal. Yes, even if I just blew off some scheduled thing to go play outside; That moves my health forward energizing me for another day. And each day making some progress is just exactly the right thing to be doing.

ɕ

Open to →

Published August 13, 2024  ·  All posts on Aug 13  ·  , ,

It’s a rare person who wants to hear what he doesn’t want to hear.

~ Richard Cavett

slip:4a1458.

Growth →

Published August 7, 2024  ·  All posts on Aug 7  ·  ,

Everyone encourages you to grow up to the point where you can discount your own bad moods. Few encourage you to continue to the point where you can discount society’s bad moods.

~ Paul Graham

slip:4a1453.

A way of seeing →

Published July 31, 2024  ·  All posts on Jul 31  ·  ,

As a filmmaker, you have a way of seeing things that is inherent in any telling of a story. You read a book, and images form in your mind, and as a director, you explain those images to the crew members. That’s what directing is, that’s what they mean when they say explaining your vision. So for me, it’s really not about any conscious desire to imprint a style. It’s simply: here’s how I see it. This is my understanding of the material. This is what affected me, here’s when I cried, we need to make sure that this moment is real, we need to make sure that your your heart is broken like I felt when I read the script. It’s about communicating exactly what you feel. And that’s the art of directing.

~ Sam Rami, from Sam Raimi – The Talks

slip:4uteie14.

I find I’m often confused by having too many options. I can get far into the weeds exploring all the possible way to do something. Instead, I truly believe that after enough time practicing some creative endeavor, it’s more important to simply follow your own feeling. Follow your own inspiration. “This is what I feel I want to do,” becomes the correct compass to follow. It’s simply: Here’s how I see it.

ɕ

Moments you weren’t expecting →

Published July 27, 2024  ·  All posts on Jul 27  ·  , ,

What I’m looking for, in both fiction and documentary, are moments that you weren’t expecting, and which the audience don’t feel prepared for, moments that are candid, like something that just happened in front of the camera, and it’s not going to happen again. Those are the moments you live for as a documentary maker.

~ Kevin Macdonald, from Kevin MacDonald – The Talks

slip:4uteie15.

I’ve lately been on a bender reading many of these really interesting, really short, interviews with countless people. Most of them don’t particularly interest me. “But wait,” you’re thinking, “those two sentences seem contradictory.” I’m glad you asked about that!

You see, once I know that there’s some large body of work and it’s pretty uniform, then I wonder: Why should I think that the ones I like are the really good ones? Since the work is (pretty) uniform, maybe they’re all really good (or pretty good, at least) and the reason I don’t like most of them… is me. If I sift through the work am I identifying the good ones? …or am I reinforcing, via confirmation bias, my narrow view points? If I wanted to grow—growth often being uncomfortable, especially when it comes to shifting one’s own perspectives—maybe I should intentionally read the ones that I think aren’t that good. Maybe I should be seeking out things which I’m misjudging, and that would by definition be the things I think aren’t that good.

ɕ

Luxury →

Published April 27, 2024  ·  All posts on Apr 27  ·  , ,

If you wish to remove avarice you must remove its mother, luxury.

~ Cicero

slip:4a1404.