Picasso Drew a Butt, You Guys
“Whenever you start to question your own artistic choices, just remember: Picasso drew a butt.”
John Roderick on the Fine Line
“There’s a fine line between on something and on to something.”
What If You Made Up Your Own Holiday Traditions?
So, a friend asked this a couple days ago: we don’t have any Christmas traditions and I want to make some up for my son and I. What do you guys do, what do you like about it, what do you wish you did?
I got really excited about it. I have a 6 year old son, a gorgeous and smart wife and we live pretty far from both our families. I would love for Aiden (my son) to have a sense of holiday tradition that feels like us — thoughtful, goofy, inclusive, inebriatory, lots of moments where I cry in parts of kids movies, etc.
Do you have to hate yourself to make something good?
Of course the writer and creative and “man on hunt to be celebrated posthumously” part of me immediately shouts: Hey fucker — you do that and we’re not going to make any really great stuff anymore! This is where our power comes from, not feeling like you’re enough is the explosion at the heart of the star keeping the lights on.
That guy sounds desperate. Also, sounds like another one for the “stupid shit I find myself believing” category:
“I have to feel unloved to make good things.”
Benjamin Franklin’s Hoped-for Eulogy
“[Benjamin] Franklin wrote his mother to say that he hoped the more likely tribute paid him after his death would be ‘He lived usefully, than, He died rich.’”
Teachers as Co-Travellers
“The oldest of the Upanishads – another part of Hindu scriptures – date from around 500 BC. These texts encouraged an exploratory learning process where teachers and students were co-travellers in a search for truth. The teaching methods used reasoning and questioning. Nothing was labeled as the final answer.”
Tim O’Reilly on Value Capture
“More than one internet billionaire has told me, ‘I started with an O’Reilly book,’ and I told them, ‘yea, and we got $30.’”
An example of his motto: “Create more value than you capture.”
What I Learned From Working With Ira Glass
“What I learned [from working with Ira Glass] is that a lot of it is just about the effort you put in and not about — I mean you have to have a creative brain, and part of it is that, being born with it, partly. But watching Ira work — a lot of times he just keeps thinking about it longer than other people think about it, and eventually he comes up with an idea that’s good. It made me realize: that’s how people get good ideas, by going through a lot of bad ideas first.
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DHH on Incredible Connection in Business
“There’s an incredible connection possible when you align your financial motivations with the service of your users. It’s an entirely different category of work than if you’re simply trying to capture eyeballs and sell their attention, privacy, and dignity in bulk to the highest bidder.”
Confucius on Ages of Learning
“At fifteen I set my heart on learning; at thirty I took my stand; at forty I came to be free from doubts; at fifty I understood the decree of heaven; at sixty my ear was attuned; at seventy I followed my heart’s desire without overstepping the line.”