Our sense of time is all out of whack. When people link to older blog posts and articles, they’ll maybe call it ‘timeless’ or say some other inane thing like, ‘Old, but good!’ Two years old isn’t old! A two-year-old can’t even wipe his own ass.

Let me let you in on a little secret: if you are hearing about something old, it is almost certainly good. Why? Because nobody wants to talk about shitty old stuff, but lots of people still talk about shitty new stuff, because they are still trying to figure out if it is shitty or not. The past wasn’t better, we just forgot about all the shitty shit.”

Frank Chimero

These thoughts are good. I appreciate the way Frank pulls back the curtain, reminds me what’s behind this movie studio western town set: same old human stuff… fear, greed and the slight possibility of a connection.

Even that word “connection” is a facade: something we can say right now, something with a sense of meaning that won’t feel too cheap, but not something an actual writer would say. And not something we’ll say in anymore in 20 years.

What would Hemingway say as a replacement? Maybe he’d say, “fear, greed and the remote chance of a fuck, maybe even love.” I’m not very well read. I don’t know.

This article is good and you should read it if you’re in a self-important industry like “interactive design” or “design” or “business.” Hopefully it’ll bring a little more “fucking” and less “connecting” into your work.

“Except, of course, there is. Somehow, what troubles people isn’t so much being average as settling for it. Everyone knows that averageness is, for most of us, our fate. And in certain matters—looks, money, tennis—we would do well to accept this. But in your surgeon, your child’s pediatrician, your police department, your local high school? When the stakes are our lives and the lives of our children, we expect averageness to be resisted. And so I push to make myself the best. If I’m not the best already, I believe wholeheartedly that I will be. And you expect that of me, too. Whatever the next round of numbers may say.”

Atul Gawande

It’s a long read, and you won’t know what it’s about till about 75% through, but there are a number of juicy things to think about in here.

One that sticks with me is the story of the doctor who, with all the same research and tactics, does much better than his peers in treating Cystic Fibrosis. The difference was his tenacity, all-in-ness, dedication to seeing the improvement… even if it’s the difference between 99.95% and 99.5%.

Thx @genuinechris for the recommendation.

“Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep, really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.”

Hemingway

“I do this because it is a privilege.”

Seth Godin

“Through the years, I have greatly feared and sought to keep at bay the four beasts that inevitably devour their keeper — Ego, Envy, Avarice, and Ambition.”

Dee Hock (guy who created Visa)