The only mistake is trying to have all of your burners turned on, but only at half power while your mental image of yourself is one of a high achiever, yet you know in your soul you’re not making progress.
Sean Blanda
Links
A running list of links I find worthwhile, RSS feed included. Previously these were saved to Pinboard but more recently they're saved directly to this site through a simple WordPress plugin. This section of the site is still a work-in-progress.
Your 30s are a time to go for it (or not) →
May 28, 2020 career, work
Inside the Flour Company Supplying America’s Sudden Baking Obsession →
co-CEO Karen Colberg was staring in shock at the recent daily sales figures that had just popped up on her screen. “I fired off a text to the sales team to check their figures,” says Colberg. “It was obviously some sort of mistake.”
No mistake, came the reply. The figures had already been double-checked. They showed a 600% increase in grocery-store sales almost literally overnight.
May 25, 2020 food
Adjusting To New Normals →
Solid and clear set of 4 suggestions for a work day during these pandemic times. Part of what’s appealing is that they’re 4 shifts rather than new habits, tools, or processes.
May 15, 2020 productivity, work
Take The Long View →
Worry requires this narrow, fixated view to remain overwhelming. In fact, maybe worry is only the feeling of having your attention zoomed so far into your Current Big Problem that it fills your mental viewfinder. If you’re too close to see the edges of a problem, you lose the sense that there’s anything outside of it, before it, or after it.
David Cain
May 3, 2020 philosophy, thinking
The Myth of Self-Reliance →
Jenny Odell writes in The Paris Review about the unsaid assumptions which underpin (and complicate) Emerson’s notion of self-reliance.
May 3, 2020 philosophy
Ise-ji: Walk With Me →
A great one-page website from Craig Mod that covers an 8-day walk in Japan. Love the combination of photo galleries, travel logs, and GPS data.
April 28, 2020 travel, walking
After dread →
Conspiracy is in league with dread. It excuses people from contributing to the future: why bother, when invisible hands are pulling the strings above us? Conspiracy is a withdrawal from the future, an abandonment of any prospect of agency. Conspiracy and dread both anaesthetise; they conquer all ambition.
Cennydd Bowles
April 28, 2020 thinking
Work and the Deep Life →
If you subscribe to deep career thinking, by contrast, you focus intensely on training high-value skills, like an athlete looking to maintain an edge. Skills not only provide you security (effort, relatively speaking, is abundant, while there’s always a demand for value-producing expertise), but they can be used as leverage to gain more autonomy, or increase your sense of impact, or provide that powerful feeling of fulfillment found only in mastery: all of which will make your work more satisfying.
Cal Newport
April 10, 2020 thinking, work
The Coronavirus’s Unique Threat to the South →
A combination of medical, socioeconomic, and infrastructure problems put a younger demographic at greater risk of COVID-19 complications across the US South. The Atlantic surveys the slow burn of decision-making that got us here.
April 5, 2020 health
Your Computer Is a Tool. Here’s How to Actually Use It Like One. →
A great, clear-headed set of tips from Zapier about how to treat your computer more like a purpose-oriented tool than an always-on distraction. One of my favorite related tools on macOS is Focus for blocking certain applications and websites.
April 5, 2020 productivity, work