Beautiful day. Nothing to fear.
Finding inner peace through simplicity, technology, perspective, and other means.
James Shelley on Success:
Herein lies the culmination of our review: “success” is an illusion. Granted, the human experience is full of tantalizing tokens, symbols and rituals to represent this apparently highly-sought status. But every diploma, certification, award, medal, pay-grade promotion and recognition is simply another construct of this brilliantly (and humanly) crafted mythology.
The whole thing is superb.
J. Eddie Smith, IV on the cost of not buying good software:
Good software is virtually free, regardless of its purchase price, because the payback dwarfs the investment. If your time is worth something, you’d be rational to pay hundreds of dollars for applications you use every day.
This is why I don’t hesitate to pay the $4.99 to remove ads from Twitterrific. I use the app probably thirty times a day. Giving the developer five bucks not only gives me a better experience, it’s the best way for me to say thank you.
Iain Broome just hit 2,000 subscribers on his website, Write for Your Life. I’m psyched for him.
He also took the time to write about blogging and where he wants to take his site next. I love Iain’s advice:
I intend not to worry too much about how many people read this site. Instead, I shall simply write about and link to the things that I’m interested in and know a little about. That’s writing, reading, computers and stuff.
However, if you’re just starting out with blogging, and you really do want some blogging advice, all I have is the following. And to my mind, this is all that matters.
Write good stuff. Be nice to people.
Patrick Rhone on dealing with not-so-minimal loved ones:
All I’m saying here is that our goal of uncluttered simplicity is likely just as strange and wrong and foreign to those who are the opposite as they are to us. Compassion and acceptance are required on both sides.
I have now owned my iPhone 4 since the summer of 2010. And it blows all of those past phones out of the water. Sometimes I wonder if I ever even owned a cell phone before I owned an iPhone, and the 4 is the greatest iPhone to date.
I feel the same way. My iPhone 4 is sixteen months old, which is forever in technology time, and I’m still just as satisfied as I was the first time I laid eyes on that Retina display.
Unless AT&T suddenly goes out of their way to offer me a sweet upgrade deal, I won’t be buying an iPhone 5 this year, and while I’m sure it’s going to look great when it’s announced on Tuesday, I’ll still have just as much love for my iPhone 4.
I approve of all of Shawn’s bullet points, but you can also read my own why-I-love-my-iPhone post here.
Seth Godin on running your own race:
If you’re going to count on the competition to bring out your best work, you’ve surrendered control over your most important asset. Real achievement comes from racing ahead when no one else sees a path—and holding back when the rush isn’t going where you want to go.
You should stop listening to people that perpetuate perfection in words. Act in a way that works for you. And act more often than not. Simple as that.
Speaking of being wrong, James Shelley asks, “Are You Dumbfounded?”:
I contend that the world does not need more dogmatists, either on the left or the right of the religious, political or economic continuum. Rather, we need an entourage of extremely self-critical individuals across the spectrum of these polarized debates. If you’d like to join the revolution, I think we can call ourselves the Dogmatic Moderates.
And, from James’ Creed of the Dogmatic Moderate:
Thus, the creed of the dogmatic moderate: I commit to understanding others, and influencing as many people as I can to do likewise. Every person, of any creed, philosophy or religion can be a dogmatic moderate, for every person has the option of choosing to learn from those who believe and think differently.
Brilliant.
Randy Murray thinks you’re probably wrong about that:
I judge people, but not on the current state of their knowledge. I judge them on their willingness to learn, to think, and to change what they believe to be true. I think that is the fundamental philosophic difference between the scientist and the believer. The scientist should always be willing to say, “based upon new information I am willing to re-evaluate.” The believer often shuns information that contradicts what they “know.”
It’s a thoughtful piece, and it makes a good companion to my article, The Man Who Knows Nothing. In that post, I explained how adopting the know-nothing principle is not a matter of playing dumb. Rather, it’s a way to avoid being so attached to your ideas that you fear being proven wrong and subsequently become unreceptive to new information. As Randy puts it, you become a believer rather a scientist.
If you can eliminate that fear, whether it’s by being willing to change your opinion or by adopting the know-nothing principle, you’ll actually learn and grow much more quickly. In both cases, you become more receptive to opinions different from your own. This open-mindedness is inherently beneficial because, even if you don’t know for certain which answer is the right one, simply being aware of different viewpoints will enable you to both be more knowledgeable about the topic and to better formulate your own opinion.
When your mind is open, you become less afraid of being wrong. You become less defensive about your ideas, and thus you become more calm and relaxed. By being open-minded, you free yourself from the risk of having your inner peace disrupted by someone who thinks differently than you.
Matt Legend Gemmell talks about SEO for Non-dicks:
The key thing to understand is that the rules of SEO aren’t magic or arbitrary. They’re based on the goals of a search engine, which is to find relevant results. Relevance implies genuineness, and genuineness implies trust. So, shockingly, you should try to make your site’s content trustworthy, genuine and relevant. All of the rules have come about due to their utility in detecting those three positive metrics. Good SEO is a by-product of not being a dick on the internet.
I first brought up the topic of SEO on this website in my post, Fine Writers & Content Creators. Since the site is so young, I’m still learning, but my goal is to use SEO without forcing it to the detriment of my integrity as a writer.
I love Matt’s last paragraph:
Stop wilfully conflating optimisation with being a slimy liar. Stop being a dick on the internet. Write something interesting, and keep doing it for months and years. SEO will then follow naturally.
I find that comforting. Writing for real people, not search engines, is my strength. I’m starting to realize that I do need to be aware of SEO, but not to the point where it becomes more important than writing genuine, thoughtful articles.
Patrick Rhone on delegating choice:
I have talked before about final choices and sensible defaults as a way I bring balance to my life by reducing the number of choices I have to make. I have recently identified one other method I increasingly use to simplify in this manner – delegating choices to someone or something else.
Very interesting, and useful for those who don’t like to make decisions.
An ergonomics study at Cornell reveals that while sitting remains unhealthy, so do prolonged periods of standing. Their bottom line:
Sit to do computer work. Sit using a height-adjustable, downward titling keyboard tray for the best work posture, then every 20 minutes stand for 2 minutes AND MOVE. The absolute time isn’t critical but about every 20-30 minutes take a posture break and move for a couple of minutes. Simply standing is insufficient.
Good to hear, since most standing desks I’ve come across are quite expensive.
Seth Godin on Merging/Emerging:
Emerging is when you use a platform to come into your own. Merging is when you sacrifice who you are to become part of something else.
Merging is what the system wants from you. To give up your dreams and your identity to further the goals of the system. Managers push for employees to merge into the organization.
Emerging is what a platform and support and leadership allow you to do. Emerging is what we need from you.
Patrick Rhone, with a splendid post on Vessels, Names, and Frames:
The vessels we create often determine the things that contain them. Also, changing the vessel can change our perception and our experience and what we place in them. Even the name of the vessel can make such determinations.
The same is true of the way we frame ourselves.
I don’t consider myself a blogger because when I think of blogs, I tend to think of people posting about the sandwich they had for lunch. I want to be taken seriously, and I want this site to be taken seriously, and as such, I consider myself a writer. That’s not to say there aren’t serious, professional bloggers out there, but when I think of myself as a writer, I feel more confident about my abilities. I take myself more seriously.
I can’t control how others perceive me, but I can control how I perceive myself.
I don’t worry too much about fashion, but the guys over at Put This On do a terrific job.
They just posted this list of 25 fashion tips every man should know:
Only wear a tie if you’re also wearing a suit or sportcoat (or, very casually, a sweater). Shirt, tie and no jacket is the wedding uniform of a nine-year-old.
Ahem… got it.
Randy Murray on how you’re reading too fast:
There’s a difference between a walk in Central Park and zipping through it cab [sic]. You might see it, but you don’t experience it, understand it. Yes, you get from point A to point B, but what you missed, well, you missed the point of the park being there in the first place.
Exactly what I needed to hear today.
Today is the first day of Mark Sisson’s annual Primal Blueprint 30-Day Challenge:
So what’s the challenge? To get Primal, of course! I hold this 30-Day Challenge every year to encourage Primal beginners to give this way of eating, moving and living a try because I know it works, I know how empowering it is, and I know it changes lives.
As I mentioned last week, Mark’s Primal Blueprint has been the only health regimen I’ve stuck with for any significant period of time. The 30-day challenge is the perfect opportunity to get started.
Making a big lifestyle change is really difficult, but that’s the great thing about 30 days. It forces you to start right now, and while you’re making a commitment, it doesn’t have to last forever if you decide you don’t like it. Give it a try.
There’s a discussion on Quora about the best ways to overcome writer’s block.
Lots of good tips, ranging from the practical by Matt McDonald:
Learn to type quickly: I find that if I can write as fast as I can think, that helps the transition from my brain to the page.
Write in your voice: This is a speechwriting bias, but I always write as I (or someone else) would speak. I don’t try to have a different voice on paper than I would have talking with a friend.
To the philosophical by Andrew Brown:
When I’m really motivated to write but don’t have anything to write, I turn off everything (computers, phone, music, sometimes even the lights) and just sit in silence, not unlike meditation. I let my mind wander wherever it wants, and it usually ends up somewhere strange, interesting, or otherwise crazy. Once I get the urge to write, I bottle it up, thinking it through for another couple minutes both to build anticipation and to clarify my thoughts, and then start writing.
Personally, I’m of the “relax and just write” persuasion. Even if it’s “I don’t know what to write. I don’t know what to write. I don’t know what to write.” over and over again. As Merlin says, you have to make the clackity noise for writing to have any chance of happening.
I don’t do much video gaming anymore. I used to when I was younger. I’d spend hours and hours exploring virtual worlds, battling evil, and living lives far more exciting than my own. Those were the days.
I miss it a great deal from time to time. Nowadays, video games don’t hold my attention like they used to. Even when I get excited and buy a new one, which is an increasingly rare occurrence, I never end up playing it for very long. I just don’t become immersed in the game’s universe like I once did.
Part of me thinks that games today are just “too good”, with their flawless graphics and amazing technical specifications. It’s like hearing a record that’s overproduced, or a movie that’s been redone and repackaged ad nauseum. Too shiny, too slick. No charm, no heart.
Part of the magic of those old video games was their flawed nature. Deformed character sprites, 8-bit musical scores, sans voice acting. Sigh.
At any rate, I stumbled upon this internet gem: a YouTube user named Garudoh has miraculously compiled a series of videos called, “From Bleeps to Beats: The Music of Video Games”, of which there are over 500 entries. I’m not ashamed to admit I was up until the wee hours of the morning listening to all the old soundtracks from my favorite games. They still hold up.
Some of my favorites:
So. Good. And so impressive for games that are about fifteen years old. I get so much joy from listening to these.
Bask in the nostalgic auditory bliss of my childhood!
Federico Viticci on venturing beyond his most used apps:
iOS devices are now playing an important role in our lives, and we shouldn’t stop exploring all the ways to make them better with new apps, and different workflows. But I believe no one can blame us for choosing the trusted system when it’s time to work, and stop tinkering.
Agreed. The search for my preferred writing app shouldn’t prevent me from actually writing.
Apps I trust:
These apps are reliable to the point where I can use them effortlessly, without thinking. They actually help me get things done, rather than put things off. I follow the developers and know I can count on them for regular, thoughtful updates. I was also glad to pay for each of them, which both supports the developer and invests me in the app’s success. Paid apps also usually indicate quality. I’d rather pay $2.99 for an app that just works than waste time trying and discarding several free apps, especially if I plan on using the app everyday.
Once I find an app that fills a particular need well, I’m content. I’m not opposed to hearing about new Twitter apps or RSS readers, but my trusted apps have set the bar very high, and thus they’ve earned my loyalty.
Hello. I’m Andrew Marvin. This is my website.
The Flowdown is a thrice-semesterly podcast featuring conversations with Three Rivers students, faculty, and staff.
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