Nostalgia totally sounds like some sort of prescription nasal spray that pops up in one of those interstitial, web-page ads. It’s potent enough that it certainly shouldn’t be as readily available as it is. The instant I begin to cast my mind back 30 years to when I was participating in building the Internet and the Web— Nostalgia!

I think I’m doing better work than ever, and it is getting noticed, it just doesn’t tip the needle anymore. I’m not suffering for traffic, but “new” traffic is definitely coming from unusual and unpredictable places that are nearly impossible to capitalize on.

~ Brett Terpstra, from Back in my day…

The root of the problem is simply that time marches on, the pendulum swings, trends come and go.

30 years ago it took a bit of technical chops to even be using the Internet. Those with such chops, also tended to build things; They didn’t necessarily build from scratch, but at least they used the tools others built from scratch to then build more things. The biggest thing we all built was the Web. (Here’s a 30-year-old web site, that we still maintain just for fun: Skew)

Today of course, most people don’t use the Web as much, and precious few still build on the Web.

The great thing about taking chances when you’re younger is you have less to lose, and you don’t know as much. So you take big swings.

~ Amy Poehler

To be fair, I had no medium- nor long-term idea where I was going. We just came up with crazy ideas. And then figured out how to create it. Curiously, I don’t always feel nostalgia when I think about the stories.

Yes, the time we chose to keep working through the blizzard, until the National Guard was patrolling the highways to rescue motorists… and we ran out of food on the second day, and emptied out the vending machines in the lobby and played an insane amount of online World of Warcraft… okay, that was fun.

Over time, if you work on developing the power of your word, it will become something you don’t question. And then your word will be like a powerful magic spell you can cast anytime you need to make magic happen.

~ Leo Babauta, from Honoring Your Word to Yourself

This reminds me of Stephen Covey’s comments about putting first things first:

The degree to which we have developed our independent will in our everyday lives is measured by our personal integrity. Integrity is, fundamentally, the value we place on ourselves. It’s our ability to take and keep commitments to ourselves, to “walk our talk.” It’s honor with self, a fundamental part of the Character Ethic, the essence of proactive growth.

~ Stephen Covey

It was only a little over a year ago (as noted in my Calm Technology post) that I first heard of calm technology.

Calm technology is designed to be unobtrusive and blend in with daily life. The opposite is technology that is distracting and disruptive, creating agitation and stress.

Of course now I see what one would build using calm technology:

Calm companies provide meaningful work, healthy interactions, and flexibility for people’s lives. If your kid is home sick, you can set work aside and take care of them. If it’s a beautiful day, you can go for a run on the beach.

~ Justin Jackson, from We need more calm companies

Since stumbling over these “calm” ideas, my blog has a new, but growing tag for calm technology.

I’ve begun to wonder which is first, the “integrity with self” or the “calm tech.” Certainly for me they’ve become a virtuous cycle. More frequently I find I’m being honest with myself about what I can do in a day—with what I want to do in each today. That integrity guides my decisions to eschew more and more things which aren’t calm. Because increased calm is definitely what I need.

[…] is a state of being and consciousness that is consistent with the active, effective activity of ideal agency and in general is characterized by the calm (equanimity; tranquility) that comes from the absence of further moral struggle and the absence of retrospective regret or prospective alarm about things outside one’s control, together with the confidence that comes from the effortless persistence of moral purpose.

~ Lawrence Becker

This article picks apart neatly, the big nit I’ve always had with positive thinking: Reality is real.

Importantly, affect labelling is also more effective when it involves self-reflecting on and identifying authentic positive emotional experiences. This is different from when people try to trick themselves into feeling better by just stating that they feel good when maybe they don’t. The importance of using affective labelling in an authentic way is consistent with other research showing that people tend to enjoy higher wellbeing when they feel like they are being authentic to themselves and not faking parts of their life.

~ Christian Waugh, from Asking one simple question can entirely change how you feel

When something has pissed me off. Naming that—literally saying out loud, to myself when I’m alone, “I’m pissed off”—really does help. Positive thinking never works for me, “I’m happy!” when I’ actually mad, just makes me feel stupid for denying the reality of my lived experience.

Until next time, thanks for reading.

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