7 for Sunday

How do we know? Of course my default point of view is anthropocentric. I am a human being. As such, I have a super-power called the Theory of Mind: In my mind, I understand (the theory goes) that there are other minds completely separate from mine. Imagining the contents of those (theorized) other minds is…

How can one find peace and balance in a life perpetually filled with self-imposed tasks and external demands? Stop me if you’ve heard this one: “I have more things to do, than I can possibly ever finish.” Decades ago I wore, “I’m busy!” as a badge of honor. I proudly rushed in to help. I…

How can I judge whether the path I am on is the right one for me, a path that has meaning, purpose, and heart? The first way I can think to judge is to pay attention to my mornings: It’d be a great sign if I’m popping out of the ol’ comfy covers excited to…

How can we balance the drive for improvement and creation, with the values of clarity and intentionality? Because my drive is to add things. To add features, capabilities, new options, entire projects. Improvement through addition. Forward progress through consensus building. See something missing? Add something to fill that space. Of course, you see where this…

When I was a kid I never thought about how the contents of a museum come to be the actual contents. I had vague notions of Indiana Jones escapades, organized expeditions of discovery, and dusty research to assemble artifacts’ histories. But I never thought about the curation aspect of a museum. I suppose I just…

Have you read Quiet by Susan Cain? It was a quake-book for me; but I think you have to be an introvert to get that effect from it. If I had to summarize its point, it would be that introversion is about how one recharges and not—as commonly described—about how one shows up around others.…

I get frustrated when it becomes apparent that my hard-won knowledge had a limited lifespan. I’m left trying to pound square pegs into round holes. Take goal-setting for example; in the beginning of my journey I had no knowledge about how to set goals, later I learned how to set SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic,…

The creative journey, writ small, is sometimes (Ira Glass among others) described in six or so steps. They go as follows: I used to think I wasn’t really a “creative” person; Sure, I would always have agreed that I was creative, in the “good at problem solving” sense… but creative? …you mean like an artist?!…

I’ve been struggling of late. The Police quote below is very apropos. I think I’ve optimized too much of the frivolity out of life. The cure, obviously is to systematize my reading! …no, just kidding. For the first 30+ years I was a voracious reader of fiction; mostly science-fiction, but also straight up classics, literature…

An extremely fast way to get to mindfulness—this is the fastest way I’ve found so far—is to think: This may well be the last time I do this. The last walk. The last boulder I scramble upon. The last conversation with this person. The last conversation ever. The last word I type. The last sentence…