The most fundamental principle I use while building anything came from the book Art and Fear.
The ceramics teacher announced on opening day he was splitting the class into two clusters. All those on the left side of the room would be ranked alone on the quantity of work they produced and all those on the right solely on its quality. His method was simple: on the last day of class he would bring in his weighing scales and literally weigh the work of the quantity group: 50 pounds of pots would get an A, 40 pounds would get a B, and so on. Those to be graded on quality, though, needed to produce only one pot although a perfect one to get an A. When grading time came, a curious fact emerged: the work of highest quality was all produced by the group being graded for quantity.
It seems while the quantity bunch was busy outputting heaps of work and learning from their blunders the quality group was sitting theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little to show for their efforts than grandiose theories with a pile of dead clay.
11/30/21
The fact that people fought this man with no body protection, could you imagine how they felt the next day? Shattered bones, bruised organs - Who could take rounds of punishment like that?! Just knock me out in the first round, dude, and give me my millions. I think a lot of his opponents thought that way.
10/13/21
Mistakes happens! Even a faulty decision, carried out with zest and intent, can turn out very well(Heard of the Chinese farmer Parable?) Your funk is going to be way more damaging to you than not making that right decision. I don't waste energy in regret - It's in the forward that I discover new things. Past is imaginary - We have no power in the past, only in today. Tomorrow is around an opaque corner and so we are not guaranteed anything beyond today. I often think the people I know, and all the people I don't know, who thought they had a tomorrow, and...don't and didn't. Get a notebook - Put everything that is no longer possible on the left side. Stuff you can no longer do.
On the right side, add all the things that are possible. Want to move to NYC? do it. Too old to make music? you are not! Now erase the entire past on the left side........that's OFF THE TABLE. Not worthy of your thought. Now you have stuff on the right side to work on, put energy towards it. Find the silver lining. When you are young, you say - "when I have that, I'll be done" but then when you have it, how many times do you look back and say, "When we had nothing, it was such a good time" Just live the moment. like really live it.
09/5/21
It's simple to be hard and hard to be simple....is what I am learning when learning to write. When I resonate with a writer I see they are not trying to be clever but clear. The main trick is keeping things simple. Simple writing is counter-intuitively persuasive. Simple means no extra words + one thought per sentence. The goal of every sentence is to make the reader read the next and it all starts with the hook - spend extra time there. But what do I know? I am still learning.
07/10/21
I made an NFT collection. Why? I don't know. "Buidling" felt better than buying. But what's with the name? Well, all images are mathematically generated and look like flowers. Get it?
06/01/21
In 2013, I got a text in the middle of the night, that my father had a stroke. After battling for 3 months, he passed away. Just like that. The world became a scarier place and I changed forever.
I just heard about Kobe and just like that he is gone.
It sounds like a cliche but no less true -life is too short and delicate. Meditate, dance, laugh, be kind, do what you love, just don't stand in line and march till the end. Just fucking get after it because you never know when your time is up. It's a reminder to be present with your full attention.....because this moment is all we have and it's fleeting.
01/27/20