December 2008
72 posts
Pay It Backwards: An Act Of Coffee Kindness →
(via jingc:cakeface)
The Art of Radical Exclusion →
I sometimes practice the fine art of radical exclusion. This is where I deliberately ignore or decline any number of inputs, messages, or requests for my attention in order to focus on what I decide is more important.
The theory of radical exclusion is that if I’m chasing down voicemail and hanging on every email, I’m probably not changing the world.
(via jingc:Lifehacker)
Photography, and the Tolerance for Courageous... →
Nobody likes feeling like a noob, especially when you’re getting constant pressure on all sides to never stick out in an unflattering way. And, in this godforsaken just-add-Wikipedia era of make-believe insight and instant expertise, it’s natural to start believing you must never suck at anything or admit to knowing less than everything — even when you’re just starting out. Clarinets should...
“Live as if everything you do will eventually be known.”
– Hugh Prather (via kari-shma) (via jessicachu)
“In a famous 1960 article called “Marketing Myopia,” Theodore Levitt held up the...”
– James Surowiecki, “News You Can Lose” (via seantice)
“If a small thing has the power to make you angry, does that not indicate...”
– Sydney J. Harris (via candiedjamz)
“The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability...”
– Stanley Kubrick (via tmblg)
“When I was young, I used to admire intelligent people; as I grow older, I admire...”
– Abraham Joshua Heschel (via littlemiss)
“The only way to accept an insult is to ignore it. If you can’t ignore it, top...”
– (via littlemiss)
“I am not tired, just angry at the way many people can think and act only that...”
– Mareen Fischinger (via marco)
“Fall in love with the process and the results will follow. You’ve got to want to...”
– Bradley Whitford (via scout) (via thoughtsdetained)
“what we *know* always exceeds what we can *explain*. Those who keep getting...”
– Twitter / Kathy Sierra
“It’s possible to become so comfortable with one’s style and structure that one...”
– Lynn Abbey (via kari-shma) (via erickd)
“I like being reminded that nobody’s going to help me - that it’s all up to me....”
– Derek Sivers
318. Don't gloat. A good friend will do it for...
(via rulesformyunbornson)
“Fate controls who walks into your life. You decide who you let walk out, who you...”
– Unknown (via overflowing)
“An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very...”
– Niels Bohr
“A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing.”
– Oscar Wilde
“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
– Kurt Vonnegut
In my experience, we’re all capable of bad, average, and good work. I’ve certainly done bad work at times and plenty of average work. What I’ve realized is that the good and the exceptional work is at least as much about my environment as it is about me. Average environments begets average work. […]
Good people do bad work or worse all the time Just think of all the great people and...
Somewhere along the line, the focus of our dreams downshifts from what’s imaginable to what’s attainable — from what’s fun to what’s practical, from what’s risky to what’s responsible. Ambitions of playing in the NFL are dulled by playing (and losing) intramural college games, the desire to learn how to fly never gets off the ground, and aspirations to...
Real Advice Hurts
Merlin Mann:
We can’t get good at something solely by reading about it. And we’ll never make giant leaps in any endeavor by treating it like a snack food that we munch on whenever we’re getting bored. You get good at something by doing it repeatedly. And by listening to specific criticism from people who are already good at what you do. And by a dedication to getting better,...
“Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss...”
– Eleanor Roosevelt
“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that...”
– Maya Angelou
“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round...”
– Apple Computer Inc. (via overflowing) (via thoughtsdetained)
“Every day you don’t practice you’re one day further from being good.”
– Ben Hogan (via markn)
“Great minds have purposes; little minds have wishes. Little minds are subdued by...”
– Washington Irving (via affremblequotes)
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
– Gandhi
“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher...”
– William Arthur Ward
“Education would be so much more effective if its purpose were to ensure that by...”
– Sir William Haley
“If you want me to give you a two-hour presentation, I am ready today. If you...”
– Mark Twain (via dangerousintersection)
“The more you say, the less people remember. The fewer the words, the greater the...”
– Felelon (via dangerousintersection)
“If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.”
– Marcus T. Cicero (via dangerousintersection)
How many hours of organizational time and productivity are lost in the endless retelling of our coworkers’ blunders? How much internal anger and stress do we generate reliving real or imagined slights? On too many occasions, “team building” feedback exercises degenerate into “Let me tell you what you did wrong” and not “Let me ask you what we can do...
The Dip, by Seth Godin, is a very small book (80 pages) that says, in short: - Winners quit (regroup. cut their losses, switch gears) whenever necessary on the path to winning. - Be the best, and the world comes knocking at your door. - Work through the pain, because the reward is waiting for you further down the road.
(via amazon)
“People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered. Love them anyway. If you...”
– Mother Teresa (via littlemiss)
“You could be right. You could be wrong. Remember this. Especially the second...”
– (via: I wrote this for you) (via kari-shma)
“Learn to pick your battles. Ask yourself, ‘Will this matter one year from now?...”
– Unknown (via overflowing) (via kari-shma)