Diego Escalante Urrelo: Link Pack #04
Writing Your Way to Happiness (nytimes.com)
Researches believe that the way we think about, and remember, our story can be so powerful that it can actually influence our happiness and success. It s a nice little article summarizing actual research. The main study referred put fresh university students to test: a group received tools to rewrite their memory and story of their academic performance, another group didn t. The first group improved their grades and had only 1 student drop school within a year, the other group had 4 drop outs and no specific improvement. I ve been thinking about this as I recently rewrote my About page and also started writing down some past Travel journals. Looking back and rewriting your own story is incredibly empowering, it s a fantastic rush of confidence and self-assertion. Memory is always betraying us, and remembering our success is not particularly high on the list of things to keep.
Fantastic read on how these artists defy the conventions of old meaning useless. Masters at their art, they haven t quit nor have laid to rest and cash their reputation. They keep making, they stay alive (physically and metaphorically) through art. No rush to get to their age, but still a really interesting letter from the future . Full of cheat codes, read this now.
A somewhat tricky read, but with a nice payback. Take your time, and savor it slowly. It s a very interesting look into how we keep wanting new stuff, and how we shield from ourselves by looking for the place with no yearns , the place where we won t want anything anymore doesn t exist. Chains very well into the reads I shared a few days ago on practical contentment.
By Adam Kirley, stunt double for Daniel Craig in the crazy crane scene of Casino Royale (where 007 jumps from monkey nuts high to donkey bonkers high, a badger bum crazy distance). Really funny, and one of those things I always find myself thinking Almost as much as what to do in case of a Post Office Showdown (xkcd.com)
Funny vignettes about how the world looks like when you are socially anxious. I can only really identify with the last one: Helsinki Bus Station Theory (fotocommunity.com)
Don t get off the bus. Art comes to those who wait and persevere. At first, you replicate the same route others have done, but only if you stay long enough in such path you begin to find your own path. Although perhaps a little more classic in conception, this is an interesting text advising artists to don t give up just because they don t compare well to the masters of their current art or genre. Only those who persevere will catch up and diverge from the masters. You could say that diverging early is also a way to find your path, but there s still a case to be made for learning from those who came before. Whether you want to imitate them, or rebel against them, you still need to know them. My take: it doesn t hurt to pick up some biographies or works from past masters and see what made them masters. Create your master genealogy, kinda like in Steal Like an Artist (which I recently read but haven t got around to write about yet).
The inspiring tale of a 90 year old woman who joined IDEO to contribute a unique point of view to the design process. You can never stop learning, life never ceases to be interesting. It s short, and not incredibly shocking, but that this has happened somewhere as referenced and revered as IDEO says a lot.
Previously on Link Pack
Researches believe that the way we think about, and remember, our story can be so powerful that it can actually influence our happiness and success. It s a nice little article summarizing actual research. The main study referred put fresh university students to test: a group received tools to rewrite their memory and story of their academic performance, another group didn t. The first group improved their grades and had only 1 student drop school within a year, the other group had 4 drop outs and no specific improvement. I ve been thinking about this as I recently rewrote my About page and also started writing down some past Travel journals. Looking back and rewriting your own story is incredibly empowering, it s a fantastic rush of confidence and self-assertion. Memory is always betraying us, and remembering our success is not particularly high on the list of things to keep.
The concept is based on the idea that we all have a personal narrative that shapes our view of the world and ourselves. But sometimes our inner voice doesn t get it completely right. Some researchers believe that by writing and then editing our own stories, we can change our perceptions of ourselves and identify obstacles that stand in the way of better health. It may sound like self-help nonsense, but research suggests the effects are real. Students who had been prompted to change their personal stories improved their grade-point averages and were less likely to drop out over the next year than the students who received no information. In the control group, which had received no advice about grades, 20 percent of the students had dropped out within a year. But in the intervention group, only 1 student or just 5 percent dropped out.Old Masters at the Top of Their Game (nytimes.com)
Fantastic read on how these artists defy the conventions of old meaning useless. Masters at their art, they haven t quit nor have laid to rest and cash their reputation. They keep making, they stay alive (physically and metaphorically) through art. No rush to get to their age, but still a really interesting letter from the future . Full of cheat codes, read this now.
Now I am 79. I ve written many hundreds of essays, 10 times that number of misbegotten drafts both early and late, and I begin to understand that failure is its own reward. It is in the effort to close the distance between the work imagined and the work achieved wherein it is to be found that the ceaseless labor is the freedom of play, that what s at stake isn t a reflection in the mirror of fame but the escape from the prison of the self. T. H. White, the British naturalist turned novelist to write The Once and Future King, calls upon the druid Merlyn to teach the lesson to the young prince Arthur: You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting.A Life with a View (ribbonfarm.com)
A somewhat tricky read, but with a nice payback. Take your time, and savor it slowly. It s a very interesting look into how we keep wanting new stuff, and how we shield from ourselves by looking for the place with no yearns , the place where we won t want anything anymore doesn t exist. Chains very well into the reads I shared a few days ago on practical contentment.
The arrival fallacy is about seeking a life from which one can look with a complacent equanimity upon the rest of reality, without yearning. It is an ideal of a life that is defined primarily by blindness to itself. You yearn while you see your life as others see it, until you arrive at a situation where you can disappear into the broader background, and see comfortably without being seen discomfittingly, especially by yourself. Once you re there, the yearning stops, so the theory goes. Of course it is a laughably bad theory.How To Escape From A Moving Car (mrporter.com)
By Adam Kirley, stunt double for Daniel Craig in the crazy crane scene of Casino Royale (where 007 jumps from monkey nuts high to donkey bonkers high, a badger bum crazy distance). Really funny, and one of those things I always find myself thinking Almost as much as what to do in case of a Post Office Showdown (xkcd.com)
Everyone s first instinct is to put their hands or legs down first. That s the worst thing you can do: you will break something. The pointy parts of your body hurt elbows, knees, hips, ankles. Put your fists under your chin, and bring your elbows together. Keep your chin tucked in to your chest to protect your head. The best point of impact is the back of the shoulder and your back. If you dive out directly onto your shoulder you ll break it.What the World Looks Like with Social Anxiety (collegehumor.com)
Funny vignettes about how the world looks like when you are socially anxious. I can only really identify with the last one: Helsinki Bus Station Theory (fotocommunity.com)
Don t get off the bus. Art comes to those who wait and persevere. At first, you replicate the same route others have done, but only if you stay long enough in such path you begin to find your own path. Although perhaps a little more classic in conception, this is an interesting text advising artists to don t give up just because they don t compare well to the masters of their current art or genre. Only those who persevere will catch up and diverge from the masters. You could say that diverging early is also a way to find your path, but there s still a case to be made for learning from those who came before. Whether you want to imitate them, or rebel against them, you still need to know them. My take: it doesn t hurt to pick up some biographies or works from past masters and see what made them masters. Create your master genealogy, kinda like in Steal Like an Artist (which I recently read but haven t got around to write about yet).
Georges Braque has said that out of limited means, new forms emerge. I say, we find out what we will do by knowing what we will not do. And so, if your heart is set on 8 10 platinum landscapes in misty southern terrains, work your way through those who inspire you, ride their bus route and damn those who would say you are merely repeating what has been done before. Wait for the months and years to pass and soon your differences will begin to appear with clarity and intelligence, when your originality will become visible, even the works from those very first years of trepidation when everything you did seemed so done before.At 90, She s Designing Tech For Aging Boomers (npr.org)
The inspiring tale of a 90 year old woman who joined IDEO to contribute a unique point of view to the design process. You can never stop learning, life never ceases to be interesting. It s short, and not incredibly shocking, but that this has happened somewhere as referenced and revered as IDEO says a lot.
And for the bulging demographic of baby boomers growing old, Beskind has this advice: Embrace change and design for it.
Previously on Link Pack