Category: Around the World
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Value your ignorance
My friend Abdel’s lament, after watching a student “solve” the Rubik’s Cube on his desk just like the YouTube video showed her how: “You need to value your ignorance.” Ross Gay, The Book of Delights When I played video games as a young boy, I constantly referred to cheat codes and guides. I wanted to…
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Dependence
From: Steve Jobs To: Steve Jobs Subject: Date: September 2, 2010, 11:08 p.m. I grow little of the food I eat, and of the little I do grow I did not breed or perfect the seeds. I do not make any of my own clothing. I speak a language I did not invent or refine.…
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Assumptions and big decisions
Patrick McKenzie says to Tyler Cowen: I had gone to university at Washington University in St Louis to study computer science. I was worried because the Wall Street Journal said the dot com bust means that engineering employment will cease in the United States of America. All future engineers will be hired in China or…
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Creativity and data
In Nightingale, the journal of the Data Visualization Society, Victor Muñoz discusses applying my post on the four stage creative process to his data physicalization project. I really appreciated Victor’s post, which was a demonstration in how widely creativity is applied. (Other parts I liked: The journey involves Figma, a daily creative operation, and is…
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Meditating on a flight
Here’s a passage that recently came to mind as I embark on travel, from 50 Cent’s Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter: Whenever I’m feeling a little stressed, I’ll sit in that room and say my mantra for ten or fifteen minutes. It’s a very easy way to regain control of my mind. Having that room is…
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“The road is made by walking”
Walker, your footsteps are the road, and nothing more. Walker, there is no road, the road is made by walking. Walking you make the road, and turning to look behind you see the path you never again will step upon. Walker, there is no road, only foam trails on the sea. Border of a Dream: Selected Poems of Antonio Machado, translated by Willis Barnstone
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A place is a tool
Whenever you feel like what you’re doing is really difficult, try changing where you do it. I wrote about this in-depth at Forge. I also recently heard Paul Ford and Rich Ziade describe the office as a tool, which reminded me of a story from my student days, about how the library was a tool…
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A gym for reading
Yoshitaka Haba, who works as a book curator (!) and started a private library and cafe, Donkou / Kissa Fang, says: “There are lots of things I’m worried about, but the thing I’m most worried about is that the competition for our time is too intense. Right now, it’s possible to surprise, entertain, and impress…
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The case against the case against travel
A few weeks ago, I came across this piece making the case against travel. There has been some interesting commentary on the piece already (here, and here), and I wanted to share some points: 1. One thing worth appreciating is context: while travel has remained the same in many ways, it has also drastically changed.…