Monday, 06/21/2021

23:06 article collection

minimalism

https://alexkwa.com/japanese-minimalism/ means you only have to own a few things. has been accused as being a boring product people can buy, as something elitist and prestigious that only those with wealth can and should strive to achieve, silly otherwise.

having fewer things is a side effect: we only want to spend our time managing a certain number of things, and as such minimizing the number of things we own allows us to spend less time managing them, optimizing the time we spend organizing, sorting and looking for items we own. it's a matter of eliminating choice and additional thoughts from our lives that might otherwise be unnecessary - many people have too much to manage, and it's nice to reduce cognitive load by simplifying our lives. it's the pursuit of less committments and distractions, traded for more time to think. "less but better". it's the curation of belongings - minimalists can love things, because things can and should be treasured and last forever, so we should ensure that we buy the best version of whatever we purchase.

i have no interest in wearing the same uniform every day, but sticking to incredibly muted colors like blacks and deep blues allows me to wear whatever with whatever, so i don't really have to think about outfits. maybe in the future i'll reduce what i wear to a simple uniform, but for now i enjoy expressing myself too much to limit what i wear to that degree.

i aspire to own no physical books, and i've pared down every 'collection' of mine to either the items in the collection that I use or to none at all. one of my main goals is to be portable - i don't want to have to make any decisions when packing because i will own exactly what i need to bring with me - nothing less and nothing more. eventually, as I live, experience, move and am exposed to more, i will have a better idea of what i need and will be able to continue to get rid of all that I do not. for now, though, i am stuck in the limbo of college education, between my parents' home and temporary apartments and a potential permanent residence, and with many belongings i may still have a need for in the future.

as i learn more about myself, i'll know precisely what products i need - and i'll be able to either purchase them or make them myself. i'll also be able to cut back on consuming the media i don't enjoy and focus on what i need as i begin to build more of a community and a following, but for now social networking tools like instagram are indespensable to my personal interests. understanding yourself is probably the most difficult thing you can do, but once this has been mastered - understanding yourself as you exist now, understanding your ideal self, and swiftly closing the gap between them - you will be able to accomplish exactly what you'd like to with absolutely minimal friction, which is the ultimate optimisation.

bill watterson and calvin and hobbes

https://thomasjbevan.substack.com/p/bill-watterson-and-the-perfect-artistic calvin and hobbes as we know it is incredibly different from watterson's initial work, but he made significant choices, completely avoiding fame as he worked and developed his comic strip while refusing to license any sort of tshirts, toys, or media outside of the comic strip he maintains. he quit working on the strip entirely, completely owning all of the rights to his work and continuing to live with the legacy of the comic.

every new work seems to decrease the quality of legacy, cheapening the work with halfassed accessibility and reperformance that in reality corrupts the original work completely. staying 'in the game' too long, the author argues, considerably cheapens the art - you should be able to find your peak, and choose to bow out at the peak unless you know you've developed something significant enough to impact legacy. always consider what you want to gain from your work and what you want your work to represent - without that focus, your words might be lost to deteriorate in quality or face hypocrisy outright.

the problem with the car

https://apexsnotes.substack.com/p/the-car-and-the-world the car can be a literal engine of freedom -- used to allow for some alone time and ndependence. this article is stupid, it uses big words and talks big but has no real substance. blah blah blah the resolution is obviously to build places that do not require cars, but there is no proposition for how this can and should be accomplished. sure, public spaces should offer some privacy that the car currently plays the role of, but honestly there should no longer be a need for cars in major cities.

bestselling by poe

https://poecansaveyourlife.substack.com/p/how-to-become-a-bestselling-writer weird that poe wasn't necessarily some super depressed dude, he just wrote what people would buy and continued to do it, rather than expressing himself 'purely' and self publishing everything until he landed on the idea of good marketing

start with a commercial genre then elevate it: take what people are doing now and criticise it, twist it, play with it and make something fun and new. if it's already commercial, it's already been tried and true, so there is plenmty of room for new success.

write the first line of your next thing: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/07/why-stephen-king-spends-months-and-even-years-writing-opening-sentences/278043/ make sure the opening line invites the reader to begin the story. the first line should tell you everything - what it contains and doesn't contain populates the story, improving and exaggerating it to providwe interesting context and allow you to just jump in. first sentences should always stick with you - they are wonderful and should be treasured.

also, aim for a hundred rejections a year - actively seek rejection because it means you're trying and making moonshots!! if just one percent of your attempts are successful, the one attempt could absolutely kill it. all that matters is consistency of effort and continuing to force shit out of consistently excellent quality until something sticks with someone, then something else with someone else, and suddenly you've built a community. carefully track these mistakes because they show progress! they show your success. fail again and fail again and fail better. remember that rejection is a conversation; if it's rejected, then it's at least been seen! - so do not dread submitting, because it's liberating to throw shit at the fan even if nothing sticks. the feedback, if done well, should be invaluable.