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Illusions of success, or perhaps even delusions of success, have become the key reason that most talented individuals find themselves in dead-end avenues of employment or must struggle as “starving artists” in an attempt to get by. The issue is not in having employment where you have to answer to a boss or going to…
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Whenever I get in a bad mood, I do what I can to reframe the situation. I try to put what’s negative into a more positive frame so that I can build off of that. One of the ideas that I’ve gotten when trying to figure out how to be more positive is the idea…
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History is often poorly represented and so much is being lost to current generations. If you want to learn anything about history, good luck finding any decent guided tours. You must do much digging and piecing things together to get enough insight into history to make your trip worth embarking upon. Essentially, if you want…
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I’ve dabbled in philosophy a lot over the years, including watching many philosophy videos on Khan Academy. Yet I’ve never actually sat and read many original philosophical works. When I have, I find myself lost. It seems like I can’t put myself into the right state of mind very often to understand the profound ideas…
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“One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.” – Maya Angelou With courage, Maya Angelou once said, comes the ability to consistently practice any other kind of virtue, including kindness, honesty, and…
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“Writing: It starts at the keyboard, and it ends at the far corners of the universe.” — Paako, From Vincent Lowry, Constellation Chronicles: The Lost Civilization of Aries Long ago I came across this quote on Twitter and it got me thinking. Whenever I sit down to write something, I usually don’t have much of…
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“Failure runs parallel to letting your guard down.” – Eric Longenhagen & Kiley McDaniel, Future Value No matter how hard you try to prevent it, failure will happen in your life. It’s an unavoidable part of being human, especially when you have your guard down. Sometimes you think it’s safe to relax and let your…
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“It is better to learn wisdom late than never to learn it at all.” – Sherlock Holmes, from Arthur Conan Doyle’s Holmes short story, The Man with the Twisted Lip. While I’ve always been a fan of the Sherlock Holmes mystery stories, since reading the DK Big Ideas Book about Sherlock Holmes, I’ve gained new…
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“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by.” – Marcus Aurelius Accepting and cherishing your own individuality is the most important thing in leading a good life. The greatest…
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“Luck is the residue of design.” – Branch Rickey, legendary baseball general manager Branch Rickey is most famous for being the general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers who signed Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to become a regular player in Major League Baseball. In baseball circles, though, he’s perhaps even more famous for inventing what…
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“Ask for money, you get advice, ask for advice, get money twice.” – Pitbull Yes, this quote is from the very Pitbull you believe I’m referring to, the rapper from Miami, Florida. The quote is literally from the opening lines of “Feel This Moment,” the fourth single from his Global Warming album. This is excellent…
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“Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not.” – Pablo Picasso Many people might think of Picasso as the man who looked at the world as if it were a kaleidoscope and thought, “Why not make it even more twisted?” But, he’s also the guy…
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“You know my method. It is founded on the observation of trifles.” – Sherlock Holmes in “The Boscombe Valley Mystery” Sherlock Holmes is perhaps the greatest fictional detective of all time and Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous character. It’s probably not too surprising as I find myself quoting Holmes that I tend to analyze everyday…
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“Failure is always an option.” – Adam Savage of MythBusters Is it better to fail miserably and be forgotten, or to fail gloriously and make history? Would it be better to fail in obscurity and fade away into irrelevance? Or, should we seek to fail spectacularly in public view so that others may partake in…
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“You gain more by not being stupid than you do by being smart.” – Phil Birnbaum, baseball analyst, “An Important Life Lesson from Blackjack and Baseball” In an article published on Slate.com, baseball analyst Phil Birnbaum talked about focusing on minimizing bad decisions rather than trying too hard to make the right decisions. Birnbaum continued…
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Intellectualism is defined as “the exercise of the intellect at the expense of emotions.” In other words, it’s when you convince yourself you’re smart by ignoring your feelings. For the philosophers in the back, intellectualism is also a fancy cousin to rationalism, the belief that knowledge comes from pure reason, not from our muddled emotional…
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This is a response to a particularly thought-provoking newsletter from one of my favorite Substack writers. It’s part of her 28-day Writer’s Notebook challenge to find joy in writing again. This particular post from Collected Rejections gave me pause. Valorie Clark discusses the word “inevitability,” its roots, and the conclusion she comes to is that…
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In the world of Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow (Generation I), one type oozes through nearly every corner of the Kanto region: Poison. From the very first routes to the Elite Four, players are inundated with noxious creatures – purple sludge monsters, smog-spewing orbs, venomous plants, and Zubat swarms. It turns out almost 22% of…
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A Deep Dive into a Modern Pop Masterpiece Sabrina Carpenter’s latest single “Manchild” might just be one of the most brilliant pop songs of the 2020s. Beyond its catchy beat and sassy lyrics, the track doubles as sharp social commentary, and its music video unfolds as a pastiche of classic film moments that enrich the…
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When will people begin to value their time properly? Time is the most valuable resource of all. It’s the one unrenewable resource every single one of us has, and none of us can gain it back once it’s passed. On this earth, we each have twenty-four hours in a day, but how we choose to…