For me it was these.
“A focused fool can accomplish more than a distracted genius”
“Until the lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter”
These two quotes really helped get my @** in gear.
“Never perfect. Perfection goal that changes. Never stops moving. Can chase, cannot catch.”
It’s a video game quote but it helped me realise that there is always some aspect that can be changed for the better
https://youtu.be/npkeecCErQc?si=gYzjaai7eZEoJ5tq
Yellow Parenti. Helped to remove myself from obsession over optics and just do what helps people.
“The first thing that jumps to your mind isn’t always what you truly think. Sometimes, it’s just what you’ve been trained to think. What matters, is what you do next”
I grew up in a really racist, queerphobic environment, and that comment really helped me by letting me give myself space to undo the bigoted indoctrination I had been taught, without getting trapped in guilt and self disgust whenever one of the racist or bigoted things I was raised with jumped in to my mind.
It let me recognise the bigot thoughts as something I was trained to think, rather than being what I actually believe, and by recognising it, I could disempower the thought, and start to unlearn it
That’s a powerful thought.
Conditioning significantly influences our psyche.
These thoughts that are the result of conditioning are like knee jerk reactions.
Our brain is designed to conserve energy so it actually prioritises conditioned knee jerk reactions rather than introspective thoughts.
One needs significant amount of training to bypass this process.
Similarly if you shit talk yourself in your head to motivate yourself it really will eventually start to condition you that way even if it does motivate you
“You cannot love someone else until you love yourself.”
My dad raised me on this. If don’t see yourself worthy of love from even yourself, you’ll never be able to accept it from someone else. Healthy love is mutual. Also, this ties back into the idea that if you don’t see yourself worthy of love, it means you need to work on yourself until you do rather than trying to fill that gap with someone else.
Similarly. You cannot forgive yourself until your forgive your transgressor. Pent up anger is no god for your health.
I found that same nugget just under a decade ago. Dropped off the dating scene to work on myself. It really made me reflect. I’m still working on myself and honestly I suspect I will be for a while to come.
It took me over 6 years after my first serious relationship to really start figuring myself out and getting in tune with who I really was. I’m definitely still on the path and I realize more and more why my last relationship ended. It really was the best thing for me at the time.
When I first came across that wisdom I realized my desire in a relationship was to just pour myself into the other person, basically worship them. But not for their benefit, but to distract myself from myself. It’s fairly easy to see how that goes wrong.
I’m still learning, and I’ve found even more stuff I need to work on, but either I get there or I don’t, what matters if I never stopped trying.
Reminds me of 28 Days.
I did not kill this plant, it was sick or something. I gave it everything. I was talking to it, telling it stories. I drew a sketch of it, and put it on my refrigerator.
Did you water it?
I killed the plant.
“Excellence is not an act, but a habit” - Aristotle teaching that good comes from the whole, not from a single step. Focus on the whole, and the steps will follow.
“So, what’s the next action for this?” - the GTD approach to task management teaching me to be specific and then go do it (or plan it, or delegate it). This really kicks me into productivity mode.
I am not older than you, i just have been young longer
Be excellent to each other, and party on dudes.
It’s so simple but genuinely words to live by.
I’ve always prided myself on being empathetic and sympathetic to people no matter what. During the me too times, a lady was being interviewed about why survivors and victims don’t go to the authorities about their treatment from (men) powerful people.
She said something along the lines of “stand with us if you want things to change, but don’t you dare stand opposite to tell me how offended I’m allowed to be”. In an instant I realised I’d been guilty of minimizing the suffering of others simply because I’d not been through what they’d been through (in a sense - if I wouldn’t be offended why should they?). Changed my whole outlook on life actually
“The most important step a man can take is the next one”
And
“Sometimes a hypocrite is nothing more than a man in the process of changing”Dalinar really has some of the best quotes in Stormlight
Just finished the Mistborn series (serieses? What’s the plural of series?) with my son. We’re about to start Stormlight. I’ve already read them once, but am stoked to read them again and have my son experience them for the first time!
Serii? (lol)
I hope he enjoys it too! Those are some very amazing books, although their size might be a bit dauting for some people.
I’m also looking forward to Stormilght 5 this december. Have to start my re-read in preparation for it soon.
Stormlight 5 coming out is exactly why I decided to start with my son now! If we time it right, we should be pretty close to when 5 is released!
“In the corporate world, nobody has any compassion, ever.” - A friend told me as I was about to take my first real job. Brutal and maybe exaggerated, but exactly what I needed to manage my own expectations.
A Corporation is:
- an incorporated “person”, that
- is legally-obliged to be psychotic, narcissistic, machiavellian, sociopathic-psychopathic, and short-termist/nihilist, using all the systemic-dishonesty that it can, for gain
- the only dimension of the DarkHexad that it isn’t obliged to be, is sadistic… that’s optional.
- it cannot ever be put in prison, because it’s a herd, not an individual: it can dissipate, but it cannot die, or be forced to experience karma: only individuals can be truly-accountable.
( DarkHexad:
- narcissistic
- machiavellian
- sociopathic-psychopathic
- nihilist
- sadist
- systemic-dishonesty )
( all this to say that the legalistically-enacted-treason of granting “personhood” to corporations killed strategic-viability for all countries, and the highjacking-of-the-world’s-economy AND the world’s-governments, by corporations, is global unfolding proof.
What should have happened, is a separate category of pseudopersons should have been created, with systematically-limited rights, including prohibiting the things from interfering in elections,
but that would have required some real integrity & spine… )
( finally, for anybody so young/naive as to believe that charities are inherently-good, go volunteer in the management of one for a few years, & then see how you view integrity… )
“The magic you are seeking is in the work you are avoiding”
“Gentoo can be easy or hard, depending on how you look at it”
Now I really need to hear how you look at it…
I just assume it’s easy with instructions. It’s turned out well till now
check out Funtoo, instead of Gentoo:
it’s the guy who began Gentoo, doing an improved version.
Probably most speeches by Conan O’Brien.
Conan O’Brien’s 2011 Dartmouth College Commencement Address: https://youtu.be/KmDYXaaT9sA
Conan Addresses The Harvard Class Of 2020: https://youtu.be/VI2B3sZ1GaY
Very riveting stuff.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/KmDYXaaT9sA
https://piped.video/VI2B3sZ1GaY
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Two things, actually. “You are fired”, and “You are hired”. Also, does “I do” count?
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
- Ferris Bueller, from the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.I love that movie for so many reasons.
I loved that if you stayed through the credits there was a small bit there.
I think it was the first movie to do that.