STRAT_SCRAPS v43
The desert is never its average temperature
I’ve always been a big advocate of trusting you gut. However, I think there are two important caveats to this.
Trust gut reactions. Not gut thoughts. The difference is a reaction is primal. Gut thoughts are not always sure what they’re trying to say yet– and therefore can’t be trusted until they are given some time to percolate.
Listening to your gut reactions takes practice. And can easily be confused with bias. I don’t have advice on how to separate the two. But gut reactions don’t override bias.
PIRATE BOOKS
I recently learned about the concept of a “Commonplace book” – which was essentially how people saved quotes and thoughts while reading before scanners or Evernote.
Because most books were not owned, if one came across a passage they liked, it was added to their commonplace book, which was kept nearby and slowly gathered all the things they found interesting over time.
Fuckin rad.
Here is a good one called “Sweet Theft: A Poet’s Commonplace book” (LINK)
A couple choice quotes…
“Who would be a goody that could be a genius?”
“SM—Describes not the object itself, but the effect it produces.”
“A verse: not words, but intentions.”
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If you enjoy fishing (or TV about fishing), the host of River Monsters wrote a book that is just as much about life as it is about fishing. And anything that is about life is about strategy.
link.
STRAT SCRAPS
A lot of accumulated scraps since I’ve missed a beat or two.
The Situationists
I love wikipedia, but it often is surprisingly bad at simplifying already complex or intellectual topics.
Case in point, the description for the Situationist movement is a difficult read and it is a paragraph long.
I read a fair amount about Surrealism/Dadaism but had never really known much about this belief set or group.
Turns out what they believed was that art should be infused into public life. The purpose being to prevent art from being sequestered off to galleries that inherently limit access. They wanted to create a “society of spectacle”
…Same.
Notes from the archive
An uncovered mattress is so sad. What a difference a sheet can make.
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Lava Boy and Shark Girl made more money than Sin City. (the case for low bro, mass culture)
Nobody remembers Lava Boy and Shark Girl, and most remember Sin City (the case for niche)
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Loyalty is the only (?) commonly approved form of extremism.
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Trying to predict the future tells us more about the present than anything.
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We have the technology/knowledge/ability to live longer and healthier lives. But instead we just want to live life at 100%.
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We have extreme “freedom from” and restricted “freedom to”
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I don't control my brain, I work with it
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We don’t value what we can’t quantify
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Logic is the key to scientific truths, but paradoxes are the key to psychological ones.
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Table Selection: This idea comes from poker, where you’re advised to choose your opponents carefully. That means you shouldn’t compete against the best people. You don’t need to get good at doing difficult things if you get good at avoiding difficult things. If you want to win, pick an easy table and nail your execution.
WEEKLY MONSTER
