—Tolstoy in “A Calendar of Wisdom“The truly useful, the truly good, and therefore the truly great, is always simple.
Tag: Life
Life ∞ Death
There must be a limit to life, just as with the fruits of a tree and of the earth, or the seasons of the year; everything must have a beginning, a continuation and an end. Wise people accept this process willingly.
— Cicero, TD (from ‘A calendar of wisdom’ by Leo Tolstoy, Roger Cockrell)
42
… but what actually is it?
Once you do know what the question actually is, you’ll know what the answer means.
—H2G2
A class I want to attend – on writing, editing, pruning, shining.
…A writing course. Every assignment would be delivered in five versions: A three page version, a one page version, a three paragraph version, a one paragraph version, and a one sentence version.
I don’t care about the topic. I care about the editing. I care about the constant refinement and compression.
—Jason Fried, in ‘The writing class I’d like to teach’
Each step requires asking “What’s really important?” That’s the most important question you can ask yourself about anything. The class would really be about answering that very question at each step of the way. Whittling it all down until all that’s left is the point.
Please Exercise!
Exercise is one of the few activities in life that is indisputably good for us—an undertaking that extends enormous benefits but extracts few costs. Exercise helps us live longer. It fends off heart disease and diabetes. It reduces our weight and improves our strength. And its psychological value is enormous. For people suffering from depression, it can be just as effective as medication. For healthy people, it’s an instant and long-lasting mood booster. Anyone who examines the science on exercise reaches the same conclusion: People would be silly not to do it.
—Dan Pink, in When
Stories vs reality
Newspapers and television carry tales of lottery wins and fairytale romances, terrorist atrocities or gruesome assaults by strangers.
None of these stories reflect everyday life
All of them are viscerally memorable and seem to take place in our living rooms.
Choosing – things, people, options, everything…
Because we should be choosing what we want to keep, not what we want to get rid of.
– Marie Kondo, in The life changing magic of tidying
3 rules for a long life…
The last time I saw my Grandma Ruth alive, she was 93 years old. She had been bedridden for three years, but her mind was intact. I asked her how she had lived so long.
“Well,” she said, “You have to eat. You have to exercise. And you have to find a man to have sex with. That’s very important.”
An enterprise’s core focus…
It’s tricky to define better. But without a doubt, the heart and soul of a thriving enterprise is the irrational pursuit of becoming irresistible.
Seth’s Blog: Irresistible is rarely easy or rational
I just absolute love this phrase:
the irrational pursuit of becoming irresistible
I also love the word ‘enterprise‘ – it fits equally to a business objectives, as to a personal project, or a community action.
An extraordinary life…
Hemingway saw action in both World Wars, lived in Paris as part of the ‘lost generation’ where he mingled with the great artists and writers of his time, immersed himself with the bullfighting culture of Spain, was a field reporter during the Spanish Civil War, lived and partied in Cuba, drank with movie stars, hunted big game in Africa, loved to box and had been married four times.
ZEN PENCILS » 214. ERNEST HEMINGWAY: A lonely life, August 2, 2017 at 02:13PM
He had lived an extraordinary life. One of the world’s most famous writers, his personal exploits had become as renowned as his work.
Use my marker 