I’ve read a number of good books over the past few months, but there was too much tech news to get to them. It’s time to clear my queue before I head to Las Vegas and the Hexagon tech conference.
Oliver Burkeman composed his latest book, Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts, in the style of aphorisms. I have two other books in that style to which I refer often—The Bed of Procrustes by Nassim Nicholas Taleb and The Song of Significance by Seth Godin. His column is The Imperfectionist reflecting on productivity as not trying to be perfect. The follow on book is Four Thousand Weeks. That also is a recommended books.
I’ve decided to post a bunch of aphorisms that I highlighted. The style of aphorisms does not suggest reading from front to back as in a normal book. You can pick it up and start anywhere, reading for a bit, then thinking.
Is there life before death? Anthony de Mello
Hartmut Rosa, misguided idea that reality can and should be controllable.
The greatest achievements often involve remaining open to serendipity, seizing unplanned opportunities, or riding unexpected bursts of motivation.
This book takes it as a given that you’ll never get on top of everything. Never feel fully confident about the future. Or fully understand what makes people tick.
Give up trying to do everything so that you can focus on what matters.
Ideas that get under your skin and persist.
Like the moment when you get caught in a rainstorm without an umbrella and you finally abandon your futile efforts to stay dry accepting getting soaked to the skin.
You are free to do whatever you like. You need only face the consequences. Consequences are not optional.
It is not information overload but filter failure.
William James—the art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.
“I refuse to endorse the claim that we are human beings, not human doings.” Spend more of your time on worthwhile and life-enriching activities.
Decisions—not something that comes along, but something to go hunting for.
There is a mysterious energy in finishing things.
A true life-task will be something you can do.
We cannot change anything unless we accept it. CG Jung
Make friends with your problems.
Doing things “daily-ish”
Not everything that is more difficult is ore meritorious. Thomas Aquinas
Reverse Golden Rule—self-compassion.
On the futility of “becoming a better person.”
You can’t make something like becoming a better person happen—you have to let it happen.
Act on a generous impulse the moment it arrives.
“In my experience, generosity never leads to remorse.”
Other people’s negative emotion are their problem.
CS Lewis—What one calls interruptions are precisely one’s real life.
Fixity of attention is not our baseline. The natural state of mind is often for it to gently bounce around.
You might even argue that what makes modern digital distraction so pernicious isn’t the way it disrupts attention, but the fact that it holds it, with content algorithmically engineered to compel people for hours, thereby rendering them less available for the serendipitous and fruitful kind of distraction.
Right now is the only time that really exists.
Start now!
1. Decide who you want to be
2. Act from that identity immediately
Engage in behaviors that constitute a meaningful life—allow feelings to follow.
Deal with a backlog by isolating it.
View to-do list as a menu.
A perfectly kept house is a sign of a misspent life. Mary Randolf Carter
Mentors should not exhibit perfections but be more candid about failures and struggles.
Everyone is screwed up, broken, clingy, and scared. Anne Lamott
Good Experiences are for living, not holding on to.
Sometimes it is best to say we don’t know why. We can’t explain everything.
Know you’re doing something that matters.
Avoid perfectionism. Move toward imperfectionism.
