A self is a personal mythos — a story through which we sieve the complexity and contradictions of lived experience for coherence. The cruelest price of success — that affirmation of the self by the world — is the way it can ossify the story of person, ensnare them into
The meaning of life, in a short verse.
To be a true person is to be entirely oneself in every circumstance, with all the courage and vulnerability this requires. And yet because a person is a confederacy of parts often at odds and sometimes at war with each other, being true is not a pledge to be a paragon of
"We cannot deeply love anything without becoming vulnerable to loss. And we cannot become separate people, responsible people, connected people, reflective people without some losing and leaving and letting go."
I learned two important pieces of news in this post: 1) Frozen OJ from concentrate as a product is being discontinued by major producers . 2) Beverage analysts refer to market share as “share of throat.” And I think that’s just lovely. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
A great paradox of being alive in this civilization is that we have come to dread and devalue the triumph of having lived, forgetting that to grow old is not a punishment but a privilege — that of having survived the loneliness of childhood, the brash insecurity of youth, the
"Music so readily transports us from the present to the past, or from what is actual to what is possible."
"When you love someone, the best thing you can offer that person is your presence."
Artists pay tribute to Alex Pretti, Trump ruins the art market, the story of an early Caravaggio masterpiece, and John Yau slams Jeff Koons's new Manhattan show.
The Long Tail was a profound cultural insight. When we created YouTube, Amazon, Roon, recipe websites and Netflix, the culture changed. When you give people a choice, they make a choice. We went from the Top 40 to millions of songs. From Blockbuster to every movie ever made.