Writer exploring culture, technology, life design, and the human experience. Writing at BarryFralick.com
Sunday Notes 4/14/24
|
Greetings all. Here are this week's notes. From me: Breaking good habits I grew up in a small town. I ran a business in a small town. I don't have opinions. If you run a business in a smallish community you train yourself to stay silent. There is no benefit in discussing politics for instance. At best, a few people will agree with you. At worst, you alienate fifty percent of your clientele. Opinions are expensive. I trained myself to keep my mouth shut. A habit that served me well. These days I write. Being silent is no longer beneficial. Writers need to have something to say. I need to have thoughtful opinions. I need to break a good habit. And that is the trouble with habits. Even good ones can become detrimental. They need periodic scrutiny. Vigorous exercise is a good habit when you're in your twenties. Perhaps not so much when you're in your sixties. Really, this is a case for self-examination. There's a lot of discourse around bad habits and building new habits but what about good habits that are now holding you back? I think it's worthy of consideration. Of course, what do I know? This is just my opinion. -- Personal finance: Anti-consumerism is less about money, more about individuality Those who don’t believe external stuff can give them long-lasting happiness will look for happiness within. They’ll take ownership of it. -- ??: I THREW OUT ALL OF MY BELONGINGS AND THEN THIS HAPPENED… -- Self-Awareness: wanting more The biggest shame is never admitting to yourself what you actually want. Wisdom is not running from your desires, but making peace with them. -- Life Design: Jeff Bezos on criticism When you receive criticism from well-meaning people, it pays to ask, ‘Are they right?’ And if they are, you need to adapt what they’re doing. If they’re not right, if you really have conviction that they’re not right, you need to have that long-term willingness to be misunderstood.
― Jeff Bezos
And lengthening the timeline If everything you do needs to work on a three-year time horizon, then you’re competing against a lot of people. But if you’re willing to invest on a seven-year time horizon, you’re now competing against a fraction of those people… Just by lengthening the time horizon, you can engage in endeavors that you could never otherwise pursue.
― Jeff Bezos
-- A quote: On self-pity The very language we use when we think about self-pity betrays the deep abhorrence in which we hold it: self-pity is feeling sorry for yourself, self-pity is thumb-sucking, self-pity is boo hoo poor me, self-pity is the condition in which those feeling sorry for themselves indulge, or even wallow. Self-pity remains both the most common and universally reviled of our character defects, its pestilential destructiveness accepted as given.
― Joan Didion
-- Lastly, a question worth pondering: What is something you do where no one else can compete? That is it for this week's edition. As always, live well. Barry |
Barry Fralick
Writer exploring culture, technology, life design, and the human experience. Writing at BarryFralick.com
Greetings and Happy Mother's Day. Here are this week's notes. From me: On choosing reactions My writing was plagiarized this week. I couldn't believe it. This has never happened to me before. Another writer stole a summary I had written word for word. At first, I was furious. I thought about calling the guy out on Twitter. I follow him there. I've shared his work here. He has a large following. He is a popular writer and one I respect(ed). I did nothing. The thing is, for all I know, it could...
Hello and welcome to the the magnificent month of May. The trees are coming alive here in Upstate NY, and once again, we are on the cusp of another splendid summer. Here are this week's notes. From me: On wishful anticipation. A melodramatic tweet I wrote on Twitter the other day: There is no precursor to an ideal life. No free trial. It is a perilous mirage. It is happening now. We're living the real thing despite wishful anticipation. Waiting and wanting is an unknowingly slow march through...
Greetings friends. Here are this week's notes. From me: A PSA I'm writing this email, except I'm not writing at all. Instead, I am organizing the refrigerator, wiping down the outside of the stove, and going through the spice cabinet. Writers are notorious for distracting themselves with dumb tasks. My home has never been so clean. Why? Because cleaning's easier than doing the hard thing. Writing, in this case, is the hard thing. But it doesn't feel good. I know this email is more important....