Optimal grip

big secret to happiness is just liking stuff. finding more stuff to like. finding ways to like stuff you didn’t before. recognizing what it feels like to like something and doubling down on that. what feels frivolous is actually the whole ballgame

There is a frontier we seldom cross, a threshold into the interior of our own being, where for hours we might wander and meet no one. It is a solitude that demands strength, a remoteness akin to that of a child watching the affairs of adults—those mysterious figures who moved with purpose, their actions veiled by the incomprehensible weight of resp... See more

We all must admit that our secret inner attitudes are often cruel, attacking, judgmental, and harsh. The ego seems to find its energy precisely by having something to oppose, fix, or change. When the mind can judge something to be inferior, we feel superior. We must recognize our constant tendency toward negating reality, resisting it, opposing it,... See more

In department stores, so much kitchen equipment is bought indiscriminately by people who just come in for men's underwear.

Julia Child

Observe the street…Note down what you can see. Anything worth of note going on.

Do you know how to see what’s worthy of note?

Is there anything that strikes you?

Nothing strikes you. You don’t know how to see.

You must set about it more slowly, almost stupidly.

Force yourself to write down what is of no interest, what is most obvious, most common, most ... See more

Graphic designer and painter Paula Scher on how to make something great:

"Less is more and more is more. It's the middle that's not a good place."

For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself .