https://twitter.com/ftrain/status/632305017043619841
I can die now.
Category: Dealing with Things
This Must be the Imposter Convention
It’s hard to look at my impostor syndrome as the worst thing in the world — it has spurned me on to do better, work harder, and aim higher. On an emotional and mental level, however, it has been debilitating and difficult to get past. I’ve gone entire days without writing a meaningful line of code due to my lack of confidence. Other times I take that feeling and crush it by overcoming development obstacles.
If a person like David can be as successful and well-known as he is and still feel the haunt of the imposter syndrome, then I’m in good company.
Live in the richest, deepest, most productive way you can
When people die, they cannot be replaced. They leave holes that cannot be filled, for it is the fate — the genetic and neural fate — of every human being to be a unique individual, to find his own path, to live his own life, to die his own death.
Oliver Sacks on learning he has terminal cancer from the New York Times.
Björk on Working With Men
After being the only girl in bands for 10 years, I learned—the hard way—that if I was going to get my ideas through, I was going to have to pretend that they—men—had the ideas. I became really good at this and I don’t even notice it myself. I don’t really have an ego. I’m not that bothered. I just want the whole thing to be good. And I’m not saying one bad thing about the guys who were with me in the bands, because they’re all amazing and creative, and they’re doing incredible things now. But I come from a generation where that was the only way to get things done. So I have to play stupid and just do everything with five times the amount of energy, and then it will come through.
From this Pitchfork interview with Björk (via Waxy.org)
David Foster Wallace on the Humdrum of Life
learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed. Think of the old cliché about “the mind being an excellent servant but a terrible master
This commencement speech from David Foster Wallace1 is really interesting. The whole thing is worth a read, with many sections that made me let out an audible, “Ooof”. Especially the part about the boring routine of adult life.
As someone who’s many years from graduation, the whole thing really does ring true and is solid advice for anyone, not just graduates. Although, I assume a younger person would gain more value than those who are older.
I still struggle with the choice of where to put my mind.
(via kottke.org)