CxD #166: What is Life for?
One Answer
This week I’m putting on pause my deep dive into racial inequality and police reform and Sam Harris’s podcast that stirs these issues into a fervor. I have more work to do and have nothing new to contribute.
In the meantime, with Spring in the air, we get to ask What is Life for?
1.
" And so it is both strange and remarkable to me that—among some dozens of books I have authored—precisely this one, which I had intended to be published anonymously so that it could never build up any reputation on the part of the author, did become a success. Again and again I therefore admonish my students both in Europe and in America: “Don’t aim at success—the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long run—in the long run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think of it.
2. If you want to understand what creates the Resistance to your desire to live a life of creativity and freedom, listen to this well-earned wisdom on finding meaning in creating your own path and following the Visions of your Muse(s):
3.
I’ve become absolutely committed and enamored by RoamResearch, a note-taking platform. Instead of taking notes that are hierarchical and live in their own separate folders that never cross-pollinate, RoamResearch allows you to take notes wherever the hell you want and ensures that your ideas will begin to communicate and reveal new possibilities you’ve never considered before. This course on how to use Roam is the best one yet, and it’s free until March 31st. The author, Jamie Miles, is doing a tremendous job creating courses and lessons on how to use tools to help rather than hinder your creative pursuits. So watch this; it will upgrade your idea-generating process by orders of magnitude.
Here’s where the tool lives: