Constraints......................

 

. . . So the most common reply I got was: “What’s the best way to get started?”

My knee-jerk reaction was to say, “Do whatever you want.”

Dumb. I forgot that “Do whatever you want” is the most paralyzing sentence in the English language, surpassed only by “We need to talk” and “The doctor will call you with the results.”

-Eric Barker, from this episode

Show up......................

 

Santa delivered..............

 

................a new (and much needed) computer.  Handing both new and old off to the Geek Squad at Best Buy later this afternoon.  Apparently they need a day or three to work their magic.  Please keep the Intertunnel alive and well until I return.

Start........................

 

Many situations in life are similar to going on a hike: the view changes once you start walking.

You don't need all the answers right now. New paths will reveal themselves if you have the courage to get started.

-James Clear, from this edition

start......................

 

The real question is not "What is my current position?" but rather, "What is my current trajectory?" Doing nothing builds nothing. Put yourself on the path to something better. Start small, but make sure you start."

-James Clear, from this edition

Please..................................

 

.............................................don't wait.

the notion of originality..............

 

. . . in the quest for ideas, the entrepreneur should not overly obsess with the new.  That we tend to venerate the original without always penetrating the notion of originality.  Sometimes, if not frequently, the best idea is a refinement of something that already exists or a recombination of parts that no one else has thought to assemble.  And success comes so often in the remorseless perfection of execution.

-Albert Read, The Imagination Muscle

begin..........................

 

The willingness to figure things out as you go is often the only difference between those who achieve difficult things and those who never begin.

-Farnum Street, from this episode

If you have to start a week...............

.........why not start it with a little Nicholas Brothers:

 

Five minutes.....................

 

................................it doesn't take much.

scaling......................

 

The way to do really big things seems to be to start with decep­tively small things.

-Paul Graham, as quoted here

re-boot.....................?

 

10-4...........................

 

Try differently................

 You’re more likely to unlock a big leap in performance by trying differently than by trying harder. You might be able to work 10% harder, but a different approach might work 10x better. Remain focused on the core problem, but explore a new line of attack. Persistence is not just about effort, but also strategy. Don’t merely try harder, try differently.

-James Clear

Is the Big Bang Theory in trouble................?

 It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong.

-Richard Feynman

Pictures from the James Webb Space Telescope don't seem to be supporting it.  Story here.

via

Any Major Dude................

 .......With Half A Heart wishes us "pleasant surprises" in 2022 and offers up this play list to help ring in the New Year.  Enjoy!

Unfortunately, it requires being kind yourself...

 

                 via

Forward.......................

There were all these pieces split and broker on the floor, and she spent days on end trying to put the pieces back together again.  But if she only realized that life is meant not to restore what was but rather to create something new and move forward.

-Courtney Peppernell, from Pillow Thoughts III: Mending the Mind

Engage........................

Lose this day loitering—twill be the same story
To-morrow—and the next more dilatory;
Each indecision brings its own delays,
And days are lost lamenting o'er lost days,

Are you in earnest? sieze this very minute—
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
Only engage, and then the mind grows heated—
Begin it, and then the work will be completed!

-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,  Lose This Day Loitering

The beginning of western philosophy........

     In 490-470 B.C. Sparta and Athens, forgetting their jealousies and joining forces, fought off the effort of the Persians under Darius and Xerxes to turn Greece into a colony of an Asiatic empire.  In this struggle of youthful Europe against the senile East, Sparta provided the army and Athens the navy.  The war over, Sparta demobilized her troops, and suffered the economic disturbances natural to that process, while Athens turned her navy into a merchant fleet, and became one of the greatest trading cities of the ancient world.  Sparta relapsed into agricultural seclusion and stagnation, while Athens became a busy mart and port, the meeting place of many races of men and of diverse cults and customs, whose contact and rivalry begot comparison, analysis and thought.
      Traditions and dogmas rub one another down to a minimum in such centers of varied intercourse; where there are a thousand faiths we are apt to become sceptical of them all.  Probably the traders were the first sceptics; they has seen too much to believe too much;  and the general disposition of merchants to classify all men as either fools or knaves inclined them to question every creed.  Gradually, too, they were developing science; mathematics grew with the increasing complexity of exchange, astronomy with the increasing audacity of navigation.  The growth of wealth brought the leisure and security which are prerequisite of research and speculation;  men now asked the stars not only for guidance on the seas but as well for an answer to the riddles of the universe;  the first Greek philosophers were astronomers.  "Proud of their achievements," says Aristotle, "men pushed farther afield after the Persian wars; they took all knowledge for their province, and sought ever wider studies."  Men grew bold enough to attempt natural explanations of processes and events before attributed to supernatural agencies and powers;  magic and ritual slowly gave way to science and control; and philosophy began.

-Will Durant,  The Story of Philosophy