I’m constantly flitting in between two-three websites on the internet. Reddit - Twitter(X) - occasionally Substack. Often just mindlessly devouring endless reams of information.

There is an illusion that more information will solve problems, but more information is rarely the answer.

Instead it is better to chew on the information, taste it and reflect on it. This will give you more insight into the nature of the issue.

I want to write more on this blog to fix this. Specifically reflect on things I’ve found on the web.

I want to consume ‘good art’, not trawl through piles of bullshit to find the occasional nugget of gold. I want to curate and reflect on my experiences.

Good Art I’ve consumed this week. Ideas I’m thinking abut

1. Andrew Garfield on Modern Love

I was talking to the girl I am dating about this. She said she cries at everything, and I asked her the last time she cried. She said about 30 mins ago whilst watching the movie we went to see in cinema together. I said I cried yesterday whilst listening to this episode.

She asked me to explain. I couldn’t pinpoint what it was exactly, in fact I could barely remember what the episode was about. A consequence of just consuming and not reflecting.

I said one theme that was explored was impermanence, and the pain of clinging onto things that will fade; certain relationships, stages in life, places. The clinging is the painful aspect. Also I talked about ‘onism’ - how we are prisoners to the set of circumstances we are born into. We are ‘fated’ into a certain life path, and we cannot go back and ‘choose’ differently. We can’t experience all the paths available. I’m a prisoner to my gender, my hair colour, where I was born, my genetics, my upbringing. So many things. And there is a certain sense of melancholy in this.

Maybe I’ll re-listen to this, and then write about it after whilst it is fresh in my mind.

2. Optimism

Tesla just parallel parked a skyscraper; they caught their rocket they sent into space. I’m feeling optimistic about humanity. We can solve problems. I think I had been interacting with a few people that were spreading doom and gloom (legitimate but not useful to think about all the time). The news tends to emphasise the negative, rather than the positive. I need to re-read Factfulness. Life is on the whole getting better.

3. Tech minimalism

I bought a dumb phone (Qin F21) that I intend to use as an occasional replacement to my smartphone. It has 4G, maps, WhatsApp/messaging and access to the google play store for various smart apps I may need, but in a less distracting form factor.

It’s too hard to resist the temptation of having a supercomputer in my pocket. I’m constantly distracting myself.

The thinking I’m doing when on an iPhone is different to what I’m doing when I’m on my laptop.

The laptop is much more conducive to longer form reading, creation etc. The iPhone eventually leads me to Tiktok/instagram/perpetual doom scrolling.

4. Moving home

I am buying a small flat in the centre of London. And I’m terrified. Terrified at the prospect of locking myself down for a 5 year fixed mortgage, committing to a location and lifestyle, to losing my giant pot of savings, to the uncertainty and to the unknown.

At the same time, incredibly grateful that I can do this.

I’m realising that I need to let go of the clinging to want certain outcomes. Maybe I will lose money on this long term, maybe I will not. Maybe I’ll regret the decision, or maybe not. It’s hard to know, but the clinging to the feeling of needing to know generates the discomfort. If you let go of the certainty to know, then the fear turns into excitement and even curiosity.

It reminds me of the Zen parable of ‘Maybe’

maybe

Quotes I’m pondering

Everything is more beautiful because we’re doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now, and we will never be here again Homer, The Iliad

And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to lay with your hair Kahlil Gibran

A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both. L.P. Jacks

This wise man observed that wealth is a tool of freedom. But the pursuit of wealth is the way to slavery. Robert Heinlen

We think that if we just meditated enough or jogged enough or ate perfect food, everything would be perfect. But from the point of view of someone who is awake, that’s death. Seeking security or perfection, rejoicing in feeling confirmed and whole, self-contained and comfortable, is some kind of death. It doesn’t have any fresh air. There’s no room for something to come in and interrupt all that. We are killing the moment by controlling our experience. Pema Chodron