The individual preference for solitude, scaled up across society and exercised repeatedly over time, is rewiring America’s civic and psychic identity. And the consequences are far-reaching—for our happiness, our communities, our politics, and even our understanding of reality.
From The Anti-Social Century. Emphasis mine.
In my humdrum life, the daily battle hasn’t been good versus evil. It’s hardly so epic. Most days, my real battle is doing good versus doing nothing.
the best defense, the most meaningful work, the best preparation you can do at the level of an individual life is to boost your local resilience. To become a person of place. To connect with the people and land where you live. This is what we’re built to do.
How I became ‘collapse aware’. This is not a depressing read (or listen, the author read option was great)! /via Dense Discovery
An illustrated guide to science-backed mood boosters. A zine about reclaiming your life from digital technology. A tool for searching independent websites. A collection of the “best” marketing headlines on the internet. Over the Garden Wall’s 10th anniversary stop motion short. Max Vogel Gonzalez’s illustrations. An experiment with giving out potatoes to trick or treaters. A concept to break procrastination. Some objects I covet: Nike C1TY “Surplus” shoes, El Oso Bear Tee, the Kobo Clara Colour, and the book Assembling Tomorrow.
Every place I’m from is gone because it’s not just a place, it’s a place at a certain time. It would take a time machine to go back.
— Should I move back to France? - Mike Monteiro
No joke, loveless grilled cheese sandwiches suck.
“It’s the fact that you recognized the thing that is important, not the thing itself. It’s your radar.”
We can engage with people outside the rule-bound linear progression of offline relationships, and discover information about another person, miles and years from the person they were when they were posted it. Try responding to a post on a message board dated a while ago, maybe 10 years or more. That person might have lived in five cities between then and now, and fallen in and out of love three times, but the person they once were remains a notational snapshot trace, as if it were yesterday, offering thoughts on gardens, allergies, movies, or recipe ingredients.
From Lurking: How a Person Became a User by Joanne McNeil. I’m only through the Introduction of this book and I’m already all 👀!
Kinder To Do Lists. I like this idea of using a different phrasing for your to do lists. Example: “When checking off an item that begins with “You promised to email Maria…” I feel as though I’m being a person who follows up on her promises. When checking off “Email Maria,” I feel as though I’ve just won another round of whack-a-mole.”
Effectively, the time costs of doing things over a weekend have diminished considerably for those who don’t have to commute.