htfu

A World Without Advice

Paul Jarvis ponders what would happen if all the advice in the world simply vanished:

I got to thinking about all the times I’ve been happy with accomplishing something. Every single time it happened because I just wanted to try something and thought, “What the hell, let’s do this!” I didn’t ask anyone first. I didn’t consult a mentor, advisor, oracle, or listicle. I just jumped in head-first. […]

Experts aren’t necessarily better than people starting out, they just know how things work and can do some tasks without thinking. They are able to think several steps ahead. If I asked a carpenter how she would build a house, she would only be aware of steps she has to think about. Not the thousands of steps her skill takes over and does for her subconsciously.

Many (myself included) are guilty of sitting around and consuming advice, getting little dopamine rushes and feeling like we’ve accomplished something even as we immediately dive into checking our inboxes and feeds for the 100th time today.

“Oh, I’ll definitely use that information later.” Except you never do, because you’re too busy binging on the internet instead of working. The one real piece of advice I keep coming back to is that nothing beats honest-to-goodness taking action if you want to succeed or do anything of worth.

Will you?

Crave

Chase Reeves, writing for The Sparkline:

“I think our buddhist friends would say something to the tune of, “all cravings will eat you up from the inside out.” Maybe they’re right.

But I have cravings.

[...]

I see [Robin Williams] sweating and manic and quick and sharp and brilliant and dynamic and feeding, feeding, feeding on the relationship with the audience… and I see a fable about myself, a hole in the center, a vacuum, always on, sucking, searching, hungry… for this moment, laughter, friends, me in the center of it… not wanting the moment to end.

The things I create come from there. That hole, that insecurity is an engine of creation.”

I love this piece. Sometimes I forget that Chase is just as great a writer as he is a web designer. For more stuff like this be sure to check out his personal blog, Ice to the Brim.