Breakdowns, Floods, & How to Turn a Disaster into an Adventure

Over the weekend, I helped my friend Rich move into his new apartment. Everything went smoothly until our U-Haul broke down on I-95 South. It would be almost three hours until we made it to our destination.

As we stood there, watching the cars pass quickly and the minutes pass slowly, I was reminded of another inconvenient situation years earlier.

Back in May 2010, I flew to Nashville to study with Victor Wooten at his Music Theory camp. Victor’s campground, Wooten Woods, is located in Only, TN, about an hour west of Nashville off of I-90. Coincidentally, this also happened to be the same weekend of the Nashville flood.

The rain began pouring down Friday night, and we woke up to a small river running through the center of the camp. As the morning wore on, the rain increased, and the river quickly grew into a strong current, only passable with a four-wheel drive vehicle. It soon became clear that we needed to evacuate, but the road leading into camp had already been washed away, so rescue teams couldn’t get to us. We decided to head out on foot. Eventually, we were ferried out by boat a handful at a time. Once we made it back to I-90, the sheriff drove us to a nearby community center, where the Red Cross gave us food and clean clothes. We finally made it back to Victor’s house, where we learned and played music all night and the following day, as well as got to see some historic musical relics.

Throughout the whole ordeal, not a single person ever complained, and everyone’s spirits remained high. What amazed me most, though, was Victor’s leadership and attitude during the flood. Despite the fact that his camp was literally being destroyed by torrential rains, he never made a negative comment, never expressed a degree of disappointment.

I remember him telling me, “The way I see it, this is actually kind of fun! As long as no one’s in danger, it’s all a big adventure.”

Those words have stuck with me ever since, and I was reminded of them while standing on the side of the highway for three hours this weekend. Things happen, and we can’t do anything about it. We couldn’t prevent our U-Haul from breaking down any more than we could prevent Nashville from flooding.

The only thing we can control is what we make of the situation.

Of course, that weekend in Nashville was one of the best weekends of my life. Who else can say they’ve been to Victor Wooten’s house?! As we joked to each other, “Plenty of people can say they’ve been to Wooten Woods, but not many can say they’ve escaped from it!”

It’s easy to let crappy situations drag us down. What’s much more rewarding is trying to make the best of them. The crappy-ness isn’t going to last forever, and when it’s all over, you’ll probably have one hell of a story to tell.

When faced with forces we can’t control, sometimes all it takes is a small change in perspective to turn a disaster into an adventure.

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A Place for Pop

I’ve been dissatisfied with notes on my iPhone lately.

As an iPhone user, I feel obligated to have a brilliant note-taking system that syncs with my iPad and Mac. I used Simplenote for a long time before switching to Notesy. Simplenote requires a yearly subscription for full functionality, while Notesy does not. I also like Notesy’s Markdown support and customizability. Still, something wasn’t quite right.

Most recently, I had Drafts on my home screen for a couple of weeks. It’s a robust app with plenty of features for exporting and manipulating text. I’ve transferred a few of my notes from Notesy to Drafts, but I never seem to find myself wanting to open the app. Maybe I just don’t want to tap on its less-than-pretty icon.

Despite their intended usage, note-taking apps are often quite complex. They have folders, and search, and fonts, and sync, and a host of other wonderful features.

But these features can also feel burdensome. You have to wait for the app to open. You have to wait for your notes to sync (and risk encountering a gut-wrenching sync conflict). You have to navigate back and forth between notes. There’s friction. Not a lot, but it’s there.

Which brings me to Pop.

I mentioned Pop in my Ubiquitous Capture Roundup. Pop’s main feature is its lack of features. Open, read/write, close. Copy and paste if you so desire.

I shouldn’t like Pop. Like Shadoe Huard, I didn’t intend to use it. It doesn’t let me write in Markdown. Though universal, it doesn’t sync with its iPad version. It doesn’t have Dropbox support. I can’t hook it up with Notational Velocity. It doesn’t even let me create notes! It’s just a white space with a cursor. An iOS enigma.

But for some reason, it feels really good.

I downloaded Pop mostly out of support for Patrick Rhone’s new company, Minimal Tools, and to see the app’s featurelessness for myself. (It’s true; there aren’t any.) I put it on my second page of apps.

Then, by chance, I had a reason to use it. My mom told me what she wanted for Mother’s Day. I opened Pop, jotted it down, and closed the app in seconds. No watching the app load. No waiting to sync. No searching for my “Gift Ideas” note.

Pop is making me think that — just maybe — this is all I need. As I browse through my handful of notes in Notesy, I see that none of them have been updated in at least a month, nor can I remember consulting any of them. Maybe a digital scrap of paper is all I need.

Now, there are some notes that I do update monthly, and Pop doesn’t really meet this need. But I believe that’s by design.

As Patrick says, “Pop is step one.” In the case of my mom’s Mother’s Day present, I wrote it in Pop and will delete it after I buy it. If I come up with a brilliant idea, I can capture it quickly, and then Pop will force me to process it later on, at the very least out of my compulsion to keep the app clean and beautiful.

I’m not sure how my relationship with Pop will progress, but for now, it’s taken up residence on my home screen. And it feels good. My iPhone’s home screen is populated with apps that fulfill my foremost needs: to communicate, to read, to listen, to write. I’m going to let Pop try its hand at the writing chair, or perhaps the “capture” chair would be more appropriate.

Pop feels like an oasis for ideas. Once captured, my thoughts reside in Pop, patient and pristine, until I decide what to do with them. What more do I need?

You can get Pop for $0.99 on the App Store.

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The Perfect T-Shirt

I love tweaking as much as the next guy, but I also love arriving at a place of contentment, where I can set it and forget it.

Especially when it comes to clothes.

I have an extensive t-shirt collection, but even my favorite t-shirts seem to shrink or lose their luxuriousness over time.

I'm fairly tall and lean (and seemingly getting taller via all that yoga), so I have a hard time finding shirts that meet both my length and size requirements. Mediums tend to be too tight and/or too short, while Larges tend to be too baggy.

Fortunately, I've just settled on the perfect t-shirt:

The 50/50 Shirt by American Apparel

(Via Shawn Blanc)

These shirts are ringspun, 50% polyester, 50% cotton. They are high-quality, super comfy, and come in a variety of colors. The heather hues are particularly handsome. The Medium strikes the perfect balance of length and fit on my six-foot-two, 180-pound frame.

They're a bit expensive at $20 a pop on American Apparel's website, but you can buy a three-pack there for 20% off, and Amazon has some color/size combinations for a fraction of the price.

Arriving at a place where I no longer need to think about something is a great feeling. Whenever I need new t-shirts, I'll be going straight for the American Apparel 50/50. Get 'em.

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Unemployment Opportunities

According to the Associated Press, half of new grads are jobless or underemployed:

“I don’t even know what I’m looking for,” says Michael Bledsoe, who described months of fruitless job searches as he served customers at a Seattle coffeehouse. The 23-year-old graduated in 2010 with a creative writing degree.

Initially hopeful that his college education would create opportunities, Bledsoe languished for three months before finally taking a job as a barista, a position he has held for the last two years. In the beginning he sent three or four resumes day. But, Bledsoe said, employers questioned his lack of experience or the practical worth of his major. Now he sends a resume once every two weeks or so.

Bledsoe, currently making just above minimum wage, says he got financial help from his parents to help pay off student loans. He is now mulling whether to go to graduate school, seeing few other options to advance his career. “There is not much out there, it seems,” he said.

(Via NPR)

Yep. Regardless of whom you feel compelled to blame, the economy is down. I know nothing of economics, so I’ll just state that as known and leave it at that.

Here’s J. D. Bentley in his essay, “A Touch of a Revolution”:

I’ve been appre­ci­at­ing the light­ness of being slave to no one. As I’ve grown older, I’ve found that free­dom is the qual­ity to be most con­sid­ered as I make deci­sions. The free­dom to do what I want, when I want, with whom I want, where I want is of para­mount importance.

My life is dri­ven by the desire to find the under­ly­ing prin­ci­ples that fuel the great­est ideal and then to apply those prin­ci­ples so that I might one day achieve that ideal.

Regard­ing free­dom, the two great­est prin­ci­ples are these:

1. Want nothing.
2. Owe no one.

Brilliant.

Do not misconstrue “freedom” as “sitting around playing video games and having no responsibilities”. I define “freedom” as having the ability and the opportunity to do great work — the work I feel is important, not the work society tells me is important.

It seems to me that despite the state of the job market, there is an intense silver lining here for us twenty-somethings.

While the economy is down, the Internet is thriving. Never before has it been so easy to create something on the Web. A blog, a website, a portfolio, anything. While the economy languishes, technology advances.

A down economy means that conventional jobs are hard to come by. Why should we struggle and compete to squeeze ourselves into the few remaining boxes in which society demands we live?

Why not create our own boxes?

What if, years from now, the history books read that my generation beat the recession with creativity and passion? With vision, care, and the tenets of entrepreneurship?

The older generations have never had available to them the technology that currently resides at our fingertips. It’s no one’s fault, but we cannot expect them to be able to comprehend the technology or how we wish to leverage it. The iPhones, and iPads, and computers — these are the devices of our generation. While our parents now exist alongside our technology, the majority lack the immersion afforded to us by growing up with it, rather than before it.

I can think of no better time to think and live outside the box. To build my own box. I have no desire to fight for a job I don’t really want, especially when such a job might as well be a unicorn.

What would happen if we saw unemployment not as misfortune, but as opportunity?

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How to Win a Staring Contest with a Cupcake

Eighteen.

That’s the number of cupcakes that were left over after my niece’s christening party. Chocolate with vanilla creme filling, and red velvet. Each the size of my face. Sitting there, staring. Unblinking. Waiting for me to cave. Damn you, Stew Leonard.

It’s easy to be enthusiastic when a goal or habit is new and exciting. It’s fresh, and you’re fired up about being a better person.

But once that newness wears off — like say, when you’re 23 days into health nut month — it’s hard to maintain the enthusiasm. You’re tired, maybe a little cranky, and you’ve become complacent. You’re used to your goal. It’s no longer at the forefront of your mind, but lodged somewhere in the back. Your energy drifts elsewhere, which makes you vulnerable to slipping up.

Our enthusiasm for positive change fluctuates over time. In the case of diet and exercise, some days, we’re fired up, rarin’ to go, ready to be the healthiest person ever. Other days, the mere scent of a cupcake can cause the whole thing to come crashing down.

It’s easy to make excuses in the face of a cupcake. That sexy pastry’s right there, taunting you. Moist, sweet, delicious. Loaded with sugar. You know it’s bad for you, but the excuses start to form in your mind…

I’ve been healthy all day/week…

I had an awful day, I deserve a cupcake…

It’s not a big deal. It’s just one bite…

When staring down a cupcake, these excuses creep in and take over. They take root in your mind, and suddenly you can’t remember any of your motivation for being healthy. The brain becomes overwhelmed with temptation, and so there’s no room for discipline.

A solution I’ve been experimenting with this month is something I’m calling “The Reasons Why List”.

The Reasons Why List is self-explanatory. It’s a list of reminders about why you’re working toward your goal. For example:

1. I want to look like Tarzan.
2. Sugar will kill me.
3. Bruce Lee definitely wouldn’t eat that.
4. Gotta look good naked!
5. I want to live for as long as possible.

And so on. You’d be surprised how many you can come up with. When staring down a cupcake, consult your Reasons Why List.

Eating a cupcake is a pleasurable experience, there’s no doubt about it. But that pleasure is fleeting. The five minutes spent eating a cupcake are wonderful, but they’re soon followed by physical and mental discomfort. An unhappy stomach, and a guilty voice inside your head. Was it worth it? Maybe yes, maybe no.

Documenting all of your reasons why can help you determine whether or not a cupcake is worth the consequences. The Reasons Why List reminds you who you are and who you want to be.

When staring down a cupcake, remember your reasons. Beat back the temptation, and move a little closer toward your goal.

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The Superficial, The Metaphysical, and Why It's OK Not to Be Brilliant All the Time

A Creative Trough

My creative output tends to fluctuate from week to week. Some weeks I have a long list of ideas I want to write about, while other weeks I find writing to be absurdly difficult. Sometimes it's a lack of ideas, and sometimes it's a lack of motivation.

I've been in a bit of a holding pattern with my thesis this week as I wait for feedback on my new and improved (thirty-page!) introduction and start planning the final steps toward completion. This, coupled with the fact that the weather has been miraculous lately, has distracted me from the astounding productivity I saw at the beginning of the month.

I'm still getting up early and doing yoga every morning, but I feel like I've been accomplishing less. Sure, my thesis is on hold, but I could be using the spare time to push the site forward. Instead, I've been doing a lot of reading, exercising, and sitting outside.

I only have excuses for my lack of "real" productivity over the past week, but I also think there's a certain degree of value to this downtime.

The Superficial vs. The Metaphysical

I tackle a variety of topics on this site, and I tend to view each topic as falling into one of two categories. Some of them are "superficial", and some of them are "metaphysical". The superficial pieces — about apps, or shaving, or music, for example — tend to be more light-hearted, fun, and "easier" to write. The metaphysical pieces — about the beauty of being wrong, or letting go of Bruce Springsteen, or creativity — tend to be more serious, challenging, and subsequently more difficult and rewarding to write.

I feel most accomplished as a writer when I feel like I've created something out of nothing. Not just anything, but something of substance. I like feeling that I've reached with my writing, as opposed to, "Hey, here's my new favorite app you should check out." At times, this superficial posting feels a bit like a cop-out.

But, we are human, after all. Some days you don't have a brilliant idea. Some days you don't have the strength to ponder the depths of human existence. And I think that's OK.

Lighten Up

Life is too short to be serious all the time. Some writers may be able to push the envelope every single day, but I don't feel that would be the most honest representation of myself. Some days I feel like reading about eastern philosophy for three hours, and other days I feel like playing old video games from 1997. It's all fun. It's all good. It's all worthwhile.

The value of deep thinking and writing intense, thoughtful pieces is self-explanatory. We push our minds beyond their self-imposed limits to reach new levels of contemplation, understanding, and growth.

What's less obvious is the value of the so-called mindless activities, as well as the importance of rest.

The fluctuations in our creative output — the cresting waves of productivity and the lowly troughs of writer's block — are a natural part of our humanity. It's hard to be brilliant and earth-shattering every single day, just as it's hard to be relentlessly productive every day between the hours of 9 AM and 5 PM.

Don't allow yourself to feel guilty about what you're excited about today.

It might be philosophy, or it might be video games. If it's video games, so what? There's value in shutting your brain down for a while. It's a form of rest, and the rest is what gives you the strength to do the hard work.

If a saxophonist never put any rests in his music, he would just keep playing the same note over and over until he passed out due to a lack of oxygen. It's the rests — the spaces between the notes — that give the notes their own unique life.

Writing is the same way. If I tried to write a challenging, deep piece every day, I would probably burn out very quickly. I might even stop writing the site for a while. By writing a mix of the fun and the thought-provoking, the superficial and the metaphysical, I keep myself sane and steady. And it's all part of the package. Everything I write about here is Me. I try to keep a general focus, but at the same time, you'll never find an article here about something I don't find interesting or consider valuable.

And look at that. Here I am, 900 words later, after wondering all weekend what I was going to write about for Monday. I thought to myself, "Maybe I'll try to write up some little piece about the value of doing nothing, and then I'll figure out something better for Tuesday." But what started out as a tiny, superficial idea turned into a piece I kind of like. Funny how writing works like that.

In short, don't be afraid to do "nothing" once in a while. Let your mind turn off or wander aimlessly. Sometimes, just sitting quietly and thinking is doing quite a lot. If you sit and think for long enough, eventually you'll arrive at a place of drive and inspiration, where you want to get up and build something amazing.

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The Top Nine Long Winters Songs

You probably woke up this morning and thought to yourself, "Damn it, Andrew Marvin; You haven't written about The Long Winters in forever. What the hell is going on?"

And you would be correct. But fortunately, I'm here today to guide you through a small portion of the Long Winters discography. Prepare your ears for an auditory orgasm.

Since I've already detailed my discovery of The Long Winters, why you need to listen to them, and my thoughts on one of their albums, I thought I'd take a different route and offer my top nine Long Winters songs.

"Why nine?!" you exclaim with incredulity. Because I can't bear to pick a tenth. It's different on any given day. It might be "Sky Is Open", or "Samaritan", or "Rich Wife", or "Nora", or any of the other songs John Roderick has written.

See, the hard part about picking your favorite Long Winters songs is that they don't have any bad songs, and thus this is not so much a list of my favorites so much as it is a list of my most favorites. Each Long Winters song is unique, and thus each is the best in its own way.

And to be honest, other than number one, these are in no particular order. That would be like trying to pick my favorite child, of which I have none, thus only adding to the impossibility of such a task.

So without further ado...

9. Teaspoon

Best Line: I know I wasn't made to play on a team...

Album: Putting the Days to Bed (2006)

Length: 2:54

Listen!

The introvert's anthem, "Teaspoon" is a concise little number, whose length belies its infectious groove and soaring personality. This is a sunny day song if there ever was one. Its chorus begs to be sung at full volume, and its horns are uplifting and celebratory. Featuring one of my favorite John Roderick vocal performances, the lyrics evoke a sense of longing, but one that gives you chills and makes you smile uncontrollably. This was my first favorite Long Winters song.

8. Delicate Hands

Best Line: I held you under / Wanting to feel you wanting to breathe...

Album: Ultimatum (2005)

Length: 3:59

Listen!

The 2005 Ultimatum EP features just four studio tracks, accompanied by two live acoustic performances by John. Of note, three of my nine favorite songs can be found on it, which makes this little EP a musical treasure. John himself explains that the album is largely about disaster and dissolution, and "Delicate Hands" is no exception. The lyrics are vague, and we don't know to whom the singer sings. A lover in trouble? An aging relative? What we do feel is a sense of wanting to help someone who — for whatever reason — cannot be helped. Despite the melancholy subject matter, the music comforts and soothes, even as the speaker cries out for something he thought he knew.

7. Mimi

Best Line: Those flaming babies / Came down from the sky

Album: The Worst You Can Do Is Harm (2002)

Length: 5:06

Listen!

Bonus! Acoustic performance by John Roderick

The lyric notes describe "Mimi" as a song about "a road in Alaska where beautiful and terrible things happen." It's a slow song, with lyrics indicative of tragedy and music befitting a silent, winter landscape. It's haunting and gorgeous and powerful. I love it.

6. Clouds

Best Line: The ground is so proud just to hold us up

Album: Putting the Days to Bed (2006)

Length: 3:34

[Damn! Can't find it on YouTube. Guess you'll just have to buy the album.]

A stark contrast from "Mimi". "Clouds" is a fitting title; the song is wandering, whimsical, and light-hearted, best enjoyed on a beautiful day with a big blue sky. Listen for the banjo (or is it a ukelele?). It's hard to pick a favorite line, as each is delivered so perfectly, imbued with the uplifting-yet-slightly-sad tone found throughout Putting the Days to Bed. This one always makes me smile.

5. Ultimatum

Best Line: And I hope I can keep seeing you / Just as long as you don't say you're / Falling in love

Album: Originally appears on Ultimatum; rocked-up version appears on Putting the Days to Bed.

Length: 3:38 and 3:06, respectively.

Listen!

"Ultimatum" is the only Long Winters song to appear on two albums: first as a quiet, acoustic, string-laden number on the eponymous EP, and second as a soaring, dynamic rock song on Putting the Days to Bed. I will admit that I prefer the up-tempo version a bit more. Like most Long Winters songs, this one demands to be sung aloud, preferably on the highway with the windows down. The lyrics are pained, yet cautiously optimistic, as if the speaker is climbing his way out of the depths of heartbreak, ever upward towards the sun.

4. Carparts

Best Line: Baby wasn't down with the heist!

Album: The Worst You Can Do Is Harm (2002)

Length: 4:05

Listen!

Bonus! Acoustic performance by John Roderick

More Bonus! Merlin Mann's thoughts on "Carparts"

What can you say about "Carparts"? It's a classic, and a monument in the Long Winters canon. The inhale at the beginning, the brilliant lines, the soaring music, the mischievous bridge, the vocal delivery... It's hard to beat. Listen, learn it, and sing your heart out. See Merlin's post above for more.

3. The Commander Thinks Aloud

Best Line: The crew compartment's breaking up...

Album: Ultimatum (2005)

Length: 5:26

Listen!

John's beautiful elegy, "The Commander Thinks Aloud" is about the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. According to S1E31 of Back to Work, John felt that such an event was too big to be turned into a metaphor, hence the lyrics' literal quality. The song is sparse, featuring just three piano chords, swelling synths, and a somber, marching drum beat. But this space allows the song to be filled with tearful emotion. The song's imagery is unparalleled as John describes the Commander's last thoughts, and the fact that we know the shuttle's fate makes our hearts ache for him and his crew. Easily the most powerful song in the Long Winters catalog. You will be moved. Don't miss it.

2. Hindsight

Best Line: And if I hold you now will I be / Holding a snowball when the season changes / And I'm craving the sun?

Album: Putting the Days to Bed (2006)

Length: 4:07

[Damn! Can't find it on YouTube. Guess you'll just have to buy the album.]

Arguably the strongest track on Putting the Days to Bed, and certainly one of John Roderick's finest pieces. In some ways, "Hindsight" seems to be a follow-up to "Stupid" on When I Pretend to Fall. Whereas the voice of "Stupid" is clearly heartbroken — he has to be held back from calling her — "Hindsight" sees the singer in recovery. He asserts, "In hindsight / You're going to wish you were here", and we get a sense we're all going to be OK. One of the most lyrically dense songs in the Long Winters discography, every line is flawless, delivered with courage and backed by uplifting harmonies. There's so much depth here. My heart feels better every time this song comes on.

1. Scared Straight

Best Line: You were cursed, and scolded, and scarred!

Album: When I Pretend to Fall (2003)

Length: 4:18

Listen!

I love everything about "Scared Straight": the organ intro, the groove, the celebratory horns, the this-song-was-written-for-me lyrics, the perfect vocal delivery, the arrangement, the bridge... It's a masterpiece. There's not just one good part — every part is so good, and they come one after another. "Scared Straight" speaks to me. It's one of those songs you wish you could play for someone because it so perfectly expresses everything you wish you could say to them. It's my favorite Long Winters song, and I'll never skip it.

Change Your Life

And there you have it. Let me remind you that each Long Winters' record is full of musical gems from start to finish, and I could have just as easily listed my top forty songs here. Once you've digested each album as individual entities, feel free to put the entire discography on shuffle. You can thank me later.

iTunes Links

• Buy The Worst You Can Do Is Harm
• Buy When I Pretend to Fall
• Buy Ultimatum
• Buy Putting the Days to Bed

$36 for a lifetime of love? C'mon.

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Letting Go of Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen sucks.

Yeah, you heard me.

I know the hits. I’ve seen the concerts on Palladia. I know he’s from New Jersey.

But, I don’t get it. We don’t connect. Bruce Springsteen has nothing to do with me. I’ve always felt this way.

Imagine my skepticism, then, when I came across this article by Josh Wolk, entitled, “Bruce Springsteen, Life Giver to the Middle-Aged”. Like me, Wolk sees a Springsteen concert as a chance to roll one’s eyes and make biting, cynical comments. Like me, he’s an ardent non-fan.

Until the show begins:

I had tagged along to this concert with friends with the goal of writing a snickering little article. I recently uncovered my notes from that evening and can trace a conversion that night through the tenor of my scrawls.

They start out with snarky little shorthand jabs at the guys proudly wearing their authentic now-way-too-small shirts bought during the Born in the U.S.A. tour (“practically translucent stretched over torsos gone portlier since the shirts were first purchased”), and the fact that the white crowd made Limp Bizkit’s fans look like a rainbow coalition. And yet, over the course of my three hours of notes, my scrawls quickly turned from self-satisfied digs at those around me into a take on Springsteen’s performance that vaults directly from begrudging respect to adulation. Now I am 42, and eagerly attend his shows with nary a whiff of smugness or sarcasm; I leave my air quotes at the door. I saw his ongoing tour twice this month and blended right into the sea of bobbing gray hair: These are my people.

(Via Dave Pell)

Rest assured, this article hasn’t turned me into a raging fan of The Boss, but it teaches a valuable lesson all the same:

Just because you don’t get it, doesn’t mean it’s worthless.

We forget this all the time. For example…

I don’t do rap music. I think it’s devoid of depth and musical talent. I think it’s speaking with rhythm. I think it’s talking over a drum machine. And I proudly cannot be convinced otherwise.

I’m entitled to this opinion, of course. But why do I harbor such negativity?

For me, a negative opinion usually grows out of frustration:

How can you POSSIBLY enjoy this horrible, valueless thing?!

How could you possibly WANT to waste your time with this when there are so many more incredible, artistic, valuable things out there?!

I can think of plenty more examples. You want to know what I think of your hobby?

Prepare to be offended.

I don’t love sports. I have no desire to sit in front of a TV for four hours watching grown men get paid billions of dollars to play with a ball. I can’t afford to attach my happiness to whether or not the red team wins. I don’t care about your bracket. Just pass the chicken wings.

I don’t know anything about fashion. They’re just clothes. I don’t need to spend money on things just because the stylish elite deem them worthy. You’re no more valuable than I am. I’ll be fine in my comfy, white socks, and I’m free to run for my life in my jeans. Enjoy your pocket square.

I ignore politics. It’s all made-up theater. If there was one right answer, we would have found it already. Liberals will never agree with conservatives. Conservatives will never agree with liberals. Keep arguing about your silly manmade problems. Keep feeling important as our infinitesimal speck of a planet hurtles through the universe at 67,000 miles per hour. Enjoy. We’ll be fine. Look: the sun is out. Go take a walk.

Why do I feel this way?

What do I have to gain from believing that my opinion is fact and others’ are fiction?

Answer: nothing.

These opinions grow out of a fear of being wrong, and out of our identities’ attachment to our ideas.

Andrew Marvin is not the kind of person who cares about sports.

Andrew Marvin is not the kind of person who listens to the garbage on the radio.

Andrew Marvin is not the kind of person who sees value in drugs and alcohol.

Consciously or subconsciously, these statements create a feeling of superiority. I define myself by what I am not. “I do not do these things, and therefore I am better than those who do.”

Of course, there’s no logic in this way of thinking.

To dislike something is — not always, but often — to not understand it, as Wolk’s Springsteen experience demonstrates.

It’s not rap music’s fault that I don’t like it. That’s on me.

I don’t like rap music because I lack the knowledge required to understand its value. This is what it means to “get” something. A rap fan would be more than happy to talk about his favorite track for an hour and explain exactly how and why it’s great. He gets it. On the other hand, I would be just as happy to explain in excruciating detail why you need to listen to Hemispheres.

You can’t appreciate — let alone enjoy — something if your mind is already closed to it.

If you open your mind to receiving new knowledge, you might just change your opinion.

You might enjoy a sporting event.

You might learn something about fashion.

You might secretly love a song on the radio.

Still, I may never like rap music. I may not only lack the understanding, but also the capacity to understand. I may never get it. And that’s OK.

It’s OK so long as I let go of the notion that my opinion is right and others’ are wrong. It doesn’t matter. There is no “right” and “wrong” — only what works for you.

Ask yourself, “What do I gain from believing this person’s opinion is wrong?” If the answer is nothing more than self-affirmation, let go.

It’s OK to have an opinion. Just don’t let that opinion turn into an excuse for judging others unfairly.

As for Springsteen, I still don’t get it. But, reading Wolk’s article reminds me that there are millions of people who do, and those millions of people’s lives are a little bit better because of that music. I can relate to that. I get that.

I can keep my opinion to myself, and let others enjoy theirs in peace.

People do not like to be told what to think. We are only receptive to new ideas when we want new ideas. We can only be helped when we want to be helped.

Until then, be content with you, and be content with others, knowing that they are content with themselves.

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Writing with Style

As an English major, I have a thing for style guides. A style guide "offers a set of standards for writing and the design of documents".

For most of my life, I've been at the mercy of the MLA, whose style manual governed the hundreds of pages of literary analysis my academic career produced.

Like Randy Murray, I'm also a fan of William Strunk's famous volume, The Elements of Style, principally for this well-known passage:

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.

The New York Times even has its own style guide, officially titled, The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage: The Official Style Guide Used by the Writers and Editors of the World's Most Authoritative Newspaper.

Some style guides focus on graphic design, such as Robert Bringhurst's The Elements of Typographic Style.

Most recently, I've gotten to know The Chicago Manual of Style, currently in its 16th edition (since 1906) and deemed "one of the most widely used and respected style guides in the United States". The Chicago Manual is available online, so I signed up for a free thirty-day trial and proceeded to lose several hours reading about commas, adverbs, numbers, parallel structure, and more. All in rendered in lovely Tisa with pretty-in-pink links.

I suppose an obsession with style guides is the pinnacle of English major nerdery, but I can't help it. Style guides emphasize one of my biggest values: an attention to detail. They exude a sense of professionalism and craftsmanship. Anyone can string some words together and make a sentence, but it takes a knowledge of style and standards — among other things — to turn writing into an art form.

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How to Craft a Musical Time Capsule

I’m a huge fan of albums. One of the hallmarks of my favorite bands is that they’re all capable of delivering a cohesive, album-oriented listening experience.

Albums like Before These Crowded Streets, Sailing the Seas of Cheese, Mantis, Moving Pictures, Animals, Kind of Blue, When I Pretend to Fall… The list goes on and on. These are records that never require you to hit the Skip button. Each song contributes to a beautiful tapestry of sound.

However, now and again I’ll fall in love with a song without hearing the rest of the record right away. Maybe through a friend’s recommendation; maybe a cover by one of my favorite musicians; maybe through the vast expanse of the interwebs.

After a while, I’ll end up with a collection of arbitrary songs with no apparent connection other than the fact that I happened to discover them all around the same time. This phenomenon has been happening to me ever since I discovered what music was, and so I came up with a solution.

After I’ve collected a handful of new music discoveries, I make a playlist and give it a current chronological label, i.e. “Fall 2010 Semester”, or “Summer 2011”, or “25th Birthday”.

This playlist serves two purposes:

The first is practical. Hunting for each song individually is a pain, so a playlist allows me to enjoy an album’s worth of new, unrelated music all at once. This, of course, is the point of a playlist.

The second purpose is more metaphysical. By labeling the playlist chronologically, it acts as a musical time capsule. Years from now, when I go back and listen to it, the songs transport me back to that time in my life. All of the sensory memories — joyriding on the highway, crying in the rain, sighing as the sun goes down — come flooding back in glorious waves of musical nostalgia. It’s a great way to remember who you were and what you were feeling back then.

Naturally, I’m not the first person to invent the time capsule playlist, but I thought it was worth sharing. Revisiting my old playlists always gives me a cathartic sense of comfort and peace, as well as an appreciation from how far I’ve come since then. I recommend it.

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An Alternative to More

Seth Godin:

If your happiness is based on always getting a little more than you've got...

then you've handed control over your happiness to the gatekeepers, built a system that doesn't scale and prevented yourself from the brave work that leads to a quantum leap.

This article is one of my favorites, and it's something that resonates with me as I try to transition from full-time student to someone who works for a living.

Attaching your happiness to the notion of "more" is dangerous. There will always be more, and so you're attaching your happiness to something that's ultimately unattainable. Subsequently, happiness itself becomes unattainable.

There are ways to combat this attachment to more, and it's something I focus on here and in life. Minimalism is one way. To be able to identify what is enough, and then to be happy with it, is a valuable skill that must be constantly practiced.

Perspective is another. To realize what is and what is not important, and to be able to recognize who and what deserves your time.

Inner peace is another. To be so aware of who you are, and to love that person so unconditionally, that you have no fears, worries, wants, or desires, and you are content with You.

Seth:

Their rules, their increments, and you are always on a treadmill, unhappy today, imagining that the answer lies just over the next hill...

All the data shows us that the people on that hill are just as frustrated as the people on your hill.

When I peer into the box that society wants me to crawl into, this is all I see. A smothering, unsatisfying existence, where happiness is always a little further ahead and just out of reach. The thought of living in that box makes me uneasy.

Luckily, there's hope:

An alternative is to be happy wherever you are, with whatever you've got, but always hungry for the thrill of creating art, of being missed if you're gone and most of all, doing important work.

There is an alternative. I know there is an alternative because there are people living the alternative.

Fortunately, the thrill of creating art and doing important work are what help me be happy where I am. Unfortunately, I've yet to determine how to make a living while doing it.

Richard J. Anderson had a great post on this topic a few weeks ago:

I like technology, writing, music, art, and variety. I like having clearly defined goals I can check off a list when they’re done. I like knowing that what’s done really is done, and I don’t have to fix it unless I made a mistake. Where do any of these things intersect, and do they intersect in a place that also provides enough money to live on while I focus on what truly matters to me?

These are the questions I'm asking myself, too. I love to read and write. How can I make a living doing these things?

I'm not sure yet.

But, the answer is out there, and I have faith that it will reveal itself.

The trick is to not give up on looking for it.

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The Beauty of Being Wrong

The fact that I’m doing yoga at 7 AM every morning still blows my mind.

It’s been two weeks since I became an early riser, and I love it just as much as I did on day one. The quiet solitude of the morning, the sense of having so much more time, the increased exposure to sunlight… All so wonderful.

But, for all its awesomeness, this change has created something of a splinter in the back of my mind.

The Stubborn Night Owl

You see, for years I was convinced of my own superiority as a night owl. It appealed to my introverted nature, and I liked the rebelliousness of staying up and sleeping late. I associated early rising with convention. Getting up at 8 AM, driving to a cubicle, sitting there all day, and then driving home exhausted and horrified at having to do it all over again tomorrow — it seemed like no way I’d ever want to live. If it works for you great, but I knew it wasn’t for me.

It still isn’t, at least when it comes to the sitting-in-a-cubicle-all day part. But fortunately, I’ve avoided — by both choice and design — that sort of existence.

Instead, I get up with the sun, practice yoga, make tea, read, and then write and make things. It’s a routine with which I’ve quickly become obsessed.

What’s given me pause, though, is the fact that I was so wrong about night owlism. Actually, no; I wasn’t wrong about night owlism so much as I was wrong about being an early riser.

I still think being a night owl is great, and people who prefer that lifestyle should continue to live it as long as it helps them grow and do what they want to do.

Unfortunately, staying up late and sleeping in every morning was paralyzing me. My creativity and productivity stagnated. I was stuck in an incredibly depressing rut, and the only way out was to make a drastic life change: to start getting up early.

I see now just how wonderful being an early riser can be. It’s not painful at all — provided you’re getting your required amount of sleep — and it opens up a whole new world you may have forgotten existed. I certainly did. It truly is life-changing.

Of course, one could easily reverse my story and get the same benefits. Someone who is forced to rise early every morning and go to a job they hate and come home exhausted could, in theory, quit, start their own business, and sleep until mid-morning before doing the work they love all day and late into the night.

It works both ways, and I make no claims that one is better than the other. The best one is the one that works for you.

But, back to my splinter.

What Do I Know?

The feeling I’m experiencing now is that I was wrong.

Wrong in the sense of thinking one way was better than the other, and wrong in thinking I could never become an early riser. Ever. I never wanted to, never thought it would be good for me, never even entertained the idea.

I was a proud night owl. Stubbornly proud.

And yet, here I am.

And so I find myself thinking, “If I was wrong about that, I might be wrong about other things too. Maybe I have no idea what I’m talking about.”

Maybe minimalism isn’t healthy?

Maybe politics are important?

Maybe sports do have value?

Maybe being an introvert isn’t better?

These are scary thoughts, because my identity is ingrained in these possibly incorrect notions. If I’m wrong about them, then part of my identity is lost and/or needs to be rebuilt.

Being wrong is scary.

But, like anything, the solution lies in perspective.

First off, people grow and change. This is for the better. I might be telling my kids someday, when they’re groaning and hiding under the covers at 10 o’clock in the morning, how I used to love to sleep in when I was younger, until it stopped working for me. And that’s the thing:

If it’s working for you, keep doing it. If it’s not, change it.

Minimalism works for me. Being apathetic about sports works for me. These things, at the very least, do me no harm.

I thought being a night owl was working for me, and for a long time, it was. But, then it stopped. When my life changed — when theses and job hunts and apartments and writing and responsibilities became the focus — I needed to change too. Staying up late was not helping me write my thesis or become any more of an adult. I was stuck. I wasn’t growing.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with the concept of staying up late. But, I was wrong to think I could keep doing it and still get to where I wanted to be. I couldn’t. So, I had to reevaluate and change my habits.

Not a Thing

There’s a deeper aspect to being wrong as well, one that I wrote about long ago. It’s the know-nothing principle.

The know-nothing principle is a solution to the fear of being wrong. The fear of being wrong grows out of being so attached to your ideas that you become unreceptive to new information, which might contradict or disprove your ideas.

“I am a night owl, and it works for me” was my idea. I knew night owlism was better. I shunned the notion of early rising out of fear that it might in fact be superior to my idea. I did not assume the know-nothing principle when it came to sleep schedules. As such, I was unable to see the benefits of an idea different from my own, and in turn it took me a long time to realize that my stubborn adherence to my own idea was causing me to stagnate.

It was only when I stopped being closed off, when I became open to the idea of early rising that I was able to adopt it and change for the better.

By being open to alternative ideas, by thinking of them not as wrong, but merely as different, and by being willing to try them, we free ourselves from being prisoners of our own ways of thinking.

And so, this experience of being “wrong” does not fill me with the fear that I might be wrong about everything. Rather, being wrong is humbling. It’s a reminder that I know nothing. I had forgotten that, and so I had become attached to my ideas. And of course, I was hurt when life reminded me that my idea wasn’t the only way.

The past two weeks have reminded me of the importance of an open mind. An open mind frees you from the fear of being wrong. You don’t have to cling to one idea or another, and you don’t have to jump to defend it from anyone who thinks differently than you.

As Socrates said:

As for me, all I know is that I know nothing.

I thought I knew something about sleep schedules. But, it turns out I don’t know the first thing about them. And that makes me smile.

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Ubiquitous Capture Roundup

Ideas can vanish as quickly as they take shape, so the ability to capture them right away is a critical part of both one's creative process and overall productivity.

I've tried many ubiquitous capture systems (a key component of David Allen's Getting Things Done), but I've yet to settle on just one. As such, I'd like to explore the pros and cons of several systems here.

Note: This article is about capturing ideas and thoughts. It is not about bookmarking things on the Internet or saving articles to read later. I have separate systems for those things. (See: Yojimbo and Instapaper, respectively.)

On My iPhone

Many capture tools are iPhone apps. My iPhone is always within arm's reach, so in many ways it's the ideal ubiquitous capture device. These are the capture-capable apps I currently use, with varying degrees of frequency.

• OmniFocus: The powerhouse of to-do apps, OmniFocus features an omnipresent quick capture button. This feature allows you to add an item to the app's Inbox at any time, even when syncing data. As I mentioned in my home screen app roundup, I don't love OmniFocus. It's loaded with features, but its utilitarian design and lack of personality make it feel very cold. It's not fun to use, although I know many can't live without it. I suppose they would argue that a task manager isn't supposed to be fun, but regardless, I rarely feel compelled to open the app, even to capture an idea. I've thought about switching to Things, but its update cycle makes me hesitant, and I'm not sure I even need such heavyweight to-do apps at this point in my life. App Store: $19.99

• Mail: I keep my inbox at zero, so if there's something in there, it means I have something I need to take care of. Sending myself an email is a decent way to make sure I don't forget about an idea because I look at my inbox throughout the day. But, emailing myself is a cumbersome process: tap Mail, tap Compose, type email address, type subject, type message, tap Send. Too clumsy for my taste.

• Noted: This app solves the problem with using Mail for ubiquitous capture, which is a lack of speed. When you open Noted, you're presented with a blank text field. You type, hit Send, and the message automatically gets delivered to your email address. That's it. Noted does one thing very well. Currently, I keep Noted in a folder on my third screen, so it's not the easiest app to access. I could move it, but I question how necessary it is for my capture system to involve email. App Store: $1.99

• Notesy: A beautiful and feature-rich notes app, Notesy replaced the default Notes app on my iPhone long ago. It syncs via Dropbox, and it's very reliable. I use it to keep running lists, or to take notes if I ever find myself in a meeting. Notesy opens in the same state you left it, so if that's somewhere you don't want to capture your idea, you'll have to back up a screen and select a different/new note. App Store: $4.99

• Clear: A beautiful, musical, and innovate to-do list app, Clear is quite wonderful. It occupied a spot on my home screen for a while, but I've since moved it to screen two. List items in Clear can only be a handful of words long, so it's not great for capturing complex ideas, but adding things to lists is quick and easy via its gesture-based UI. I use this app for running lists as well, such as books to read and gift ideas. It's better suited for capturing brief to-do items than it is for remembering complicated thoughts. App Store: $1.99

Newcomers

In the last week or two, a few new capture apps have come onto the scene.

• Drafts:. Like Noted, Drafts always opens to a blank note, which lets you start typing right away. Several smart folks (including Dave Caolo, Stephen Hackett, Ben Brooks, and Federico Viticci) have all had positive things to say about Drafts. After watching the video on their website, I have to say Drafts looks mighty useful, particularly due to the array of actions you can take once you've captured your idea. You can tweet, email, and copy text easily, and it supports Markdown syntax, previewing, and exporting to email. I don't love the icon, but I must admit Drafts seems like a great app, and one that was specifically designed for ubiquitous capture. It doesn't have sync yet, and there's no iPad app, but I might be willing to overlook those shortcomings. App Store: $0.99

• Pop: The first offering from Patrick Rhone's brand new development team, Minimal Tools, Pop is like Drafts, but without all the features. That's not a bad thing, as the Minimal Tools philosophy is: "Feature number one should always be as few features as needed to perform the primary purpose." I dig that mindset. Write, Read, and Copy All are the only features you'll find in Pop. It truly is a digital piece of paper. Plus, it's got a ballsy icon. App Store: $0.99

• Dropkick: A simple and elegant to-do list app, the full Dropkick suite for Mac, iPhone, and iPad will only cost you twelve bucks. It syncs over the Internet and looks like a great, few-features to-do system. Again, it seems better suited to capturing tasks than ideas, but it could be a great option for those who just want lists of tasks with checkboxes. App Store: Free, with an in-app purchase for full functionality.

Old School

Sometimes, it feels good to write with a pen and paper. Despite my atrocious (and worsening with age?!) handwriting, I keep a pen and scratch pad on my desk so I can scrawl ideas, thoughts, and to-dos immediately while I'm at my computer. This works very well, because when I get an idea, I don't have to wonder about which app I want to use to capture it. I just jot it down and go back to what I was doing. I highly recommend keeping a blank notepad next to your computer for this reason.

I've also just recently started carrying a small notebook with me at all times, for when I feel like writing something down by hand.

There are two components to capturing ideas longhand:

The Pen

At my desk, I prefer writing with the Pilot G2 0.38mm in black ink. (I don't acknowledge blue pens.) I used to use the 0.7mm, but my handwriting is too messy for such a thick line. The difference between the two is drastic. Obviously, the 0.38mm has a much thinner line, but it also has a scratchier feel, which I wasn't sure of at first, but I've grown to love it. However, my yoga studio uses the 0.5mm, and I always love writing with it, so I might try a happy medium in the future.

The problem with pens is carrying them in your pocket. While I often have a backpack with me, I don't always, and so into the pocket the everyday-carry pen must go.

I'm wary of putting anything extraneous in my pockets. I throw out most receipts immediately, and spare change always goes into my piggy bank or my car's center console. If I'm going to disrupt my pocket-carry system (iPhone front-left, wallet back-right, keys front-right), it better be because of something awesome.

The Fisher Space Bullet Pen is pretty awesome. Designed by Paul C. Fisher, it promises to write anywhere and everywhere, even in zero-gravity, underwater, or in extreme temperatures. When closed, it measures just 3.75 inches — perfect for a pocket. When open, it's a standard 5.25 inches. Despite its size, it has an impressive weight to it. That's what she said. The Fisher Space Pen writes very smoothly, although not like the Pilot G2. It feels more like a (shudder) Bic pen to me, but I might not be used to it given the scratchiness of the 0.38mm G2. The Fisher Space Pen is refillable, and people claim to go a full year on a single ink cartridge. I think the pen comes with the medium point by default, so I'm going to try the fine point for my first refill to see if it makes a difference. Special thanks to Patrick Rhone for introducing me to the Fisher Space Pen via this post on his daily pens.

The Paper

Obviously, you can't carry a full-sized notepad in your pocket, and I'm reluctant to put a napkin in my pocket (gross) regardless of how brilliant an idea it may contain.

When it comes to pocket-sized notebooks, the two frontrunners are Moleskine and Field Notes. I have limited experience with Moleskines, and while they look very nice, they seem too thick and heavy, and too fancy to get beat up and sat on all day in a back pocket.

Field Notes, on the other hand, are made to be used and abused. You can get a three-pack for $9.95 (less than the price of one Moleskine), and they come in blank, lined, and graph paper varieties, as well as special edition colors and more. Field Notes are thin; they have just forty-eight pages, which is plenty for jotting things down. Field Notes are also made in the USA, which feels good.

I ordered a three-pack of lined Field Notes a while ago, and I still haven't filled them up yet. I think my next pack will be graph paper, as it allows you to write both horizontally and vertically. Not that my handwriting adheres to lines of any sort, but you know.

A Perfect Ubiquitous Capture System?

Together, the Fisher Space Bullet Pen and Field Notes make a great on-the-go capture system. I've only been carrying them for a few days (pen front-right, paper back-right, for now), so I'm going to stick with it and see how it goes.

At the end of the day, I still haven't decided which ubiquitous capture system I'm going to use longterm. But, it's great to have options, and hopefully this has elucidated some of them for you. If and when I settle on one, I'll be sure to update you.

The ability to capture ideas quickly and without friction is very important. If you've never thought about developing your own ubiquitous capture system, I highly suggest you try it. Your brain is full of stuff; don't trust it to remember all of its brilliant ideas.

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Ubiquitous Distraction, Oases of Quiet, and Why You Can't Come Up with Anything

Lately I’ve been wrestling with the idea of ubiquitous distraction — the notion that distractions are everywhere, and that it’s increasingly difficult to exist in a state without distractions.

The trouble is that distractions often don’t seem like distractions, and sometimes we don’t even consider something a distraction, even though it’s preventing us from doing what we should or even want to be doing, which itself seems like a pretty good definition of “distraction” to me.

Take checking Twitter, for instance. I love checking Twitter. There’s so much cool stuff on Twitter. Many days, it’s a gateway to something inspiring, thought-provoking, or just plain interesting. It has value, no question about it.

But at the same time, when you’re checking Twitter, it’s very difficult to do anything else, or at least do anything else well. It’s the case for single-tasking. The reason for this inability, I think, begins with the fact that checking Twitter requires you to receive information.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course. We’re receiving information all the time, through all of our senses, and probably even when we’re asleep.

I believe an incompatibility exists between receiving information and, shall we say, creating your own information. That is, there is a tension between absorption and creation.

When you’re receiving information, it’s difficult to put out information. For example, it’s hard to listen when you’re talking. When you’re talking, you’re acting as an output. You’re sending words out into the air. When you’re listening, you’re receiving the words from someone else.

A talker’s output is a listener’s input.

Talking and listening at the same time is very difficult. We think we’re capable of doing both simultaneously, but more likely we are alternating in rapid succession between talking and listening.

Suppose I’m reading a book and therefore taking in external information. To understand what I’m reading, I need to pause and think about it. This process happens almost instantly, probably between sentences. That’s what punctuation is for. Otherwise, we would never have an opportunity to understand a thought.

Beyond mere understanding lies the act of pondering. To think about what I read, I need to stop reading and process it. I might have passing, reactionary thoughts to what I’m reading as I read it, but to truly ponder on it, I’m better off pausing to reflect.

Our inputs are innumerable. Twitter, Facebook, texts, books, radio, television, magazines, etc. Whenever we interact with these things, we are receiving information, and thus we are unable to create new information, whether we realize it or not.

With that in mind, it’s clear that reaching a creative state — that is, a state where creation is possible — is incredibly difficult.

Suppose you’re trying to come up with a creative, original thought, or otherwise do some kind of work wherein you’re making something out of nothing. Writing a blog post, a poem, a short story. Painting a picture. Composing a song. Something that requires you to be creative if you’re going to produce anything significant.

If you’re surrounded by inputs, that state of creation is going to be difficult to reach. How can you create something while you brain is busy taking in and understanding external information?

As long as you are surrounded by inputs, you will find no room for your creative output.

This relationship strikes me as insidious in the sense that we may never realize it’s happening.

Say it’s a Wednesday night, and I just queued Thursday’s blog post for publication. But, now I’m in trouble, because I’ve run out of ideas for potential blog posts. I’m all tapped out. But, I need to publish something on Friday morning. The readers depend on it. No matter, something will come to me over the course of the day.

I wake up Thursday morning and check Twitter and RSS. I catch up on the day’s news. Then, I put some music on while I take a shower. I listen to a podcast as I’m eating lunch. Read the news some more. More music or podcasts in the car on the way to work. Actual working while I’m at work. More music or podcasts on the way home. Read some more news while eating dinner.

And now I’m screwed because the day is over, and still no new ideas have come to me!

Well, how could they?

If you were taking in information all day long — news, music, podcasts, other people, etc. — then how could your brain possibly have had a chance to create something original? There was no space to create.

This brings me to an excellent video featuring John Cleese called “A Lecture on Creativity”, which Merlin Mann referenced on Episode 62 of Back to Work.

In his lecture, Cleese advises creating what he calls an “oasis of quiet” when it comes time to do your creative work. He recommends five things as necessary to reaching a creative state, but I’m only going to refer to two of them here. You can (and should) watch the video for the rest.

The first requirement is space, which Cleese says means, “sealing yourself off” from the world. Some place without inputs, without distractions.

The second requirement is time, as in a set period when you wrestle with your problem and only your problem, and after which you go back to your life. He recommends ninety minutes, as it generally takes a while to get used to being alone with your problem and letting the creative juices flow.

Cleese’s “oasis of quiet” is something increasingly rare these days because we are so often surrounded by inputs. In my example of trying to come up with a new blog post idea, I never allowed myself the opportunity to experience an “oasis of quiet”. I was always receiving external information, and thus my brain never had the opportunity to create something of its own, or, to pull knowledge from the air.

To do our best creative work, to really make something great, I believe we first need to build that oasis of quiet. Because there are so many inputs — and therefore so much noise — in our world today, and because we have become so acclimated to them, we do not realize how stifling they are to our creativity.

I’ll end with a quote from Cleese’s lecture:

It’s easier to do trivial things that are urgent than it is to do important things that are not urgent — like thinking — and it’s also easier to do little things we know we can do than to start on big things that we’re not so sure about.

Things like Twitter, as wonderful as it is, are trivial when it comes to creation. Sure, you might discover something that inspires within you a new idea, but following that, the actually process of making something with that idea can only be achieved in an oasis of quiet.

It’s up to you to determine what your oasis looks like. Perhaps you’re sitting. Perhaps you’re pacing. Perhaps you’re alone, or in a crowded café. Perhaps you’re on the couch in the dark, or out in the sunshine.

Whatever it looks like, your oasis needs to afford you and your mind the space and time to create. To do that, you must eliminate inputs. And, you must be patient while you wait for your creativity to come out of the woodwork.

Take the time to turn off your inputs, and find the space and opportunity for your creative output to blossom.

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Easter Casualities

Well, after seven healthy days in a row, I crashed and burned in a fiery explosion of Easter entrées, desserts, and candy. Pants were stretched, stomachs were tested, and abdominal muscles were forced to retreat from the Easter bunny’s onslaught.

But, that’s alright.

The important thing to remember about diverting from habits is that it’s very easy to go back to them.

All you have to do is step back on the path.

I could allow myself to feel guilty and depressed about the eight straight hours of sweets and treats, but what good is that going to do?

One bad meal isn’t as bad as one bad day, and one bad day isn’t as bad as one bad week. Rather, one bad meal is a mere bump in the road. When you look at the big picture, the healthy days still greatly outnumber the unhealthy days.

At the same time, one must be mindful. One bite doesn’t mean the whole day is shot. You can’t allow one mistake to become two, or three, or seven.

Don’t allow one step off the path to become an excuse for tumbling off a cliff.

Rather, when you’re stuffed with truffles, or high from caramels, or laden with cheesecake, take pleasure in the realization that you brought this on yourself. If you can choose to step off the path, you can just as easily choose to step back on. Right now.

Sometimes you have to utterly destroy yourself to remember just how much control you have.

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That Week I Changed My Life

On the evening of March 31, I took the long way home — as I do — and decided that it was time to make a drastic, life-changing decision.

What lead me to this point?

Thesis Bound

Lately, I’ve been struggling with remembering who I am, which in large part has been a side effect of my inability to finish my thesis.

Not having my thesis done was paralyzing me. I felt guilty about not having it done, and I also felt unable to concentrate on anything else, like job hunts, apartment searches, important work, etc.

I could not move forward until my thesis was finished.

A thesis is like an anchor, weighing you down and serving as your one final — but incredibly strong — tie to academia. It’s the last remaining bond between student life and the real world.

In some ways, it’s comforting. You’re still a student. The full pressures of adulthood do not yet apply to you. But, it’s debilitating for the same reasons. You’re still a student. All you have to show for it is a couple of degrees, a lack of direction, and no career.

My Fault

My inability to finish my thesis had been due to a lack of discipline. I work in the evenings, and I’m a night owl. I love to stay up late and sleep in.

When it comes to getting out of bed in the morning, a thesis is perhaps the least effective motivator of all time.

I’d stay up until the wee hours of the morning and sleep until lunchtime, only to spend another hour in bed catching up on the day’s news on my iPhone. If I was lucky I’d find the strength to exercise in some fashion before having lunch and going to work in the afternoon.

Sounds luxurious, but it sucked.

I was in a rut, paralyzed by a routine of ignorance and complacency, ignoring who I wanted to be and just waiting for things to get better. I would fantasize about how awesome my life was going to be, and then I’d wait for it to happen.

Until I realized waiting doesn’t work.

Survey Says

Several stars aligned that last weekend in March, which helped me to reverse my downward spiral.

The first was that my yoga studio was about to start a 30-day challenge for the month of April. Hot yoga, Monday–Friday, 7–8 AM; your choice of weekend classes.

I had no intention of doing the challenge. I wanted to, but I told myself I couldn’t do it.

I work too late. I don’t know how to go to bed early. I’m literally miserable in the morning. I’m a stubbornly proud night owl. Let the cheery morning people do it.

However, that weekend I had to work my monthly Saturday shift, which consisted of teaching eight three- and four-year old boys how to do karate at 8:30 in the morning. So, I was up early. Not by choice, but I was up early.

On Sunday, I decided to go to yoga at 9 AM because my schedule had changed, and I was no longer able to attend my Thursday night class. I like to practice yoga at least twice a week, so I went to bed at a decent hour Saturday night, and made it to yoga the next morning. Up early again, this time by choice.

I’d risen early two days in a row, which is a rare thing.

Which brings us back to my Sunday night drive.

Epiphany

As I cruised along my familiar route, I listened to no music, no podcasts. I thought long and hard about the challenge, my thesis, and my life. And then I realized…

This is the only way you’re going to get your thesis done.

This is the only way to free yourself.

This is the only way to move forward.

That was nine days ago.

Since that night, I’ve woken up at 6:25 AM. Every morning.

I’ve done yoga from 7–8 AM. Every morning.

I’ve come home, enjoyed a cold shower, gotten dressed, made tea, and read. Every morning.

I’ve been at the library when it opens, worked on my thesis, and written for three hours. Every morning.

This routine has turned my life upside for the better.

When I say it was a life-changing week, I don’t mean to be hyperbolic. My productivity, mood, and sense of self-worth have increased ten-fold. I’ve been a proud night owl for as long as I can remember, and here I am getting up with the sun every day. I never thought it could happen, and I never thought it would matter.

It did, and it does.

I love it.

Freedom Found at Dawn

When my alarm goes off in the morning, it’s cool, calm, and quiet. There’s a sense of solitude, which is what I crave and thrive on.

When I practice yoga at 7 AM, I take care of my body. I get my exercise out of the way, first thing, and I feel energized for the rest of the day. If I want to do more exercise later, great. If not, it’s no big deal.

I get home, and it’s still only 8 AM. The whole day still lies ahead, and I feel like I’ve already gotten so much done. The library doesn’t open until 10 AM, so I take my time. I relax. I enjoy the shower. I shave mindfully instead of in a rush. I have time to make green tea. I sit by the window with my iPad, reading my favorite sites or equally amazing things in Instapaper.

I drive to the library at 10 AM. It’s about a ten-minute drive; just enough to enjoy some music or listen to one of my favorite podcasts. It’s beautiful outside. Springtime. The sun is shining, the sky is blue and infinite, and the clouds are fluffy. The roads are mostly quiet, as the morning rush has ended. It’s been an amazing day, and it’s only 10 AM.

I take my usual cubicle in the library, in the corner by the window. I’m surrounded by books and people in pursuit of knowledge. I power up my Mac and work on my thesis, fifty minutes at a time. I take breaks, stand up, and stretch. It feels good to put my head down and power through the work. I keep adding words and pages. I feel like I’m making it better, and I feel like I’m getting better in the process.

I feel like I’m working toward where I want to be.

Around 1 PM, I stop working on my thesis — even if I want to keep going. I make a note of where to start tomorrow. I preserve the momentum. Then, I write something for this website, which I love to do. I take an idea I’ve been formulating, and allow it to become manifest. It’s a reward for typing about Middle English lyrics for the last three hours. The words seem to come easier, writing about things I love. I finish the draft. It’ll be reread and revised later on before being queued for publication. I feel accomplished.

And it’s only 2 PM.

I go home for lunch, feeling exceptional. Guilt-free. Productive. Healthy. Confident. I can eat mindfully, without rushing. After, I leave for work on time, or work out, or relax, depending on the day. So much has already gotten done; everything else that happens today is just gravy.

Life feels remarkable.

The biggest challenge is going to bed early, because I do work until 9 PM some nights. But, I manage to be in bed around 10 PM. I either read, or treat myself to some Netflix on my iPhone. And I’m excited to get up and do it all over again tomorrow.

The first night, I couldn’t fall asleep until 1 AM because I was still so energized from the day, starting with yoga that morning. I thought I would be exhausted all the time, but I’m not. It’s bizarre to say, but sleep feels like such a small part of my day. I used to stay up until three, four, five in the morning, messing around on the computer, playing on my iPad in bed. I can’t work on my thesis at home because it’s too comfortable. Too many distractions. Even writing for QLE was a challenge, especially if starting something from scratch. Then I’d sleep until I woke up, and lie in bed until I had to get up. And somehow, I’d still be tired.

Now, I just sleep to rest. To recharge for the next day. Sleep is a way of fast-forwarding to tomorrow and all the joys it’s sure to hold.

I can’t stress enough how important this change has been for me. I know it’s only been a short time since I’ve made the transition, and I’m still mindful of it every day. I don’t want to lose this routine or take it for granted. It will take many more of these days before it becomes habit.

I never thought I’d say it, but becoming an early riser is the best change I’ve made for myself this year. While I love being a night owl, it wasn’t working for me. It wasn’t helping me grow or move forward. But now, it’s the exact opposite. Everything’s changed. I was stuck, and now I’m moving forward.

I was paralyzed, and now I’m free.

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How to Upgrade Your Shaving Game

We’re already one week into April, and what a glorious, life-changing week it has been… But, more on that Monday.

I want to wrap up this week with a post about shaving. Not your typical Schick Quattro Titanium Alloy Terminator shave — I’m talking about real shaving:

Wet shaving.

I first learned about the art of wet shaving via this excellent article on The Art of Manliness. I’d like to offer my own experience and demonstrate how — much like running — sometimes, the old way is the better way.

Why Wet Shave?

1. Cost. The most practical reason to start wet shaving is that it’s far less costly than modern shaving methods. Cartridge razors are stupid expensive, and you constantly need to purchase refill packs. A wet shaving kit, on the other hand, is a great investment. Safety razor blades are only a fraction of the cost, and while shaving soaps might be more expensive upfront, they last longer and give you a better shave than the cheap gels at CVS. Likewise, a quality safety razor and brush will cost more in the short term, but they’ll probably last for the rest of your life.

2. Higher quality shaves. Dragging four blades across your face is not good for your skin, and razor burn is painful and unsightly. Safety razors use a single blade that shaves smoothly and efficiently, and the proper technique goes a long way.

3. It’s fun and bad ass. Like a cold shower. The manliest of men have been wet shaving for hundreds of years, so you’ll be in classy company.

What You’ll Need

• A safety razor. I own the Merkur Model 178 Classic. Remember, this is a one-time purchase. Pay for quality, and you won’t have to replace it every six months. Also see the Model 180 Long Handled version if you have particularly big hands.

• Blades. Cheap and available at drugstores. 100 blades for $24 on Amazon.

• Shaving cream/soap. Natural ingredients, smells great, and lathers up splendidly. I use Taylor of Old Bond Street Sandalwood Shaving Cream.

• A brush. The better the brush, the better the lather. There are boar bristles and badger bristles. Badger brushes are a bit more expensive, but they’re higher quality. I have this one by Omega.

• A mug. Any will do. I bought this one.

See The Art of Manliness for other recommendations.

The Shave

Warm water is best, as it softens your facial hair, although some prefer cold water. Lather up with your soap, mug, and brush.

The shaving technique itself is the trickiest part. I’m going to quote AoM here:

The four keys to a successful shave with a safety razor are 1) use as little pressure as possible; 2) angle the blade as far away from your face as possible; 3) shave with the grain; and 4) go for beard reduction, not beard removal.

A couple of tips:

You do not need to press down as you would with a modern cartridge razor. The weight of the razor will shave your hair just fine.

Shaving with the grain is crucial to avoid razor burn and ingrown hairs. For a while I just assumed that “with the grain” meant “down”, which is not true. The hair under my chin and on my neck especially seems to grow to the right, which is weird, but it’s important to be aware so you avoid irritation. A cool rinse will close up your pores and leave you feeling fresh.

Once you get the hang of it, I think you’ll find the wet shaving experience to be a highly enjoyable one. It turns shaving into a mindful, pleasant act, unlike hacking up your face on your way out the door. The safety razor is a beautiful piece of machinery, and it feels good to put time and care into your shaving routine. A wet shaving kit also makes a fantastic gift. They’re available on Amazon.

Like cold showers and going barefoot, sometimes modern “conveniences” aren’t actually what’s best for us. The wet shave is a timeless ritual, and one I think you’ll really enjoy.

For more on the art of wet shaving, check the following, in addition to the Art of Manliness article above:

1. The Zen of Shaving | Zen Habits
2. WetShaving.net
3. Badger & Blade forum

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The QLE Barefoot Primer

Barefoot running is all the rage these days, and since I’m a fan and April is health-nut month, I thought I’d write up some of my knowledge and experiences with the barefoot scene.

Why Barefoot?

Barefooting is popular among the paleo/primal crowd because it’s based on evolution. I’m not a podiatrist, so I won’t get into too much detail, but the short, in-favor argument is that human feet are not meant to be encased in rubber and other synthetic materials. Our ancestors evolved and survived without footwear, and they still managed to hunt down wild beasts and drag the carcasses back to camp.

To me, this perspective makes sense. Our barefoot gait is unnatural when we walk or run with conventional footwear. Specifically, when we run with shoes on, we tend to reach with our foot, landing on the heel before transferring our weight forward onto the ball. This is called heel striking, and it explains why runners often experience knee problems and shin splints.

See this post on MDA for a comparison video of barefoot and shod gaits.

Our body’s natural shock absorbers are not in the heel. Try this: stand up, and lift your toes off the ground, so that you’re balancing on your heels. Now, bounce up and down without letting your toes touch the ground. Super awkward and uncomfortable, right?

Now, lift your heels off the ground instead, and bounce on the balls of your feet. See? Much better.

When you heel strike, the impact of your foot hitting the ground travels up the leg and into the knee. That hurts. When you land on your forefoot first, the impact is absorbed much more efficiently.

See this video from the Natural Running Center for more about the principles and physiology of barefoot running.

Now, yes, you could probably learn to forefoot strike while wearing your latest pair of stylish and expensive Nikes. But, why fight evolution? If the theory of barefoot running makes sense to you, why wear a product that inhibits the habits you want to develop?

Modern footwear works against the natural design of the foot, which makes for less efficient movement.

Bare-footwear: Working Out

Of course, your feet might not be ready for total barefooting. Fortunately, a variety of companies have put out shoes to help simulate a barefoot experience. These shoes usually have a larger-than-normal toe box or individual toe slots, which allow your toes to spread out as nature intended, rather than being cramped together inside a Reebok. They also feature “zero-drop”, which means virtually no arch support. This is also good for your feet, as you rely on your arches for support, rather than allowing your foot muscles to atrophy via the artificial arches provided by modern shoes.

The preeminent brand of barefoot shoes is the Vibram Fivefinger, and they’re what I recommend for barefoot exercise. Vibram is known for their well-made soles, which will protect your feet from rocks, glass, etc. while still allowing you to run barefoot-style. They have a ton of different models, styles, and colors, so you’ll have no trouble finding a pair that suits your particular workout and fashion sense.

If I were to recommend one model of Fivefingers, it would be the KSO. “KSO” stands for “Keep Stuff Out” — hence the closed mesh upper and strap. These are Vibram’s most popular model, and they’re incredibly versatile. You can use them for running, yoga, water sports, and pretty much everything in between. Other Vibram models are designed for more specific activities.

Sizing a pair of Fivefingers can be slightly tricky, as you’ll be measuring your feet in inches rather than relying on a standard sizing system. See Vibram’s website for sizing tips. It’s best to try a pair on in person. I’ve found particular success at REI, although Fivefingers seem to be in the window of all major outdoorsy stores now.

I never liked to run until I bought my KSOs, and now I love it. Running barefoot is very freeing, and it makes the experience much more fun, especially if you can find some good trails. Sprinting is also a great workout.

If you’re self-conscious about wearing “those weird toe shoes”, there are other, subtler options. See Justin Ownings’s great site, Birthday Shoes, for a wide selection of brands, styles, and reviews.

Bare-footwear: Casual Wear

Running around and working out in a pair of Fivefingers is great, but you’re probably not enough of a badass to wear them in public or to the office. Understandable. Fortunately, several companies have put out barefoot shoes that work well for casual use.

I’d been looking for a good pair of casual barefoot shoes for a while, and I finally purchased a pair last month: the Tough Glove by Merrell.

I love these shoes. I’ve owned many different Merrells, but these are my favorite by far. They’re subtle, good-looking, and ultra comfortable. They have a Vibram sole. I can wear them with jeans or dress pants, and they let me avoid weird looks from non-barefooters while still giving my feet all of the barefoot benefits. I ordered mine from Zappos in my regular 10.5, which felt great, but seemed a little long in the toe. I exchanged them for a size 10, and they’re a perfect fit. I never want to take them off.

Getting Started with Going Barefoot

If you’ve been wearing modern footwear all your life (as most of us have), you’re going to need to give your body time to transition to the barefoot way. Runners, you will need to learn how to run barefoot. Specifically, be conscious of your gait. Watch the natural running video to get an idea of what to look for. To some degree, wearing barefoot shoes will naturally change your gait, but you still need to be mindful of it when first starting out until you develop good habits and form.

Speaking of just starting out, take it slow and easy at first. You’re going to be using muscles your legs have probably forgotten about, and you’re going to feel it. Don’t try to do your entire five-mile routine on day one, and don’t be afraid to let your feet rest. Take it slow, learn good form, and build up to longer distances. Once you get into it, you’ll probably never go back.

Barefoot Resources

If you’re interested in barefooting, the above links are great resources. In addition, check out the following:

1. How to Make the Barefoot Transition | Mark’s Daily Apple
2. Daniel Lieberman’s Harvard Study on Foot Strike Patterns
3. Birthday Shoes
4. Barefoot Ted’s Adventures
5. Newton Running

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Cold Shower Therapy

I’m not a morning person by any stretch of the imagination, but one of the things I look forward to upon rising is a long, hot shower. It’s the next best thing to a warm, toasty bed.

Lately, however, I’ve been experimenting with cold showers.

“WHY would you do that?” you ask.

Well, as you’ll see, the only reason not to take cold showers is that they’re uncomfortable. The benefits far outnumber the negatives. Observe:

• It helps you wake up. Hot showers are very relaxing, but they don’t do much to get you going in the morning. Cold showers shock the system, leaving you alert and energized.
• It’s good for your hair and skin. Hot showers dry you out, and slathering moisturizer on after every shower is a pain. Cold showers prevent this, and they also help close your pores, which makes your skin look healthier.
• It improves circulation, testosterone production, and male fertility. Ladies.
• It increases your metabolic rate. This is because your body is trying to warm itself. Cold showers also help activate brown fat, which burns calories to help warm the body.
• It improves mood and energy. Hot showers make me sleepy. Cold showers are invigorating; it’s a healthy form of stress for the body.
• It makes you feel like a bad ass. Sometimes, it feels good to scream and curse while flexing all of your muscles under an icy waterfall.

For more on the benefits of cold showers, see:

1. “The James Bond Shower: A Shot of Cold Water for Health and Vitality” | The Art of Manliness
2. “Why so glum, chum? Take a cold shower to ditch the morning blues” | The Handbook of Awesome
3. “Cold Water Therapy” | Mark’s Daily Apple

The best way to experiment with cold showers is to take your typical warm shower, and then turn the temperature down for the last couple of minutes. You can steadily decrease the temperature as you get acclimated, or try going progressively colder with each shower you take. Make sure the water is truly cold; it should make you gasp.

I’ve been turning the temperature down at the end of my showers for a couple of weeks, and I can honestly say I look forward to it now. I’ve also found that my usual “hot” setting is now too hot for me, so I’m using cooler water while washing.

Spring is the perfect time to develop this healthy habit because of the warmer weather. I know it sounds horrible, but you might learn to love a cold shower. If I can do it, you can do it.

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Favorite Apps: Fitocracy

In the spirit of April, I want to tell you about an awesome new app called Fitocracy.

As its name suggests, Fitocracy is all about fitness. It’s part social network, part roleplaying game. You sign up for a free account, join some groups related to the types of exercise that interest you, and then get to work. As you log your workouts, you earn points, complete quests, earn achievements, get props, and more.

The app is highly social, and you can connect it to your Twitter and Facebook accounts to find friends and share accordingly. Fitocracy features a strong sense of camaraderie, and your news feed is always populated with interesting fitness-related discussions.

Central to the app are points and levels. Every exercise you do earns you points. For example, 50 push-ups = +75 points. After you’ve earned enough points, you gain a level. The concept of leveling up applied to fitness is brilliant, and this feature alone makes Fitocracy motivating and highly addictive. It makes you want to exercise more because you want to earn more points. I’m much more likely to bust out ten pull-ups on a whim knowing that I’ll earn +65 points for doing so.

Beyond the points-and-levels concept lie Achievements and Quests, for which you can earn hundreds of bonus points. Achievements are generally related to specific numeric goals, i.e. “Perform barbell bench press for at least 1.3x bodyweight”, or “Cycle 100 km (62 mi) in your lifetime”. Achievements push you to break personal records and workout harder than before. For example, I earned the “Top of the Bar” achievement by performing five pull-ups in a single set, so now I really want to earn the “I Prefer Being Off the Ground” achievement by performing fifteen pull-ups. (Almost there!) Fitocracy rewards progress. It’s a great motivator.

Quests are a bit more fun and elaborate. For example, the “As Seen On TV!” quest is as follows:

• Perform at least 100 jumping jacks
• Perform at least 30 crunches
• Perform a set of 5 push-ups
• Perform planks for a set of 30 seconds
• Perform bicycle abs for at least 20 reps
• Perform bodyweight squats for a set of 10 reps
• Perform bodyweight lunges for a set of 15 reps

Each of these exercises can be completed at any time; they don’t have to be done in a single workout. There are a ton of quests, and just flipping through them inspires you to get cracking. You want those bonus points!

In addition to Achievements and Quests, there are also Challenges, which are special quests created by your groups. You have to sign up for Challenges manually within your groups.

Fitocracy also has detailed statistics and leaderboards, so you can see how you’re progressing individually, as well as how you’re stacking up against your friends.

Fitocracy helps you log everything via its website and brand new iOS app. It knows pretty much every exercise you can think of, and adding reps and sets is a breeze. You can also view graphs of your progress and keep track of personal records. Fitocracy is much more fun than logging your workouts in a plain old notebook.

The iOS app is very well-done. It has a ton of personality, and it’s a lot of fun to use. Fitocracy has already taken up residence on my home screen. You could consider Fitocracy yet another social network/thing-to-check, but I think the health benefits far outweigh any potential distractions the app may present. It’s a matter of signal-to-noise ratio. If the app works for you and inspires you to workout, then it’s worth it. If you don’t exercise and just spend time reading comments, then obviously it’s not.

Fitocracy has been in private beta for a while, and the app was just released to the public last Friday. Since it’s only about five days old, it’s not without a few minor bugs, but nothing that will prevent you from enjoying and benefiting from the experience.

If you’re not an iPhone user, the Fitocracy website is equally robust. A very active online forum is also available, which gives you the sense of joining a community. That’s where I believe Fitocracy is leagues above other fitness apps. You’re not logging your workouts all by your lonesome. There’s a sense of achievement, progress, and friendly competition. You want to earn more points, hit that next level, and complete quests before your friends do. It’s a lot of fun, and it works.

You might scoff at the idea of earning achievements in an iPhone app, but they’re merely a motivator. The real benefit is of course the exercise itself, and Fitocracy inspires you to do a lot more of it and have a blast in the process.

You can get Fitocracy for free in the App Store, and/or sign up online at Fitocracy.com.

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