February 2012
2 posts
The Art of Living
“A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both.”
-...
January 2012
1 post
“At a press session someone asked Gary Nixon what his advice would be for someone who wanted to pursue motorcycle road racing. His reply– ‘Anyone who wants to road race motorcycles is here this week doing it!’ Room goes quiet, as we all realized that his short and simple reply said it all.”
-TSY on Gary Nixon
December 2011
4 posts
Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.
-Lazo Tze
“We clutter the earth with our inventions, never dreaming that possibly they are...”
– Henry Miller (via black-wolves)
“If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don’t even try. This could...”
– Charles Bukowski (via black-wolves)
“There is no longer room for irrelevant things.
We have no longer got the...”
– Dieter Rams
Talent is for Shit
The best advice I could possibly give you, and forgive me if this seems glib, is to work. Work. Work. Work. Every day. At the same time every day. For as long as you can take it every day, work, work, work. Understand? Talent is for shit. I’ve taught school for nearly thirty years and never met a student who did not have some talent. It is as common as house dust or kudzu vine in Alabama...
November 2011
10 posts
“If you want to write, if you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool...”
– Ray Bradbury (via black-wolves)
For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can’t readily accept the God formula, the big answers don’t remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command nor faith a dictum. I am my own god. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational...
Your competitive advantage
Are you going to succeed because you return emails a few minutes faster, tweet a bit more often and stay at work an hour longer than anyone else?
I think that’s unlikely. When you push to turn intellectual work into factory work (which means more showing up and more following instructions) you’re racing to the bottom.
It seems to me that you will succeed because you confronted...
People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that’s what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that’s holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life. A true soul mate is probably the most important person you’ll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. -Eat Pray Love
“Your thoughts construct patterns like scaffolding in your mind. You are really etching chemical patterns. In most cases, people get stuck in those patterns, just like grooves in a record, and they never get out of them. I’ll always stay connected with Apple. I hope that throughout my life I’ll sort of have the thread of my life and the thread of Apple weave in and out of each other,...
“Wisdom is knowing what to do next, skill is knowing how to do it, and virtue is doing it.”
-David Starr
“People don’t follow instructions,
they follow leaders.”
October 2011
1 post
“Great work is never reasonable, safe or boring.”
– Seth Godin
September 2011
2 posts
“My mother said to me, ‘If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If...”
August 2011
1 post
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man...”
– Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt
July 2011
1 post
I'm not playing that game. via the mnmlist
When my youngest daughter Noelle is challenged by one of her older siblings to a game she knows she can’t win, she says, “I’m not playing that game.”
I thought of that yesterday as I walked around downtown San Francisco, full of advertising and places to shop, full of people buying things.
We are being played. The advertising industry — and the corporations that sell us stuff through ads —...
June 2011
4 posts
Tetrapharmakos
The Tetrapharmakos (τετραφάρμακος), or, “The four-part cure,” is the Greek philosopher Epicurus’ (341 BC, Samos – 270 BC, Athens) remedy for leading the happiest possible life.
The Four-part Cure:
Ἄφοβον ὁ θεός, ἀνύποπτον ὁ θάνατος καὶ τἀγαθὸν μὲν εὔκτητον, τὸ δὲ δεινὸν εὐκαρτέρητον
Don’t fear god, Don’t worry about death; What is good is easy to get, and ...
The Status Quo Will Do Just Fine Without You
As a matter of opinion, it’s time to get some cojones. Or whatever clever slang you’ve cooked up for the female equivalent, or whatever will help you understand the following point. Sure there’s plenty of good things to honor about the past of our photography industry. A lot of the trails have been intelligently blazed by those before us, a lot of ditches have been dug. But…ahem…generally...
May 2011
2 posts
You’re not bored, you’re just boring.
“A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and...”
– François Auguste René Chateaubriand (via bestmadeco)
April 2011
1 post
February 2011
2 posts
1 tag
1 tag
January 2011
1 post
Too late
We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood...
December 2010
2 posts
Whatever makes you nervous...
Whenever Michael Jordan gets on the golf course and his friends ask the stakes of the game–how much money they’re betting against one another–rumor has it that his stock response is: “Whatever makes you nervous.”
That’s what you should bet on yourself, every time. Not what makes you comfortable, but what makes you nervous.
Your muscles get stronger by running, jumping, lifting weights, by ...
November 2010
7 posts
WatchMad as Hell!
-Aaron Leming
The market has no taste...
When it comes to art, to human work that changes people, the mass market is a fool. A dolt. Stupid.
If you wait for the market to tell you that you’re great, you’ll merely end up wasting time. Or perhaps instead you will persuade yourself to ship the merely good, and settle for the tepid embrace of the uninvolved.
Great work is always shunned at first.
Would we (the market)...
I need you to see things my way...
And that’s the frustration of the marketer or the artist who hasn’t figured out how to navigate critics and the marketplace.
If you need the validation and acceptance and patronage of everyone you meet, you’ll get stuck, and soon. Everyone isn’t going to get it. Everyone isn’t even going to get you, never mind what you sell.
Experienced marketers and artists and...
“The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”
– Chinese Proverb
“Yeah, But I Have To Make Money….”
(And other ways to ignore the reason you became a professional photographer)
When you are in the business of selling something subjective like photography, there is no standard formula which will tell you who is going to connect with what you do, any more than it is possible to predict who is likely to fall in love with you.
Following what’s hot right now; doing what you have been seeing...
October 2010
1 post
“Luck is PROBABILITY taken PERSONALLY.”
– Unknown
September 2010
4 posts
Would you?
Would you rather fail at something you love, than to succeed at something you hate?
August 2010
4 posts
Think about it.
Delivering Happiness
“Sometimes it may seem that new problems crop up as fast as we solve the old ones (sometimes faster!), but that just means we’re moving — that we’re getting better and stronger. Anyone that wants to compete with us has to learn the same things, so problems are just mile markers.”
“It may seem sometimes like we don’t know what we’re doing. And it’s true: we don’t. That’s a bit scary, but you...
“The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in...”
– Socrates
1 tag
WatchA quick walk through our known universe. Every speck of light you see is a galaxy with billions upon billions of stars. We live in a pretty big neighborhood eh?
Video via Miguel Aragon