Curations for the week of February 6th
Every week I read a bunch of articles that come from a bunch of sources and for the most part it’s inconsequential fluff. But every now and again, something good comes along, something worth saving, something worth sharing. On that note, I’ve selected a few articles that made me stop and think this week.
Your Shit, My Stuff, Goldilocks, and Making the Bed You Sleep In from Frank Chimero
Get used to seeing this name—Frank Chimero—he has a knack for good clean common sense that more folks could learn from. Here, he talks about his take on stuff and his rules for it. It’s a good read and a bit of a change from the minimalism movement that has been seeing a lot of popularity lately. He sums it all up rather neatly:Add things until it starts sucking, take away things until it stops getting better.
Compassion and the Individual from The Office of His Holiness The Dalai Lama
We can all learn something from the Dalai Lama, whether you’re a Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, Hindu, or any other religion. In this “message”, the Dalai Lama tries to explain the meaning of life and the best ways to obtain it. I agreed with his stance that happiness is the meaning to life. His stance that compassion is the best way to achieve it, however, was a breath of fresh air.Deindividualization from You Are Not So Smart.
Ever wonder where the herd mentality comes from? Curious about why looting and rioting breaks out after demonstrations? Not sure why you made stupid decisions with your friends when you were a kid? It’s because of deindividualization.Those are the three ingredients – anonymity, group size and arousal. If you lose your sense of self, feel the power of a crowd and then get slammed by a powerful cue from the environment – your individuality may evaporate.
What Happened to Downtime? from The 99 Percent
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, about how we go from email to work to twitter to work to email to blog and so on. We never get any downtime any more, worse yet, the folks who claim to try and help are really just contributing to the problem—myself and any of these blogs included, maybe with the exception of Mr. Chimero. It’s high time to stop looking for more sources of information and start doing some actual hard thinking.Don’t Be A Design Zombie from The 99 Percent
Here I am again with another article from The 99 Percent. I don’t want you to get any funny ideas that I really like this blog, I don’t. They re just like any self-help magazine, they help very little and only really serve to fuel your anxieties about yourself. However, this article points out something you can do to curb your distraction problems: wake up early—or for that matter stay up late. Just find some time all to yourself when everyone else will leave you the hell alone.
