Verwarde Cavia observeert veranderingen

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Na Taal Is Zegt Maar Echt mijn Ding, las ik van Paulien Cornelisse De Verwarde Cavia.

De Verwarde Cavia is een melige verzameling columns die eerder in NRC verschenen over de dagelijkse beslommeringen van Cavia, een gescheiden alleenstaande vrouw zonder kinderen. En Cavia observeert. Cavia is het liefst op zichzelf.   Cavia worstelt niet met het leven, hoewel ze wat zeikerig is. Maar het leven overkomt haar. Ze is naïef en neemt heel weinig hele kleine initiatieven. Ze is de goedheid zelve. Ze wordt misbruikt voor dubieuze praktijken als bespioneren van collega’s.

 Het oppervlakkige leven en gebrek aan diepgang is wellicht het thema in de Cavia verhalen.

Cavia produceert geen diepzinnige gedachten.   En zo kwam het dat Cavia zich te midden van borrelende mensen bezighield met de filosofische vraag: Als je aan het mingelen bent, maar niemand merkt het, is er dan sprake van mingelen? Cavia mijdt moeilijkheden. Maar is droogkomisch.   Nu Enzo weg was, werd Cavia ineens weer wakker in haar eigen huis. Ze was er de afgelopen tijd zo weinig geweest dat ze het zielig vond voor haar spulletjes, maar ze sprak zichzelf meteen streng toe: Dingen zijn niet zielig! Je kon wel aan de gang blijven. “Het was even stil. ‘En dat jij dan de keynote doet?’ vroeg De Groot.’Bijvoorbeeld!’ zei Cavia. ‘Bijvoorbeeld.’ Zo direct even opzoeken wat precies de definitie van een keynote was. “Goed: zei De Groot. ‘Make it happen.’Cavia slikte. Cavia raakt in de war van veranderingen. Maar niet op een pathologische manier.   In mineur over alle veranderingen liep Cavia door de regen naar huis. Om zichzelf op te vrolijken kocht ze bij de kantoorboekhandel wat bruine enveloppen, eigenlijk alleen om eraan te ruiken. Uiteindelijk is het leven van een kantoorbediende die slappe nieuwsbrieven rondstuurt slechts een setting een lichte levenswijze die Paulien Cornelisse voor ons schetst. Het kleine leven in The Office, Het Bureau, Debiteuren Crediteuren, maar dan stiekem toch best gelukkig mee kunnen zijn met de geborgenheid van deze weinig uitdagende werkomgeving.  

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Steal Like An Artist – Austin Kleon

Great, compound book, about getting art work done, Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon. 

Stealing is only part of it, and not something to be ashamed of, but rather a necessity.

All things come down to discipline and stamina, applying the principle of Ignore Everybody (Hugh McLeod who seems to be his friend).

Like his note on sharing the dots: connecting them is the trick.

Adheres to the principle in reading: will not finish books i don’t like. Love that.

In the back a number of book recommendations. Thank you very much Austin.

Read also Show Your Work. 

Alain De Botton – The Consolations of Philosophy

In The Consolations of Philosophy, Alain de Botton helps us put life’s difficulties into perspective. De Botton guides us through the works of a number of well-known philosophers (Socrates, Epicurus, Seneca, Montaigne, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche) and distills lessons from their work.

The Consolations of Philosophy

From Socrates we learn to examine the statements of self-confident people. Oftentimes you find these statements can not stand up to even mild scrutiny. So, subject their convictions and also your own premises to criticism. Support your beliefs with good answers to counter arguments.

Epicurus tells us that epicurean is actually not, as opposed what we often associate it with today, equivalent to being an unbounded bon-vivant. Instead, Epicurus tells which components are more important than “stuff” for our well-being: friendship, freedom, reflection.

Seneca learns us to enjoy the beautiful things of life, but to always be prepared to loose these acquirements. And to not get freaked out when this happens.

Do not assume the world is conspiring against you. Annoying things happen to you while no one is aiming to hurt you. You are not being sabotaged.
(Even better, to speak with Kevin Kelly, the world is conspiring to your success: pronoia.)

Motaigne states that he who thinks he is wise, is in fact a fool.

The banal physical things can not be denied. Even the king has to shit and it stinks too.

Our culture is not the norm. Our habits and rituals are just as strange as those from a distant Indian tribe in the jungle of South America. Arrogance is misplaced.

Wisdom and scholarship are different things. Wisdom is rarely taught in schools. Not (just) philosophers are able to lead a virtuous life. Also a poorly-educated worker can live wisely and “produce” wisdom. (Grandmother’s wisdom).

Schopenhauer strikes me as a grumpy man. It is not our intelligence that steers our decisions, but the unconscious. Our intelligence is busy justifying our decisions through the construction of logical reasonings. Very much like Kahneman has found: fast decision making is done by our System 1 thinking, which is impulsive and subjective. Our System 2 is more thoughtful and slow, but tends not to correct System 1 decisions but rather justify those decisions.

Love between man and woman is only successful if our unconscious thinks that it may produce good offspring. Procreation is what drives all this, unconsciously. Consoling consequences: when your love is declined, this is only because nature predicts an unsuccessful reproduction, not so much because the other person dislikes you.

Nietzsche explains there is no joy without difficulties. Difficulties are necessary prerequisites for joy.

From the efforts of the craftsman follows the genius of the artist. Genius is not born but created. The route to follow learning your crafts: sublimate, spiritualize (internalize), elevate. Do not resign to things that are too difficult to achieve, but instead fight to achieve these. There is no other way.

See also Beauty and Consolation.

The joy of reading old books

We are tempted to only read new books. Books on the NY Times best seller list, if you are American.

But consider reading old books. Books that have been around for some time. That have proven their value and are still being recommended.

Not necessarily Greek Philosophers, but also books like Moby Dick (from 1851), One Hundred years of Solitude (1967), Catcher in the Rye (1945), Catch-22 (1961), Alice in Wonderland (1862), The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968), Meditations (ok that’s old – 170-180 AD), Gödel, Escher, Bach (1979), On Writing (2000), Maus (written 1980-1991), Antifragile (2012).

On Antifragile, the approach to read old books probably much aligns with Nassim Taleb’s conviction to prefer grandmother’s wisdom over the opinions of self-appointed intelligentia. And also take the Lindy effect into account, and you are ensured you can enjoy the read much longer.

Thought of humility for modern day “geniuses”

… genius isn’t the result of the great men that Carlyle proposed. Instead, the genius stands atop the shoulders of those that came before, whose small incremental advances led to the genius’ breakthrough.

…

It’s not brilliance, it’s simply progress “obtained naturally and cumulatively as a consequence of hard work, directed by intuition, literature, and a bit of luck.”

Thought of humility for modern day “geniuses” (video)

… genius isn’t the result of the great men that Carlyle proposed. Instead, the genius stands atop the shoulders of those that came before, whose small incremental advances led to the genius’ breakthrough.

…

It’s not brilliance, it’s simply progress “obtained naturally and cumulatively as a consequence of hard work, directed by intuition, literature, and a bit of luck.”

Melvins – Night Goat

Can’t stop listening to this song. This live version is cool.

Taylor Pearson’s illegible margin

Taylor Pearson wrote a great article on the limits and dangers of rationalizing complex phenomena, and the opportunities of illegible ‘fat tail’ margins.

Some other gold nuggets in the article:

  • The joy of reading (and logic of preferring) old books.
  • Follow fingerspitzelgefühl – grandmother’s wisdom, Nassim Taleb, would say instead of modernist rationalizations.
  • A tinkering budget (low downside, high upside) for the things we are exploring that are hard to see.

Internet besties

I love these places on the internet. In no particular order, for now.

Austin Kleon – Drawing writer with a great blog.

Brain Pickings – Maria Popova’s labour of love on books and other beautiful things.

Mr Motley – Great Dutch site about art.

Beeple-crap – Wonderful artist, became known for selling digital works as art with NFT’s. I think his daily work is immensely inspiring.

Boing Boing – Despite being somewhat North-America oriented, a beautiful site by my favorite internet person Mark Frauenfelder. (You will have to accept too many too disgusting ads, that are apparently needed to keep the site alive.)

booooooom – A beautiful art platform. Scrolling around cheers up your mind.

Swissmiss – A design blog it says, but it is much more. Run by Tina Roth Eisenberg. I would say it is her personal “thing that delight me on the web” log.

https://www.dirtyharrry.com – For a visual orgasm.

Seth Godin – Well, guess it needs no elaboration – Seth Godin’s blog. All about making a ruckus.

The Correspondent – Probably the most refreshing journalistic platform in the world, focusing on “unbreaking news”. Here the original (even better) Dutch De Correspondent.

Derek Sivers – Slow thinker comes to unique points of view. Now redirecting to https://sive.rs/. Hope he will re-start posting.

kk.org – A wealth of Kevin Kelly interesting initiatives, thoughts, articles, stuff.

elsadorfman.com – The website of Elsa Dorfman, 20×24 Polaroid portait photographer. An relatively old website I found recently after she passed away. This site keeps engaging me.

B – Blake Andrews’s long running blog. On (street) photography, and other interests from Blake.

Recomendo – another site/newsletter by Mark Frauenfelder.