The Gallery of Cornelis van der Geest by Willem van Haecht (1628) Hobbies and skills: Why You Should Start a Collection Last year, I began to collect fragrances. I felt embarrassed, like it was a guilty pleasure to be locked away. I saw 'collectors' as hoarders*—neurotic harvesters of material goods who fear the responsibility of a real hobby, and instead, retreat to their wallet for pleasure. But truth dies without nuance. Today, I see that collectors and hoarders are two different ends on a...
24 days ago • 5 min read
Self-education: Five ways to learn with a notebook Notebooks are the map to wisdom. Their emptiness is their strength; we have no choice but to fill it with our discoveries, and as you write, you echo a part of God and the universe—creation. It’s a privilege no other creature on earth shares (except for beavers). By writing, you learn what it means to be conscious, not just as an individual, but as a soul, a community, and as a bearer of knowledge in the chain we call history. High and mighty...
about 2 months ago • 8 min read
Ruins of an Ancient City by John Martin (c. 1810-20) Reading Skills: How Self-Help Poisons Your Reading Self-help books come with an ugly side effect; one veiled with good intentions, but that will inevitably sabotage your reading when you choose to spread out from this swollen genre. The fact that self-help is where many of us start out with literature makes it an even bigger cause for alarm. In that saturated corner of the library, there’s a risk that you read book after book after book,...
3 months ago • 4 min read
Enkidu and Gilgamesh killing the Heavenly Bull Essay: When Gilgamesh tore down hustle culture Around two thousand years ago, the very first epic poem explored our fear of death, our neglect of duty, and the proper meaning of life. Two thousand years later, that same poem- the Epic of Gilgamesh -takes a swing at the bizarre trends of the productivity sphere, as if the Sumerian copper merchants personally got mad at the flood of hustle-porn and lying influencers on their clay tablet feeds. But...
3 months ago • 5 min read
Saint Jerome in His Study by Pieter Coecke van Aelst and workshop (1502–1550) Note-taking: The hidden perfectionism that ruins your reading I have a confession to make. It should startle you, but give me five minutes and it will make sense. My note-taking system is a bit . . . shit. Obsidian hosts my notes, and my style is modelled around the zettelkasten system, which uses all sorts of clever principles to archive and connect great ideas. Ok, maybe it’s not so bad. I still use it almost two...
4 months ago • 3 min read
Allégresse (Joy) by Abel-Dominique Boyé Mini-Essay: The Self-Determination Theory It’s bloody hard to be happy. In mere minutes of scrolling, you can be exposed to plenty of anxiety, tragedy and suffering. Hell, even if you delete Instagram and throw your phone into the Pacific, there’s no escaping reality. The world is connected, and it’s easy to get the impression that everything is falling apart. The modern career market, the fractured state of social life, the weight of the world’s...
4 months ago • 5 min read
Love and Pain / Vampire by Edvard Munch, 1895 Reading & Literature: Information Whores I used to be an information whore. I reread Wikipedia articles until I could recall every main point like a mindless droid. I treated book summaries with more love than actual books; real substance and depth gave way to merely . . . remembering the plot well. I got frustrated when the raw data of literature left me. The dates, names, events—they all escaped their skull prison, and it felt like every hour of...
5 months ago • 2 min read
Book Spotlight: A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold Coming up: Overview Context Writing Style Who's it for? What gave me the fizz? Essays Criticism Difficulty Overview Aldo Leopold’s three part almanac is a reverent letter to nature, ecology and the ethics they are torn between. Leopold is more than an experienced naturalist—he is a storyteller, a philosopher, a scientist and a symbol of rugged American independence, with every personality wrapped into this book. - Part one is beautiful...
5 months ago • 13 min read
Christina's World by Andrew Wyeth, 1948 Hobbies: Beating ourselves up over nothing Long time no see. The last issue was released about two months ago. I shifted my focus to the videos and left the fountain to dry up, and for that, I owe you an apology. But apology without action is as weightless as the words on your screen. I owe you a reason to read on, and luckily, this reminded me of a sore spot that hurts the polymath types (that’s you, reading this). Uncomfortable with stillness, we rush...
6 months ago • 3 min read