Writer exploring culture, technology, life design, and the human experience. Writing at BarryFralick.com
Sunday Notes 10/27/24
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Hello all. Here are this week's notes. From me: Some things I don't know I don't know anything about grammar. There are rules. I don't know them. I write like a musician plays by ear. I strive for rhythm and clarity. I question whether it matters. I don't know why businesses and organizations mail letters. Email is free, fast, and easy. Imagine going back in time and telling Pony Express riders about modern email, then telling them some people refuse to use it. I don't know who we (the U.S.) owe the national debt to. I don't know what happens if we default. I've seen projections of each taxpayer's portion of that debt. I don't think I'm going to be writing that check. I don't know why people get attached. It doesn't make sense to me. I find most things wildly unimportant. Maybe I am a detached person. I don't know why anyone would want to be famous. Rich would be nice, but not famous. Maybe fame is a tradeoff. I don't know if Bitcoin will ever be a viable currency. A store of wealth, maybe. A casino, certainly. But I'm not sure a startup currency backed by nothing, no precious metals, no economic productivity, and no military might could become a globally useful measure of trade. I don't know why the education system does such a poor job of educating children on basic things every adult should know, leaving young adults largely unequipped to navigate personal finance, among other things. I don't know why people prefer YouTube videos over reading. Unless there is information more effectively conveyed via image over text, video is lengthier, time-wasting, and overall less intellectually absorbent. I don't know why people entrench themselves in a mediocre life, supplementing coping mechanisms to endure when life, in itself, is short and could be optimized for self-sufficiency, agility, and ease. Of course, I have suspicions. I don't know a lot of things. -- ??: Breadcrumbs The use of social media to share — what you are learning, what you are doing, what you have done — is a simple way to see and be seen. But it is also a way to use it virtuously. Let nothing you do be done carelessly. -- Well said: Jerry Seinfeld on living: Life is truly a ride. We're all strapped in and no one can stop it. When the doctor slaps your behind, he's ripping your ticket and away you go. As you make each passage from youth to adulthood to maturity, sometimes you put your arms up and scream, sometimes you just hang on to that bar in front of you. But the ride is the thing. I think the most you can hope for at the end of life is that your hair's messed, you're out of breath, and you didn't throw up. And on seeking new challenges: Once you start doing only what you've already proven you can do, you're on the road to death. -- Simplicity: 19 Ways To Protect Your Peace -- A quote: On keeping a notebook. We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget. We forget the loves and the betrayals alike, forget what we whispered and what we screamed, forget who we were.
― Joan Didion
-- Life Design: Important Problems -- Lastly, a question: What is something you're investing a great amount of time in that isn't working? What needs to change? That is it for this week's edition. TTYS Barry |
Barry Fralick
Writer exploring culture, technology, life design, and the human experience. Writing at BarryFralick.com
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