This was a great piece. I’ve decided to cut my phone out of my life and focus more on being present in the moment. I have a stack of books I’ve been neglecting, and I’m going to get into them. Excited to check out the ones you recommended too!!
Oh I’m so glad this newsletter could be a push to get stuck into the books 📚 I find YouTube to be very rewarding too but the shorter form platforms can just get tired really quickly.
Thanks for reading and glad you got the reference. For the longest time I thought the lyric was there’s more to life than looks you know but not much more haha 😆 but books is much better and makes sense for Morrissey to say. See you in the next newsletter!
Great piece! Thanks for taking the time to document so many interests many of us all share but never have an outlet to express. I’m super interested in your thoughts on The Creative Act. I also love the almost meditative approach to work he presents but I couldn’t help but grapple with reality in that we have to have lives and jobs and stress which all play a role that somehow needs to live alongside this free spirit anything is art attitude. The need to succeed to prove valuable time has almost never been more present in a world where you only see success in the art world because there’s no room for platforming failure. I still thought it was a great read overall but the practice of it would require more privilege than I might have or maybe rather, than I’m willing to give myself.
Thanks for the book recommendations and the great video you shared. Rubin’s book is indeed phenomenal for anyone but specially for those of us who create things for a living.
There’s another great book along the same lines from Sean Tucker (a fellow photog and youtuber): “The Meaning in the Making: The Why and How Behind Our Human Need to Create”, I highly recommend it too.
I abandoned my digital drone life over a decade now to adopt a more analog lifestyle. Nowadays my diary, journal, todo lists, mood board and many other items reside in proper paper notebooks instead of digital files. In the process I recovered my ability to actually write in an intelligible and mindful way, my love for books, my ability to draw and even my love for music and its long-lost tradition of actually listening albums from beginning to end, as opposed to consuming just hits.
So far, I’ve learned that the analog process is real; the digital just a scam most of the time. That analog pieces live for many decades and are unique, while digital ones can become obsolete in just a few months.
Speaking of which I recommend you to read “The Revenge of Analog: Real Things and Why They Matter” by David Sax. Excellent book that might help you detox a bit more.
Why am I just learning about the term ‘polymath’ haha. Thanks for including the video, was exactly what I needed to hear 😌 Also keen to put some of those books on my list. Instead of checking Insta, I checked substack this morning. Much prefer more in depth reads and less noise. Social media has a purpose but it’s good to venture to different platforms 👌🏼
Online I’m narrowing my focus to pretty much just here and BlueSky, plus getting my long neglected website back in order. IG and TikTok do little for me except suck time. FB I’m de facto off, in that I deleted the app and occasionally go in and like my wife’s posts, but actually using it has become a doomscrolling nightmare of ads and “suggestions” I don’t want, rarely seeing content I actually follow. And Zuck is a dirtbag who I’d rather not support any more. If it wasn’t for local companies and the photo club I’m thinking of joining only having FB as their web presence (argh, no! Terrible plan!) I’d just delete the damn account entirely.
In real life I’m planning to read more, photograph more, maybe get my darkroom up again, and have set a goal or two around making physical items like zines.
All at the whims of my day job, sadly. But I get time where I can!
Great post! It seriously has been such a weird start to the year. I’ve noticed a lot of my friends stepping away from social media, and you can almost taste the burnout in the air. I’m looking forward to hearing your predictions about the future of content and the direction it's going to take. I think people are looking for connection more now than ever. Thank you for the book recommendations. Feeding the Monster looks sick!
This was a great piece. I’ve decided to cut my phone out of my life and focus more on being present in the moment. I have a stack of books I’ve been neglecting, and I’m going to get into them. Excited to check out the ones you recommended too!!
Oh I’m so glad this newsletter could be a push to get stuck into the books 📚 I find YouTube to be very rewarding too but the shorter form platforms can just get tired really quickly.
For me tiktok was terrible. It was such a time and attention vacuum. Hours would just disappear. I’m glad I’m focusing on books
Great post! And love the Smiths reference!!!
Thanks for reading and glad you got the reference. For the longest time I thought the lyric was there’s more to life than looks you know but not much more haha 😆 but books is much better and makes sense for Morrissey to say. See you in the next newsletter!
Great piece! Thanks for taking the time to document so many interests many of us all share but never have an outlet to express. I’m super interested in your thoughts on The Creative Act. I also love the almost meditative approach to work he presents but I couldn’t help but grapple with reality in that we have to have lives and jobs and stress which all play a role that somehow needs to live alongside this free spirit anything is art attitude. The need to succeed to prove valuable time has almost never been more present in a world where you only see success in the art world because there’s no room for platforming failure. I still thought it was a great read overall but the practice of it would require more privilege than I might have or maybe rather, than I’m willing to give myself.
Thanks for the book recommendations and the great video you shared. Rubin’s book is indeed phenomenal for anyone but specially for those of us who create things for a living.
There’s another great book along the same lines from Sean Tucker (a fellow photog and youtuber): “The Meaning in the Making: The Why and How Behind Our Human Need to Create”, I highly recommend it too.
I abandoned my digital drone life over a decade now to adopt a more analog lifestyle. Nowadays my diary, journal, todo lists, mood board and many other items reside in proper paper notebooks instead of digital files. In the process I recovered my ability to actually write in an intelligible and mindful way, my love for books, my ability to draw and even my love for music and its long-lost tradition of actually listening albums from beginning to end, as opposed to consuming just hits.
So far, I’ve learned that the analog process is real; the digital just a scam most of the time. That analog pieces live for many decades and are unique, while digital ones can become obsolete in just a few months.
Speaking of which I recommend you to read “The Revenge of Analog: Real Things and Why They Matter” by David Sax. Excellent book that might help you detox a bit more.
Hope to read more from you!
Why am I just learning about the term ‘polymath’ haha. Thanks for including the video, was exactly what I needed to hear 😌 Also keen to put some of those books on my list. Instead of checking Insta, I checked substack this morning. Much prefer more in depth reads and less noise. Social media has a purpose but it’s good to venture to different platforms 👌🏼
Online I’m narrowing my focus to pretty much just here and BlueSky, plus getting my long neglected website back in order. IG and TikTok do little for me except suck time. FB I’m de facto off, in that I deleted the app and occasionally go in and like my wife’s posts, but actually using it has become a doomscrolling nightmare of ads and “suggestions” I don’t want, rarely seeing content I actually follow. And Zuck is a dirtbag who I’d rather not support any more. If it wasn’t for local companies and the photo club I’m thinking of joining only having FB as their web presence (argh, no! Terrible plan!) I’d just delete the damn account entirely.
In real life I’m planning to read more, photograph more, maybe get my darkroom up again, and have set a goal or two around making physical items like zines.
All at the whims of my day job, sadly. But I get time where I can!
Great post! It seriously has been such a weird start to the year. I’ve noticed a lot of my friends stepping away from social media, and you can almost taste the burnout in the air. I’m looking forward to hearing your predictions about the future of content and the direction it's going to take. I think people are looking for connection more now than ever. Thank you for the book recommendations. Feeding the Monster looks sick!