Naval Ravikant:

“The most important relationship you have is with yourself, with this voice in your head that’s always chattering and never shuts up … If you want to see what the quality of your life actually is, put down the drink, put down the computer, put down the smart phone, put down the book, put down the headphones, and just sit by yourself doing nothing — and then you will know what the quality of your life actually is.”

“A few years ago I made a shift in my thinking about fitness — a shift from trying to get enough exercise to trying to fill my days with movement.” philipbrewer.net


The idea that ‘movement’ should take precedence over ‘exercise’. Just doing, instead of having to do.

“To realise that we live in an absurd culture where we are taught absurd things by absurd people and threatened with absurd consequences for defying all of it is to achieve a level of contentment.” michaelmalice.com 📚

I’ve written here before about grey hair and death dreams and regerts, but I must officially be old now that I’m mentioning my rising mild anxiety about my children having to come and clean out my house if I die. In Sweden there’s a kind of decluttering called döstädning which means “death cleaning.” And while I’m not ready yet for that to be what I’m doing, the upside is: my house and affairs are getting tidier by the day.

Further to the last. Everything operates subject to cause and effect. I may not have control over all the things, but I do have control over how I respond to all the things.

Accepting that most things are outside my control means detaching from them and focusing on the things I can control. The stoics and buddhists taught this.

If sorting out the thousands of photos and docs on my ageing MacBook means copying everything onto an external hard drive, I guess I just sorted out the thousands of photos and docs on my ageing MacBook. Phew.

Another election done and dusted and hopefully that’s the last we’ll see of Winston. Any discussions of his legacy will be brief.

The left will be happy Labour got enough votes to govern alone. The right will be less happy but the positive for them is that Labour’s majority keeps the Greens’ hands off the big shiny levers. Act did better than expected and their challenge will be to keep their new MPs in line.

Labour’s challenge will be that but for Covid they would have been judged more harshly on their lack of delivery. Now they must deliver.

The media have been big winners too and have firmly cemented themselves as part of the whole shoddy system.

Blindness, by José Saramago 📚

An insightful look into human nature and what can happen when the thin veneer of civilisation slips, in this case into darkness. Some powerful moments, and don’t be put off by the weird style. #fiction

An earthquake, then a blackbird flapping trapped in the laundry. Possibly related.

Films watched in winter: 🍿

Edge of Tomorrow
Hot Girls Wanted
Revolutionary Road
Athlete A
The Death of Stalin
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
The Big Lebowski
Under the Skin
Lady Bird

At Twitter, a poll asking if the Christchurch killer, who is Australian, should serve his actual  life sentence in NZ or back in Aussie. Some are suggesting we just drop him off somewhere in the middle.

Made it to the hotel and running short on ammo. #thelastofus2

I thought we’d successfully eliminated long supermarket queues.

“You make me want to go back outside into that blizzard.” #thelastofus2

Reading Breath and thinking about how I use my nose… turns out I’ve been doing it mostly wrong my whole life.

We got new floors and they came up great.

Savage Son, by Jack Carr 📚

The third in a series. It was okay, but I’m done with James Reece for now methinks… at least until he pops up in a movie somewhere. #fiction