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I went to a seminar about fashion trends. It was focused on colours, textures and lifestyle themes. It predicted the rise of “A Brown Age”, which sounds ominous indeed, but essentially boils down to brown replacing black as the base colour. The actual content is not important. The important things from that seminar were 4 things. 3 quotes that severely impact the credibility of anything the speaker had to impart on the audience, and 1 answer to a question I was privileged enough to get an answer to in the Q&A after the talk....

In phase 2 of Project Ashtray a microscopic change occurred in the world. The tenants of 3 sets of flats started not dumping their cigarette butts on the pavement. Weighed against the impact of forest fires in Australia, the CO2 emissions of the fashion industry, or the plastic destroying the oceans, the change means nothing. And yet, in the microcosm that is my street, it’sf huge. It’s a massive % reduction in total direct pollution for the street....

Whether it’s a book series or Netflix binge, there’s a specific feeling associated with a long story coming to and end. It feels empty. For me, that feeling comes from having been part of something bigger, and then having it taken away. That’s what it is to join some characters for an adventure, and then have that sense of purpose, striving and progress disappear. It’s exactly the same feelings that pull me strongly into the content, often to the point of overconsumption....

Learning to play the guitar will not get you a better handstand. That would be the logical conclusion for anyone who doesn’t examine the case very closely, and there’s really no incentive to examine the case closely. Yet, when you examine the case closely, it turns out that stronger fingers from holding chords on the neck of the guitar are also stronger when they need to hold a handstand position, digging the fingertips into the ground to balance....

Making is acceleration. It propels. It creates progress. Making is the opposite of consuming. Making is the difference between something and nothing. Making is all we have with which to oppose destruction. Making anew is what protects from stagnation and waste. Making is what lifts the standard. Making is the that which, when the universe’s inevitable heat death approaches, lets us say “at least we made something of our time here”....