august 27 etc
A million years ago (or like, 2012) I wrote a blog post that got me like 10,000+ hits in a day or two. The post was critical of another blogger and the product he was making. While I still stand by the crux of the argument, which was that he was building a massive audience and making money based on other people's work that he was recontextualizing, the post I wrote was of the "look how smart and clever I am" variety and I shouldn't have written it.
You make a lot of mistakes when you're young. It's just how it goes. But between youth and adulthood you're ostensibly supposed to learn from your mistakes and, where possible, stop making them (so you can go on to make other mistakes, natch).
I was too arrogant to even realize I was making mistakes for most of my 20s and 30s, but I did, eventually. A decade or so after that I realized that dwelling on mistakes is itself a mistake. A few years after that I fully integrated the idea (that dwelling on mistakes is a mistake) and I've been a lot happier since.
A friend of mine has been fixating on mistakes, lately, but without admitting they're making them. It's a tough knot to undo. I see a bit of my old self in this person and so I do my best to be gentle when they're spinning out, but sometimes I just want to grab them by the shoulders and shout "you are dying one day at a time!"
Anyway, this post is dedicated to the people who devote time and energy to getting a little bit better every day. To see the state of this world and still find value in trying, failing, getting up, trying again, failing again, and failing better (sorry for mangling that, Samuel Beckett) is a heroic act —— and we sure as hell need as many heroes as we can get these days.
On y va!
👂👂 I've been pretty prolific lately and one of the reasons is that I have been using my Loop earplugs more often. It's amazing what a bit more focus and a bit less noise can yield. If you've been thinking about trying Loops out, I think you should. This is not an ad or an affiliate marketing play, btw. I'm just a man standing in front of an earplug asking it to love him. (Loop)
🥪🥪 Incredible lede in the NYT today: "Federal prosecutors on Tuesday were unable to persuade a grand jury to approve a felony indictment against a man who threw a sandwich at a federal agent on the streets of Washington this month, according to two people familiar with the matter." Here's a gift link if you want to read it in full. (NYT)
⚽⚽ You may not follow the EPL or (actual) football at all, but I don't think you need to in order to appreciate how beautiful this Rio Ngumoha goal is. (Twitter/Melo_lfc)
😈😈 Yesterday I recommended a few songs and they were well-received so here's another one. Shout out to everyone who liked Mclusky. (Spotify)
🎉🎉 Screw it, here's another one from the "best boy band since One Direction." (Spotify)
🏈👩❤️💋👨 In case you (somehow) missed it, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce got engaged and I love that for him. (Instagram/taylorswift)
🏀🎙️ I just finished recording a new episode of Red Black Comeback today. If you like me and are open to liking chatter about basketball —— mostly the WNBA for now —— I'd love it if you checked us out but you certainly don't have to. (redblack.fm)
🙏🏽🙏🏽 I'm not going to link to it, but prayers up for Minnesota.
🌲 gonna
🌼 go
🌱 touch
🌳 grass
🌷 now
Be good to yourself.
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