i think one of the most important things you learn about making connections with others is that a significant portion of the time people just do not know theyre doing what theyre doing
if i sing the bhool bhulaiya title track, does it still count as bhagwan ka naam lena
"How extra are you when it comes to your loved ones?"
Me:
"what did students do before chatgpt?" well one time i forgot i had a history essay due at my 10am class the morning of so over the course of my 30 minute bus ride to school i awkwardly used by backpack as a desk, sped wrote the essay, and got an A on it.
six months later i re-read the essay prior to the final exam, went 'ohhhh yeah i remember this', got a question on that topic, and aced it.
point being that actually doing the work is how you learn the material and internalize it. ChatGPT can give you a short cut but it won't build you the the muscles.
whatever. your favourite band didn’t even pick the title of an angela carter short story as their name. or reference your favourite line from the haunting of hill house by shirley jackson in one of their songs. or write delicious things. or silk. or don’t delete the kisses. well mine did.
One thing that has made me a much more well-adjusted person is a clip I once saw of Hank Green saying that anyone can be in amazing shape as long as being in amazing shape is one of their top three priorities.
(This is obviously a generalization that isn't true for everyone. But it is true for most people and I'm proceeding from there.)
This "top three priorities" framing has genuinely reduced my tendency toward jealousy and self-comparison a lot. Now when I feel envious of someone’s spotless, aesthetic home, I think to myself, “Having a spotless, aesthetic home is probably one of their top three priorities. It’s definitely not one of mine, so I shouldn’t expect my home to look like that.”
Or when I see an influencer with a body that takes a ton of work to maintain: “Maintaining that body is obviously one of her top three priorities, because it’s her livelihood. My livelihood is my brain, so I’m never going to prioritize my body like that.”
It also helps me to identify areas that I actually DO want to prioritize more. I realized in recent years that my envy for my friends who prioritized writing more than I did was NOT going away, so I started to prioritize writing more. (Not top three, but higher priority than it has been in the past.)
anytime I get a LinkedIn connection request its like okay so you want me bad
"wanting something" wins Most Embarrassing Thing You Can Do award for 23rd year in a row
me, staring at the Moon, almost every night: I love you, I really do.
“I do not write every day, I read every day, think every day, work in the garden every day, and recognize in nature the same slow complicity. The same inevitability. The moment will arrive, always it does, it can be predicted but it cannot be demanded. I do not think of this as inspiration. I think of it as readiness.”
— Jeanette Winterson, from Art Objects (1995)
it's crazy how, if you're not conventionally attractive but you're confident and know your worth, it will both attract people who are also confident and comfortable in their own skin, but also act like one of those dog whistle frequencies that absolutely drives the most miserable, insecure people (men AND women) out of their minds. people will see you just living your life and not being paralyzed with insecurity with every decision you make and go "oh pretty girl let's hate on her" and honestly all you can do with that is chuckle and move on