Colin Wright's Blog, page 29
September 8, 2015
Practical Philosophy
Our beliefs are shaped by countless variables, from our families and friends, to our educational experiences and lifestyles, to genetics and chance.
But these beliefs are often more about theory than practice. One’s philosophy is a essentially a label applied to oneself, and if one should fail to life up to this philosophy, the repercussions are minuscule or nonexistent.
Consider that a self-proclaimed pacifist can get into a fight every single day and still call themselves a pacifist: there...
August 11, 2015
Baseline
I’ve had people tell me they could probably be happy making just a million dollars a year. Maybe two would be better, but they think they could get by on a million.
We tend to subconsciously establish baselines for ourselves, and the idea is that if we have more than that baseline we’ll be happy. If we have less, we’ll be unfulfilled.
The natural progression of that thought is: I’m not happy, so perhaps I was wrong about my baseline. Perhaps it needs to be higher; I’m not happy because I’m no...
July 30, 2015
Scale
Occasionally I’ll have someone tell me that they don’t want to learn more about a topic because that would kill the joy that topic brings them.
They don’t want to know anything about biology, for instance, because doing so might reduce the wonder they experience when perusing fields of flowers. They just want to look at the colors and shapes, and smell the wonderful fragrances.
They don’t want to understand sociology because it may make them cynical about their interactions with others, and t...
July 20, 2015
It’s Easy
It’s easy to be snarky and dismissive of ideas that don’t align with your own.
It’s easy to preach to the choir, to rally the troops, to shout into an audience of people who already agree with you. To say all the things you know will reinforce their existing beliefs.
It’s easy and it’s often rewarded, with clicks and applause and shares. Because by being dismissive of ideas foreign to our own we’re reinforcing biases: we’re telling someone they’re right, and there’s nothing we like better tha...
July 16, 2015
The One
The following essay is an excerpt from my new book, Some Thoughts About Relationships.
From a very young age, many of us are told stories about The One: a mystical person who is placed on this planet for us and us alone. It’s our “hero’s journey” to find this individual, wherever they may be. If pop culture is to be believed, there will be a series of comedic situations and dramatic adventures that lead up to our finding them.
In real life, however, The One is a concept that isn’t just irrati...
July 10, 2015
Iceberging
We’re all, every one of us, multifaceted and infinitely complex creatures. We are impossible to fully understand and just as difficult to describe in any cohesive, coherent way.
But we try. Oh how we try.
We megaphone who we are through blog posts and tweets. We curate images that appeal to our sensibilities. We share news items and think-pieces that reflect our views on a given issue.
It’s so easy these days to be someone; to be a public figure. The result of the myriad platforms and opportu...
June 10, 2015
Stuff-Focus
A common misperception about minimalism and simplicity is that if you have nothing, you’re living in accordance with these concepts. “I’ve never had much money,” some might say, “so I guess I’ve been a minimalist my whole life.”
It’s possible this is true, but minimalism is more about living intentionally than owning few things. I own very little because my passion is travel, and I don’t need much to pursue the lifestyle I enjoy. Carrying more actually hinders me, so owning little — while sti...
May 25, 2015
Cabins
Cabins are beautiful. They’re ubiquitous examples of simple architecture: a place for everything, everything in its place, and nothing that doesn’t need to be there. Some walls, a fireplace to keep warm, a bed to sleep in, and some kind of heated surface upon which to cook a basic meal from un-messed-with ingredients.
But as much as cabins have become a visible representation of the ‘simple life,’ not all of us want to live in cabins. Even those of us who crave that kind of simplicity, upon r...
April 30, 2015
The Right Laboratory
I love experiments. Being able to try new things, see how well they jive with my ambitions, and then adjusting my lifestyle accordingly. Experiments are a key component to my happiness, present and future.
I started Asymmetrical Press with Josh and Ryan from The Minimalists because the three of us wanted to build a laboratory. We wanted to have an optimized means of creating new work, using new technologies, trying out new business models, and distributing in new ways. We wanted to bring new...
April 16, 2015
Thirty
Today is my 30th birthday. It’s a day that pop culture tells me I should fear and worry over. A day I haven’t really thought about these last six years, focused as I’ve been on wringing every last drop from my 20s. It’s a day that, though no different from any other day, marks a psychological occasion for many people.
I’m happy to find myself more excited than trepidatious: I can’t wait to see what happens next, and what I might be able to accomplish and experience these next ten years. What...
