💬 “The things that make us different, in the right context are superpowers. You know, Saul Steinberg said the thing that we respond to in any work of art is the struggle of the artist against his or her limitations.”
- Austin Kleon, interview on The Echoes Podcast, 10 June 2025.
This makes me feel like there’s an awful lot of wrong context lying about. I guess we all need to find a place where we can thrive, or else make it ourselves.
The original quote is from Kurt Vonnegut’s recollection of a conversation with Saul Steinberg.
#creativity #writerslife #deepthoughts #inspiration
Less than keen on having a ‘second brain’:
“I only have one brain, and it’s internal, thankfully. But I’m still very happy with the idea of the ‘extended mind’. My brain remains firmly in my skull, but it nevertheless uses the environment in many different ways to extend its capabilities.”
- The mastery of knowledge is an illusion
I saw this poster on the street but it’s originally from Cyberpunk Videozine vol.1 (1999).
#pkm #notetaking #zettelkasten
💬 Most attempts at providing computerised tools for writers have thrown out the affordances that previous analogue systems offered, almost without noticing their loss. - writingslowly.com on Ted Nelson’s evolutionary list file.
“Sometimes it’s just nice to know there are other people out there quietly thinking things through.” - writingslowly.com
📷Photo challenge day 30: solitude.
💬“I am the Cat who walks by himself, and all places are alike to me.” - Rudyard Kipling.
And there’s more solitude.
#mbjune
Don't let your note-making system infect you with Archive Fever
The Zettelkasten note-taking system offers a structured approach to organizing thoughts but might induce “archive fever,” which may lead to an obsession with preservation over actual writing. Here’s how to protect yourself.
📷 Photo challenge day 26: bridge.
I’ve used this as a metaphor for writing, but it’s also a real bridge, of which #Sydney has many more than the famous one across the harbour. The image shows the causeway to Bare Island, at the mouth of Kamay, Botany Bay.
#mbjune
📷 Photo challenge day 29: winding.
It’s well worth taking a look inside White Bay Power Station in #Sydney - as previously seen on day 7 and day 5. Oh, and day 23 last year.
See the whole #mbjune photogrid.
📷 Photo challenge day 28: ephemeral. A reminder that our leaders don’t last forever, or even for as long as they’d like to. I spotted this election button on the very last day the Leura toy museum was open, in the Blue Mountains, just West of #Sydney.
#mbjune
📷 Photo challenge day 27: collective. Rainbow lorikeets are among the most commonly seen #birds in #Sydney.
#mbjune
