alfredkouris
This was great. A pretty dense read with sections that babbled on a little - but it solidified something I had been pondering - where in rehearsals we would analyse interactions in scripts as if they were something to be dissected, as if the behaviour of the characters was deterministic and based on certain factors (objectives, wants, relationships etc.) but this was separated from ‘everyday life'.
Well, that's not the case. So, feels good.
Took me about a month but this is genuinely my shit.
‘The need for self-esteem is a summons to the hero within us...It means a willingness to live consciously, with self-acceptance, self-responsibility, self-assertiveness, purpose and with integrity.
Coooooooolll
Simple and insightful. Thanks for broadening my understanding of comedy, apprenticeship and celebrity, Steve.
Hard hitting truths for me.
Feel pretty exposed and vulnerable after this one - time to be gracious, kind and forgiving with myself and get to work.
It is far too easy to stop identifying people as people and to turn them into something greater, but connection happens in that magical human space when we acknowledge not only our own flaws but the flaws in others, and instead of running away from that - choose to be radically accepting instead.
Really enjoyed this, I find it too easy to focus on the fact that Green creates similar characters - so what? That is what he gifted to me, and it is my job to find the nuance.
groovy.
Stunning. Perhaps better for me just based on where I'm at in my life.
I really grieved with these characters, and felt so blown away by the perspective that a young adult to adult lifetime offered. God damn.
Full review coming
Super awesome. For years I've been meditating and blindly following the instruction that there is ‘no self' with ABSOLUTELY no idea what that all meant.
This was a brilliant little intro into the idea of ‘non-duality' and of some pretty quirky and wonderful eastern thought.
Watts is so cheeky. So many brilliant metaphors.
Will hang on to this one and refer back when I need a quick refresh of why we are all one and the same.
‘Nothing human is foreign to me'
A
Inhaled this book.
Witty, charming, painful...a captivating read and so well written - particularly the earlier chapters, which clearly demonstrated how easy it is for a child to get swept up in trusting their parent more than they trust themselves.
Got to 70% and bailed. Didn't grab me. The form confused me with the emails. Might be because I'm in a sad place at the moment so don't take my word for it.
perhaps it was the repetitive nature of the themes on purpose and love and friendship and sex. Perhaps I see a lot of Alice in myself at the moment minus the success part. Perhaps engaging with a relationship where both parties are seeing and thinking different things but still engaging with it is confusing for my brain right now.
I feel like in my life i'm slowly making the journey from my head to my heart, and with that from a more binary view to the world to one with much more grey - I feel like Beautiful World, Where Are You really hits on the greyness, the dullness, ordinaryness of the world...maybe I wasn't ready to swallow that pill?
It was...goood...parts were way too ‘fluffy' for me (I really like concrete examples in these kind of books), but this did an awesome job at linking some principles of mindfulness & Buddhism with more western approaches and finding the middle path
I like the acronym SAFE:
sadness, anger, fear, exuberance as a way to remember the four key emotions.
Also the 5 A's:
acceptance, attention, appreciation, affection and allowing as actions necessary for love.
Does a good job (in the second half) of explaining the difference between ‘doing your own work' Psychologically, and Spiritually (separately), which I found really useful. And also of breaking down our idea of ‘love' into something more than emotion.
Also some great lessons in the origins of emotions — feelings...where they come from and how to begin the process of understanding and dissecting the belief and stimulus that result in said feeling.
Hmm, ok it was really good. Just lost me in the fluff sometimes
Peace
If anyone wants this I'll buy it for you. It's an hour and a half and zones in on birth / death / purpose with and without people we love.
I'd seen the YouTube version of Sea Wall with Andrew Scott, and hearing another actor paint different pictures with the same language is always an incredible experience - but I'd never heard A Life before, and that blew me away. It actually made Sea Wall feel a little shallow in comparison (but maybe that's just because I was thinking ahead so I wouldn't have to feel the tragedy I was hearing in the moment).
A Life centred around one story of Death, and another of Birth, told simultaneously. A few things that stood out - (paraphrased)
‘we prepare so well for birth but horrendously for death, you only get to die once, may as well do it right' - damn.
&
‘Imagining life without you seems pretty [insert word for something impossible]'; which left me considering the nature of relationships, and whether or not we choose a life partner out of fear or out of love (or, some combination of both, probably, I don't know?? I'm 23!)
I feel really inspired by the monologue format at the moment, and how what for me seem like complex philosophical issues can be tackled in such human, emotive ways. Beautiful. Thanks Tom Sturridge, Jake G, Simon Stephens & Nick Payne for your artistry.
Xx
I really liked this. I felt like (as a man who has been involved in men's circles, and has tried to speak on this kind of discourse with my own friends for the past few years) it was able to articulate really clearly the ‘scripts' (as he says) we are given as men growing up - the games we play with other guys to feel better than etc...and an alternative path we can take that is based on awareness, love, and acceptance. Beautiful!
It's left me questioning and exploring the ways that actions I take (eg. Trying to be really helpful) can often for me come from a place of insecurity and not abundance - of not feeling good enough or helpful enough (man enough). Also left me exploring ways that I THINK I need to show love to the women in my life and ways I can be better...
All that said - the last chapter was what really sold it to me and made me really like this guy, as often books like this can become pretty indulgent. He acknowledged how much he is on a journey, and how the journey is one of ‘remembering' who we already are, who we always have been.
He didn't try to sell that he has the answer, but just tried to shed light on what he is learning. It's imperfect, it's contradictory at times, it's messy - but, it's got heart, and for me that is what the book role models more than anything!! Explore! Lead with your heart - use all those things that men are told (and holy moley, tell !!!themselves!!!) they NEED to be (strong & brave) and be vulnerable & open.
Ps him role modelling being brave in trying to be more open with his dad is really really inspiring
The drive to read this kind of stemmed from watching 20th Century Women and seeing how a partial solution to raising a boy was to give him feminist literature to read. (who knew I could learn so much about being a man by reading about how to be a better woman? Probably every woman). Cool stuff
This ruled. And was a big slap in the face for me.
It's very beginner friendly which was perfect - it's the first time I have deliberately chosen to sit with and engage with some kind of feminist literature outside of a school / lecture setting and it made all the difference. Granted I only ‘sat with it' for 3 days (chewed through it) but it taught me so much about the things I think I knew and revealed heaps of my blind spots - not just about gender related issues but also about how I can have more boundaries, preserve my own energy etc.
Also, as a male identifying person, reading the book was a beautiful stretch in my empathy. Which should be the standard thing to do, so more work to do there.
This was an absolutely nuts read. Very revealing of human nature and of the difficulties in being truly honest with our own intentions - the power of the ‘ego' is undeniable, as are the benefits from breaking away from it. Really great case studies that are heavily supported by scientific evidence.
Instead of looking for evidence to confirm my beliefs, assumptions and observations, framing life through a pseudo scientific lens - formalising the process of challenging these things I take to be true to find holes and errors that may be my own!
Prioritising empathy, not only in understanding another's point of view but being open to and allowing space for the possibility that they may be correct...lots of lessons for life and relationships.
This was an incredible read. I feel fundamentally changed (over-exaggeration?). It was heaps of description and exposition, but I have to hand it to dear old Aldous for all the points raised in the chapter where Helmholtz, John and Bernard meet with Mustapha and Mustapha gives the low down on why this society is the way it is - why sacrifice is an enormous part of how we live our lives and how this society just happened to sacrifice truth, beauty and passion.
Pretty heavy stuff. But told in such an incredibly engaging way (imagine reading this as a thesis?).
Read this after listening to Yuval Noah Harari (author of Sapiens) speak on the Tim Ferriss Podcast - definitely worth a listen. His philosophy about where the world is going and the threats to humankind are eerily linked to Brave New World - which he addresses as a major inspiration.
Also big ups to Aldous for such incredible use of Shakespeare. So many lines from his text make more sense to me now lol
peace
This was amazing. Finally I read a book about product development that is NO bullshit, firmly grounded in the firms actual practices based on trial and error, and is based on the most important aspect of development - shipping the work.
Key takeaways for me here were:
- Detailed and case study based approach to designing with abstraction (fat markers / breadboarding). Very clearly articulated the how and why ‘shaping' in this way early on will be beneficial later.
- Separating work into scopes, and getting work done ‘vertically' instead of ‘horizontally'. This is surprisingly similar to Stanislavsky's ‘chunking' approach to breaking down text.
The idea here being to clearly separate a job into achievable chunks, and get the chunks done on the design and code end at the same time, so the project is always running on momentum.
A lot of lessons in this book that make so much sense, but I had to be told.
Just about to start my first 6 week cycle on a new project - will report back!
Yahoo
This book helped me make sense of the quote that often pops up when you open Goodreads:
“All art is autobiographical, the Pearl is the oysters art” (or something along those lines lol)
It became so clear about half way in that this book was Steinbeck pouring out everything his life had gifted him thus far; lessons, questions and offerings...really cool to have that seamlessly woven throughout and inseparable from a compelling story.
Now reading ‘Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters' to learn about his process writing the book.
Literature! Who would have thought!
Well overdue, and very revealing of my unconscious bias as a white person. It's complex and it's real, and this has been a useful foundation to support my future learning. Recommended.
‘White progressives can be the most difficult for people of colour because, to the degree that we think we have arrived, we put our energy into making sure that others see us as having arrived. None of our energy will go into what we need to be doing for the rest of our lives'.
I just didn't get it
I switched to audiobook half way through and managed to find myself in the story then, which was awesome
But do not fear I will persevere with Joan. Bring on a year of magical thinking
If you want a crash course on why some things look better than others / how to not design your next event cover photo like a grandma, this is a must (and very easy) read.
Super practical principles that I will carry with me for the rest of my life (the primary four - CRAP acronym). Will work better if you are immediately applying the learning!
Awesome. Helping me get back on track and show myself some love by trusting in tiny changes over time.
This contains three speeches. And was pretty interesting, but also went way over my head (I need a dictionary? And context? My reading comprehension is terrible?)
There is a powerful message that the artist must be front footed in creating in between the push / pull of adapting for what society wants and existing in solitude.
The second speech was way over my head, and the third taught me not to wait to be given freedom in society but to find it daily for myself
X
