Modernity is a conspiracy to replace 'thick' desires (community, craft, transcendence) with 'thin' desires (likes, sugar, dopamine). Revolt by doing something slow. Bake bread. Write a letter. Code a tool for just one person.
Your 'network' is a list of people who want something from you. Your 'community' is a list of people who will help you move a couch. Optimize for couch-movers.
We accept that crops grow and then get harvested and then the field lies fallow.
We accept that animals hibernate.
But when it comes to our own sense of meaning, we expect constant summer...
"Follow Your Passion" is terrible career advice. It assumes happiness is a fossil in your soul waiting to be dug up. "Love What You Do" is 10x better. It recognizes passion is built, not found, in the reality of your work.
Well, this is my favourite thing I've read this week.
"I was a student at Waseda University back then, and this place was a campus staple. Tendon, when done well, can be divine, and Imoya was divine through and through."