“I think there’s something beautiful about being lucky enough to witness a thing on its way out.”
Becky Chambers, A Psalm For The Wild-Built (Page 99)
“There is only one way to read, which is to browse in libraries and bookshops, picking up books that attract you, reading only those, dropping them when they bore you, skipping the parts that drag – and never, never reading anything because you feel you ought, or because it is part of a trend or a movement. Remember that the book which bores you when you are twenty or thirty will open doors for you when you are forty or fifty-and vise versa. Don’t read a book out of its right time for you.”
Doris Lessing
“If you’re regularly having arguments with well-informed people of goodwill, you will probably ‘lose’ half of them–changing your mind based on what you’ve learned. If you’re not changing your mind, it’s likely you’re not actually having an argument (or you’re hanging out with the wrong people.) While it can be fun to change someone else’s position, it’s also a gift to learn enough to change ours. ‘Tell me about other strongly-held positions you’ve changed as the result of a discussion like this one…’ is a direct way to start a conversation about the argument you’re proposing to have. ‘What sort of information would make it likely you could see this in a different way?’ It probably doesn’t pay to argue over things we have chosen to believe as part of our identity.”
Seth Godin
“‘So, the paradox is that the ecosystem as a whole needs its participants to act with restraint in order to avoid collapse, but the participants themselves have no inbuilt mechanism to encourage such behavior.’ ‘Other than fear.’ ‘Other than fear, which is a feeling you want to avoid or stop at all costs.’ The hardware in Mosscap’s head produced a steady hum. ‘Yes, that’s a mess, isn’t it?'”
Becky Chambers, A Psalm For The Wild-Built (Page 96)
“Decay was a built-in function of the City’s towers, crafted from translucent casein and mycelium masonry. Those walls would, in time, begin to decompose, at which point they’d either be repaired by materials grown for that express purpose, or, if the building was no longer in use, be reabsorbed into the landccape that had hosted it for a time. But a Factory Age building, a metal building—that was of no benefit to anything beyond the small creatures that enjoyed some temporary shelter in its remains. It would corrode until it collapsed. That was the most it would achieve. Its only legacy was to persist where it did not belong.”
Becky Chambers, A Psalm For The Wild-Built (Page 90)
“Things that aren’t doing the thing:
- Preparing to do the thing isn’t doing the thing.
- Scheduling time to do the thing isn’t doing the thing.
- Making a to-do list for the thing isn’t doing the thing.
- Telling people you’re going to do the thing isn’t doing the thing.
- Messaging friends who may or may not be doing the thing isn’t doing the thing.
- Writing a banger tweet about how you’re going to do the thing isn’t doing the thing.
- Hating on yourself for not doing the thing isn’t doing the thing.
- Hating on other people who have done the thing isn’t doing the thing.
- Hating on the obstacles in the way of doing the thing isn’t doing the thing.
- Fantasizing about all of the adoration you’ll receive once you do the thing isn’t doing the thing.
- Reading about how to do the thing isn’t doing the thing.
- Reading about how other people did the thing isn’t doing the thing.
- Reading this essay isn’t doing the thing.
The only thing that is doing the thing is doing the thing.”
Loopy
“If you think you’re running 10 minutes late, text to say you’ll be 15 minutes late. That way the other person gets one disappointment and one pleasant surprise. Most people do the opposite: they say they’re 5 minutes late when it’s 10 and end up annoying the other and looking like total fools.”
Jacob Falkovich
“For all Dex’s protesting about the sanctity of trails, it was only in absence that Dex truly understood what a trail was. They had been on hikes through protected lands before and had ridden through more untended places than they could count in their years on the tea route. Those experiences had been soothing, calming, somewhat meditative. It did not take much brain to make your feet follow a path, and that meant your thoughts had ample room to drift and slow. Walking through uncut wilderness was another matter entirely, and Dex felt something primal awaken in them, a laser-focused state of mind they hadn’t known they possessed. There was no room for wandering fancies. All Dex could think was: watch the root, go left, that looks poisonous, mind that rock, is that safe, soft dirt, okay, go right, avoid that, careful, careful, CAREFUL. With every step, there were dozens of variants, and with each step after, the rules changed yet again. Travel on a trail felt liquid. Travel off of it, Dex was learning, felt sharp as glass.”
Becky Chambers, A Psalm For The Wild-Built (Page 86)
“Mosscap touched their metal torso, smiling with pride. ‘I am made of metal and numbers; you are made of water and genes. But we are each something more than that. And we can’t define what that something more is simply by our raw components.”
Becky Chambers, A Psalm For The Wild-Built (Page 75)
“‘Robots are not people. We’re machines, and machines are objects. Objects are its.’ ‘I’d say you’re more than just an object,’ Dex said. The robot looked a touch offended. ‘I would never call you just an animal, Sibling Dex.’ It turned its gaze to the road, head held high. ‘We don’t have to fall into the same category to be of equal value.'”
Becky Chambers, A Psalm For The Wild-Built (Page 69)
“You might be fortunate enough to have a hobby. Something you are focused on and passionate about. You might read the journals, develop your skills, collect, connect with others in the field, and commit to getting better at it… Time spent on a hobby feels like time well spent. Obstacles and setbacks aren’t a tragedy, they’re simply part of journey, the things that make it interesting. It’s possible to bring that mindset to work. Not all the time, certainly, but often. And when we do, it turns out that work gets more productive and even more fun.”
Seth Godin
“Take the small things seriously, because small things become big things. The person who takes small things seriously earns the trust of those around them. That person will eventually be given bigger and bigger opportunities, the types of opportunities that dramatically change one’s trajectory.”
Sahil Bloom
“Nobody in the world knows where I am right now, they thought, and the notion of that filled them with bubbling excitement. They had canceled their life, bailed out on a whim. The person they knew themself to be should’ve been rattled by that, but someone else was at the helm now, someone rebellious and reckless, someone who had picked a direction and gone for it as if it were of no more import than choosing a sandwich. Dex didn’t know who they were, in that moment. Perhaps that was why they were smiling.”
Becky Chambers, A Psalm For The Wild-Built (Page 47)
“Dex was the best tea monk in Panga, if the chatter was to believed. They didn’t believe such hyperbole themself, and it’s not like anything about their work was a competition. But their tea was good. They knew this. They’d worked hard. They put their heart into it. Everywhere they went, they saw smiles, and Dex knew that it was their work—their work!—that brought those out. They brought people joy. They made people’s day. That was a tremendous thing, when you sat and thought about it. That should’ve been enough. That should’ve been more than enough. And yet, if they were completely honest, the thing they had come to look forward to most was not the smiles nor the gifts nor the sense of work done well, but the part that came after all of that. The part when they returned to their wagon, shut themself inside, and spent a few precious, shapeless hours entirely alone.”
Becky Chambers, A Psalm For The Wild-Built (Page 38)
“Some days I show up and do the best writing of my life. Other days, many days, I show up and do writing that is underwhelmingly average (and reeking of a few typos). The lesson I hope you walk away with in watching me work is not that I am flawless, but that a deeply flawed individual can achieve something that transcends his lackluster abilities by simply showing up, again and again, over the course of a lifetime.”
Cole Schafer
“’Be yourself’ Really? Which self? The self you were when you were two years old, almost out of diapers? The self you were when you were screaming with the fans at the big game? The self you were after a long night? How about this: Become the self you’d be proud to be. Hang out with people and ideas that help you become that self. Act like that self every chance you get.”
Seth Godin
“Ms. Jules took her tea to the comfy cushions, and—in what looked like it might be the first time that day—sat down. She closed her eyes and let out a tremendous sigh. Her shoulders visibly slumped. She’d always had the ability to relax them; she’d just needed permission to do so.”
Becky Chambers, A Psalm For The Wild-Built (Page 33)
“Dex did not know any of the roads there, nor any of the people who waved as bike and wagon zipped past. There was a strange comfort about being in an unfamiliar town not too far from home, where the familiarity was limited to building materials and social customs. It was the ideal mix of getting away yet not standing out.”
Becky Chambers, A Psalm For The Wild-Built (Page 21)