“‘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)
Solar Cell Forever Rotating Globe
Why We ♥ It: This is a globe that slowly spins without batteries or wires. Its silent revolution is powered by ambient room light, and it will spin forever even from the light of a desk lamp. Internally there are two layers, the visible layer which spins inside a seamless clear shell, which sits on a clear tripod. Mova comes in 5 sizes, and 5 different forms, such as Mars, Moon, a map Earth, or a photorealistic Earth.
“I have noticed that when all the lights are on, people tend to talk about what they are doing — their outer lives. Sitting round in candlelight or firelight, people start to talk about how they are feeling – their inner lives. They speak subjectively, they argue less, there are longer pauses. To sit alone without any electric light is curiously creative. I have my best ideas at dawn or at nightfall, but not if I switch on the lights — then I start thinking about projects, deadlines, demands, and the shadows and shapes of the house become objects, not suggestions, things that need to done, not a background to thought.”
Jeanette Winterson, The Guardian
“There is nothing that makes us more insecure than hanging around what isn’t right for us. There’s nothing that will collapse faster. There’s nothing that will bring us inner turmoil quite like it.”
Brianna Wiest, The Mountain Is You (Page 153)
“It is very hard to show up as the person you want to be when you are surrounded by an environment that makes you feel like a person you aren’t.”
Brianna Wiest, The Mountain Is You (Page 42)
“Tell me to what you pay attention and I will tell you who you are.”
José Ortega y Gasset, via Sunbeams (Page 70)
“To a worm in horseradish, the whole world is horseradish.”
Yiddish proverb, via Sunbeams (Page 64) (Read Matt’s Blog On This Quote)
“You have to put your precepts up for display. You have to make them inescapable or else the idea will escape you when it counts.”
Ryan Holiday, Medium