Butterfly Dreaming: A novelette
"More and more I recognize that we dwell in a world of shadows; and, for my part, I hold it hardly worth the trouble to attempt a distinction between shadows in the mind and shadows out of it. If there be any difference, the former are rather the more substantial."
-- Nathaniel Hawthorne
My name is Frederick Williams, though I prefer the name Rick, or Richard at a stretch. My parents named me after Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche – and you’re probably asking yourself what kinds of parents call one of their children after a 19th Century German philosopher.
I was born in 1981 to a couple of baby boomers – which makes me either Gen X or Gen Y, depending on how you do your math. I have an older sister, and a younger brother, though most people guess that I’m an only child. I attend a nearby high school in the southeastern suburbs – I am seventeen – and I am discovering science fiction novels and running in a big way.
I am also a time traveller, though it’s not as pleasant or empowering as you might think. Rather than spinning up the flux capacitor and pulling in to future day, I experience being my older self, some thirty-five years in my future.
Just to head off the obvious question – no, seeing the future doesn’t help me pass any exams or win at ‘Sale of the Century’ any better. Ask yourself: how well do you – assuming that you’ve been out of high school for a few years – think you’d do sitting a test on geometry or quadratic functions? Sure, some would come back - some would seem nagging familiar, and some you might even ace; but the most would be as familiar as if you were coming to it for the first time.
This story takes place in Melbourne, where I grew up, and while I may travel far afield, it is to these shores that I am bound.
Tim Ferriss on blogging
- “I use my blog for access to people and resources.” He gets conversations started with very interesting people.
- Income is not the only currency – you have authority, you have audience; more importantly, you have the right audience.
- Crazy Egg – really good to look at what people from each of the top 10 traffic sources are looking at on the home page. Different demographics, different audience groups, will be interested in different things.
- As Ferriss did with marketing his book by various titles, it’s good to put links up, even if they go to ‘place holders’, just so that you can see what kinds of interest there is in those things. If it turns out that users are clicking on a page a lot, you can then go forward and start investing heavily into it.
Web cuttings #4: Career, education and job-hunting advice
How to land a job at Google
The key is to focus on achievements rather than responsibilities, and talents – particularly those from outside of the office – rather than skills, like a particular software system. Also important - not worrying about our ‘territory’ – instead, being interested in how we can help the business (in this case Google).Jerry Maguire memo
Suddenly became interested in looking up the original memo behind the opening sequence of Tom Cruise’s film. I don’t think that it tells me anything particularly new, except that you have to love what you do, and take pride in it, or else it will leave you miserable no matter how much money and success that you have.10 Lessons I Learned from Sara Blakely That You Won't Hear in Business School
“Sara Blakely’s story shows us what’s possible when we believe, when we’re resourceful beyond measure, and when our passion and commitment to something outside ourselves brings us to a calling.”Web cuttings #3: Lifehacking and minimalism
In Praise of Idleness
An absolute classic and one of my favorite essays by Bertrand Russell – I have cited this Lifestyle Design call-to-arms in one of my earlier posts, but it deserves a thorough reading.Zenhabits’ Guide to creating a minimalist home
This post by Leo Babauta contains some very straightforward instructions on how to simplify your abode.Did Everett Bogue Kill Minimalism?
Minimalism is about learning to say ‘No’ to some stuff so that you can say ‘yes’ to others stuff - specifically, so that you can end up having things that are actually of more value to you.Family gone Free – Epic Fail
Touches upon a very real and oft overlooked part of minimalism and decluttering – how you need many accessories and spare parts to maintain a day-to-day, frugal lifestyle.When all else fails, lower your standards?
I recently read a very well written article in the New Yorker titled ‘What’s behind the boom in dystopian fiction for young readers?’ The author suggests that the reason novels like The Hunger Games carry such an appeal for teenagers et al. is because such books serve as such relatable allegories for the society in which youth find themselves: where institutions pit them against their peers, parents are powerless to protect them, and other adults are even a party to this barbarity.
This confluence of young-adult literary criticism and contemporary real-life experiences has an instant appeal, me being a Literature Studies major and all. Yet such dramatic claims merit scrutiny. My guess is that the experience of growing up as a teenager in North America only seems so dire because childhood has become such an extremely cushioned experience. Fleets of micromanaging helicopter parents and leagues of soccer and hockey moms are running the risk of dis-empowering their children.
Web cuttings #2: Various
Here is a collection of some of the random stuff that I have been reading on the interwebs. Some relate to my own work – some are deliberately left field.
The Craigslist ‘best of’
Some very funny shit – the biggest challenge is trying to figure out who is serious – and who is trolling.An Ethnic War Is Rekindled in Myanmar
The Burmese military’s offensive against the Kachin in northern Myanmar is raising human rights concerns among American officials – all the while, a tourism industry catering for curious westerners continues to finance the military junta.Brave New Third-World Order
We thought that the end of the Cold War would be an era of peace and prosperity – but the West simply re-invested all those so-called ‘peace dividends’ into their military-industrial complex.I became a rogue elder
How a (now former) member of the Church of Latter-Day Saints used some very creative hacks to survive his tour as a missionary. Goes to show how much power we still have over our own lives, in the realms of self-improvement and -expression, even within a highly prescriptive community such as the Mormons.This is victim prevention, not victim blaming
“Determining what another person really wants isn’t as easy as it should be. It’s further complicated by the reality that many women (and more than a few men) want to make their partners feel good—even if they don’t desire sex itself. Distinguishing between the desire to be desired, the desire to please a partner, and the desire for sex itself isn’t easy for any of us. Sometimes we need to do more than talk about what we want—we also need to clarify for ourselves and our lovers why we want it. That’s not easy, but it’s essential.” – Hugo Schwyzer
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