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Showing posts from September 2, 2018

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It is never personal, you're not the protagonist

It's so easy to become offended. It actually comes pretty natural. Someone says something.  You feel it's directed at you Strong reaction follows No need to react, it's got nothing to do with you as a person Imagine some remarks about academic work versus manual one, a bit dismissive about the latter. You don't have a degree and never wanted one. You know very well it takes years of experience and training to do what you're doing. Talent is involved too, as some people do have "two left hands".  You still feel you should add something to the conversation, but not sure if it is going to be well-received. No need to enlighten the other party right now Most people think in terms of opposites. If it's not this, it's that and it can't be anything else. Certainty of one's convictions is also a form of self-reassurance that everything is stable in one's world. Other points of view cannot be allowed because they are disruptive. Cognitive disrup

Images and words

I have recently discovered a Reddit corner that presents would-be writers, as well as established ones, presumably, with a 'wordy bait', a paragraph to fire up their imagination and get them down to writing. Having lived most of my life among words and through words, I thought I should do it too. Then I changed my mind. We no longer live in the traditional story-telling set-up. The world comes to us (and at us) mostly through the eyes, although ears are still important. The art of podcasting is now being taught, in exchange for a fee, and audio books are a good companion during hours of chores or lonely driving. Both audiobooks and podcasts are demanding mistresses, they require exclusivity and no competing sources of interest, like other noises or images. Sharing headphones is such a brief teenage act. Anyone above the age of 16 would not be seen dead pushing an earbud that carries someone else's genetic traces... and earwax. An image, on the other hand, is ins