Letter #11: Stop being so reasonable.
March 16, 2016
Dear Reader,
Sometimes, one of the largest drawbacks in daily life is the notion of reason. It’s not really something we can control, considering pretty much our entire existence is based upon finding meaning, purpose, and reason — what is the meaning to life? What purpose do humans serve? What is the reason for our existence?
What do you think would happen if those words, their iterations, meanings, and our understanding of the notion were removed from existence for a day? What would you do? What wouldn’t you do? What do you think you could accomplish or create?
If you’re starting to think of all the things you might regret the next day, maybe it’s time to remove it from your vocabulary, if only for the times when you start making excuses.
In this letter, discover how to let go and create, live, and build new perspectives.
Something for your inner child.
Korean author, Young-ha Kim, explores the creative benefits of being a child. Then and now. He encourages everyone, creative or not, to stop being reasonable and embrace their inner child.
“Art is about going a little nuts and justifying the next sentence, which is not much different from what a kid does. A kid who has just started to lie is taking the first step as a storyteller. Kids do art. They don’t get tired and they have fun doing it.”
You can watch the TED Talk here.
Additional:
➔ Don’t let idea debt hold you back.
Something funny, in an awkward way.
Meet Merv Neal, a serial entrepreneur since the age of 12, who was given a week to live after doctors diagnosed him with a rare bone disease called Aplastic Anaemia, and saved his own life by laughing. Laughing at what, of that I’m not exactly sure. But, I guess that saying “laughter is the best medicine” is pretty legit in Merv’s case.
Something indecipherably imaginative.
The Codex Seraphinianus, an indecipherable text with mind boggling illustrations, is the obscure brainchild of an italian artist by the name of Luigi Serafini. He describes it as an “attempt to describe the imaginary world in a systematic way.” Quite a brave venture, seeing as there’s an infinite amount of things our minds can conjure up, not to mention the imaginary world is, well, completely imaginary. But is it really? If you remove the notion of reason like Serafini, maybe you can consider the imagination a whole new world of possibility.
Additional:
➔ WIRED interviews Codex author Luigi Serafini.
Best,
Clayton d’Arnault
The Internet Traveler
Facebook | Twitter | Medium | Pocket
P.S. — Found something interesting on the Internet recently? I’d love to include it in a future letter. Reply tweet @cjdarnault to submit your links.
This is an adaptation of Letters from an Internet Traveler, a newsletter comprised of a few thought-provoking tidbits discovered on my travels across the Internet, casually delivered at least twice a month (maybe). For more Internet traveling, Subscribe here and follow the Medium publication here.
