David Forster Wallace on the uses of a college degree [Video]

If you haven’t see this awesome video yet, please take 9:23 minutes out of your day to listen to a masterful description of your life – and what you can do about it.

Also relevant is this quote from another master philosopher, Bruce Lee:

“You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend.”

Isolation is unhealthy (as if we didn’t know that already) [Article]

Yes, we did.. but just how much impact does it have? While exploring this crisis of loneliness in the Western world, Judith Shulevitz writes about the inspiration behind the book, the movie  & the song “I never promised you a rose garden” – therapist Frieda Fromm-Reichmann who:

“figured that loneliness lay at the heart of nearly all mental illness and that the lonely person was just about the most terrifying spectacle in the world.”

Makes for great weekend reading.

Don’t Go Back to School: How to Fuel the Internal Engine of Learning [Article]

Maria Popova had a very interesting post recently, on education. Quoting Zack Booth Simpson:

“The best education you can get is just talking with people who are smart…you can get that for the cost of lunch.” 

Work, Life, Parenthood & balance – can these words be all used in one sentence? [Transcript]

David Weinberger live-blogging a talk at the Mesh conference by Ryan Carson of Treehouse. 

“As a father, I realize I’m going to die, sooner rather than later. If I work four days a week, I can send 50% more of my life with my wife and kids.”

A foot-long reminder: the case for going barefeet [Website]

“All you really need to do is take off your shoes and listen to your feet. It’s really that simple.” – John Sifferman, who has a whole website devoted to all things foot-related. He had chronic foot, back & knee problems, & all he had as solutions were fancy productions billed as natural, ergonomic, bio-mechanical. So he asked himself this:

If barefoot and natural foot function are so important, why do I need special products to achieve that? What would happen if I just go barefoot?”

Living in infamy: How the fear of disclosure has been stifled by the joy of being noticed [Article]

Zygmunt Bauman has written, “The fear of disclosure has been stifled by the joy of being noticed.” An article in the New Inquiry, Live in Infamy by Hamza Shaban depicts how what we say on Facebook will impact our future lives. A must read.

How much silence does one need? [Article]

Poet & writer Robert Twigger lives in Egypt, & loves the Saharan desert. He sells desert silence to those eager to experience it:

City life is a constant, maddening hum. Only in a place like the Sahara can we hear the nothingness that revives.

As you get older you value silence more. Your nerves get jangled more easily. Loud music becomes less and less attractive. Instead of wanting to rev up, you seek ways to calm down. But I suspect the search for real silence goes deeper than just a desire to relax. It’s no accident that many religious orders have vows of silence. Only in silence can the soul unburden itself and then listen out for subtler signs, information from the unknown inner regions.