The math caught up to you. When you were in school you took a variety of subjects in rotating classes, covering 7 or 8 subjects in a day. You took math, and it was hard. It didn’t make you feel … Continue reading
The math caught up to you
Author Archives: pdf_admin
The non-tribal tribes
This post is about tribalism in contemporary Western culture, and specifically it’s about the invisible assortment of people who have self-selected out of it. What these people gave up in tribal coordination, they gained in greater freedom to determine their own values and lives. The result is a fresher, more dynamic arena of human activity. I’ve spent a lot of time in some of these quiet cultures, and I want to tell you about them. Continue reading
The present perfect tense is ruining your life
There’s a world of difference between wanting to do something and wanting to have done something. What’s dangerous is when we conflate the two. It’s a form of deception (usually self-deception), and it sets us up for failure and frustration in our efforts. Continue reading
Action derivatives: You’re not doing what you think you’re doing
I want to look a category of weird mental tricks that we sometimes play on ourselves—you may be familiar with them individually, but when considered together they reveal a pattern that I think deserves more discussion. Continue reading
Free video course: How to be a Pretty Good Painter
I made a short video course where I explain my entire process for making paintings. Because painting isn’t my most comfortable medium, I try my best to make it an easy, quick, successful project. I work in a sequence of steps that reliably move the project forward and minimize the risk of big mistakes. This is the first time I’ve made something like this, so I’m giving it away for free. Continue reading
I’m So Many People (painting)
I made a painting of one of my favorite scenes from the TV show Mad Men. Continue reading
I’m So Many People (image)
I made a fun digital rendition of a frame from the TV show Mad Men. My original idea was to make a painting of it, but while I was thinking through how to edit my reference images in Photoshop/Blender, I got some ideas that I wanted to experiment with in depth. Continue reading
Crosspost: Be Incorporated
This post is about a certain kind of procrastination; I call it “over-managing.” It’s when you know what you should be working on at a given time, but instead of doing the work, you continue to deliberate over big-picture / planning decisions. As productive individuals, we have to be good Managers, but we also need to be able to call the plan “good enough” and be the Employee. Continue reading
Hue Paint tool: Match your photos to any color scheme
Hue Paint is a digital tool I made to force a given hue (color) onto an image, but only where it looks right. So, if you pick out a specific “red,” you can make all the reds in the image match it, and leave the other colors unchanged. This is a subtle way to make any photo match a given color palette. Continue reading
Hidden hues: The surprising color associations we share
What color is Monday? What color is three? It turns out, we do associate random things with certain colors, and in many cases we tend to report the same associations. There IS a color of Monday. Continue reading
“Deep Trax” band logo (image)
I made this graphic for a band logo using Blender. Continue reading
Crosspost: The generalist’s skillset
I put this together to talk about meta-skills: the broad skills that help all generalists manage and balance their particular skills and interests. In my own life, the reason I got interested in productivity and time management and the like was because I was a generalist, and I needed to get good at juggling everything. So this page covers what I’ve learned so far, and I’m sure I’ll add to it in the future. Continue reading
Crosspost: Necessary generalists
I wrote this short series to talk about a weird thing in the modern world: there are a few areas where pretty much everybody needs to be knowledgeable. Each individual now bears some responsibilities, fully, which in past generations were shared or outsourced. Since we each need to have these few areas covered, on top of whatever else we’re doing in our lives, we’re all necessary generalists. Continue reading
Crosspost: A place for generalists
This is a crosspost from True Generalist. This post goes deeper into why I made that site, what being a generalist means to me, and why the present time and place is an ideal environment for generalists. Continue reading
True Generalist logo (image)
This is a time lapse of me making the logo for my new website, TrueGeneralist.com. Continue reading
