What I’ve been reading:
Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Trust thyself." This is what Emerson’s arguably most famous essay consistently comes back to.
"The truth" lies in the individual, not in any institution or organization.
If I were to expand a bit on the major and recurring themes of this essay, I would say: individualism, nonconformity, following your own instincts and ideas, and personal responsibility.
One thing that I think about while reading Emerson is:
In my country, we have a poet called Njegos. It is almost a shameful thing not to have his collected works in your household. I believe that Emerson deserves the same status in the United States. And I would add Henry David Thoreau alongside him.
Of course this doesn’t mean that Emerson is not, like every great thinker, a thinker of all of us, not just his home country. His works are a gift to the world. But I also feel like his writings are some of the best examples of all those values that Americans are proud of and that the rest of the world has admired about them for a long time.
I would love to hear from my American readers about how big of a role Emerson plays in your education. Do you feel like he gets enough credit and recognition? And while we’re on that topic, I would like to hear the same about Thoreau. I feel like his the one that could even be called underrated.
What I’ve been listening to:
On Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil" and Nihilism by Johannes A. Niederhauser
I consider Johannes A. Niederhauser one of my philosophy teachers. He has played a major role in my independent study of philosophy. And I found out about him through instagram, of all places. That’s how "bad" social media is. Once again, relating to my "online diet" idea from last Monday’s Existential Espresso, the internet is full of immense value.
I’ve listened to this particular lecture at least 3 times from start to finish and at least 7-8 times partially.
I have to say that if you haven’t read Nietzsche, this is not a lecture for you. It’s not an introduction to Nietzsche, nor is it meant to make "Beyond Good and Evil" easier to read.
It is more of an actual academic lecture than a "YouTube lecture," if you will. But if you have read Beyond Good and Evil and are interested in continuing to study Nietzsche, I cannot overstate how valuable this one is.
You can watch the lecture and visit Johannes’ channel here.
What I’ve been thinking about:
Building or creating in public.
For the longest time, I was a big proponent of working in silence, or maybe even in secrecy. And I still am.
I believe that talking (too much) about your goals, plans, and projects takes away the drive you have for them. It gives you a fake version of that feeling when you are putting in the work and noticing yourself moving towards your goal(s).
However, I've always found interesting the concept of "building in public" that’s been popular in the world of digital creators.
The value of "building in public," the way I understand it, is in engaging your audience in the process of creating something for them rather than just creating something and then presenting it to them. And I love that idea.
But how can I reconcile it with my strong conviction about not letting the talk be a substitute for the work?
I think I figured it out: The problem is in talking about something that you are "going to do," since it often ends up with the person not actually doing it.
But as long as you are really doing the work and then occasionally sharing parts of the process, I guess that’s building, or creating, in public.
That’s why recently I told my instagram audience that, in 3 years of writing every single day, there are a couple of topics where I’ve collected so much writing that it can be complied and edited into a book or guide format.
I asked them to vote on which of those topics they wanted me to cover first. The winner was "Consistency."
As I said in that vote, consistency is, after all, what got me to this point where you are willing to trust me with your time and attention and read what I have to say.
So here I am, building in public. Not talking about something I'm going to do, but about something I'm already doing.
I already have tens of thousands of words written about my journey with consistency. Now it’s about making something that people will actually use. That is what I mean when I say "book or guide format." I don’t want to say exclusively "book" because I want to add resources that make the information that I share easier to actually apply.
I will be sharing updates with you and asking for feedback. Thank you for all the support and encouragement.
And thank you for reading.
Stay strong, love life, and never feel sorry for yourself.
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"Self-Reliance" and parts of "Walden" were required reading in my school. Unfortunately, the students (myself included) mostly saw it as just another reading assignment to push through and then forget about. I never truly started appreciating the authors until I saw the film "Dead Poets Society" as a teenager. One particular line from Thoreau is featured very prominently. I wish classrooms in real life could be as engaging as the classroom shown in the film.