My First Charge!
18 Apr
2012
First The Listserve Email
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Emil Stenström <emil@thelistserve.com>
Date: Wed, Apr 18, 2012 at 5:21 PM
Subject: [The Listserve] I'm sorry to break this to you...
I'm sorry to break this to you, in an e-mail from a random stranger like this, but it needs to be said: Most of your life won't be fantastic. I'm not joking. The adventures you'll tell your children about will be a minuscule part of it. So if you want to avoid the feeling of utter disappointment as you grow older, you need to accept that fact. Sorry. This leads us to the insight: You should focus more on the non-fantastic parts. The parts where you eat breakfast, walk to the bus, have a boring day at work, eat your ordinary lunch, shop groceries, and brush your teeth. After all, this is the major part of your life, and neglecting it is a wasted opportunity. Here's the thing: Most of the boring stuff in your life is so dull, that even the tiniest thing can make it seem fun. The tiniest thing. This means the you could make it better with extremely simple means. What exactly am I talking about here? Little things. Like these: * Challenges: When brushing your teeth tonight, use your left hand.
* Mind games: When you enter work (or school!), imagine the sound "Kabaaaam!" as you enter, as if your presence changed the whole room.
* Action: Jump down from the side-walk, instead of just stepping down.
* Changes: Buy some fancy tomato sauce tonight, instead of your usual brand.
* More action: Count the number of pink things on your way to work, as if your life depended on it. See? Easy stuff. I really try to live by this "Everyday Action" idea, and I think it works for making the boring parts of life more fun. Because that's the thing: just because the fantastic moments are few, there's no reason to just sit there, waiting for the next big thing to swipe you off your feet. Have some fun meanwhile, it's easy... /Emil Emil Stenström
em@kth.se
Stockholm, Sweden
Date: Wed, Apr 18, 2012 at 5:21 PM
Subject: [The Listserve] I'm sorry to break this to you...
I'm sorry to break this to you, in an e-mail from a random stranger like this, but it needs to be said: Most of your life won't be fantastic. I'm not joking. The adventures you'll tell your children about will be a minuscule part of it. So if you want to avoid the feeling of utter disappointment as you grow older, you need to accept that fact. Sorry. This leads us to the insight: You should focus more on the non-fantastic parts. The parts where you eat breakfast, walk to the bus, have a boring day at work, eat your ordinary lunch, shop groceries, and brush your teeth. After all, this is the major part of your life, and neglecting it is a wasted opportunity. Here's the thing: Most of the boring stuff in your life is so dull, that even the tiniest thing can make it seem fun. The tiniest thing. This means the you could make it better with extremely simple means. What exactly am I talking about here? Little things. Like these: * Challenges: When brushing your teeth tonight, use your left hand.
* Mind games: When you enter work (or school!), imagine the sound "Kabaaaam!" as you enter, as if your presence changed the whole room.
* Action: Jump down from the side-walk, instead of just stepping down.
* Changes: Buy some fancy tomato sauce tonight, instead of your usual brand.
* More action: Count the number of pink things on your way to work, as if your life depended on it. See? Easy stuff. I really try to live by this "Everyday Action" idea, and I think it works for making the boring parts of life more fun. Because that's the thing: just because the fantastic moments are few, there's no reason to just sit there, waiting for the next big thing to swipe you off your feet. Have some fun meanwhile, it's easy... /Emil Emil Stenström
em@kth.se
Stockholm, Sweden
16 Apr
2012
To find a boring, well-paid job.
"I had three students who got really good job offers, and I told them 'You have some extra time. Tell you what, put at the top of your resume that your job objective is to find a boring, well-paid job, just for the hell of it, and then interview with a couple more companies.'
The good thing is the companies who interviewed them realized that the students had a sense of humor. So this is great. In fact, two of them got even better job offers."
- Dr. Bennet Lientz at the UCLA Anderson School of Management
3 Apr
2012
My One-Sentence Concept of the Internet.
I'm taking a class this quarter which is very philosophical about the Internet. Answering these questions in one sentence was my first assignment.
1. What is the Internet?
The Internet is where people publish text, images, video, and audio digitally.
2. What are its features?
It is always accessible and is built upon universal digital languages.
3. What does it look like?
It looks like overlapping rainbows. (It looks like a rainbow because there is such a wide variety of websites and they are overlapping because there are so many websites.)
4. How does it work?
It works by continuously transferring data between servers and clients.
5. How has it changed you?
It has made me impatient by giving me a false notion that anything should be able to be obtained instantly.
6. How has it changed the world?
By creating an intangible, yet legitimate, virtual world that anyone is able to inhabit.
