The power of positive questions

I learned recently that our brains have the tendency to focus on negative things. But by asking about good things, you can trick your brain into remembering something nice.

In Steal Like an Artist, Austin Kleon recommends keeping a simple log book for each day about what you did and offers this advice: Instead of asking, “what happened today,” ask, “what was the best thing that happened today?”

I’ve been following his suggestion when my wife and I have dinner together each night. It’s a small change, but it’s shown a marked improvement over asking, “how was your day?” I find that it forces each of us out of responding with automatic answers or focusing on the drama around us. We end up sharing more about ourselves that way too.

It brings me back to how it was when we were dating — we were learning so much about each other and discovering new things every time we went out. But the thing I liked most about dating and getting to know her was the feeling I had then, and still do — that I want to know what she likes and like what she likes, too.

Staying creative… during all this

Mason Curry over at Subtle Maneuvers recently interviewed Austin Kleon about getting creative work done during the pandemic with two kids at home full time.

I love how Kleon holds his feelings — gratitude and frustration — in tension. He knows he’s in a privileged spot, being able to do the work that he does, but he’s frustrated by how hard it’s been to do anyways. And if it’s hard for him, someone who does it for a living, it’s unimaginably hard for someone trying to do it in the margins.

My favorite piece about the interview is his boatload of recommendations about articles, books, and movies:

Finally, have you read, watched, or listened to anything amazing lately that you can recommend?

Some books I’ve loved this year: Sam Anderson’s Boom Town, E.H. Gombrich’s A Little History of the World, Olga Tokarczuk’s Drive Your Plow Over The Bones of the Dead, Stewart Brand’s How Buildings Learn, Martin Gardner’s The Annotated Alice, Shirley Jackson’s Life Among The Savages, Tom Hodgkinson’s How To Be Idle, Mary Ruefle’s Dunce and My Private Property (I love her; I hope she’s doing well because she’s my quarantine saint), old Ray Bradbury short stories, Kenko and Chomei’s Essays in Idleness and Hojoki, Erno Rubik’s Cubed, Stefan Zweig’s The World of Yesterday, and Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste, which deserves every bit of praise it’s getting. 

Movies and TV I’ve binged: Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Parasite, Sex Education, Dolemite is my Name!, Teenage Bounty Hunters, Better Things, Kind Hearts and Coronets, Master and Commander, My Octopus Teacher, Ted Lasso, The Crown, Spongebob Squarepants, Toast of London, Curb Your Enthusiasm reruns, and How To With John Wilson. I also recommend re-watching your favorite movies in black and white. I’ve recently enjoyed Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, Jaws, and Nacho Libre.

Albums and songs on repeat: Fiona Apple, Fetch The Bolt Cutters; Perfume Genius, Set My Heart on Fire Immediately; Deerhoof, Love Lore; Cardi B, “WAP”; Sturgill Simpson, “Make Art Not Friends”; the new Dylan album, which has no right to be so good; Cocteau Twins, Heaven or Las Vegas; Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, Ethiopiques 21; The Durutti Column, LC; Gary Numan, The Pleasure Principle; and Yaz, Upstairs at Eric’s. Favorite writing music: Yasuaki Shimizu’s Kakashi; Aphex Twin; Barker’s Utility; and the Uncut Gems soun

The best interviews spin you out to other things beyond the person being interviewed — and this interview did just that. Mason regularly interviews lots of interesting folks; definitely worth subscribing.

Some interesting things

1. I recently finished Sönke Ahrens book, How to Take Smart Notes. I have been reading for three decades and this book humbled me by explaining how to read, think, and write in a way I’ve never heard before.
2. Since we’re on a reading kick, you may as well check out Ryan Holiday’s 3-Step System for Reading Like a Pro and How to Read More Like Ryan Holiday. They’re a detailed peek into his note-taking process, how he organizes information, and the secret to becoming a full-time reader. (Spoiler: Become a professional writer!)
3. What would you get if you mashed together a journal and an internet browser? The Command Browser — an internet browser built around journaling. Ahrens and Holiday (above) both talk about how your reading notes are a dialog with the writer — well, Command lets you do that for things you read on the internet — and it’s an absolute delight.
4. Speaking of internet writing, there’s an essay by Paul Graham on “How to Work Hard”, where he talks about discovering the work you’re suited for, but ultimately that — “A deep interest in a topic makes people work harder than any amount of discipline can.” 

How it all ties together…

Part of relearning how to read has meant learning how to collect ideas and connect them in my slipbox — a system for keeping notes and organizing ideas (see Ahrens’s book). The slipbox is ultimately full of things that interest me.

Writing is something that deeply interests me, but it’s ridiculous how difficult it is for me to do it when it’s outside of a professional context.

My hope is that by using a system, something else I’m interested in, I can trick my brain into enjoying the work of writing.

Explore your interests and it won’t feel like work, they say. Ok… I guess I’ll keep browsing the internet and jotting down my ideas.

In the meantime, thanks for reading.

Consistency

If you enjoy something, but you’re bad at it, getting better is simple — keep practicing.