The vastness that is art allows an infinite variety of expression. It doesn’t have to be anything. It’s just novel language! Ways of communicating things that don’t have words or sentences built around them yet. So if you need to express something and the expression takes the form of bottle caps glued to your ceiling, do it. It’s only for you, anyway. You – and those who speak the language.

How do you actually develop a growth mindset if you don’t have one? Let’s say you’ve realized that a growth mindset is something good to have, but it’s not your natural way. Your patterns of thinking still default to a fixed world. What can you do to build better thinking habits?

Try this exercise: The No Trigger. Whenever you say “no” to something (or any variation, like “I can’t,” or “that won’t work,” or what have you) immediately say “Unless.” Write the word on your arm if you have to, anything to trigger that thought.

Then finish it. Unless what? What are the factors that make the idea untenable? What would it take to remove or circumvent those factors?

It’s a baby step, but it’s the first of a wild explosion of creativity. You don’t have to turn every idea around. But you want to start thinking about how you could.

When in doubt, laugh through it. If you don’t understand it, it’s a game.

If you have a perfect day with one bad event, that was a perfect day.

Easy things are often the most valuable.

If something is easy, we can think of it like having a “low cost” in terms of time and effort. Think about things you buy with money. If you find a widget you like for a dollar, and then you find a widget that’s 10% better but costs ten thousand dollars, which is the better deal?

A meal that takes you ten hours to prepare might be delicious, but the meal you can throw together in five minutes that’s still really good is the meal you’ll actually eat.

Your life is a long hallway, with thousands if not millions of doors. Some are wide open. Some are closed, but could be opened with a little effort. Some are locked and barred. What’s behind each door is different.

Everyone has different doors that are open, closed, or locked. Some people have many more closed doors than others, and that isn’t fair, but it is what it is.

No matter what someone’s hallways looks like, there will always be some people who insist on bashing their heads against the locked doors, convinced that what’s behind them is utopia. Sight unseen.

The secret to a happy life is exploring the open or openable doors until you find one you like, and walking through it.

Tools aren’t evil. A chemist can make a poison or they can make sunscreen with the same lab. Letters can be configured into words that bring joy or sorrow. Money can buy food and shelter, or weapons of war.

They’re tools. Our hands and minds are tools, too.

People fear tools because they don’t understand minds. They think that the evil is contained in the sword, not in the hand that weilds it and the heart that drives the hand. They think hatred is housed in the words spoken, not in the mind that willed the mouth to speak.

Humans have great capacity for honor and evil both. They also have tremendous ingenuity, and will use that ingenuity to make tools that further their goals, righteous and evil alike. To attempt to be ever-vigilant against the wrong tools is to fight a fool’s war, and to lose it. The battle for the hearts of mankind must be won there, as well.

The greatest escape hatch for an unpleasant conversation ever made is: “You’re right.”

I see people trying to end arguments by starting new ones, trying to bypass an impasse by saying things like “You’re too stubborn to argue with,” or “Why am I wasting my time with you?” That’s silly!

Even seemingly diplomatic statements like “I think we’re at an impasse,” or “Agree to disagree,” don’t really do what you want them to. What you want is to end a fruitless conversation. You probably want to do that because you aren’t convinced by the other person’s statements and you realize they won’t be convinced by yours. So what’s the point of doing any more talking?

If you just say, “You’re right,” the conversation is over. If the person is your friend, they still are. Nothing changes. If it was a stranger you were arguing with (and if so… why?) then who cares if they walk away thinking they convinced you? The important thing is that they walk away!

Pride is dumb, especially when it makes your life worse. Just cheerfully say, “You’re right!”

I wonder how many words I’ve written? Not just here, but… everywhere? Every story, every email, every jotted note. Which words have I never written? Which words have I never read?

Maybe someday I’ll reckon.

I have never complained about something out loud and had a positive result.

Sure, “the squeaky wheel gets the grease.” But there are better ways to ask than to just complain and hope somebody both correctly interprets your needs and feels magnanimous enough to make your problem into theirs.

And yes, you should talk about your feelings and worries! But you should do so with trusted friends, loved ones, or professionals. You shouldn’t just broadcast it to the public.

Why not? Because negativity invites more negativity. Pain competitions, disapproval, unkind mockery – these are all the demons you open the door for. I don’t feel like dealing with that, do you?

I’m not saying bottle it up! I’m just saying to mind your context. Grousing never helped anyone.