Making Your Own Way

Over the break I read several old books and articles including Ben Franklin’s Autobiography, Thoreau’s Walden, and Emerson’s Self Reliance. While all of them struck chords with me, Emerson’s was my favorite and most inspiring. I am not a Transcendentalist but there are some nuggets of wisdom here that just really hit me.

There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good; no kernel of corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till.

The essay is about individualism and not following the expectations of others / the world. This has been the theme of the past year for me as I continue to find my voice as a designer and man. Go read it.

Looking Back: Literary Sketchbooks

The way people work through ideas in sketchbooks, journals, etc. is fascinating. Above the Commonplace book of Jonathan Edwards. Via Artisan Lab.

VISVIM

Working on a paper about perceived American ruggedness in Japanese fashion. Bag by VISVIM.

Eating the Dinosaur

From Chuck Klosterman:

“…now I realize I was simply partying with too many Modern Leftists. I should have spent more of my social time with Post-modern Leftists; they never care what you say to them, as long as you don’t criticize architecture or Girl Talk.”

Klosterman’s books are my US Weekly.