confessions

orikami

- A-work -

  1. total entries 145
  2. follower 3
  3. score 13009

clarity

orikami
(n.) could be only a moment (like "Eureka!"), or prolonged access to wisdom, a sustained ability to understand the whole of the game (like with true enlightenment in monks, or Richard Feynman with physics & lock-picking, etc.).

not simplicity. not simplistic. not reductionism.
intent matters here, too.. because one person's Inbox 0 helps them to control information flow & to stay on top of things (i.e. they have clarity on priorities, etc), but for another person, they can be a slave to the idea of Inbox 0 (a simple logic of "if email, I need to read it", but forgetting that it's just a tool and not a rule of the universe or anything).

(also: nuance)

omni-win

orikami
(n.) as in, a win from many, many sides.
this is not a zero-sum world, despite pessimists and "realists" who might try to tell you otherwise.
(no, I won't get perfectionist on you and insist on positioning the win so that it's on literally *all* sides; but you know, getting as close to that as we possibly can)

(also: positive-sum)
(also: empathy)
(also: clarity)

not (also: zero-sum)

paper-pusher

orikami
(n.) if you gotta push some papers around, ok, sure; but if something awful happens on your watch, don't pass it off with the excuse of "I was just doing my job". you are still instilled with the gift and the responsibility to stay aware of your surroundings, your actions and consequences, and to stay connected with your soul.
https://medium.com/the-retrospective/hannah-arendt-on-the-banality-of-evil-4e75fd840c68

(also: bullshit jobs)
the harms of (also: balkanization)
the harms of (also: decontextualization)

pretentious

orikami
(adj.) first, you have people creating something, exploring it, shaping it, embracing it. and then, someone comes and declares that it's some rule- and etiquette-bound contest. someone wants to be a middleman and get a cut of the cultural profit (also: cred) for doing not much of anything, by drawing and upholding such lines. keep the highbrow-clean-safe-technical-predictable in, and keep the inspired-shocking-crumbling-developing out. the judgment-perversion sneaks its foothold in, and then some next generation grows up thinking *the lines* are the whole of the importance of the thing!
strange how it comes about, eh?..

not (also: original)
not (also: authentic)
(also: gatekeeping)
(also: middlemen)
(also: social games)
(also: excuses to not live)

communism

orikami
(n.) a hip-again ideology, and basically anti-capitalist. a passage vehicle, for breaking free from some current norms, but by no means the final balanced form.. I worry sometimes about people who just soaked in "ugh, it's capitalism that dehumanizes people, it's all capitalism's fault" and are fighting like that's the whole truth (whom I see a lot of, online and in some of my adjacent social circles!!). scapegoating doesn't solve anything.. but if I take a breath in and out, I know it will be ok. there is more to come after this.
"just share what you can & take what you need" works great & intuitively within a family context; but on a society level, historically, has led to horrible mismanagement and its own forms of dehumanization.. people are not going to get magically better at intrapersonal relationships, or resource logistics, or equal access to healthcare, simply because there's a change in the system. a system is a tool, like a knife, not good or bad on its own-- and I'm sure you've heard where this is going before, so I won't bore you.
if you want a society infused with respect towards others: embody it, weave it tight into your own life with everything you do. if you want honest communication, start by cutting out the outright lies in your daily relationships, then move on to the trickier & smaller white lies you tell yourself in a half-whispered thought. these things will get you a lot farther and make the journey a lot more engaging, challenging and rewarding.



bukowski

orikami
charles bukowski: the man, the poet, the big big drinker.
and he will tell you to reinvent yourself,

and to go through your own struggles, rather than seeking approval from someone like him.

original

orikami
(adj.) coming from the origin, and remaining connected to it; perhaps transformed, but never warped nor mutilated.
many people of the modern first world live their lives carrying (and burdened by) the mistaken idea that to be original means something has to be new: artists. teenagers. but that's simply not what original means, in its true spirit!
and I do say burdened because it can weigh heavy if you want to be original and leave an original legacy. and it will feel like an impossible task.
release that ego weight.

original

it's about being true, not about being new.

(also: nothing new under the sun)
(also: a little love is not so bad)
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