Portrait of Michel de Montaigne by Salvador Dalí “On the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom.” ― Michel de Montaigne Michel De Montaigne, skeptic, writer, & haver of thoughts, writes about almost anything that crosses his mind, from his painful goes with kidney stones, to cannibalism. What is so admirable about Montaigne is not what he understands but how he respects what he finds incomprehensible. He treats the mysterious with care & doesn’t attempt to explain it away. After all, it is said that he coined the phrase, “but what do I know?”.
Fantastic piece here Mr Brown, glad to see you writing as you are a much needed corrective and one of the most interesting voices around (and I say that not just because we tend to have a similar outlook on life)
The thing I find particularly amusing is how when you start to talk about idleness, escaping the rat race and encouraging people to simply give themselves permission to just ‘be’ what ends up happening is that they end up improving for the better and getting things done, ironically enough. True idleness needs true effectiveness.
The irony then is that all of this hustle culture makes people lazy and procrastinate whereas being lazy and at leisure makes people pursue activities out of mere whim and curiosity and in the process actually make strides in their life. But try boiling that sentiment down to a 5 bulletpoint twitter thread.
‘ All these nerds want is answers!’
Fantastic piece here Mr Brown, glad to see you writing as you are a much needed corrective and one of the most interesting voices around (and I say that not just because we tend to have a similar outlook on life)
The thing I find particularly amusing is how when you start to talk about idleness, escaping the rat race and encouraging people to simply give themselves permission to just ‘be’ what ends up happening is that they end up improving for the better and getting things done, ironically enough. True idleness needs true effectiveness.
The irony then is that all of this hustle culture makes people lazy and procrastinate whereas being lazy and at leisure makes people pursue activities out of mere whim and curiosity and in the process actually make strides in their life. But try boiling that sentiment down to a 5 bulletpoint twitter thread.
Your friend from beyond the social media veil,
Tom.