admin, Author at Clayton French

Letter I – Stop living life passively

By admin on November 25, 2023

I can’t shake this horrible feeling that I’m wasting my life away. Every minute that passes seems like a minute wasted. Ennui has taken over and consumed every waking moment of my life. I can’t help but envy everyone around me. They might be moving sideways, forward, or even backward, but at least they’re moving. I can’t help but envy that they have somewhere they’re trying to go – even if they don’t necessarily make it there. It’s like floating in the ocean watching everyone speed by in boats.

“Things merely happen to you. It is your mind that chooses to interpret them as negative or positive.”
Robert Greene, The 50th Law

I need you to realize one thing: ennui is a mindset, not a condition. The boats you see are imaginary – everyone else is treading water just like you.

As I’m writing this, I can honestly say I’m going through something similar. I’m in between jobs and it feels like I’m just floating, not really moving towards anything. I’m surrounded by people who seem to have it all figured out. People starting their own businesses, advancing in their careers, or travelling the world and collecting life-changing experiences.

Meanwhile I’m sat here staring at my computer screen typing, retyping, and re-retyping my resumes trying to figure out how to catch someone’s attention.

At times, it feels meaningless. Like life is passing me by while I scramble for a meager hourly paycheck just to make ends meet.

But you know what? When I stop to think about it, my seemingly bleak position is offering a lot of opportunities to learn and grow.

So I’m not earning any money right now. Is that an excuse to sit and mope about being poor? Should I get pissed at the “System” for creating a world where I need to rely on a paycheck for food?

Or is life trying offering me a lesson I could learn from?

So I’m not earning a paycheck.

This is a perfect time to teach myself to be frugal and wiser with my money. I may not be in control of my income, but I’m always in control of what I spend.

So life feels directionless and chaotic without a job to mandate a schedule.

Rather than lounge around and feed my anxiety, I have an opportunity to create a routine and schedule of my own. I can treat my life like a job and put myself to work learning something new or working on personal projects.

So everyone around me is advancing in their careers, earning promotions and raises.

Am I the one in a prison, or are they? Am I going to compare myself to them, or will I take advantage of my freedom and focus on gaining new experiences?

No matter our circumstances, it’s up to us whether our lives are filled with dead time or alive time.

Dead time is passive, chaotic, static.

Dead time happens when we don’t grow. When we make ourselves a victim of circumstance. When we complain and rail against the world for not catering to our desires. When we expect purpose and meaning to be handed to us on a silver platter.

Alive time is active, creative, dynamic.

Alive time happens when we grow and move – whether we’re moving forwards, sideways, or even backwards. It doesn’t matter. Alive time happens when you actively seek out the learning opportunities life is throwing at you. When you refuse to cater to circumstance and find ways to turn it in your favor. When you convince yourself that right here, right now, is the best place you could be.

Which one are you going to choose?

On Boredom: The Cost of Avoiding Monotony

By admin on November 12, 2023

Why are we so terrified of being bored?
Why do we always need to be stimulated, distracted in some way?
What is it we’re trying to distract ourselves from?

“All of man’s troubles come from not knowing how to sit still, alone in a room.”
Blaise Pascal

We didn’t realize what was happening until it was too late. We’ve grown accustomed to constant stimulation and distracting entertainment. Cooking, cleaning, training, working – we have automated these things and more, to the point where we can have our basic needs met at the push of a button.

We told ourselves it was a good thing. We convinced ourselves that convenience and automation were good for us. That the less time we have to spend on the necessities of daily living, the more time we could spend on more fulfilling activities like art and leisure.

If that were the case, wouldn’t we be more content by now?

Avoiding boredom creates anxiety

“For a delight in bustling about is not industry – it is only the restless energy of a hunted mind.”
Seneca, Letters from a Stoic

Instead of contentment, what we’re seeing is rampant anxiety.

The same forces that have made our lives more convenient have ushered in a new neurosis of novelty. We’d rather order food to be dropped off at our house than invest an hour into cooking. We scroll endlessly on social media for a hit of satisfaction, ignoring the fact that such technology has been purposefully designed like a slot machine to keep us addicted to our screens.

What started out as a luxury has quickly turned into a necessity. We can’t handle boredom anymore. As soon as that feeling creeps in and our skin starts to crawl, we scramble for a means to keep it at bay. Our aversion to boredom compels us to keep ourselves busy with uninspiring activities. We scroll, we consume, we distract – we do anything we can to avoid boredom.

We fail to realize that the more we do this, the more the neurosis infects us. The more we distract ourselves and seek those quick hits of pleasure, the less we’re able to handle monotony. We start to see boredom as the disease, when really it’s our aversion to it that’s making us sick.

Avoiding boredom prevents mastery

“Most people can’t handle boredom. That means they can’t stay on one thing until they get good at it. And they wonder why they’re unhappy.”
50 Cent, The 50th Law

Beyond anxiety, our aversion to boredom compels us to run away from any tedious work. We’ve been so coddled with instant gratification that we think everything in life should be readily available.

How could we not? Social media constantly bombards us with pictures and videos of successful people who have already made it. We love to showcase our successes while ignoring the reality of the work, the blood, sweat, and tears required for genuine success.

We’ve lost our taste for the pursuit of happiness. We’ve forgotten the reality that any prize is only satisfying when we earn it. When we sit down and do the work, when we push through challenges and actually fight for it – only then is the prize worth winning.

The cure: start embracing boredom in work and life

“These entertainments have a faster pace than the time we spend at work. Work then is experienced as something boring – slow and repetitive. Anything challenging, requiring effort, is viewed the same way – it’s not fun; it’s not fast… Life becomes divided between what is necessary (time at work) and what is pleasurable (distractions and entertainment).”
Robert Greene, The 50th Law

The more we flee from boredom and tedious work, the bigger a dichotomy we create in our lives. We spend just enough time at work to meet our needs, then desperately try to fill the void of what’s left with distracting entertainments.

What we need to do is slow down and cultivate boredom rather than avoid it. Boredom is a skill that we need to reintroduce and practice in our daily lives.

To be sure, this isn’t an easy task. Distraction is an addicting drug in its own right. Like any bad habit, we need to take it slow and progressively reintroduce boredom into our lives.

We can start with simple routines. Instead of picking up your phone first thing in the morning give yourself 10 minutes to do something slowly and mindfully. This could be meditating, reading a book, or even just taking a minute to make a mindful cup of coffee. Once this becomes a habit, find other areas in your life where you can introduce slowness.

With time, we can rebuild our capacity for boredom and turn it into fuel for the larger projects we’re striving for. Rather than railing against the idea that we have to pursue happiness, we come to find that happiness itself is found within the pursuit.

“There is a pleasure in having succeeded in enduring something the actual enduring of which was very far from pleasant; when some trouble or other comes to an end the natural thing is to be glad.”
Seneca, Letters from a Stoic

Why Outlines are Holding Your Writing Back

By admin on November 12, 2023

Any writer knows how frustrating it can be to organize your ideas. You have an idea of what you want to write, but as soon as you start making that outline you hit a wall. You spend so much time worrying about how you want to express your ideas, before long you can’t even remember what it was you wanted to write about.

As useful as outlines can be for giving structure to your writing, remember that content is always the most important. What good is a beautifully organized piece of writing if you’re not saying anything?

At the start of Robert Pirsig’s Lila, he writes about using individual slips of paper to jot down notes and ideas rather than listing them all out sequentially. As he goes along with this, he notices certain ideas start taking shape. The more slips he adds, the more connections he sees until eventually he ends up with his breakthrough book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZMM).

Ryan Holiday uses a similar system. He frequently discusses the Commonplace Book as a vita tool not just for writing but for life in general. Rather than an actual book, Holiday uses a system of index cards, categorized into various themes, to collect and organize his ideas for his writing projects.

For a detailed explanation of how to construct such a Commonplace Book, I suggest taking a look at Holiday’s post linked above. Rather than detail my own process, I’ve listed below the various benefits from switching over to this index card-based system.

Connections are easier to see

When I first started using this system, I made the mistake of trying to force each card into a single neat category that would perfectly encapsulate the idea behind it. What I failed to realize was that in doing so, I was blinding myself to the connections between not only the individual cards but the categories themselves.

To give an example, here is a card where I wrote down a quote from The Art of Learning. After spending an unnecessary amount of time trying to decide if I wanted to categorize the card under ‘Mastery’ or ‘Quality’, I put both at the top of the card. With this simple little act, I uncovered a connection I had previously missed. Like dominoes, ideas started pouring in as I started to question the connection between Mastery and Quality.

The categories provide direction

With this index card system, I’ve found it much easier to find direction in my craft. Whenever I hit a snag, I turn to my collection and look at the categories I’ve set up. Being able to visually see the index cards helps provide direction. If one theme is full of cards, that tells me that that topic is especially interesting to me, and spurs me to dive further into it.

By the same token, it’s easy to see gaps in my knowledge by paying attention to the themes that are less filled out. If there’s a category with just a handful of cards, I’ll use that as a cue to explore it more and expand my knowledge.

The ideas form the structure

Unlike the outline system which prioritizes structure over content, index cards flip this around and create space so the content drives the structure. In fact, this is the very system from which ZMM was created. By collecting and organizing his plethora of slips, Pirsig was able to let the content guide the book. Rather than a rigidly structured piece, ZMM ended up a beautifully chaotic work that conveyed the idea of Quality better than any outlined work could have.

Whether it’s for writing or just for personal use, I highly recommend starting a Commonplace Book to collect and organize information. While you could use notebooks/journals or electronic tools just as well, I’ve found that there’s something about the index cards that makes the process more dynamic and useful.

The Antilibrary – You Don’t Know Sh*t

By admin on November 12, 2023

Why do we fall into this trap of thinking there’s nothing left to learn? We have a bad habit of focusing more on the books we’ve read, the ideas we’ve already explored, than accepting our ignorance and keeping ourselves open to new ideas.

Everything seems like a competition todays. We’re constantly competing for attention, for confirmation of our achievements, and validation of our self-worth. When it comes to knowledge, this translates into hyper-focusing on the number of books we’ve read. The more we’ve read, the more knowledge we’ve gained, right?

Not only that, we’re scared to embrace our limited understanding and accept that we might be wrong. We cling to ideas we’ve been exposed to, even illogical ones, simply because they’re comfortable and familiar. As soon as we reach an idea or belief, we cling to it with all our might.

Luckily for us, there may be an antidote.

In his book The Black Swan, Nassim Taleb introduces us to the idea of the anti-library, a collection of unread books that serves as a reminder of how little we really know.

Taleb recognized the dangers of complacency when it comes to knowledge. He shows us the tragedies we create by ignoring our ignorance. When we convince ourselves we have nothing left to learn, we close off our minds to anything foreign and prove ourselves right. We look at the books we’ve read and tell ourselves wow, we sure do know a lot.

Sorry to break it to you but no, no you don’t.

Take a quick trip to your public library. Do you see how many books there are? And those are just the books that are already written and published – thousands upon thousands of books are being pumped out every single year. Even if everyone were to stop publishing books, you would not be able to read what’s been written in whatever time you have left here.

Can’t make it to the library? Pick a nonfiction book from your bookshelf and jump to the bibliography. See how many books were used to make just that one? Reading is like trying to fight the Hydra of Greek lore – for every one you conquer, two more pop up for you to tackle.

Why the hell would you ever tell yourself that you have nothing left to learn?

The anti-library serves as a reminder of how little we really know. Each unread book on the shelf represents an unmarked land we have yet to explore. It keeps us humble, reminding us that no matter how much we’ve read, we are far from competent and still have much more to learn.

From now on, start embracing your unread books and your to-be-read list. Every time you finish a book, glance at all that you still have yet to read. Remind yourself that somewhere in that stack of books might be an idea that challenges and breaks the way you view the world for the better.

7 Stoic Quotes to Get You Through the Day

By admin on November 12, 2023

In today’s chaotic world, it’s easy to lose our sense of purpose and direction. Between social pressures and mass media constantly demanding our attention, it’s no wonder we find it hard just to make it through the day sometimes.

The ancient philosophy of Stoicism offers timeless wisdom to help keep on track amidst all the chaos of daily life. It teaches us to discern what is within our control, enabling us to focus on what matters most in life. Whenever you’re feeling off track, take a step back and reflect on some of these Stoic insights below.

“The value of attentiveness varies in proportion to its object. You’re better off not giving the small things more time than they deserve”
Marcus Aurelius

Whatever is troubling you in the moment, odds are its importance will diminish over time. Keep this in mind and make a conscious effort to not let the small things run your life.

“That every event is the right one. Look closely and you’ll see. Not just the right one overall, but right. As if someone had weighed it out with scales. Keep looking closely like that, and embody it in your actions: goodness – what defines a good person. Keep to it in everything you do.”
Marcus Aurelius

Stoic wisdom reminds us that we are always in control of how we respond to the things that happen to us. Instead of viewing yourself as a victim of circumstance, see how you can turn it to you advantage. Instead of asking why did this happen to me?, ask yourself what can I learn from this?

“Choose not to be harmed and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed and you haven’t been.”
Marcus Aurelius

Remember that external events have no hold over you, only your mindset about them. And this you are always in control of.

“You need to avoid certain things in your train of thought: everything random, everything irrelevant. And certainly everything self-important or malicious.”
Marcus Aurelius

How can you expect to be in control of your life if you’re not even in control of your own thoughts? Make a habit of consciously directing your thoughts to what matters in life.

“Remember how long you’ve been putting this off, how many extensions the gods gave you… there is a limit to the time assigned to you, and if you don’t use it to free yourself it will be gone and will never return.”
Marcus Aurelius

Stop procrastinating on what’s important. Remind yourself of how little time you really have here, and start making the most of it every single day.

“The human condition is a good one, in that no one is unhappy except by his own fault.”
Seneca

Take charge of your emotional well-being by recognizing that whatever happens, your disposition and mindset – which you are always in control of – is what determines your happiness.

“No evil lacks a path of escape.”
Seneca

Seneca’s quote reminds us that even in the most dire circumstances, there is a way out. Tap into the human resiliency that lies in all of us and embrace a mindset that seeks solutions rather than excuses.

Book Review: Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

By admin on November 12, 2023

“Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” by Yuval Noah Harari is an exploration of the history, and potential future, of the human species. Harari takes readers on a thought-provoking journey spanning thousands of years, providing a comprehensive overview of the key events and forces that have shaped human history.

In the first part of the book, readers are shown how Homo Sapiens jumped to the top of the food chain in a short span of time thanks to our ability to fashion tools and harness the power of nature to our own advantage. In addition to this, Harari shows us how our capacity for “fiction” gave us an advantage over the other social animals, enabling us to cooperate in massive groups.

After illuminating our jump to the top of the ladder, in the second part of the book Harari goes into great detail on the Agricultural Revolution and the subsequent creation of civilization, walking readers through man’s transition from the simple but fulfilling life of the hunter-gatherer to the abundant but anxiety-riddled one of the farmer.

In the final section of the book, Harari takes readers on an exploration of the Scientific Revolution, exploring the great technological advancements humans have made in the last few decades. While our technological feats are undoubtedly awe-inspiring, Harari gives us a glimpse into the ethical complications that science and technology are creating.

While insightful and thought-provoking, readers may find Harari’s reflections somewhat cold and detached. His analysis on today’s social institutions tends to focus on their shaky intellectual grounds, ignoring the utility and unity they’ve provided us over the years. While few would deny that these institutions need some moral revisions, readers should consider the consequences of tearing down the very things that have held civilization together.

Despite some drawbacks, this book is well worth reading as it encourages readers to reexamine their understanding of human history and the forces that drive our evolution forward.

Book Review: The 50th Law by Robert Greene

By admin on November 12, 2023

In The 50th Law, Robert Greene, renowned for his insightful books on power and strategy, teams up with hip-hop legend Curtis Jackson (aka 50 Cent) to deliver a captivating exploration of fearlessness and personal empowerment. Using examples from Jackson’s life, Greene gives readers a look at life from the hustler’s point of view, showing us how we can take control of our lives and free ourselves from the chains of circumstance.

Like Greene’s other works, The 50^th Law is a masterfully written piece that gives readers an honest look at the world of power and strategy. Drawing from historical anecdotes as well as Jackson’s own life experiences, Greene provides readers with a blueprint of how they can rise above their circumstances by turning fear into fuel and taking control of their lives.

Greene’s eloquence and style manage to draw readers in from the very beginning, pulling them in with a captivating story and leaving them with insightful advice for their own lives. While Greene’s observations and advice regarding may seem cold and manipulative to some readers, his narrative of Jackson’s life reminds us that the game of power is unavoidable regardless of your circumstance.

“The 50th Law states that there is one thing we can actually control – the mind-set with which we respond to these events around us”
Robert Greene, The 50th Law

The book homes in on the general tendency to make ourselves a victim of circumstance. Rather than take control of our lives, we tend to make excuses and complain when things don’t go our way or it seems like the world is against us. This book is a call to action to free ourselves from this pattern and change the way we handle fear in our lives.

A must-read for those looking to take the reins back in their own lives, readers are sure to find this as one of those books they keep coming back to.

Book Review: Lila by Robert M. Pirsig

By admin on November 12, 2023

Lila, Robert M. Pirsig’s second philosophical novel, is an intellectually stimulating journey that expands on ideas introduced in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZMM). In this book, Pirsig gives a deep dive into his “Metaphysics of Quality”, a new framework for understanding reality that frees us from the intellectual shackles we’ve chained ourselves with.

To get the most out of the book, readers should spend some time with ZMM, as a background understanding of Quality will help grasp the lessons in his second book. For those who want to jump right into Lila without reading ZMM, it helps to keep the following in mind:

“Quality” is an undefinable force that pulls us forward in life. Quality is something outside of definition and analysis, and as such can only be experienced.
One of Pirsig’s loudest messages is that our dependence on logic and reason is holding us back from a greater understanding of reality.

There’s a reason Pirsig’s work is so controversial. His not-so-subtle attacks on intellectualism have made him infamous in some circles. It’s important to keep in mind that Pirsig is not trying to establish Quality as “fact”, at least in the way we understand facts. Rather, he is pointing us towards a way to break free of the chains of logic and reason that keep us from experiencing reality directly.

Most of the philosophical meat of the book lies in Pirsig’s comparisons between the “Metaphysics of Substance” which currently dominates the intellectual world we live in, and his “Metaphysics of Quality”. Through his narrative of Phaedrus, Pirsig illustrates the limitations of science and logic and shows how we can expand our understanding of reality by viewing it through the lens of Quality instead of objectivity.

Readers seeking a practical application of Pirsig’s philosophy of Quality should pay attention to Pirsig’s ideas regarding evolution. Through various examples, Pirsig expands the reader’s understanding of evolution and shows how it relates to Quality.

Through his “Metaphysics of Quality” Pirsig redefines evolution as an ongoing cycle between static and dynamic patterns, rather than some value-less biological process. While the book goes into more detail, readers can get by with an understanding that dynamic patterns create growth while static patterns stabilize that growth and protect it from rolling backwards.

According to Pirsig, Quality is experienced when equilibrium is found between these two patterns. To live high-quality lives, we need to direct our attention towards subjugating the static patterns in our lives and creating space for Dynamic growth to shine through.

As simple as this idea sounds, it’s interesting to see how applicable it is to our daily lives as well as the larger problems that plague society and the world at large.

While his “Metaphysics of Quality” may go against our current intellectual bent, readers will undoubtedly benefit from reading Robert Pirsig’s Lila with an open mind and a willingness to discover a new way to relate to the world we live in.

Book Review: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

By admin on November 12, 2023

Robert M. Pirsig’s seminal novel, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZMM) is as relevant today as it was in 1974. Readers will find that this book only gets better the more it is read and re-read.

That said, it’s easy to see why more than 120 publishers rejected ZMM at first. Readers may have trouble keeping up with Pirsig’s rambling, wandering mind as he weaves his way through Quality and the experiences that led to his breakthrough (and subsequent breakdown).

In addition, some of Pirsig’s ideas are borderline heresy considering the intellectual world we live in today. From food security to modern medicine, logic (and by extension, science) has granted us unprecedented comfort and security when it comes to material needs. Science has done such a good job of this in fact that we’ve convinced ourselves it is the only lens through which we can see Truth. It’s this very mindset Pirsig ruthlessly fights against in ZMM.

This attack on intellectualism is nothing new – pick up any New Age mysticism book and you’ll find similar ideas splattered throughout. What makes Pirsig stand out, however, is how he weaponizes rationality against itself. Armed with an academic’s arsenal, Pirsig systematically picks apart logic and the scientific method, illustrating how the very framework we rely on to eliminate uncertainty is actually creating more or it. In this intellectual era, this is a tough pill to swallow.

To get the most out of this book, readers should open themselves to the idea that there’s a difference between experience and analysis, and consider the possibility that our need for truth-by-analysis is blocking our ability to access Truth by experience.

We see something similar when taking pictures of an awe-inspiring landscape. While the picture may come out clear and beautiful in its own right, something is always lost in the process. The picture will never compare to the full experience of being in the landscape.

To really understand what Pirsig is trying to tell us, the reader needs to think of science, logic, and reason as the camera. Strict analysis can only ever give us a snapshot of reality. What can we learn when we put the camera down and experience the world around us?

ZMM is Pirsig’s attempt to get us to put down the camera and open ourselves to the idea that there’s more to life than what we see inside the frame.