"Το λακωνίζειν εστί φιλοσοφείν", — Chilon of Sparta

"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea." — Antoine de Saint Exupéry

As Jarrett sees it, moving from the interpretation based world of classical music to the improvisational one of jazz requires a radical shift that shakes the foundations of self. When he performed a lot of Mozart in the 80’s, he says “I wasn’t playing anything other than Mozart. I had to become another person.” And, he adds, “to teach a classical musician to improvise is almost more impossible than to teach an accountant or plumber to improvise.” — Keith Jarrett

Be patient. No matter what. Don’t badmouth: Assign responsibility, never blame. Say nothing behind another’s back you’d be unwilling to say, in exactly the same tone and language, to his face. Never assume the motives of others are, to them, less noble than yours are to you.

Expand your sense of the possible. Don’t trouble yourself with matters you truly cannot change. Expect no more of anyone than you yourself can deliver. Tolerate ambiguity. Laugh at yourself frequently. Concern yourself with what is right rather than whom is right.

Never forget that, no matter how certain, you might be wrong. Give up blood sports. Remember that your life belongs to others as well. Do not endanger it frivolously. And never endanger the life of another. Never lie to anyone for any reason. Learn the needs of those around you and respect them.

Avoid the pursuit of happiness. Seek to define your mission and pursue that. Reduce your use of the first personal pronoun. Praise at least as often as you disparage. Never let your errors pass without admission. Become less suspicious of joy.

Understand humility. Forgive. Foster dignity. Live memorably. Love yourself. Endure.

— John Perry Barlow’s Principles of Adult Behavior / October 3, 1977

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

— Ira Glass

“The medium is the message.” — Marshall McLuhan