Spelling

I consume a lot of media. Podcasts, lectures, interviews, essays. Most of it is just entertainment, but some of it stays. I’ve been collecting the clips and quotes that changed how I think. These cross my mind the most often.

Alan Moore, the man who wrote Watchmen, calls himself a wizard. Not metaphorically. The word “spell” means both to arrange letters and to cast magic.

Dan Gelbart built a machine shop in his basement and recorded hours of lectures for anyone who wanted to learn. His advice: if you keep thinking about something in the shower, build it.

David Choe painted a mural in Facebook’s first office and took stock instead of cash. Degenerate gambler, hitchhiker, street artist. There is no limit to your imagination.

Paul Graham: a good writer doesn’t just think, and then write down what he thought. The embedding auction model became clear to me only after I tried to explain it.

George Hotz: anyone who believes in intellectual property is a clown. Every post in this series is public. If someone builds it before I do, the spell worked.

Jordan Peterson convicted me to tell the truth even in adversity. “There is no more effective way of operating in the world than to conceptualize the highest good that you can and then strive to attain it.”

Will Prowse told me to spend more time and attention making, not saving money. Saving it is limited. Making it is unlimited.

I think about advertising infrastructure in the shower. I think if I spell it out well enough, someone will build it.

To cast a spell is simply to spell.