Mosaic of thoughts

Cover photo
January 2, 2025

Listening

'The word 'listen' contains the same letters as the word 'silent'.' -Alfred Brendel (Pianist) When I was visiting home, I started talking to my mum about how her recent pupil's concert went—a usual topic at a guitar teacher's household. Yet one thing stuck in my mind. She said that what she found astonishing and worrying was the lack of appreciation for kids who played a solo. Referencing performances of adult students and me, she noted that even a few years ago, the most obvious reaction wou...

#philosophy#listening#music
Cover photo
December 17, 2024

Effortless

One thing that'll never cease to amaze me is listening to musicians play the most complicated phrases, donning a nonchalant face, seemingly effortlessly guiding us through the highest highs and lowest lows of a composer's imagination. Of course, as someone who grew up with guitar teacher parents, I'm well aware that this effortlessness is something that didn't come about naturally. It requires a high amount of discipline and countless hours spent practicing. "The greatest artist gives free re...

#effort#fulfillment#guitar
Cover photo
December 3, 2024

Sisyphean

Seemingly out of nowhere, the alarm tone pierces through the cocoon of the dream you were wrapped in. More instinctually than consciously, your hand finds the phone and slides to the right to turn it off. Your head still rested on the cool pillow. It's dark. Only on the wall opposite your bed a small stripe of light falls in from the street lamps outside. Still in that sweet state between awake and asleep, you try to hold on to the last fragments of the dream, but they escape you, seeping thr...

#modern#work
Cover photo
November 22, 2024

Unhooked

You're the creator, but I am your master Frankenstein's Monster, Marry Shelley I don't know when exactly it happened. There's no specific moment I can point to. One day, I just woke up and realized I had an unhealthy relationship with my phone. I often checked or found myself scrolling through feeds, jumping from one scattered thought to another. All while going about my usual life. My screen time was never on an extreme end (definitely below two digits), and yet I didn't feel like I was in c...

#technology#mindfulness
Cover photo
November 15, 2024

Why read old books?

Just another November evening. The wet cold outside invites staying indoors, fighting the melancholy induced by the grey days and sunsets at 4 pm with scented candles and tea. I'm sitting on the floor in my living room, writing on a notepad as I shift through the quotes and excerpts I accumulated over the past few days in my blue notebook. My eyes, relieved from the blue lights of the screen, now relaxed, chasing my fingers scribbling. The world online continues spinning out new things to rea...

#books
Cover photo
November 1, 2024

The Concept of Nouns

I'd always put off learning more about Nouns. I was vaguely aware that they were an NFT DAO, that Nouns NFTs were too expensive for me, and that they went through a fork over naming an endangered frog species - which at the time seemed a bit of a stupid reason for a divorce, but then... who ever talks about endangered frogs?! Th...

#nouns#nfts
Cover photo
October 22, 2024

Why don't you just read the AI summary?

Well, why don't you go drown yourself right now in the river? I wanted to respond. Instead, I said something along the lines of humans needing time to process ideas and that just seeing words on the screen does little to generate actual knowledge. Needless to say, I'm not seeing that person again. I'm just sooo over hearing this. More of the people telling me: oh you'll be replaced by an AI agent. Oh, you're a writer? Good luck hun. Everyone just uses genAI now. You're telling me to read a wh...

#books#ai#reading
Cover photo
October 11, 2024

Faust

Every day, we wake up knowing that the earth is round and that the moon impacts the ebbs and floods of our seas. We're pretty sure that humanity's footprint on Earth is contributing to a changing climate, and we feel assured in the comfort of knowing that whenever we have a question - we can just google the answer. We're inundated with information and data. All the knowledge we could possibly want is just a few clicks away. And yet, we're not happier for it. Maybe there's truth in ignorance i...

#faust#literature#philosophy
Cover photo
October 2, 2024

Postcards

Dear Reader, Can you recall the last time your inbox didn't just contain invoices and pamphlets but also, among the trash, some words from a friend imprinted on the back of a postcard?

#postcards
Cover photo
September 23, 2024

Taste can't be bought

Everyone is talking about taste and how having funky slides and pretty websites (taste) will eat Silicon Valley. But they forget a crucial thing about taste...

#taste#philosophy#tech
Previous
1234567
Next
RSS

© 2025 Mosaic of thoughts