Maximize your sound … and everything else.
I first became familiar with the term maximizer from Penelope Trunk’s blog. According to Trunk, a maximizer always wants the best, and spends a great deal of time and energy trying to make the best decisions, acquire the best things, and have the best life. Maximizers are competitive, ambitious, and according to Trunk, have more interesting lives.
Rescue: specific, well-defined, limited help
Yesterday I received an angry email from a reader that gave me pause for thought. The reader asked me to do something I wasn’t comfortable doing and I declined. The reader became frustrated and let me know in no uncertain terms. Their argument went something like this: Why was I presenting myself as someone helpful if I wasn’t willing to help them?
It wasn’t a terrible interaction — just a frustrated person venting — but it did get me thinking about what I’m trying to do here. This blog is subtitled “Systems for Living Well” and that’s mostly what it’s about. I share my own experiences, insights, and knowledge, and hope this blog benefits others. In the past I’ve framed that as “helping people.”
But I’m wondering if “helping” people often leads to dysfunction and codependence. How much responsibility should the “helper” take for the circumstances of the “helped”? Is there a danger of the person being helped surrendering their own power and agency to the helper?
“Helping people” has been a core value of mine since grade school. To reevaluate and possibly jettison this guiding principle is a big deal for me. It’s not that I want to become less altruistic or less giving (especially in relation to friends and family), but I think the old language doesn’t work anymore. I need to replace “helping” with more specific verbs, in both my thinking process and in terms of real life actions.
Some thoughts re: the future direction of this blog:
What I Want to Retain or Move Towards
What I Want to Move Away From
I’m thinking out loud here. I don’t want to be less generous just because a few people feel overly entitled. I have no problem setting limits. Still, I may need to be clearer about what I’m offering, and where those limits are.
I hope you found this post educational, inspiring, or at least mildly entertaining!
Happy 4th of July! For you international readers, here’s a handy guide to the holiday and other Americanisms. I will be celebrating the holiday by participating in a secret tournament, the results of which I shall report upon later.
I have exactly ten minutes to write this post, so I’m going with bullet points:
Stay hydrated, unburnt, and very much alive this weekend, my friends and readers!
Momu’s Mayakoba mobile studio setup.
I recently had the opportunity to enjoy an all-expenses-paid resort trip to Playa del Carmen, Mexico with Mark Musselman (the other half of Momu). While I’d written plenty of music on the road with an ultra-minimal laptop + headphones setup, this was the first time attempting to travel with a “mini-studio” that would make collaborative beat-making easy and fun and not involve additional checked luggage. The vacation (or “creative sabbatical”) happened to coincide with the release of Momu’s new album The Mission (now available on Beatport, also presale until April 8 on iTunes and Amazon).
When planning our gear we knew we needed the following:
“Start of blue hour at the village” by Jeff S. PhotoArt
It was only a few months ago that this blog passed one million views, and now we’re quickly coming up on two million. I’m happy that so many people are finding value here! Thank you for stopping by — I realize your time is valuable and you don’t have time to read the entire internet everyday.
If you’re new to this blog and not sure if it’s for you, here are some topics I’ll be writing about in 2015:
That’s what’s in the pipeline!
Here’s a gift for you house music lovers. It will put you on the Loöq Records mailing list, which will expose you to even more fantastic, deep, house and ambient music (just so you know what you’re getting into).
One final thought … here are my wife Kia‘s old and new lists for how to experience the holidays. I think it’s a good rearrangement of priorities, don’t you?
OLD LIST
1. Getting it all done.
2. Surviving it.
3. Work.
4. Having a nice holiday.
NEW LIST
1. Have a nice time with my family.
2. Relaxing.
3. Experiencing holiday joy.
4. Enjoy yummy food & beverages.
Happy Christmakkah!
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