3–2–1 Design · Issue 89
On the Kindness That Costs Something
Some weeks you can feel your mind pulling in six directions at once.
Work asks for one kind of self. Home asks for another. And somewhere in the middle, you are still trying to hear your own voice.
Work asks for one kind of self. Home asks for another. And somewhere in the middle, you are still trying to hear your own voice.
3 Thoughts From Me
I.
A lot of creative work is really about choosing which game you are in.
Some games make you sharper.
Some just make you tense.
You can spend months trying to win something that does not suit your nature.
And even if you do win it, it can leave you oddly untouched.
There is a private sort of grief in realising you were tired from chasing the wrong thing.
II.
Making something good often involves making far more than anyone will ever see.
There is usually a pile of false starts beside anything that feels clean and settled.
That can feel wasteful when you are in it.
It can feel embarrassing too.
But a large part of the work is not brilliance.
It is being willing to make enough that the better thing has a chance to appear.
And then being quiet enough to recognise it.
III.
I keep noticing that kindness has more than one shape.
There is the soft kind.
The kind that sits with someone and does not rush them.
And there is the firmer kind.
The kind that does not join in with what is unkind, even when it would make things easier.
Both ask something of you.
Both can leave you tired in ways other people do not always see.
2 Quotes From Others
I.
On attention
“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”
(book, 1989)
You can feel a bit more honest with yourself when a sentence says something you already knew in your bones.
II.
On kindness
“Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness.”
(letter, c. 65 CE)
You do not need to become grander to matter to other people.
1 Question For You
What have you been trying to win lately that no longer feels worth the cost?
With thanks,
David
David
P.S. Not everything you let go of is a failure. Some things are only a poor fit.
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Thank you for reading.
— Dm
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