True heroism is minutes, hours, weeks, year upon year of the quiet, precise, judicious exercise of probity and care--with no one there to see or cheer.
-- David Foster Wallace

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #DavidFosterWallace #Heros

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Dinosaur #Tracks #Colorado

Deluded

The point here is that I think this is one part of what teaching me how to think is really supposed to mean. To be just a little less arrogant. To have just a little critical awareness about myself and my certainties. Because a huge percentage of the stuff that I tend to be automatically certain of is, it turns out, totally wrong and deluded.

slip:4a804.

As usual, therein lies a collection of thoughts nicely arranged into a constellation. I sometimes repeat the phrase, “assume positive intent,” to myself and to others as a caution against defaulting without thinking. It seems a base part of our nature—although the ancient benefits seem obvious it’s still only anecdotal evidence—that I default to defense. “Dead last” seems aptly named from the historical perspective, and “first” feels like we’re missing a catchy adjective. (“first fatality” maybe?) What might be called “herd middle” simply feels like the right choice most often. But that’s still defensive; Don’t stand out means blend in means wait and see means be cautious means they’re out to get me.

Boundaries? Yes, please. Rights and safety? Yes, and yes. But if the vast majority of us are really just like me… how great would it be if we assumed positive intent? …or, well, maybe we could do that at least half the time?

ɕ

Finding meaning in the mundane

Everyone here has done this, of course. But it hasn’t yet been part of you graduates’ actual life routine, day after week after month after year.

But it will be. And many more dreary, annoying, seemingly meaningless routines besides. But that is not the point. The point is that petty, frustrating crap like this is exactly where the work of choosing is gonna come in.

slip:4a799.

It occurs to me that I’ve no idea who gave the commencement address at my graduation. After a bit of digging…

Robert W. Galvin, chairman of Motorola, delivered the main address yesterday to the 1,150 graduates at the 125th commencement of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa.

Mr. Galvin received an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree.

ɕ

The mundane

Everyone here has done this, of course. But it hasn’t yet been part of you graduates’ actual life routine, day after week after month after year.

But it will be. And many more dreary, annoying, seemingly meaningless routines besides. But that is not the point. The point is that petty, frustrating crap like this is exactly where the work of choosing is gonna come in.

slip:4a799.

𝑳𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒓𝒚 𝑵𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒔 - 𝑾𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑩𝒂𝒄𝒌: 𝑮𝒖𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒂 𝑻𝒆𝒙𝒕𝒔 & 𝑩𝑻𝑺

Is that blank page paralyzing your activism?

William James and David Foster Wallace interrogate the "sneer trap" of modern irony. And from Marvin Gaye’s protests to BTS’s solidarity, let's consider how "New Sincerity" and "Guerilla Texts" can unsettle the status quo and physically alter the world.

https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords_podcast/guerilla-texts-bts-gaye/

#podcast #books #bts #springday #marvingaye #davidfosterwallace #newsincerity

Consider The Sister

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://defector.com/consider-the-sister

Pages 10–12 of the Reader contain the text’s most frequently quoted and most disturbing passage: an attempt to describe, from the inside, what The Bad Thing (depression) is.
#literature #reading #books #davidfosterwallace

https://paulopinto.xyz/notes/2026/05/2026-05-15-the-david-foster-wallace-reader/

Pages 10–12 of the Reader contain the text’s most frequently quoted and most disturbing passage: an attempt to describe, from the inside, what The Bad Thing (depression) is.
#literature #reading #books #davidfosterwallace

https://paulopinto.xyz/notes/2026/05/2026-05-15-the-david-foster-wallace-reader/