He sat at the piano, propped up six pages of blank sheet music, closed the keyboard lid, and clicked a stopwatch.
1) The ancient Greek philosopher Epictetus said, “Be silent for the most part.”
What did he mean? Allow me to explain.
Thread. 👇
He sat at the piano, propped up six pages of blank sheet music, closed the keyboard lid, and clicked a stopwatch.
The audience, a broad cross-section of the city’s classical musical community, waited for something to happen.
He then stood up, bowed, and walked off stage. That was all.
Its purpose wasn’t about listening to nothing. It was about listening to everything.
“You could hear the wind stirring outside, raindrops pattering the roof, and people themselves made all kinds of interesting sounds as they talked or walked out.”
Even back then, sitting quietly for any length of time was not something people were accustomed to.
“It cannot be exploited for profit. It is unproductive. Therefore, it is regarded as useless.”
A Zen master, who when asked how to achieve enlightenment, gazed at the student with lips firmly sealed.
The more we know, the quieter we become, and the quieter we become, the more we hear.
Take a moment to think about the last time you could truly hear nothing.
“You must create your own,” he urges. “One only needs to subtract.”
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An antidote to the great angst of modern life is here at last.
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More from Life
1/ Some initial thoughts on personal moats:
Like company moats, your personal moat should be a competitive advantage that is not only durable—it should also compound over time.
Characteristics of a personal moat below:
2/ Like a company moat, you want to build career capital while you sleep.
As Andrew Chen noted:
3/ You don’t want to build a competitive advantage that is fleeting or that will get commoditized
Things that might get commoditized over time (some longer than
4/ Before the arrival of recorded music, what used to be scarce was the actual music itself — required an in-person artist.
After recorded music, the music itself became abundant and what became scarce was curation, distribution, and self space.
5/ Similarly, in careers, what used to be (more) scarce were things like ideas, money, and exclusive relationships.
In the internet economy, what has become scarce are things like specific knowledge, rare & valuable skills, and great reputations.
Like company moats, your personal moat should be a competitive advantage that is not only durable—it should also compound over time.
Characteristics of a personal moat below:
I'm increasingly interested in the idea of "personal moats" in the context of careers.
— Erik Torenberg (@eriktorenberg) November 22, 2018
Moats should be:
- Hard to learn and hard to do (but perhaps easier for you)
- Skills that are rare and valuable
- Legible
- Compounding over time
- Unique to your own talents & interests https://t.co/bB3k1YcH5b
2/ Like a company moat, you want to build career capital while you sleep.
As Andrew Chen noted:
People talk about \u201cpassive income\u201d a lot but not about \u201cpassive social capital\u201d or \u201cpassive networking\u201d or \u201cpassive knowledge gaining\u201d but that\u2019s what you can architect if you have a thing and it grows over time without intensive constant effort to sustain it
— Andrew Chen (@andrewchen) November 22, 2018
3/ You don’t want to build a competitive advantage that is fleeting or that will get commoditized
Things that might get commoditized over time (some longer than
Things that look like moats but likely aren\u2019t or may fade:
— Erik Torenberg (@eriktorenberg) November 22, 2018
- Proprietary networks
- Being something other than one of the best at any tournament style-game
- Many "awards"
- Twitter followers or general reach without "respect"
- Anything that depends on information asymmetry https://t.co/abjxesVIh9
4/ Before the arrival of recorded music, what used to be scarce was the actual music itself — required an in-person artist.
After recorded music, the music itself became abundant and what became scarce was curation, distribution, and self space.
5/ Similarly, in careers, what used to be (more) scarce were things like ideas, money, and exclusive relationships.
In the internet economy, what has become scarce are things like specific knowledge, rare & valuable skills, and great reputations.
