Such an excellent read! I am more curious to read about Bill Watterson.

Despite the futility of the whole episode, my fondest memories of college are times like these, where things were done out of some inexplicable inner imperative, rather than because the work was demanded.

It’s surprising how hard we’ll work when the work is done just for ourselves.

The conventional “utility” of a piece of work is independent of our ability to relish the effort. While we cannot always decide on the value for the world, we can choose what an experience meant to us personally.

We’re not really taught how to recreate constructively. We need to do more than find diversions; we need to restore and expand ourselves. Our idea of relaxing is all too often to plop down in front of the television set and let its pandering idiocy liquefy our brains. Shutting off the thought process is not rejuvenating; the mind is like a car battery-it recharges by running.

In the world of sports, we use the term “active recovery” for this. Active recovery involves low-effort activities to complement a workout. For example, walking and mobility (yoga, stretching) after running. Reading this passage, I sense the skill/art of “active recovery” is more broadly applicable.

Letting your mind play is the best way to solve problems. A playful mind is inquisitive, and learning is fun. If you indulge your natural curiosity and retain a sense of fun in new experience, I think you’ll find it functions as a sort of shock absorber for the bumpy road ahead.

“Be curious, not judgemental”. The endurance demanded for pursuing one’s genuine curiousity can be robust. Rest all will fall apart with time (or entropy).

It was a rude shock to see just how empty and robotic life can be when you don’t care about what you’re doing, and the only reason you’re there is to pay the bills.

You will do well to cultivate the resources in yourself that bring you happiness outside of success or failure.

I see some value in detaching my personal notion of “happiness” from the metric of “success” (atleast the society’s definition of “success”).

The truth is, most of us discover where we are headed when we arrive. At that time, we turn around and say, yes, this is obviously where I was going all along. It’s a good idea to try to enjoy the scenery on the detours, because you’ll probably take a few.

This reminds me a lot of Camino de Santiago trip with my friends. Yes, absolutely agree and try to lead my life this Way.

Drawing comic strips for five years without pay drove home the point that the fun of cartooning wasn’t in the money; it was in the work.

Very interesting!

We all have different desires and needs, but if we don’t discover what we want from ourselves and what we stand for, we will live passively and unfulfilled. Sooner or later, we are all asked to compromise ourselves and the things we care about. We define ourselves by our actions. With each decision, we tell ourselves and the world who we are. Think about what you want out of this life, and recognize that there are many kinds of success.

This hits home. I have had a strong belief in something similar. It’s good to read it written down in words.

Your preparation for the real world is not in the answers you’ve learned, but in the questions you’ve learned how to ask yourself.

Reminds me of one of Rilke’s famous passage:

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”