Everything is long winded these days: books, recipes, podcasts, videos, blogs, etc. Even with tiktoks, they try to use the maximum amount of time for their content.
Season 2 is very important, especially the first half. I feel that one episode of season 2 is probably one of the best episode of the whole series. But yeah, trying to get through the second half is a chore though.
IMO, I consider meditation the most important. I spend the most amount of my waking time doing meditation. My self introspection is getting better since I'm understanding "myself" more as insight increases. My awareness of my anxieties is more apparent as I practice more. Of course, I do have blind spots, and I realize meditation is not the panacea. But I feel it's helped me the most in the last 5 years.
You can enjoy it without having to really focus on the details. Seasons 1-1.5 was good. The last half of season 2 is terrible. You can slog your way through it if you want to get all of the lore (and the movie Fire Walk With Me). Season 3 is my favorite, which takes place 25 years later and seems to have references to other Lynch's films.
I had conservative in-laws, who lived through the 80's unions, indoctrinate me into the anti-union view by portraying all unionized workers as lazy. They believed Unions are the sole reason why companies like Eastern Airlines dissolved. Perhaps unions did grow more corrupt in the past.
As I looked into it further, it was similar to the argument how conservatives don't support certain social services because it'll cause people to be lazy and underperform in society. There is probably some truth to that, and there's always going to be people taking advantage of the system.
I do agree with you that the balance has shifted too much on the anti-union side. I hope these new unionizing efforts help shift the balance back to the middle.
There are exceptions like your examples. There are probably others who do have strong passions where they obsess over their art and still want to move to a place where other artist like themselves are.
That's probably why Paris was the place to be if you were an aspiring impressionist painter in the 19th century. Renoir, Monet, etc probably were passionate about their art. And being in close proximity probably helped each other in positive ways.
It depends on the person, their stage in life, and many other factors why people do what they do.
I went through something similar. I had to choose between chasing my passion or security. I chose security. Things get real when you get older, your body starts falling apart, you need to provide for family, etc.
Even if you choose to follow your passions, the lure of security will come. The author gives an example of writers needing to write pulp novels, courses, copywriting, or any other boring stuff.
And even if you do end up doing your passions and still live comfortably, is it really worth it? Would your passions become monotonous and cause you to seek other passions?
That's probably one part. But a young, hip, professional like this author (based on his writing, that's what he seems like) probably doesn't want to live in a suburb in Ohio, even though he could be much more comfortable there with his $2000 passive income, which could allow him to follow his dreams of writing.
There is a reason why artists go to places like NY or other HCOL places. There are other people like them. It's probably easier to find inspiration and meet peers at those places.
I’m a backend dev. To learn a new language, I’ll make some CRUD app with REST endpoints with some form of authentication.
I’ll pick the popular web framework, database library, json library, etc. and try to build it. I might even look at logging. This will help me expose all their popular libraries and features that’s relevant for my day job.
I also taught myself HTML around 95 or 96. I think I even used one of the books the OP mentioned and used Notepad to write my source.
I knew one dude who ran a local ISP and connected to it using a 14.4 baud modem (he might have ran the isp through his house). He also had a small web server where I can host my website.
I had all sorts of fancy stuff like marquees and blinking tags. I think I even used a table to lay out certain graphics and text. Those were good times.