![[Dialectic-25.png]]

**In honor of 25 episodes of [[Dialectic]], I took some time to reflect.**

While some of this is specific to hosting a conversational interview podcast, I hope it is broadly helpful for anyone seeking to have deeper, richer conversations or creating new things.

1. **Plant the seed.** I've spent much of my life evaluating seeds in my hands without any of them making contact with soil. I considered variations of an interview show for a long time, but always had too many ideas for what shape was needed before I could start. With Dialectic, I finally relented (thanks to some strong encouragement from friends) and put a seed in soil. The sprout isn't exactly what I had in mind, and that's the best part.
2. **There's still room.** I remember watching YouTube vloggers in the summer of 2013 and thinking, "this would be cool to try, but I'm surely too late. YouTube is mature." Casey Neistat, David Dobrik, and Emma Chamberlain had not started creating videos. MrBeast probably had a few hundred viewers. I felt the same about interview podcasts. One listener said this about the show: *"Dialectic has reminded me that it’s still possible to build something strange & exciting in crowded places."*
3. **You know what you need to do.** Strangely, a few people told me variations of this over the course of an extended period of exploration. It was frustrating to hear but directionally true. Put another way: when you (1) have a running list of people you'd like to interview some day in your notes app for the better part of a decade, and (2) the most recurring pattern in your life is a compulsive desire to meet interesting people and ask them questions—well, perhaps you know what you need to do.
4. **It's about the guests.** No matter how much I might try to convince myself otherwise, Dialectic's success is because of the guests I choose to talk to. 75% of episode quality is the guest selection, at least. That means all my other effort is contributing to at most 25%!
5. **Follow the rabbit, socially.** Speaking of guests: many of them have come out of my research or conversations in prior episodes. Shockingly, authentic, inspiring, and original people tend to know and admire each other.
6. **The well is infinite.** Again--the world (and internet) is full of so many original people with all kinds of loose threads that can be pulled. [Matt Mullenweg](https://x.com/photomatt) once told me: Everyone's interesting. If you're bored, you're not asking the right questions."
7. **Illegibility can be a feature.** [Mackenzie](https://x.com/ciaomack) told me early on that there are benefits to illegibility, at least for a time. There will be a time to be legible, but in the formative period of a project, let things be illegible and focus on your own curiosity, energy, and exploration.
8. **Let the dots connect.** Despite Dialectic's illegibility and inconsistency of theme, patterns have emerged! As Steve Jobs used to say, the dots connect in reverse. It's been fun to realize various "tracks" of ideas (tools, agency, slop and intention, culture and taste, authenticity, etc) in hindsight.
9. **Lead with curiosity.** Some people have asked about my preparation process. For most guests, I just read and listen to as much of their content as I can and write down the quotes and ideas that stand out. I don't think about through lines or questions or themes. I just collect. Benjamin Labatut compares fiction writing to picking flowers up off the ground. After I've collected a bunch of scraps, I synthesize and plenty of patterns emerge. But it starts with the inputs.
10. [**"Plans are worthless, planning is priceless."**](https://x.com/visakanv/status/1439086259305992197?s=46) All great craft combines rigorous preparation and skill with a certain looseness, almost a playfulness. Masters (like the [Coen Brothers](https://x.com/visakanv/status/1439086259305992197)) seem completely at ease, but that is built on a foundation of having "done the work." I've found myself in a paradox, where the more preparation I do, the more tempted I am to cling to the plan. My best conversations are those when I let go a bit and trust myself to really be there. To listen.
11. **Am I really listening?** Speaking of listening, as I have spent most of my life continuing to more deeply learn, true listening is a sacred and remarkably difficult act. Most of my "listening" is in fact LARP, holding space for another until I can say the next thing or--more insidiously--waiting for the first interesting bit I can launch off of. [Kevin Kelly's rule of 3](https://www.instagram.com/p/DAWk8Dlu97K/) has it closer to right: asking "is there more?" two times shows how much more people have to say.
12. **Presence creates magic.** There are lots of great podcasts that happen over video call, but for me, it has to happen in a room with the person. Some of this is because of the length, and if I don't know someone well, meeting them where they are helps ease us in. But more than that, there's just too many invisible parts of connection that happen in the real world that you can't get when conversations are intermediated by bits.
13. **Physical spaces shape us.** On the note of presence: I've been fortunate to talk to many guests in their home or office. This creates an opportunity to meet them where they are and shine a light on their authenticity. I'm [hopeful to explore](https://x.com/jacksondahl/status/1948446261238972720) more of how space(s) can shape the show.
14. **Help people past their cache.** I'm [keen](https://x.com/jacksondahl/status/1593334038957158400) to [talk](https://x.com/jacksondahl/status/1615921583859826690) about pushing people past their "cache," or the default programming they've repeated. So many of our conversations are sharing pre-articulated talking points back and forth. The best conversations happen when both parties go somewhere new, together. I aim to prompt people on domains I know they've spent a lot of time pondering within, *and* get them to color a bit outside the lines.
15. **Jump into the deep end.** [Matt](https://x.com/ReustleMatt) observed that I, like [Patrick O'shaughnessy](https://x.com/patrick_oshag) (an inspiration), "jump in at 90mph…" which might catch some guests a little off guard, but leads more quickly to a richer discussion and sets the tone for the level of depth. I can't say I started doing this consciously, but in trying to avoid the traditional "what's your story?" opening question, I've landed here. It's also a good way to establish quick credibility.
16. **We all take time to settle in.** In contrast to the above—and I've yet to solve this—many of the episodes are at their best in the back half. This should be obvious: great conversations take a bit of time to find their rhythm. Perhaps this simply means longer raw conversations with more editing. We'll see.
17. **Niche at scale.** Despite the temptation for infinite reach, this is what the internet is really about. [Henrik calls a blog post a search query.](https://www.henrikkarlsson.xyz/p/search-query) for finding your people. Dialectic has blown me away in the ways it's found people that resonate with me and the people I talk to.
18. **[Let the world conspire to help you.](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/5647-and-when-you-want-something-all-the-universe-conspires-in)** From [world-class podcasters](https://x.com/jacksondahl/status/1934802560533066152) to unexpected internet friends and strangers, I've been blessed by the range of people who have reached out to help Dialectic in small and huge ways. People want to help you when you're doing your thing.
19. **There's nothing like writing.** (But please listen to my podcast). In seriousness, I love interviewing writers because of how great that medium is at compressing someone's ideas. I like [Alex Danco's framing](https://x.com/jacksondahl/status/1956372079193858437) of a collaboration between a writer and their readers, and how ideas are shared as output of that. When I talk to writers, I feel privileged to help them expand their ideas and articulate them for other audiences.
20. **Structure the right accountability for yourself.** [Ben Thompson talked](https://youtu.be/igh0JeaUHzo?si=lvTdpnES1kse6n38) about his daily writing model and how he might never write a book because he needs the atomic constraint to publish. Willpower can be overrated, and the right constraints underrated. I know that I will do the work to prepare for an interview because I care so deeply about honoring the other person's time and generosity to do it.
21. **Directing and editing is hard.** I now know why Sean Baker is a rare breed. I struggle to materially cut content from the raw conversations, with a few exceptions. It's definitely a muscle, but similarly, writing and editing require fundamentally different approaches. It's tempting to be precious when you (co-)created the thing. Perhaps separate roles is the ideal setup.
22. **Make the thing you want.** I realize this advice has probably been overblown, but for good reason. I make a 2+ hour interview podcast with fairly esoteric, nich-internet-famous guests, no consistent pattern of guest, no set category, with no video and overly-detailed show notes and links. Many of the decisions haven't been hard because it's what I'd like to listen to.
23. **Ideas *and* action.** I'll leave it to listeners to be the judge, but as much as I try to understand someone by way of their ideas, I also try to ground the conversations in the implications of those ideas. My favorite thinkers are those who have a tight feedback loop between thinking and doing.
24. **It's nice to try another mind on.** It's a lovely experience to funnel your attention through another person's thoughts for a little while. Biographies can do this, but even autobiographies give you the export of someone else's (even the subject's) synthesis of their thinking. I recommend deep-diving the available inputs and seeing what threads you find in the pools of a person's mind.
25. **Humanity shines.** This is my north star. How can I get people talking about the stuff that makes their eyes light up? In a world that increasingly wants to reduce all friction and automate everything--including ourselves--humanity blazes brightly.

Bonus:
26. **HAVE YOU CONSIDERED VIDEO?** If you start a podcast, people (and by that, I mean literally every single person you talk to) will suggest that you do video (and short form clips from it). More on that soon.

25 Lessons from 25 Episodes of Dialectic

[*Published October 9, 2024*](https://jdahl.substack.com/p/things-to-remember)

I wrote this list of values, beliefs, and reminders to myself. Maybe you will find it helpful too:

1. Inertia is the strongest force in the universe. Actively seek renewal or succumb to it. Keep learning, keep expanding, keep playing the infinite game. You have more to give than you can possibly imagine[^1].
2. Identity is plastic. Shape it with action, even when you don't believe yourself yet[^2].
3. Be forgiving of your past self and generous to your future self. You're on the same team.
4. Follow the romantic scent ([[Steve Jobs]]). You've got to trust yourself on what that means. But don't lose your sense of smell.
5. Don't be the best. Be the only ([[Kevin Kelly]]); The race is long and in the end, it’s only with yourself. (Mary Schmich)
6. Inspiration is on the other side of that door: beginning.
7. [[Do One Thing at a Time]]. Attention is the only thing we have.
8. Take a walk (evergreen—especially at golden hour).
9. Slow down around green things. They have much to say[^3].
10. Proximity rules in relationships. Almost all relationships require proximity *and* intention to keep growing. There are exceptions, but they are much rarer than you think.
11. You are who you spend time with. This is even more true than you believe it is.
12. Long-term friends multiply life's riches.
13. There is no one so charming as a curious old person.
14. Charisma is much less about you than how you make others feel about themselves.
15. Everyone has something to offer[^4]. Search for the thing that makes their eyes light up. If you're bored with someone, it's because you haven't asked the right question ([[Matt Mullenweg]]). 
16. When you have bad news, call. Better yet, tell them in person.
17. Find friends who can tell you the thing you don't want to hear—especially when it's explicitly against their interest. That is true friendly love, and they're the only ones in the world who can do it.
18. With others: there is a time for fixing. But first, they just need you to be there.
19. There is no gift like agency. Make people feel like things are possible. Pull creative people forward.
20. The true friend of time is integrity. Among all things that compound, integrity is the most underrated and perhaps the most scarce.
21. Logic doesn't scale, but stories do.
22. Most great things involve paradox. Hold both sides at once. Sit with them. Enjoy the mess. This is life.
23. Courtesy and kindness cost nothing, except for the time it takes to shift your attention away from yourself.
24. When you worship yourself the world fades out. Don't succumb to the void—get out from under yourself. How? Simply bear witness to another: try to see them a bit more clearly. Better yet: ask how you might serve them. The cage of the mind is broken by acts of service [^5].
25. You know less than you think you do. Blindspots abound. This is water.
26. Focus on the fundamentals. Not easy, but simple. 
27. Meaning is made. The ingredients are all around you, but they're just that—so stop waiting and *choose* meaning [^6].
28. It all comes down to love and gratitude. Happiness is love, full stop ([Harvard Grant Study](https://bookshop.org/p/books/triumphs-of-experience-the-men-of-the-harvard-grant-study-george-e-vaillant/6702279)).
29. Tomorrow isn't real. Life is just a bunch of todays (Janis Joplin).
30. This is the good part. It's all the good part [^7].

A single addendum on my [31st birthday](https://x.com/jacksondahl/status/1864380132208570529):

31. Time is not your adversary. You do not need more time: time needs more of you ([David Whyte](https://davidwhyte.substack.com/p/time)).

Thanks to [Andrew](https://x.com/ettinger) for inspiring me to write these down.

[^1]: *"Life is an endless unfolding, and if we wish it to be, an endless process of self-discovery, an endless and unpredictable dialogue between our own potentialities and the life situations in which we find ourselves. By potentialities I mean not just intellectual gifts but the full range of one's capacities for learning, sensing, wondering, understanding, loving and aspiring... There's something I know about you that you may or may not know about yourself. You have within you more resources of energy than have ever been tapped, more talent than has ever been exploited, more strength than has ever been tested, more to give than you have ever given."* - John W. Gardner, [Personal Renewal](https://www.pbs.org/johngardner/sections/writings_speech_1.html)

[^2]: *"For me a discursive view of the self means giving up the endeavor of finding oneself altogether. It’s the thought that we don’t need the self in order to pursue the things that matter to us, and that this pursuit is the best indicator of who we are."* - Nico Chilla, [On Rejecting Narrative Identity](https://www.are.na/editorial/on-rejecting-narrative-identity)

[^3]: *"If your mind were only a slightly greener thing, we’d drown you in meaning."* - [[Powers-The Overstory]]. [More on that wonderful novel here](https://jdahl.substack.com/i/143763472/the-overstory-by-richard-powers).

[^4]: *“Perhaps I’m not interesting, but I am the only thing I have to offer, and I want to offer something. And by offering myself in a true way I am doing a great service to the world, because it is rare and it will help.”* - [[Charlie Kaufman]]

[^5]: *"The freedom all to be lords of our tiny skull-sized kingdoms, alone at the centre of all creation. This kind of freedom has much to recommend it. But of course there are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talk about much in the great outside world of wanting and achieving…. The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day."* - David Foster Wallace, *[This is Water](https://fs.blog/david-foster-wallace-this-is-water/)*

[^6]: *"Meaning is not something you stumble across, like the answer to a riddle or the prize in a treasure hunt. Meaning is something you build into your life. You build it out of your own past, out of your affections and loyalties, out of the experience of humankind as it is passed on to you, out of your own talent and understanding, out of the things you believe in, out of the things and people you love, out of the values for which you are willing to sacrifice something. The ingredients are there. You are the only one who can put them together into that unique pattern that will be your life. Let it be a life that has dignity and meaning for you. If it does, then the particular balance of success or failure is of less account."* - John W. Gardner, [Personal Renewal](https://www.pbs.org/johngardner/sections/writings_speech_1.html)

[^7]: *“You should enjoy the little detours to the fullest. Because that's where you'll find the things more important than what you want.”* - Yoshihiro Togashi, *Hunter x Hunter*

30 Things to Remember

[Published August 14, 2024](https://jdahl.substack.com/p/do-one-thing-at-a-time).
![[orange timothy jones.jpg]]
The more present I am, the more fulfilled I tend to be. Happiness is easy, they say: *be here now.*

So why is it so hard to stay here?

As I groggily opened Twitter this morning, the beginning of a thread stared me in the face: "I'm addicted to focus," it began, above some diagram of a brain scan. I thankfully came to my senses and force-quit the app most responsible for my scattered mind. But that phrase lingered in my head this morning. It's pithy, but somehow probably right: if we are not addicted to focus then we must at least have an unsatiated desire for it.

Our language about presence--focus, flow states, embodiment, on and on--all seems to point to something radically simple: **doing one thing at a time**. 

Unfortunately, I spend much of my time actively trying to do multiple things at once, let alone intentionally settling into a single-minded focus. Our contexts, culture, and technology tend to encourage or demand a buzzing, high-variance approach to attention.[^2]

I listened to an [interview with Boyd Varty](https://youtu.be/YT43q-t0KN0?si=Lqp0xz-aUSqmHJT8) earlier this year. He is a lion tracker, business coach, healer, and writer, among other things. But I think he's best described as someone who helps people unfold into their environment--and by doing so--get closer to themselves. In the conversation, Boyd told his story of spending forty days in the wilderness in South Africa, alone in a tree (I'm paraphrasing: "all the mystics seemed to do something similar, so when Covid came along and gave me the chance I felt I had to see what it was all about").

One part of his story that often comes to mind is a recounting of the daily highlight of his early time in the bush. He brought along a week's worth of oranges, and each day he'd look forward to the treat. He recalled taking out the orange and beginning to gently peel it, bit by bit, with his knife. Then he would slowly savor the aroma of the rind[^1] before indulging in the first juicy bite of citrus. Those precious minutes of enjoying a fruit he and so many of us take for granted were as good as pure bliss.

Boyd reflected on how simple this was: the process of enjoying that orange made him realize how precious life's moments can be when we engage in them fully. As beings who try so hard to do anything and everything, often all at once, all the time, we can sleepwalk through the ordinary miracles all around us. But in doing just *one* thing, right now, here, we are forced to come all the way down into the pure essence of attention.[^3]

[^1]: If you've not smelled an orange or tangerine rind recently... pretty sensational. Just sit with it.
[^2]: Just to name a few examples: always multi-tasking, scrolling through 10 isolated pieces of content a minute, laptops in in-person meetings, better-have-my-airpods-in-while-doing-literally-anything, looking at a smaller screen when a bigger one gets boring, notifications vibrating while a friend confides in you... While discussing this with friends, I've observed that the single best way to increase my chances of doing one thing at a time would be to throw my phone as far away from me as possible--and preferably at a wall. The smartphone is dishonest: it *is* virtual reality--always making demands of us and offering an escape to somewhere else--despite claiming to be a tool that fits seamlessly into our daily, mobile life. Perhaps that is for another essay.
[^3]: “Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer. It presupposes faith and love. Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.” - Simone Weil

Do One Thing at a Time

[Published July 29, 2024](https://jdahl.substack.com/p/taste-time-and-attention-on-making).

*— On Making Contact with the World*

A new take on my Thoughts + Things format for you. Rather than breaking out little blurbs for each recommendation, I thought it would be fun to write a short essay and list a handful of recommendations that inspired it. I hope you enjoy it and can find time to read the list of inspirations in full—they are great.

- [Notes on “Taste”](https://www.are.na/editorial/notes-on-taste) - Brie Wolfson
- [Taste is a guide for what is worthwhile](https://jzhao.xyz/posts/aesthetics-and-taste) - Jacky Zhao
- [Ira Glass on Skill and Taste](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/309485-nobody-tells-this-to-people-who-are-beginners-i-wish)
- ["Work with Material" Black Mountain College Bulletin 5](https://collection.ashevilleart.org/objects-1/info?query=Artist_Maker%20%3D%20%2215%22&sort=0&page=6) - Anni Albers
- [How to Discover Your Own Taste](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/09/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-kyle-chayka.html) - Ezra Klein and Kyle Chayka
- [Reality has a surprising amount of detail](http://johnsalvatier.org/blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-amount-of-detail) - John Salvatier

%%
- [[Notes on “Taste” - Are.na Editorial]]
- [[Taste is a guide for what is worthwhile]]
- [Quote by Ira Glass: “Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, ...”](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/309485-nobody-tells-this-to-people-who-are-beginners-i-wish)
- [[Work with Material- Black Mountain College Bulletin 5]]
- [How to Discover Your Own Taste - Ezra Klein and Kyle Chayka](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/09/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-kyle-chayka.html)
- [Reality has a surprising amount of detail](http://johnsalvatier.org/blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-amount-of-detail)
- %%
---
It's never been easier to consume anything and everything. Infinite supply of everything the world has to offer—and soon, anything we can imagine—available instantly. The same goes for creating: anything has never been more possible. So: where to spend our time? 

There's been much discussion lately about taste. Taste is at its simplest, *choosing*. It's scarcity amidst an abundance of choice. It's judgment that is socially valuable and also personal. When we share it, taste can be a compass that points in the direction of our gaze. But what are these choices made of and how do we begin to choose?

I like the idea that taste is mostly a product of appetite. Most often, [people with great taste in a certain field](https://x.com/jacksondahl/status/1662244621722738690) are those who [have spent the most time there](https://x.com/jacksondahl/status/1669777621075337217). Put another way, those with great taste usually get disproportionate energy from curiosity toward a domain. That appetite is the beginning of a journey of prolonged attention down an infinite rabbit hole. The breadth of the world folds in on itself in favor of discovering a universe of detail. Perhaps the complexity that another finds tiresome or boring may be a treasure trove for you.

I think this can be an antidote to the temptation to skim off the top of the world's offerings, searching for only the "best" of any domain. To be sure, we have more tools to find good stuff than ever before (even if "best" can be defined by algorithmic incentive systems that miss plenty of nuance, to say the least). But this keeps us at the surface and surely restricts us from enjoying the richness of what we consume—even if it happens to show up on our for-you feeds. Everything—especially creativity—exists in context, of course (something about a coconut tree). 

The importance of time and attention extends to creating things: sometimes our taste and our skill may not line up. And the only path forward is to [keep creating anyway](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/309485-nobody-tells-this-to-people-who-are-beginners-i-wish). The [story of the ceramics teacher and the students who make 30 pots](https://austinkleon.com/2020/12/10/quantity-leads-to-quality-the-origin-of-a-parable/) usually holds true. Anyone who has ever tried to create anything knows [that it can be a slog](https://x.com/jacksondahl/status/1783155212061983005). Creativity can be an education in just how much more detail you ever thought there could be in a medium. The pursuit of creative taste is a yearning toward what we believe might lay further down the road. The invisible attraction between something deep inside us and the mystery of the world, pulling us forward.

It can be tempting to view (great) taste as objective. But that omits the fact that taste demands a personal connection. It's a kind of intimacy with detail. It requires deep familiarity and skillful consideration or creation of quality. But there's something else, too, something closer to self-expression. [Brie Wolfson](https://www.are.na/editorial/notes-on-taste):
>*"Taste honors someone’s standards of quality, but also the **distinctive way the world bounces off a person**. It reflects what they know about how the world works, and also what they’re working with in their inner worlds. When we recognize true taste, we are recognizing that alchemic combination of **skill and soul**."*

It seems that despite the pure quantity (of consumption or creation) needed for taste to form, it is also a product of constraint. It is the synthesis of many inputs into something opinionated. It can't exist without us being forced to choose: yes to this, no to that. And this process, like discovery and depth in a domain, is a product of time. Steve Jobs (via *[Make Something Wonderful](https://stevejobsarchive.com/book))*:
>*"I don’t think my taste in aesthetics is that much different than a lot of other people’s. The difference is that I just get to be really stubborn about making things as good as we all know they can be. That’s the only difference.*
>
>*…your [taste] gets more refined as you make mistakes. I’ve had a chance to make a lot of mistakes…But the real big thing is: if you’re going to make something, it doesn’t take any more energy—and rarely does it take more money—to make it really great. All it takes is a little more time. Not that much more. And a willingness to do so, a willingness to persevere until it’s really great."*

This premise is warped by our digitally-dominated reality today. It can be easy for consumption and creation to be abstracted. In some ways, this is helpful for developing taste and skill. It leads to faster feedback loops, less friction, and more accessibility. But in other ways, abstraction takes us farther from the source. It tempts us to speed-run the development of taste and the process of creation. 

Instead, we operate in the hyper-real: algorithms, replications, remixes, imitations, bits, pixels, concepts, interpretations, translations... all on a faster and faster cycle. When operating in digital contexts, we may benefit from self-imposed constraint, from slowing down. This isn't to say that an internet-accelerated collage of inputs can't be a superpower for us; [technological accessibility](https://x.com/scottbelsky/status/1747664454530265556) may in fact [drive more emphasis from skill to taste](https://x.com/eshear/status/1733907285754216881). But if we only operate at that pace, I fear we may not make time to see what it is we've filled our cups with, let alone let the contents dissolve.

Even if taste can approach something more than the purely subjective—and I believe developed taste can make it possible to point to a kind of universal beauty—it has an ineffable quality. This is realized not by over-consideration and thoughtfulness but by experience. [Montesquieu](https://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/did2222.0000.168/--taste?rgn=main;view=fulltext;q1=Fran%C3%A7ois-Marie+Arouet+de+Voltaire#:~:text=But%20natural%20taste%20is%20not,which%20we%20do%20not%20know.):
>*"natural taste is not the same as theoretical knowledge. It consists in the rapid and subtle application of the very rules which we do not know."*

[Up-close attention, even contact](https://x.com/jacksondahl/status/1794819314261827971), with the parts of the world that draw us in has never been more important. As our attention spans become increasingly programmed by short-term, shallow incentives, taste is a way to swim upstream with deliberation and depth. Through immersion—by way of [prayerful attention](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/821281-attention-taken-to-its-highest-degree-is-the-same-thing#:~:text=Attention%2C%20taken%20to%20its%20highest%20degree%2C%20is%20the%20same%20thing,Absolutely%20unmixed%20attention%20is%20prayer.)—we participate in reality as it is, and if we are lucky, *change* it—by creating. Taste may simply be a symptom of that process.

I'll leave you with [this scene in an otherwise odd, intense movie called *Pig* (2021)](https://youtu.be/MDPeLlMR2D4?si=LyHxRQRO4U8WTMNz). Nic Cage's character rebukes a former apprentice for losing touch with what he is truly drawn to.
> *"We don't get a lot of things to really care about."*

Taste, Time, and Attention

[Published June 17, 2024](https://jdahl.substack.com/p/grateful).
### The world
For deep breaths. Twilight's soft light. Mountain air. Warm coffee. Grass on bare feet. Breeze. Sunsets over the Pacific. A glass of water in the morning. The smell of wet dirt. The sound of soft rain. The movement on a certain watch. Orchids. Timeless design. Simple, delicious food. Deep, starry skies that don't seem possible. Running a hand on wood grain. Trees. Fabrics. The smell of green tea. Ceramics. Prosciutto. Olive oil. Spaces designed with care and acknowledgment. Nostalgia. 
### The art
For writing that has a style and voice so strong I can hear it. Writing with rhythm. Storytelling that suspends time. Stories that expand the mind. Film that captures ephemeral light. Paintings that make me stop looking and start seeing. Music that transforms the place. Music that transforms the person. Speakers that fill the room on weekend mornings. Poetry that says nothing one day and everything the next. Technology that pulls people's creativity forward. How art can bring us together. How it can help us understand each other. How it can help us imagine what could be.
### The others
For being held up when my own strength falters. Strangers' kindness, and their smiles. Infectious laughter. Honest listeners. Friends who know what I need to hear. Friends who know what I don't want to hear, and say it anyway. Mom's love. Dad's belief. Parents' sacrifice. A friend who can sit in silence. Recommendations that make me feel seen. Being seen. Patience. Trust. Proactivity. Curiosity. Charisma. Conviction. People who offer energy freely, abundantly. Conversation that builds, lifts, soars. People who believe in me.
### The self
For an active mind. Strengthening muscles. An appetite for richness. Excitablity. Charisma, sometimes. How I value friendship. How I value ideas. Running. Writing. Reaching deep. My affinity for a romantic scent. Optimism. My desire to adapt. My desire to share what I'm excited about. My love for connecting people. My willingness to hold out, on my own behalf, to demand more of myself and more of the world. My ability to make peace with myself and with the world. My desire to be better, to make life less about me and more about others.

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For the fact that this list can't even possibly scratch the surface in any of these categories and in countless others. For the fact that gratitude is a bottomless well that stands to give until the end of my days and yours.

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