Arquivo de Notes | Page 305 of 334

Violate the Rules

I have just accompanied, enchanted, a policeman driving on the opposite way, without his seat belt, and parking on the sidewalk. He parked and seemed to observe a tree on the other side of the street. Incredible! Awesome! And I could not contain the desire to replicate the action myself. I want to drive the opposite way, climb on the sidewalk and observe a tree, like checking if it is okay. Does the cop pay fines? I do not want to respect the laws! Hahaha!… I want to park, in front of a sign, in a forbidden place. And ignore the parking meter! Inspiration, idol this cop… And with this feeling, I begin today in the work of Henry David Thoreau. Tell me, master, what did you learn catechizing animals in the forest? I do not like wild animals that much, but who knows?… I want to isolate myself, not pay taxes, break all the rules. Can you teach me?

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Spreadsheets, Spreadsheets…

It amazes me that the world has existed for so long without control spreadsheets. Sometimes I refuse to believe it, but backwards from the 1980s — at least — people lived without spreadsheets. My brain locks up: how? Impossible! And I convince myself that by deleting my spreadsheets, my home would immediately catch fire. There is no routine task that does not require a spreadsheet: from shopping at the supermarket to accompanying readings. Controlling the weight, the level of body fat is very important. The movies watched, the monthly cash flow, the portfolio of assets, the hours in language study, the special alcoholic beverages consumed over the years, the planning of daily physical exercises… all these are mandatory spreadsheets, essential to life. There are others, several others. And I am amazed at this: how to write a book without a spreadsheet? If I was to prepare a guide detailing the writing process, the first and obligatory step would be: create a companion spreadsheet, list the planning of the chapters, define their average length, and only then think about what to write. I would even say that, in many cases, the spreadsheet is previous to the idea or, still, the idea is only possible with the spreadsheet. Strange world…

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To Be Poor or to Be a Slave?

This is a perverse question that is mandatory for all those who, born in a modest cradle, find their interests inclined to something unpopular. I ask: is it possible for an intelligence to be interested in something popular? Perhaps, though unusual. For the question remains vibrant, imposing: to be poor or to be a slave? I can only interpret it as a confrontation between freedom and desire: to answer it is to decide between independence or submission. However, good news: opening the doors to poverty does not necessarily mean that it will stay.

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Desire: the Cancer of the Human Psyche

It is possible to find rational justifications for denying the solutions proposed by the Stoics, the Buddhists, Schopenhauer and many others. But there is a universal truth, present also in Christian philosophy, concerning desire: it is the plague, the cancer of the human psyche, the endless source of frustrations. And if, after careful psychological analysis, we decide to pluck it out at its root, plucking each of our hopes with a hoe, we get rid of an immense, malignant and harmful burden. The problem is that the human being lives on dreams, supports reality in the hope of a better future. To exterminate it, therefore, is to make life lose its brightness, is to give line to indifference, is to deny nature itself, is self-mutilation. Well, that seems to be the way to peace.

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