Smart Things I've Read Recently (Part 2)

I published a piece exactly like this around a year ago but a lot of time has passed since then and I’ve read many more books. So without further ado here are some of my favorite quotes from the past year:

“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter - tomorrow we will run faster, stretch our arms further… And one fine morning…” - F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

There shouldn’t be any debate that this is the great American novel. Gatsby’s incurable optimism about the future in spite of the fickle people who surround him seems very American to me. American progress and ingenuity was built on this spirit of hope and ambition in the face of repeated dejection and failure.

“But if Scorsese once thought that success would bring him happiness, he now thinks again. Since famous film directors are supposed to be able to have whatever they want, the fact that Scorsese is famous and yet still unhappy must seem to him a terrible irony.” - Roger Ebert, Scorsese by Ebert

I think there is something comforting in the fact that great fame and wealth don’t deliver enduring happiness because most people can’t and won’t achieve those things. The question then remains: what is the key to enduring happiness?

“Ancient civilizations have crumbled, dynasties have fallen, rivers and lakes and oceans have been poisoned, men in funny rubber suits have provided diversion by walking on the surface of the moon. Yet the music of Charley Patton, a functionally illiterate rounder who sang for common laborers in an isolated geographical pocket that most of the rest of America had forgotten or never knew existed, still informs, entertains, and moves listeners all over the world.” - Robert Palmer, Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi Delta

Blues music is the cornerstone of American popular music today whether you are aware of it or not. This quote puts into perspective how mind boggling it is, that the advent of technologies like the record and compact disc allowed music from the most remote corners of America to spread throughout the entire country and impart their influence. Patton, among other Delta blues musicians’, music are a key part of our musical heritage and still inspire many of our modern tunes today. Pretty amazing!

“It has been charged that we have become too prosperous and contented, that we have lost the iron drive of the pioneer, and lack of daring to bring this new vision to the world. And often, sitting in Washington, watching the paralysis of imagination and leadership which grips our administration, it has been hard not to listen to the doubters. But I do not believe them. I have crossed this great nation from end to end. And seen the people at work in farms, in factories, in offices and in homes. I have felt in these people the underlying strength of our land.” - Dick Goodwin, a speech written for John F. Kennedy included in the book An Unfinished Love Story by Doris Kearns Goodwin

The funny thing about this quote is that it was written in 1959. Yet you could change the date to today and it would sound just as appropriate.

“You get a lot of money now for teaching these master classes about acting on the internet. I never went near it, because I don’t know what I can say to any actor that would be of service - because like a lot of things in life, it’s so personal. If I had to, I would suggest you just do it over and over again till it gets inside you somehow.” - Al Pacino

I think this is true for a lot of art. People want a magic formula that allows them to become great in short order but the creative process is so mysterious and difficult to relay to other people. Sure you can share your routines and habits but it’s impossible to know how and why your mind creates the things it does whether that be music, literature, art, or performance. The only true thing I can observe about the act of creativity is that the more you practice, the better you become.

“I had learned already never to empty the well of my writing; but always to stop when there was still something there in the deep part of the well, let it refill at night from the springs that fed it.” - Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

This is just some writing advice from Hemingway that rings particularly true to me.

“Today, in first-world countries, apathy is the status quo. Food, water, shelter? These are the norm, not the exception. Given that our base necessities are covered, we should be able to discover, build, and engage in amazing things. But there's a trillion-dollar industry that feeds off of our collective dopamine addiction, meaning that we can maintain the highest standard of living in history while spending 6 hours a day glued to our phones. How wild is that?” - Jack Raines, 10 Ideas I’ve Been Thinking About

To me, this is the crux of modern living. We were evolutionarily built to hunt and compete for resources. It was the need to survive from which we drew our meaning. But now that all of our basic needs are taken care of, we don’t know what to do with ourselves in spite of the fact that we can quite literally do anything! So we waste our lives away getting little shots of dopamine from social media, games, and other trivial matters while undergoing a crisis of meaning.

“You can only be an optimist in the long-run if you’re pessimistic enough to survive the short-run.” - Morgan Housel, Same as Ever

Capitalism is brutal. But it is this constant clash, displacement, and struggle that births our greatest innovations, to the benefit of entire societies, which results in continuing human progress.

“For what matters in life is not whether we receive a round of applause; what matters is whether we have the courage to venture forth despite the uncertainty of acclaim.” - Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow

This quote reminds me so much of the writer, Robert Caro. I have so much admiration for Caro, who wrote The Power Broker, because it was a project he initially thought would take him 9 months which then expanded into 7 years. Over the course of these seven years he went broke, had to sell his house, and his wife had to go to extreme measures to support their family on his meager advance. On top of this, Caro’s first agent told him that no one would ever want to read a book about Robert Moses. So Caro had no light at the end of the tunnel other than finishing the herculean task itself. Luckily, Caro’s work has been recognized as the great work it is by the external world (it went on to be a Pulitzer prize winner and best seller) but Caro didn’t write for the external awards and accolades. He wrote because of an innate desire to tell a story he felt had never been told properly. This quote from the Count in A Gentleman in Moscow perfectly captures Caro’s spirit.

“I’ll tell you what is convenient. To sleep until noon and have someone bring you your breakfast on a tray. To cancel an appointment at the very last minute. To keep a carriage waiting at the door of one party, so that on a moments notice you can whisk away to another. To sidestep marriage in your youth and put off having children altogether. These are the greatest conveniences, Anushka - and at one time, I had them all. But in the end, it has been the inconveniences that have mattered to me the most.” - Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow

This advice from the Count seems particularly appropriate for my generation. Anything worth doing requires undertaking great responsibility. And while freedom and comforts are certainly nice, it is inconvenience that results in the greatest, lasting pleasures that life has to offer.

“Intense interest in any subject is indispensable if you’re really going to excel in it. I could force myself to be fairly good in a lot of things, but I couldn’t excel in anything in which I did not have an intense interest.” - Charlie Munger, Poor Charlie’s Almanack

I don’t think making your interest your career, especially to start, is necessarily good advice. But I do think that to become truly good at anything you need to have some interest in that field. And it is also true that the people who become the best at what they do often make the most money. So there is some correlation between following your interest and earning good money. But I think people like Amor Towles, who worked in the investment business for decades while chasing his writing dreams part time until the success of his first novel, are great examples of how to keep your passion alive on the side while keeping the lights on with your vocation.