Interesting we get so many likes here, as I can’t stand this style. It’s the same annoying pretentiousness Paul Graham’s peddles. Karlsson even calls his blog posts essays just like PG!

These authors have this habit of reflecting on their live experiences and trying to make some sense out of them (a time honed and worthy pursuit!), but then moving into thought leader / self help / linkedin territory by making every other sentence an imperative in second person person singular.

A sentence like —

The context is smarter than you. It holds more nuance and information than you can fit in your head. Collaborate with it.

Could be

The context is smarter than me. It holds more nuance and information than I can fit in my head. I keep telling myself to collaborate with it.

And it wouldn’t annoy me half as much. It would feel as if a peer wants to share experiences with me, whereas now I feel like I’m being shouted at by a middle manager.

An alternative, more nuanced, realistic version of "follow your passion" ? Follow your passion might have ended up in "follow your vision", "vision" used here as the article defines it. The article makes a case for "follow your context", a more workable version of the popular adage. Thought provoking !

He’s a struggling writer who moved to a barren island where homeschooling his kid isn’t illegal like it is in mainland Sweden. He did this so he and his family could pursue a more meaningful life and he could make a go of it as a writer.

If you love his content please consider chipping in to his substack to help keep these great pieces coming out instead of linking the archive. It’s why he was working at the gallery in the first place instead of writing full time.

Wow, that was a great essay. It describes the process I've been using for the past 10 years to design a happy life. I had no words to describe it in a good way, but now I have.

Great essay, just read it