From my diary:

Another day waking up later than I wanted to, and still having slept less than I needed. And being tired, with a fluctuous pain in the belly, I really want to just relax – perhaps in a hot bath, or even by going out for a walk. But I feel locked up in the trap of life, where there’s something big hanging over my heads, a task that I must do, and some problems I must work on solving.

While a moment of focus on some easier tasks, learning this or that, brings me a relief for a moment, it doesn’t fix any overall problems in the short term. But it does bring me a lot of value in the longer term. For instance, being able to speak French, and to tell people that I can, may gain me some extra points in different contexts, but mostly, it will simply help me feel that I am capable of moving forward into becoming someone better than I was before learning that.

Learning how to play the flute, or any other instrument, will make me confident and raise my social level, inherently, even if most of the people I know wouldn’t want to show any appreciation for the skill – but there are other people in the world, and some people will appreciate it. No matter the topic: knowing something well, or being good at something, will find its followers.

And I can write about it, perhaps make videos on YouTube where I play the flute and other instruments, and while this likely, as YouTube has developed, would bring me two likes and five followers, or something else small, it would give me a confidence boost bigger than most other things I could imagine. It would bring me several steps up a ladder of appreciation in the society, even if that’s only happening in my own head.

And that confidence is needed. The world thrives on it, and job application forms now even ask me to describe “fun facts” and “super powers” – so, I should better have something to tell when being asked such questions.

We have a society now where almost everybody is automatically ruled out in most situations. Public systems of any kind take a stance in not approving people for inclusion, and only if the arguments and evidence are strong enough, then people might be included in that schema, for now. Until they can be thrown out again. Businesses decide who they want as customers, and throw out those they don’t see fit. Social media sort people into an A-team and a B-team, and then all the “untouchables” who are allowed to watch, but who are not considered part of the game.

In such a society, it is important that I at least know by myself that I have some skills. Even if they are difficult to bring in play in social contexts. But for myself, it can help me feel that I am worth something. Not to speak about the actual joy it brings to learn new things, and to practice and become better. And, not the least, to actually exercise the new skill. I would really enjoy playing a piece on the flute, and to be able to apply dedication and passion to it, to make it a great performance, even if only I will hear it.

Now, is the meaning of life to always rush, always try to fulfill some artificial needs or wishes, often imposed by others?

Or is it to find a path that makes you thrive? Every day, if possible.

Stress and worries over problems that have been super-imposed on you will not make you happy, that’s for sure, but can you really allow yourself to spend time on things that are solely for your own sake, and not even leading to any immediate win, not to a new job or anything else that you could actually need right now?

To be quite frank, I find that society is off when it cannot see the immediate value of being content, resting in one-self, etc., by growing skills, knowledge, and all other kinds of understanding. Thinking about philosophy, imagining how the world might really function, and diving into those topics discovered along the way that seem interesting to learn more about – that should be appreciated by everybody.

But there is an overall puritan view on life as being something to dedicate to a purpose, no matter if you’ll have your soul with you in this.

Fact is, that if you are already happy for knowing and being able to do those things that fascinate you, you will be a much bigger asset for any company – also if none of that will be directly useful at work. Because it will make you feel good about yourself, and that is useful, in all contexts.

I also believe that learning things will lead to more respect for others who can do that. Playing that flute, for instance, isn’t as straight-forward as it might look to people who never tried. So, working on it, learning, practicing, and seeing for yourself how difficult this really is, may make you feel more humble and respectful toward those who can do it well.

Only when you have tried it yourself, you’ll be able to appreciate how much dedication, time, and enthusiasm it takes to become good. And even if you’ll possibly never become that good at playing the flute, it will develop you in other ways – your mentality, your social sense, and your respect for people in general.

To take it a bit further: learning and doing things that are not for business, not for bringing you an income, and perhaps not for displaying your skills to anyone else than yourself, will probably make you a better person altogether.

That really must be an element of that “meaning of life”.

And it’s easy to get there, if you just want to. A book about Esperanto, I have, claims that setting aside just 20-30 minutes a day, but every day, will bring you far, fast. That thought is not new, but it becomes more and more correct, the more you practice it. 30 minutes a day during a year will be almost 200 hours of studying, which is enough to bring you to a reasonable, or at least visible skill level with most things, and who says you should stop after one year? Several years of this, and you’ll master the topic.

But more important. Those 30 minutes will be your sacred time. That time where you grow.

And you can, of course, grow several times a day, doing different things. So, both the flute, French, and Esperanto can become part of your life, take part in making you a better person, and, in any case make you feel good about life during all of those half-hours, every single day for the rest of your long and now happy life.

As I have written elsewhere, I have been a bit around during the last few months, picking up several types of instruments.

Apart from being very interested in music and in both listening to and producing it, there could also be an element of continued search for the right instrument hidden somewhere in my behavior.

I mean, if you go all in for something one day, only to change direction the next day, isn’t that because you haven’t settled fully and for real for what you first decided upon?

Well, it isn’t that simple, to be honest.

My journey has mostly been about stringed instruments. I had already some experience from many years ago with playing the guitar, and it was haunting me at times that I didn’t do that anymore, even though I had liked it when doing it, feeling that it was a good occupation while doing it, and also a promising learning process that could lead to even more joy from playing music going forward, when I would get better.

My guitar journey at that time only stopped because I had some outer problems to deal with, making it difficult for me to pay for the training. But, logically speaking, I could have continued without a teacher, just on my own. I had two guitars, lots of spare strings, and all I needed was probably some kind of instructional material that could guide me through a process – or perhaps a band or another kind of relation to people with whom I could join forces so we could practice together.

But there is a tendency to feel the end of something being final and complete, if the house of cards you have built up around it falls apart. But the reality isn’t so, not always. There is often a possibility to continue, just in a different form, but you need to feel that there is still meaning in it, and that meaning may have been hung up on circumstances more than subject, which is a danger of engaging with a teacher, for instance.

So, my advice to myself and others: try to make sure that when you enter into such a journey, then have several strings of activity, both such that are connected to other people and such that you do yourself, some that cost money, others that don’t. And be clear about what you like and dislike about that journey. Maybe write a journal to describe your feelings and document your progress, so that you can always look back in time when things change and see if there is still something left to build upon, something to continue with. Something that isn’t necessarily affected by the change.

Playing a musical instrument contains a number of attractions:

1. The wish to make music

2. The wish to develop a skill, having this as a hobby or a career goal

3. The joy of using the craft of the instrument, whether you made it yourself or someone else made it

4. Sometimes some exterior attractions of being recognized for having a skill like that, or similar

It will help you develop patience, if you don’t already have that to a reasonable degree, but people who completely lack the patience to be able to concentrate for a few minutes on something new, to learn it, will probably find learning to play an instrument to be completely off for them.

You should try anyway, though, even if you belong to that category, but then you must also look at what prevents you from being patient. Maybe some unresolved problems that stress you? Or the lack of support from your surroundings, leading to disturbances or even negative comments and behavior from the people you could better need support from?

Whatever. In my opinion, nobody is unable to learn how to play. Everybody can do it, but we will all face different challenges when trying, and some of those could end the attempt – it happens to many hopeful people in this world.

But nothing is so bad that it isn’t good for something, as we say in Denmark :)

The loss of interest in an instrument is part of how the current music industry works, in the sense that it thrives from the situation that many more people than reasonable buy an instrument – many more than who actually use it. So, a lot of instruments are being put for sale second-hand, at reduced prices.

That’s your chance! If you have concerns about the cost of entering into this, you should know that there are many used instruments for sale, and a lot of those are actually hardly used at all. They can have been stored in a wrong way, though, so pay attention to the general condition of the instrument before buying it second-hand (it is a mystery to me how people can even think of putting a nice, wooden instrument in a moisturous basement or a garden shed that changes wildly in temperature, but people do that, and it can ruin the instrument).

Or you can buy a new instrument. Since the production of most of them moved to Asia in the 1970ies, and specifically to China, getting traction at around the year 2000, prices have dropped on beginners’ instruments. You can buy a guitar, for instance, at a lower price today than you needed to pay 30 years ago, and given the inflation during the time, it is actually very much cheaper now.

If you go for a locally produced instrument, it doesn’t need to be much more expensive, though, as it isn’t that expensive to make them, even in Europe or the USA, if done rationally and in a semi-industrial way. It is mostly a matter of “locally produced” often being made equal to “individual built instruments by an expert instrument maker” that causes people to believe that it must be a lot more expensive when made locally, but it doesn’t have to be so.

All depending on where in the world you live, of course, as everything around economy tends to vary quite a lot between countries.

In Europe, you’ll have companies such as Hora in Romania and APC in Portugal producing a large selection of musical instruments at reasonable prices, made locally, mostly with a high quality. They sell under other names too, as they allow distributors to put their own names on the instruments.

Some types of instruments have seen a decline, and especially the piano is now less common to have than it used to be. Pianos are now considered big, clumsy, expensive to keep in tune, etc., so they are often impossible to sell again even for a symbolic price – and a new one costs a lot, as it is connected with many hours of work and a lot of materials to produce one, plus the heavy costs for the transportation.

But there are electronic pianos to buy instead, so it isn’t a big problem for the one wanting to play the piano, it’s just slightly different.

A large group of instruments, mostly used for playing classical music in a symphony orchestra or the like, tend to be available in several quality levels, ranging from relatively inexpensive to extremely expensive. Unfortunately, there is a lot of snobbishness in that end of the musical world, so people will look at you with despise if you show up with an instrument that is less expensive than the one they have.

But if you simply want to play, and you can live with not being admired by others for your wealth and ability to buy an expensive instrument, you can get a violin or a viola for quite low prices, and these are fully playable. Your music teacher will say that they are not as good as “real instruments”, and you will never be accepted by an orchestra if you bring that instrument to the audition, but it can produce violin or viola sounds in the same way as with all other violins and violas.

The cheapest are mostly from China, but you don’t need to get much higher in price to get a useful instrument made by Hora, for instance.

Of course, some manufacturers will try to sell crap with the claim that it is a musical instrument, so not everything cheap is worth going for, but most of it actually works.

There is a lot of juvenile insecurity in the world of musical instruments. Very young people tend to be very focused on being accepted by others, so they buy a T-shirt with a “good” company logo printed on it, for instance, even if this is the same kind of T-shirt they could have had for less without that logo. It’s not rational, but people behave like that. It makes them feel part of the flock.

Same thing with musical instruments. If you are a classical guitar student, you’ll want an instrument of the same brand as most other classical guitar students, and preferably a model in the range that is a step or two higher than needed. For instance, Alhambra in Spain is a company producing student’s guitars (and professional guitars as well), and they have several series with several models in each. If you are studying the guitar at university level, you’ll “of course” need one of their guitars from that corresponding series, while a lower level study can allow you to get a less costly guitar from a lower ranking series. And you will of course want a better one than the “smallest” of each series, even though that means more money to spend.

Of course, this is crap. You can really use whatever you like, but people tend to bid in on this and buy a too expensive product in relation to what is needed. There are some practical differences, though: The beginner’s guitars from Alhambra have lower action (string height) and less tense strings, making these guitars easier to play for beginners. The higher series have more tense strings and may be more difficult to play well for a beginner.

Such differences between models are worth being aware of, but they should not prevent you from buying what you prefer rather than what your fellow students seem to expect from you. Unless, of course, there is a specific requirement from the school you are attending to use a particular model, which you must then consider (there are such requirements in may cases, for instance regarding how many strings your student’s harp must have to be accepted at an exam, but it is usually not about brand or price).

People also tend to believe that a “beginner’s guitar” (often defined as a cheap one) cannot be used for playing music. They believe that it is only useful for learning how to play, but “real musicians” must then buy something more expensive.

Again, crap! Music is made by the musician, the instrument is just a tool. A good musician can play on a rubber band or two spoons and still make it sound like interesting music, so you cannot just buy your way to become a “real musician”. It’s in your mind, not in your instrument.

Different instruments do sound differently, though, so if you are after a special sound from it, you may need to look for one that has been constructed in a way that can lead to that sound. And other characteristica are there as well, such as, as mentioned, the string height and other details that may matter for you.

A professional musician often sees a different need as well: that they must look good on stage. People who watch them play will look at their instrument as well and even discuss in fan forums what exact brand and model you are playing. That puts some pressure on you, if you are in this situation, to think further than just what you yourself want.

Most of us can play great music on a cheap guitar, and we can enjoy it. We shouldn’t feel ashamed for not having a bigger and better model, or one with a more fashionabel brand name. If we decide to buy a new instrument, it will often be because we are fascinated by it and the dream of what we can do better with it, such as play with a more distinct sound, a better projection, or at a more voluminous level. Most of such fascination and dreams are not rational, but we must feed the soul too, not just the factual checklists.

So, getting to the point of the article: What should yo go for, if you are interested in beginning to play a musical instrument?

The answer is simply that – it depends :)

But I’ll give you some more details, of course.

First of all, you may have a specific reason for wanting to play. Maybe you inherited an old piano and want to learn how to use it. Or your friends or relatives have a band and have invited you to take part in it – and they need a banjo player, so that’s the option for you. Or you simply see a course offered in playing the violin, and you’ve always liked that instrument, so you decide to jump in and get started.

Some people start playing with an ambition of taking it to a professional level, i.e., get a musical education and/or a job in that business. They may dream about being a guitar teacher, for instance, and want, therefore, to get to learn how to play the guitar, for a start.

You probably have a preference for one or more instruments, for reasons like the above mentioned, or for reasons you cannot explain.

Like I fell for the Portuguese guitar, mostly used in Portugal, and mostly for either being part of a Fado band or for playing and singing seranades. I am not in Portugal, have never met a Fado band, and I can’t really see myself standing in a the street in the night, under the window of the woman I adore, to sing her a love song with the Portuguese guitar fitting in for a total experience (or that is, the latter I actually could see for me, in my dreams). Nevertheless, I saw the instrument, heard it, and found that I wanted to learn how to play it.

I have read many similar stories by people who heard Flamenco and therefore wanted to play the Flamenco guitar, or those who were so fascinated by Paul McCartneys violin-shaped bass guitar that they also wanted to play such one.

We all have our reasons, but there are also many good or bad pieces of advice to get.

As a child, I learned how to play the tin whistle at school, which was a parents decision for the class, I believe, as they would otherwise need to pay for us to get a recorder (another kind of flute) and learn that one instead. So, money made the difference (even though both instruments are quite inexpensive).

On the internet, I’ve seen many suggestions to start your musical journey with a ukulele, because that’s an easy instrument to learn, and you can use what you’ve learned on that one to later move on to a guitar. Well, no doubt some people have felt that way, and if they had a ukulele at hand, it made sense. But for the one going out to buy an instrument, it may seem weird that the tiny ukulele can actually cost more than the bigger guitar. And if the guitar is the end goal, then why not start there?

If you are interested in the bass guitar, you’ll find advices everywhere to avoid the acoustic ones, as “everybody plays the electric bass guitar anyway”, and similar arguments. Also, the acoustic bass guitar doesn’t play very loud, so it won’t be hear in a rock band. But if you want to play bass in a Fado band, you are expected to bring an acoustic one (maybe with a microphone built-in), as they want to convey the feeling of old times’ music. Then the advice to go for a fully electric version isn’t very useful for you.

All in all, you really need to make up your own mind and go for the instrument you like and want to play, and which you can afford. All talk about what others find rational or has the most perspectives is mostly for themselves, not for you. You have your wishes and motivation - use them!

All instruments have their peculiarities, and there will be costs connected to owning and playing them. You most often need a bag for protecting and carrying the instrument, and each type then has additional needs: stringed instruments need new strings now and then, wind instruments often need cork greese and other consumables for staying fit, and drums may need new skin at times, plus drum sticks.

You’ll also need space for yourself and the instrument when practicing, and that part can be a tricky one. Family and neighbors are most often not very tolerant when you want to rehearse and they want quiet. So, the availability of a rehearsal place may dictate your choice.

It takes time to become good at anything, including playing an instrument. You’ll want to be somewhat good, as this is when it starts getting really fun to play, so you must expect to set aside some time regularly, preferably daily, to learn and practice. Maybe just 20 minutes, but more likely an hour or even more, if you are serious about it. Some instruments require less time, others more, but as most of the skills you need to develop are in your mind, you will have to spend the time needed to shape that one, and this can take the same time for a simple instrument as for a complicated one.

If you engage with a teacher or in a band or an orchestra, you’ll spend time on going there, maybe going to play concerts, etc., which can consume quite a lot of time. It is time well spent in many ways, but you need to have the time to spend it.

Because of all that, there isn’t a clear answer to where to start. But here are some thoughts for inspiration:

I personally find that a guitar is a great place to start, and it will be for many people, because it is easy to get, can be had at a low price, and it doesn’t cost a fortune to keep (new strings do not have to be expensive, and they do not need to be changed all the time, even though some guitarists claim so). Also, and very significant if you are on your own with this: there are very many books available to help you get started, and to help you move on from any level you are at. You are also likely to know people who play the guitar and who, perhaps, can play with you or assist you with different things, such as trying out a used one for sale, or change the strings. The guitar world is a comfortable one, offering a lot of support.

A ukulele can be had cheaply, but it is a bit like with a toy guitar for children, that if it wasn’t made with the purpose of making real music on it, it may not work well for that purpose. Nevertheless, if you like it and want to try it out, you really should do it! It is fun to learn, and the special sound of that instrument makes it interesting to use in many contexts, and even a bit less demanding – it is meant to sound a bit primitive, so you are not required to show up with amazing skills. If you can play a few chord to support the singing at a family event or similar, you’ll often be considered the hero that made it happen.

Tin whistles are great, but be aware that if you are going to play with others, you’ll probably need several, in different tunings, as they have a very limited tonal range and need to be correct for the music played. That said, they are (or can be) inexpensive and fun to play, and it doesn’t take long to get to a point where you can play something that sounds like a melody. And a first tin whistle, to start with, is probably one of the cheapest ways into playing music that you can find.

More interested in a clarinet? Go for it! You’ll find a lot of snobbery here, and every seasoned clarinetist will tell you, no matter which instrument you have, no matter how expensive it was, that you have a beginner’s instrument, and perhaps, if they are in a good mood that that, that “it is okay for the price”. But you can actually get a quite inexpensive one, made of plastic (and they all are, up to a quite high price level) and in China. Buy it from a real shop where the staff knows about such instruments, or ask a clarinet teacher for advice, because there is also crap on the market, which you would prefer to avoid buying. But be prepared for these experts to try convincing you that you need to spend many times the amount of what the cheapest option costs, which probably isn’t necessary. They will do so, because they have always done so, and their masters did that to them when they started – it’s difficult to break such an old pattern of behavior.

This all to inspire you to consider playing a musical instrument. It is a human activity, and as such, is subject to human behavior, both good and bad, but it has the potential to make you enjoy life in a new way – the way of creative people.

You have to keep the momentum going! If you skip one beat, you’ll kill the music!

Writers are often hooked up on an idea that they must keep writing. Like shoemakers must make shoes, and the captain must keep steering the ship. There is a pace to keep up with, a steady stream of needs to fulfill.

On social media, writers coach each other with some guidelines that most often start with consistency. Find a pace and stick to it.

If you have ever tried bicycling, you’ll know why consistency is needed. You can’t just stop stepping on the pedals, because then the bicycle will stop its move forward, and before long, it will fall over. End of the ride. Writing is supposed to work the same, so you must carefully provide an article each week, or each day, or whatever schedule you have started out with.

The construction of the bicycle is very simple, so it needs this kind of simple use. The bicycle needs it. Think about that for a moment. You need to keep up the pace, the momentum, the consistency, for the sake of a tool that was actually meant to help you. Now you have to help it instead.

Writing is an art, or maybe it’s a craft. But strictly speaking, under such big words lie the simple fact that it’s a tool. You can do something with writing, just like you can do something with a hammer or – a bicycle.

The tool is rarely the goal in itself. “I am a writer”, you might say, and therefore you write. You are a tool-user. A hammerer. A cyclist.

But you obviously started doing it for a purpose. What was that purpose again? You forgot? Now you just write? You just use the tool for no reason?

Tools can be fascinating. I have been studying kitchen knives and read posts and articles by people who are fascinated by them, and who can talk long and passionately about steel types and the shape and thickness of the blade, about handle materials and the beauty of a design. Of course, kitchen knives can cut food into smaller pieces, which should be their original purpose, but the fascination of their design, perhaps spiced up with storytelling such as "this type of knife is a traditional Japanese knife that only the most experienced chefs, the main chefs, in the finest kitchens are allowed to use, and now I have one too!" Sort of makes me the main chef in my kitchen, if I have that knife, doesn’t it?

There are knife collectors. They want all kinds of knives from all manufacturers. A knife can be looked at, hanging on a knife magnet on the kitchen wall, or perhaps carefully placed in a knife drawer, with slots cut out to allow for the knife to sit steadily without touching the other knives.

Fascinating!

I don’t know if anybody collects hammers, but it could easily be. And bicycles. And writings.

We can get so amazed by tools that we value and worship them for just being the tools, without any purpose. The knife collection is strictly speaking a bit silly, unless you run a knife museum that is meant to help people understand the historical development of knives and how they're made.

A library, the collection of writings, is similarly useful for a purpose. Libraries with printed books, nicely bound and arranged on shelves, alphabetically or after topic. Some people like to arrange them by size or by color.

But the tool, writing, was meant to be used with a purpose. Most often, that purpose would be something else than “consistency” or “momentum”. The purpose was to share information or provide a reading experience. To bring the joy of reading something practical or pleasant.

Writing is even more amazing than most tools, in that it is a tool used to create other tools. The written by itself becomes a tool for conveying information or beauty. The written is an expression, but pointless if not being read, thereby acting as the tool of passing on that information, that beauty.

A musician can play consistently by just making sounds with an instrument for five minutes every hour, which would probably get quite annoying after a while. We expect the musician to play something, not just sounds. A melody. Perhaps singing along. Something constructed, with a shape and a meaning.

A bicyclist is expected to use the bicycle to go somewhere. Or perhaps to exercise, so, just going in a circle. But a purpose there must be.

Writing without such a similar purpose, just for consistency and for keeping the momentum going, is like that pointless sounds by the musician every hour, or the bicyclist just riding without knowing why, without going anywhere or gaining anything. Continuing doing it will create an equivalent to the collection of kitchen knives, all amazing tools, but not needed.

Real writers are not consistent. They are purposeful.

You think that it is not for you? Because of what?

Ah, this is for girls, and you are not such one? Or this is for young people only, or for those with a certain education, or those who are stronger than you, or have some specific experience…?

There are so many reasons, we can think of, for not doing what we feel inspired to do.

Self-doubt seems to be the human species’ strongest skill, but it is such a skill that we can’t use for anything good. Except, of course, for making us wonder about why we have it. Not bad in itself!

Rationality steps in and we remember all such sayings as “everybody should stick to what they are good at”, basically meaning that nobody should be allowed to develop and become a new person. What a silly idea. Why shouldn’t we try new things and go in new directions every now and then?

Back in October 2022, the famous wrote an inspiring article on Medium, and when I read it almost a year later, I couldn’t resist running along with the thought. In a way, I was speaking exactly against what she said, but in another way, I was exactly following her thoughts:

Her thoughts were quite clever, and what she said was really that if you write, you are a writer. Don’t believe that you are just an eternal novice who isn’t allowed to use that title. You are a writer if you write. And fully qualified to call yourself that. I took it slightly to an edge, thought, seeing it as an opening for becoming everything, simply because you decide to.

My response:

That's the thing: I keep getting back to this prepper idea, want to make all kinds of things myself, but I don't know how to do it. Can you imagine, I did learn how to knit, back in school. But now I don't remember how. I just remember that I can do it. Which I can't, and that is confusing.

It would be a day! It would be THE day! The day of my life - when I could proudly show that self-knittet sweater to world, step up on the podium for my gold meddle and shout out "I AM A KNITTER!!!" . and the world would cheer and shout back: "You are the knitter - our hero super knitter!"

But now, all I have is the aspiration. And some knitting pins that I have inherited from my late mother. She was a knitter. A real one, who could knit anything. I have her pins - and these pins and my aspiration will one day get me there.

You made my day, Linda Caroll. Not the day of my life, but the day of today. You brought back my half forgotten aspiration of becoming a knitter. And a mechanics, too. Repairing vintage cars and motorcycles. I could do that! I have tools!

For now, I managed to aspire so much for becoming a writer that it brought me there - here - now.

What can you learn from that?

Well, first of all, something peculiar happened here: An article lived for a year before I read it, and now, more than a year later, I still reference it. Some writing has that kind of value. it has different reasons, but when you feel that writing anything on a social medium will be just for the now and quickly forgotten, you can think on this article by Linda Caroll and let it be a reminder for you that words are forever. They may be read long after you wrote them. They matter, and if you are the writer, it means that you matter.

Well, of course you matter. We all do. And what we do matters, simply because it spreads like rings ind the water across the world, leaving traces in the most unexpected places.

For that reason, you shouldn’t hold back due to an idea that nobody cares. As you may have noticed, I am not that optimistic regarding Substack Notes, but that’s a personal thing for me. Maybe my notes will eventually be read, some sunny day in a thousand years by some Internet archeologists trying to figure out who we were and why we did what we did.

But YOU shouldn’t hold back, and in particular not for my reasons, no matter the platform or the type of thing you consider doing. Because, and that’s the second learning from this: You are you!

The revolutionary thought in this is that just like Linda Caroll can say what she feels and get thousands of likes and comments, stretching over years, you can do that too. Because your feelings are special, your skills, aspirations, and ideas on what to do and how and when makes up a completely unique take on the world, which really shouldn’t be wasted.

I have knitting pins. I sometimes wear a sweater and some socks. Whenever I need new socks, why shouldn’t I try to make them myself? If that’s what I want to do. Of course, some other people know much better how to do that, and with enough experience, they can probably do it better and faster than I can. It may even turn out that I can’t; that it is too complicated for me. But I can try.

If I don’t try, and if I always hold back from the idea that everybody should do only what they are good at, then I’ll never find out if I indeed could learn how to knit my own socks.

If I do try, I will, at least, have a story to tell. Maybe also some socks to show :)

In any case, I will have the good feeling of having been true to my dream, having tried, and having allowed myself to do something that will live forever, if not as socks, then at least as rings in the universal waters, forever leaving some kind of impression on the future.

Do you have knitting pins?

Or do you have any other dreams or ideas you are holding back because they are not you?

My advice: do it! Be proud of it, call yourself what you are, and let the world know that this is now you, on top of everything else that is also you.

I never sent one, and now it has become history. So, here is a bit of nostalgia from me :)

I had only just started using Substack at the time, and yet, the numbers were somewhat astronomical. I wonder what they will be next year?

Highlights

☕ I read the most in the afternoon

💌 I subscribed to 137 new Substacks

📽️ I watched 4 minutes of video

❤️ I liked 40 posts

💬 I left 18 comments on posts

📜 I scrolled 158 meters in Notes

🕵️ I discovered 13 new posts via Notes

Top Substacks

Astral Codex Ten by Scott Alexander

P(A|B) = [P(A)*P(B|A)]/P(B), all the rest is commentary.

Top post this summer: Why Does Ozempic Cure All Diseases?

Third Time Right by

Self-publishing a children's book, and getting it right this time!

Top post this summer: My First Self-Pub Projects: What Went Wrong?

The Lemon Tree Mindset 🌳🍋 by

I help you build a profitable writing ecosystem to turn your passion into your lifestyle. Substack Bestseller | Penguin Author | International Keynote Speaker

Top post this summer: Substack: 10 Cool Ideas that Helped Me Get 100+ Paid Subscribers

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You can see your own summer recap in the Substack app. I’d love to see what you’ve been reading.

Get my Recap

I guess most of us like to believe that we can be spontaneously creative — that whatever we suddenly come up with appeared out of nowhere, or at least out of our minds; nowhere else.

Think about those witty or wise comments that you and others can add to a funny conversation with friends, especially when you have had a drink or two and are overall happy and in a social mood — you want to give something, and somehow your brain delivers it, non-stop.

But are you sure that you come up with everything yourself? I mean, in a conversation, you react on what the others say, and you have heard various things said during the day until then, and the days before — actually, all your life has been full of input that now makes it feel natural for you to “creatively” say what you say, seemingly out of the blue.

When the French impressionists took the painting world by storm in the 19th century, they didn’t just start doing it - didn’t just start painting in a new way out of the blue. There was a very specific reason for them to do it: the tube!

Before the paint tube was invented, it was a complicated business to be an oil painter: you’d have to mix the paint yourself, on the spot when and where needed. That could best be done in a studio, and it could take some time, so most paintings were still — not only because that is the nature of a painting, as compared to a movie, but also because everything in it had to be standing or sitting still for a lengthy period while you were mixing the paint and adding it to the canvas.

But the tube made it possible to bring everything with you anywhere. In the nature, for instance, panting a field or some playing children live. Not by your memory, as it had been customary, or through models standing still for days. These children didn’t need to stay in the same place for days, they could just play, and you would quickly sketch a painting that you could then continue improving a bit, even when the children had run away again.

The impressionists got the possibility to paint their immediate impressions because of a technological invention. Then again, the painting tube was invented as a result of a wish by painters — expressed or unknowingly, they wanted the act of painting to become easier.

Much later, about 10–20 years ago from now, I think, there was a worldwide wave of acrylic painting popping up – a trend, possibly made to happen by some technological creations, even though I wouldn’t know what that would be. Perhaps better and cheaper acrylic paint?

Whatever made it happen, inspired very many people to get into acrylic painting as a hobby. Before long, all supermarkets and other shops were selling a selection of cheap paint and canvases, along with brushes and other stuff needed.

It is obvious, that many people began painting because others were doing it. It was a trend, a fashion, and it got caught by influencers who were good at re-introducing the old idea of naïve art and claim that this was what unskilled amateur art painters were doing when smashing paint on a canvas.

Of course, many of these amateurs were indeed very good, while others really didn’t have a clue of what they were doing or why. They didn’t follow any teaching, didn’t study techniques, other than the “weekly painting” course on an online platform for only $50 a month.

I actually appreciate this trend, but a lot of what was happening here definitely wasn’t spontaneous creativity, it was wishful attempts to follow a dream of freedom of expression, of being someone else, and of changing an imprisoning technocratic mindset into a liberated artistic one.

Creative came out of this, mostly based on the availability of the needed tools and the inspiration from friends and influencers.

At around the same time, some online platforms for amateur music creators appeared. Suddenly, it was possible to share music that you had created, and get likes and comments — in some cases leading to fame.

This went along with software for the computer that could help compose and construct music, and even play it to a file; ready, recorded music that could be distributed immediately.

Mixing and sampling was part of this, and the synthesized music became rather popular among a group of young people who began seeing themselves as musicians.

Again, this all was inspired by the availability of the needed technology and the possibility to distribute the music.

Creativity had the usual reasons, also here.

Today, we have a fashion for writing. Platforms like Substack and medium has pushed on that trend, and social media have been a needed training platform for people to become used to communicating with the world.

When we write on any online platform, we walk in the footsteps of others who did so during the last several years. We hear from influencers how we can earn billions within weeks, if we just buy their courses, and in general, we get tons of inspiration to get us started.

Yes, I personally still want to believe that at least part of my creativity comes from an undefined “me”, somewhere inside my brain — or being part of a universal existence that is me, just acting through this earthly body, with fingers that allow me to express these creative thoughts.

Okay, perhaps not exactly that, but I want to believe that I am not just a mechanical copycat.

Whatever the value of creativity can be said to be, this is part of it — our personal growth and understanding that we are unique, even when much of our inspiration can be tracked to societal events, technological inventions, and all that we have heard but do not remember the source of.

In fact, all that mixed together society and sensory input from all of our lives — that is us. That is what we can express.

This music appeared in the “Roon Radio” — a concept I will get into in an article sooner or later, but basically, it is music picked by a program on my computer, called Roon.

Roon can play the music I have (ripped CDs), but when my playlist runs out, it offers to continue playing something similar. In this case, I had been listening to everything I had by Hauschka, a German composer with a hung for prepared pianos, and Roon came up with this music to follow up.

How creative of it!

It fits my liking, as it is new compositional music for piano, and it is in the line of Ravel and Debussy, which I like. An excellent pick, coming up while I was myself being creative, thinking about this article.

You are special. Unique. Nobody on Earth is quite like you.

Your mind is concentrated around handling what is you - what you consist of, physically and mentally, what you have in your surroundings, which friends you have and how they are, and what happens to you during the days - and did happen during your life. It shapes your mind, making you – you.

You are:

•  Your left-handedness - or right-handedness

•  Your bad knee - or excellent physical condition

•  Your introvertedness - or extravertedness

•  Your memory of the bird singing just before

•  Your beautiful smile

•  Your strange sense of humor

•  Your dark mind - or bright mind

•  Your thoughtfulness - or thoughtlessness

•  Your achievement of having run 100m faster than you thought you could

•  Your collection of milk cartons from all over the world

•  Your rare cactus that even flowered one year

•  Your ability to fix the broken antenna on your car

•  Your bookshelf with all the Tolkien books nicely lined up after size

•  Your flu, appearing at an odd time of the year

•  Your shoes with a hole in one, but you like them

•  Your entire life history

•  Your future

•  Your lacking knowledge of a million things

•  Your surprising knowledge of a million other things

•  Your mistakes

•  Your accidental moments of being right even though you didn’t know anything about the topic

•  Your soft kiss

•  Your intense eyes

•  Your deep love

•  Your just as deep sorrow

•  Your emotional stability - or instability

What did I forget? What else describes you?

You are yourself - the combination of so many details that nobody else can claim to be like you. And all of yourself contributes to your views of the world - how you see every little thing around you, or not. How you tend to think about the long lines, or not. 

Your creativity lives in you, as the one you are. You can tell something that is obvious and even boring to you, which will fascinate some others, because it is surprising to them.

In any thinkable situation, you will be able to see something that others cannot see. Say something that others would not have said. Write something that is contrary to everything others would have written.

This is uniquely you. This is what you can give to the world. When seeking a creative strain, this is what you should look for.

When scientists want to know something, they measure - send out a probe and get results back. You do the same when you want to know which good idea you may have or are about to get: Send out a probe. The probe is any sensory input - something you see, hear, smell, taste, or feel, or which appears out of your memories or other thoughts - it meets your mind, gets reflected, partly absorbed, partly altered, and it ends up as a result that shows the new you, consisting of the old you and the probe, combined. You become your measurement, you become a new one, all the time, for every input.

As an example, try describing what you see around you. Start in one side of your viewable world and work your way through everything you see.

I am looking out of the window just now, and I live high, so I see roofs of different buildings, trees in between, and a road here and there. To the left, a row of row houses, another one next to them. they are two floors high, yellow brick walls, brown brick roofs. Next is a church, some other building behind it, and in between the church and the other building is a tree almost hiding. 

Just the top of it is reaching up above the buildings. It must be in the shadow most of the day. How is life in and around such a tree? Maybe a bench under it, making it a nice place to sit in the shadow on a warm summer day. Birds may find more rest there, I bet that there are several birds’ nests in the tree, being protected from the strongest winds by the surrounding buildings. Are birds eating caterpillars mostly from nearby or from further away? If nearby, then this tree could be lucky to see fewer of these little creatures if there are several birds living in it. Cats probably like to stay around, as they are always interested in birds. Squirrels, perhaps, even though there is some distance to the next tree, because of the birds’ eggs, of course.

You get it? Trying to describe what you see almost inevitably leads to thinking about the seen and a wish to know more, hence, trying to describe both your questions to the world and the possible answers. 

Before you know of it, you are in a creative mood. And your specific creativity is different from everybody else’s, since you are unique, bringing in your experience and perspectives. Remember that your uniqueness is interesting for others. You do not need to look for a creative strain that is like that of someone else - you do not need to write like Hemingway or Dostojevskij. You just write like you, and you are home safe.

Nobody else in the world can do that exactly like you. You are the most creative, more than anyone else - the only one capable of doing that.

Remember, you are the best version of you, and you decide - you can do exactly what you want to!

Scene 1 — Writing

You are writing. You have had that idea for a while, and finally, you are there; you have started writing on it; now it will be!

The excitement makes you win terrain quite fast — the introduction and setting of the scene fly out of your fingers and into the keyboard and almost overwhelm the screen in front of you. Uh, is this a good feeling! And you somehow manage to phrase one catching paragraph after the other, following the idea but adding more and better stuff along the way.

The story is going to get that special touch, that atmosphere that makes it good. Great!

Scene 2 — Artistic Break

After the first few pages of amazing quality of writing that will blow your readers backward when they open your story, you need a break. There are still tons of ideas to throw in there, but it is important, you think, to step back — like a painter, looking from a distance, an artistic distance, at the half-ready painting — to better see the big picture (literally, you think, and laugh a bit by yourself).

Doing that makes you understand that even though you have not really been sitting there in front of your computer for long, it has been so intense that you could need a cup of coffee.

The café is just around the corner. You go there.

Scene 3 — After Coffee

That was good! You really needed this — the outburst of ideas and quality writing took its toll and drained you of all the energy you had, you can see that now. From that artistic distance.

The coffee brought back, not only your energy but also the stream of ideas to work with for the rest of the story. Only, now you are in doubt… there are several ways this story could proceed from here. And now, that you are on your way back home after this inspirational and energizing journey into the land of milk and coffee, you are actually sure about only one thing: that you must continue with this story. Somehow.

Maybe the artistic distance became a bit too far. Perhaps you could have made a cup yourself in your own kitchen. You start doubting. On the story, the ideas, the distance — everything.

Scene 4 — Feeling Lost

That computer had symbolically fallen asleep while you were away. While you were re-gaining your energy, for a short while, the computer was just resting. Typically! Or — you caught yourself in thinking silly thoughts — why was that typical? What should that mean? Better get focused on the task, the story, the ideas, the writing — that story, that amazing story!

You are almost crying. You feel lost. Have no idea how to proceed with this. There is the keyboard, and it is your keyboard that you have keyed on so many times. But now it looks at you like the ugly, scary, grinning face of an evil computer beast that decided to sleep while you were trying to get your energy back.

Suddenly you have been transposed to a different instrument in the symphony, or to a different orchestra, a different universe. You feel extremely lost. So lost.

You do not touch those keys. You are too sad. Cannot write like this — it would not become any good: nobody would read whatever sad words could come out of this depression.

You go to bed.

Scene 5 — Awakening

Wow! How did that happen?!

You don’t remember to have fallen asleep. It must have happened immediately when you threw yourself on the bed. But you do definitely remember that you woke up with an “Heureka!” on your lips. In fact, you may have shouted it out in the room — in your sleep — because a neighbor was now busy knocking on the wall.

Suddenly it appeared to you that you didn’t wash your clothes! You had planned to, and then came that idea of suddenly writing the story, and you forgot about the clothes. Also, the dishes, piled up from several days in the kitchen — no wonder why you decided to go to that stupid café: it wasn’t at all nice to be in your own kitchen. Certainly something that needs to be done something about! And your writing corner is also one big mess! How did it come that far?! How could you even do any writing there until now?

Well, no time to waste — get those clothes washed, do those dishes, make some order!

Scene 6 — Zen

That is great! How nice it was to make the apartment all clean and pleasant to be in. After clothes, dishes, writing corner — it was not a bad idea to clean the bathroom and vacuum the floor everywhere. Okay, that silly neighbor was beating the wall, and it is early in the morning, that’s true, but now you can look around and enjoy. And you do!

How calm and nice. No disturbing elements in that painting that you are now watching from exactly the right distance. You do see the big picture now. You are there — you found the path. To peace around and within. To zen.

You make yourself a nice cup of home-brewed coffee, sit down with your old friend, the computer. And you continue with the next amazing chapter of your story.

The Writer’s 365 Best Topics for this Year

Seeking motivation and something to write about? Here it is — right in front of your nose!

Pick a thread of the day, weave a fabric of it with your worries, dreams, confusion, doubt, hope, love, hate — and squeeze in all the trouble that you see lying around, all your half-done projects and unfinished songs.

Start the weave of your brain, sew a coat or a scarf or find whatever tools you prefer to knit some socks or fluff some stuffing.

Use all the gears in your head for putting everything inside and outside of you to work in your stories, your poems, and your empty spaces; between-the-lines — the important non-tellings that form the aura around your tellings.

Empty Days

Perfect days! If nothing happens, you can wonder why it doesn’t. You can wonder what could have happened, or what happened that made something else not happen. You can wonder. And wondering brings wonders.

Sad Days

Tears are really made by muses showering… beautiful muses, but clumsy, spraying fragments of their imaginary life all over, leaving nothing to your imagination — you just have to observe and make notes!

Happy Days

A laugh and a smile will stay for a while, guide your pen and your style, carve a sculpture of joy out of seemingly nothing, leaving the silhouette for the future as a memory of emotions, the rest as a whole to fall in at times while suddenly finding yourself intertwingled with the sculpture, the silhuet, and the memory. Put it into words for others to smile with you, to expand the memory, sculpture new shapes of multiple happy joys in pleased minds.

Rainy Days

Every drip is a poem, every splash a vision, every sound plays your strings for a writing mission. Zooming in close or observing from afar makes a different experience and will both bring the star to your mind and your eyes, and your brain — to hand out by your fingers to expose and sustain.

Days of Thunder

Ever wondered why you felt so small and fragile when the elements were roaring and booming and flashing? Good, keep that wondering in mind and write it down, mix it with all your half and full conclusions on all the puzzles life ever gave you, and you have a brain salad to serve for your audience.

Lazy Days

It is strange, isn’t it, that you have days full of energy and days without? Where did the energy go — traveling out of your body to discover until now unseen parts of the universe? Hiding in a corner of your brain, giggling a bit whenever you almost find it, playing hide and seek for the game of it but also to keep you alert? Expanding vastly across endless surfaces of time-space and hardly showing any curves but still being the same, good old energy waves of yours, just reshaped for your amusement?

Liquid Days

When you listen to that gorgeous music of Philip Glass and cannot think of anything else than hundreds of dimensions mixed and matched for your convenience; a small voice of your own would wants to bring a textual perspective to this, sneaking in yet another dimension as a compound inner space of yours, now covered with the liquid shadows of the tones and bringing lights and shadows to the surface in a pattern never seen or felt before.

Nights

If the year brings you 365 days, how many nights will you experience? If you are not wasting them by sleeping them away, that is! Nights of writing, nights of watching horror movies, nights of being together. Lonely nights, nights of drinking, partying, crying, worrying. Nights are a world of its own. Every night is a universe of its own. Every night is a story.

Dusks and Dawns

Right there, at the border — where light and shadow meet or separate, where a universe gets dissolved and another appears. Right there happens magic, trolls appear, fairies whisper, ghosts blow cold winds and steal your memories.

365 Days

It is all there, in front of you, behind you, all around you and inside you. It is your soul and inspiration, it is your past and future — it is the year in which you are, in which you exist and from which you will get inspired. By opening your eyes, your ears, your heart, and your imagination.

And you will write about whatever you see and add whatever you do not see but wish had been there. You will write the world into understanding and forgetting, accepting and regretting. You will blow the evaporating steams of the muse’s shower over the paper to fill the gaps of nothing with the something that is you.

Even that odd day of not writing holds a fairy tale to be told the next day. It works as a soul amplifier, an echo chamber, a megaphone for your longer thoughts, slower considerations, and complex story structures.

The Year

Is yours to grab. Yours to use. Yours to create.

Music is the key to your soul

Wintergatan is a beautiful concept, all around. It is about making something nice out of something else that is also nice - amazing inventions, carefully crafted to produce music that is friendly to your ears and your heart.

No matter if you are mostly a fan of the ingenious steampunk technology or the wonderful music, they will never let you down.

Time to unlock that soul!

Writing For a Better World

The written word has built-in magic — at times even banned because of it, at other times praised. Words are strong.

Spoken words as well, and many famous speeches are being referred to as game-changers and revolutionary — in writing. We read them to see it.

When the spoken becomes written, it gains reach. Reach is influence, influence is power. The power to change.

Reading brings hope to those who need to feel heard and see their problems acknowledged and treated in the text.

Writing brings hope too, that we can reach those who need to read — joining other writers with the same hope in a choir of sympathy and support.

One writer may be influential, one text too.

One person may be wise and use this influence well, use it to inspire others to be just as wise and spread the word — to inspire many.

One writer then has the power of many.

We write. I write. Some have a mission, others a hope. We all write to spread a word, a thought, an understanding, an improvement, and the joy of reading, the needed hope, the power of the written.

My mission is to share what I understand and think and wonder about, in the hope — my hope — that it will become new thoughts for the reader, lead to new understandings, inducing an urge to improve while feeling embraced by a lot of joy from spreading hope.

Hope of understanding each other .

Hope of changing work life into something you do out of a wish to be there, help, and see the developments you create .

Hope of inspiring to positive thinking and philosophical wondering about the big and small of life, humans, and the universe .

And I do hope that my words by some kind of magic will reach those who need to feel heard and see their problems being acknowledged, making their world better and inspiring them to do the same.

We write. I write. For a better world.

Waking Up

Silence

The emergence of light met her eyes through a narrow opening. Rebecca instinctively tried to avoid that strange intrusive feeling that light can make at the first glimpse of it — when the day starts.

Day

What day was it? She didn’t even remember having gone to bed. She searched her mind for anything more profound than white noise. Her eyes trained on the white of the ceiling, far away.

Yellow

Stretching an imagined muscle, then another, she didn’t experience the familiar satisfaction of it. She didn’t feel anything. No response. Still waking up. Now, a hazy yellow wall appeared where the ceiling ended.

Sound

Hissing, clicking. It was calming, a connection. The sounds followed her breath. Rebecca was one with the sounds. Odd. As if she was breathing the sounds. And nice. She wanted to sleep again. Eyes closed.

Touch

Something touched her cheek. A fly. Or was it a fly? Half asleep, she tried to raise a hand to wave it off, but the hand didn’t respond. Another touch. Not a fly, bigger. Her eyes strained to find a narrow opening again.

Adrenalin

“We have a movement!” Footsteps, talking, more touching, pushing her, holding her. A sharp prick in her shoulder. The light changed, moved — it was people, in white, a man with a clipboard, a woman holding a syringe. Tubes hung over her, a bag with liquid. Wanted to touch it — this time the hand responded and moved a bit.

Alive

“She is back! She’s awake!” The nurse looked her in the eyes, smiled. “Welcome back!”

Common Sense

When ordinary is rarer than special

Common sense is more than nonsense.
Creative more than standard.
Special more than normal.

Common sense is
anti-academic
anti-egalitarian
anti-standard
anti-normal
anti-common

Common is special.
Common is creative in a world of up-beat normals.

Common coffee is not a latte.
Common tea is not a special blend of Himalaya and Rooibos.
Common days are days of understandable simplicity.

Common people are unusual.
They are special in a perceived typical way
however rare that really is.

Common sense is
anti-assuming
anti-presuming
anti-ignorant
anti-numb
anti-dumb

Sensing is emotional.
Sensing is inspiration in a world of unproved claims.

Sensed sunshine is not electro-magnetic waves.
Sensed wind is not the movement of weather fronts.
Sensed time is time of comprehendible value.

Common sense sees all this as life and shades of thoughts.
As creative inspiration and special contrast
simple emotions
unusually typical
the obvious that points to the insight.