025: The Return | 15 – 21 June

Stoicism on genuine joy and character, what writing is actually for, and why MiniDiscs were always better than cassettes

This week has been about integration — the quieter, stranger work that happens after something big, like my mushroom trip. Adele and I did a sound healing on Wednesday night, I tried a new acupuncturist, and I received a gorgeous card from Ben, my mate since year six, one of the things I am most proud of in my life. Some friendships you carry with you everywhere, and he’s one of mine.

Here’s what I’ve been reading and listening to:

🧘🏻‍♀️ HEALTH, FITNESS, & LONGEVITY

On the Difference Between Rest and Idleness

The wellness industry isn’t wrong that recovery matters — it’s wrong in believing recovery is the whole of what stillness is for.

Some time should be wasted. That is the claim. Not all of it, not most of it, but some, deliberately, as a matter of principle.

Because a life in which every hour serves work, including the hours of rest that serve work by restoring you for more work, is a life that belongs entirely to work, even in its leisure, even in its sleep. Such a life has no outside. It is productive all the way down, optimized in its very relaxation, and a person living it has never once, not for a single hour, simply been alive without being also, somehow, useful. The idle hour is the one hour that has an outside. It is the one hour that does not belong to the project of your own improvement. It is, in the most literal sense, free time: not time freed up for other tasks, but time that is genuinely free, owned by no purpose, answerable to no return.

39 (Or So) Lessons On The Way To 39 by Ryan Holiday

Ryan Holiday is almost 40, has had his 39th birthday and 20-year school reunion, and wrote his birthday post a few days back. I wasn’t sure where to put this — I didn’t want to add it to Productivity — but here feels right.

Here are my favourite things that he talked about regarding him always trying to be better and what he’s learned:

• “The purpose of any piece of writing at all is not the end product on the page. It’s the person YOU are on the other side of having done it. It’s the thinking long and hard about something. It’s the slow, tedious, difficult work of figuring out what actually works”

• Bring a book with you everywhere

• Go for more walks

• Misogi: committing to one epic, year-defining challenge—something so significant, so hard, so memorable, that decades later, when you think back, you’ll instantly remember that was the year you did that thing

• “Almost every lesson you need to learn to deal with what’s happening in the world, almost every skill you need to develop to succeed in modern times, is the topic of old art… as Truman famously said, “the only thing new in the world is the history you don’t know.”

• “Courage is a team sport. Justice is a team sport. People are far more likely to stand up, to say “this is wrong,” when they’ve seen someone else do it first. So when you speak up, you’re not just taking a stand. When you are unapologetically yourself, you’re not just being yourself. You’re making it easier for the next person to.”

• “Life doesn’t always get worse. It often gets better…and we don’t even notice.”

• His re-reading of The Great Gatsby and these first two sentences: In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”

• “You have to be very careful about what—and to whom—you’re giving the best part of your day.” - novelist Philipp Meyer

• “The antidote to shame/guilt… is total accountability.”

• “You have to know what you like about your life to be able to evaluate the opportunities that arise”

• “There is a cost to everything we do, everything we agree to, every commitment we make. We have to spend our time wisely because we are paying for it with our lives.”

Very reflective, as usual, and I can’t wait to see Ryan in Brisbane in October!

Joan Westenberg was also reading Ryan’s blog. He is an inspiration to me from a marketing and publishing perspective, not just for bringing Stoicism into the mainstream. Joan, however, found herself in an upward comparison spiral while reading his post and had what she calls a “small-scale spiral” into feeling like a failure. She talks about how comparison “never lets you choose the axis” — but when she chose her own, it was that she got sober and stayed sober.

In Comparison is A Con, she writes about what happened when she finally got past it:

That’s the obscenity of it. The thing that nearly killed me, the thing I clawed back from, the thing I have to keep choosing doesn’t register on the comparison machine at all. The machine only sees output. It can’t see survival. It can’t see the days that were a genuine fight and the only person who knows is me. It can’t see the version of me that doesn’t exist anymore because I made sure they didn’t...

Consider this a rare note to myself as much as to anyone reading. When you catch yourself measuring your life against someone else’s highlight reel and coming up empty, check who’s holding the ruler. Check what they decided to measure. Then throw the ruler out, because the odds are, picked the one thing that makes you small and hid everything that makes you…well, you.

It reminds me of a year or so ago, when I asked my friend what his goals were for the new year. I, of course, had a heap. I still remember him saying something along the lines of, “I’m just trying to stay alive, LC.” Which is the only thing that matters, right?

♫ MUSIC

Beyond the Bullshit: Why the Sony MiniDisc Was (and Still Is) the Ultimate Physical Medium

Great write-up on one of my favourite things in the world, the MiniDisc. I still have my portable Sony MZ-R70 MD Recorder, though I sold my Sony bookshelf unit years ago, with the MiniDisc stainless steel holders my dad made for me.

I never understood why cassettes, of all things, have come back into fashion via nostalgia. They are the WORST way to physically record, re-record and play music. They got me through the 90s, and I made a lot of mixtapes. But, in case you are unsure: Minidiscs are superior.

Why?

Magneto-optical discs (MiniDiscs), work differently [than CD-R], and in a way that makes them more durable. A laser heats up to the Curie point (180°) of the disc, and a magnetic head polarises the disc with a negative or positive charge, imprinting a binary code that will be read by a laser…

A Minidisc is virtually immune to heat and magnetic fields, becoming an almost time-proof medium, capable of being rewritten an infinite number of times and keeping the information forever without degradation…

[also] writing the titles of the tracks or changing their position directly from [a] portable device thanks to Random Access Memory and TOC was incredible when 99% of people didn’t have a CD-Text at home in their main hi-fi system.

Keep in mind this was a highly niche item even in its heyday. Only two other friends of mine — Angela and Davide, both musicians who recorded — owned MD recorder decks/pros at the time. Sony released a heap of their artists on MD, but as someone who worked in and managed music stores in the 90s and 2000s, they were rare to sell. More people (like me) bought the blank discs.

Here’s another piece worth reading: The Rise and Fall of MiniDisc: What Really Happened

It’s fascinating to see newer artists, such as King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, releasing MDs in the 2020s! This has been driven by music styles like Vaporwave. See releases on Discogs.

The MiniDisc sub-Reddit has the last word:

MiniDisc is a recordable audio and data format introduced by Sony in 1992 and mostly discontinued by 2013. It was most commonly used as a music format and is still popular in retro tech and several music communities.

♫ NEW MUSIC

Danielle Ponder - Power

Jensen McRae - Just Like You

It’s just like you

Put your hand on the stove, say you like that it’s burning

It’s just like you

To leave like a ghost, come back like a warning

You change your mind, I change my plans

You over-promise, I understand

What if I can’t go through hell

With anyone else, with anyone else?

From the deluxe version of I Don’t Know How They Found Me… Again. Twelve new songs with the original 11, four released now, and the remaining out on July 24th.

Little Simz - Sugar Girl

EP

Olivia Rodrigo - you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love

Album

🪶 POETRY

This week I kept thinking about our connection with nature, and a line from D. H. Lawrence came back to me:

I am part of the sun as my eye is part of me. That I am part of the earth my feet know perfectly, and my blood is part of the sea.

Maria Popova’s essay in The Marginalian links to the full quote from the book, Apocalypse and explores the need to own all the parts of ourselves, choosing what is needed in various situations and circumstances, and using composure and clarity to choose how to act. When you are able to fully love yourself or another, you are able “to accept all the parts and cherish the totality”.

Maria offers a poetic counterpoint to Benjamin Franklin’s 13 qualities of personhood (temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquillity, chastity, and humility) via D. H. Lawrence’s own creed:

“That I am I.”

“That my soul is a dark forest.”

“That my known self will never be more than a little clearing in the forest.”

“That gods, strange gods, come forth from the forest into the clearing of my known self, and then go back.”

“That I must have the courage to let them come and go.”

“That I will never let mankind put anything over me, but that I will try always to recognize and submit to the gods in me and the gods in other men and women.”

There is my creed.

It’s not easy to have different visitations from conflicting gods, all trying to tell you their way is THE way. But, as Maria puts it:

What makes it all bearable is seeing this constellation of parts as a part of something greater still — a vast and coherent universe governed by immutable laws and immense forces that vanquish the grandiose smallness of the self and its warring fragments, that render life too great and total a miracle to be met with anything but a resounding “yes yes — please.”

Which links to a poem from non-speaking autistic poet Hannah Emerson, entitled Center of the Universe

Please try to go

to hell frequently

because you will

find the light there

yes yes — please

try to kiss the ideas

that you find there

yes yes — please

try to get that

it is the center

of the universe

yes yes — please

try to help yourself

by kissing the hot hot

hot life that is born

there yes yes — please

try to yell in hell

yes yes — please

try to free yourself

by pouring yourself

into the gutter all

guttural guttural yell

yes yes yes — please

try to get that you

become the being

that you came there

to be yes yes — please

try to go to the great

great great fire that you

created because you

become the light

that the fire makes

inside of you

yes yes — please

try to kiss yourself

for going there

yes yes — please

get that you are

reborn there

yes yes — please

begin your day

This is just one example of how I can end up in a rabbit hole of wonder and awe — starting with the writings of those before us, channelled through a vessel like Maria.

🏛️ PHILOSOPHY

Building your inner citadel by Dr. Chuck Chakrapani (The Stoic Gym)

It’s that time of year, Winter, when I’m thinking about “escaping” somewhere warmer, usually overseas. But this article was a reminder that our “inner citadel” is always there, we do not have to go anywhere!

The main points:

• We often look for relief by changing our location, but many of our disturbances travel with us.

• Our judgments, not external events alone, are often what unsettle us.

• The inner citadel is built through awareness, purpose, and repeated practice.

• It is easier to strengthen the mind by working first with small irritations and annoyances.

• When reason governs passion, the mind becomes steadier, freer, and more resilient.

• Retreating inward is not withdrawal from life, but a way of returning to it with greater calm and clarity.

Brisbane Stoics & Seneca’s Letter 66 on Virtue and the Excellence of Character

I missed The Brisbane Stoics meeting this week (as I was recovering from my mushroom trip), but they emailed about the concepts we discussed in May’s meeting:

For the Stoics, virtue is the excellence of our distinctly human capacities: our ability to reason wisely, act justly, exercise self-control, and meet life’s challenges with courage.

Circumstances change.

Character remains.

A reflective question from Letter 66: “What would virtue look like here?”

When difficulties arise, pause before reacting. Ask yourself:

• What quality of character is being called for?

• What would courage do?

• What would justice require?

• What would wisdom notice?

• What would self-restraint look like?

Rather than focusing exclusively on changing circumstances, experiment with developing the capacities that allow you to meet circumstances well.

This small shift in attention reflects a profound Stoic insight: The quality of our participation matters more than the conditions in which we participate.

Brisbane Stoics & Seneca’s Letter 23: On the True Joy Which Comes from Philosophy

Here’s what was discussed at Sunday’s meeting.

If we mistakenly believe that external things—wealth, status, comfort, possessions, or even other people—are the source of our wellbeing, then our emotional lives become vulnerable to fear, longing, distress, and disappointment. Our happiness becomes tied to things that are ultimately uncertain and beyond our control.

And on romantic love specifically, while love itself is natural and valuable, treating another person as the foundation of our happiness can unintentionally create anxiety, dependency, and unrealistic expectations, ultimately diminishing both our own wellbeing and our capacity to love the other person as a free and rational human being rather than as a source of emotional security.

Seneca challenges us to distinguish between pleasure and genuine joy. Pleasure comes and goes with fortune. Joy arises from within—from a good conscience, honourable intentions, right action, and a life guided by wisdom.

A couple of reflections for the month ahead:

1. Notice what you are relying upon for your wellbeing

Throughout the coming month, pay attention to moments of anxiety, frustration, or disappointment. Ask yourself: “What am I treating as a good right now?” The answer may reveal an expectation, attachment, or dependency that has quietly taken hold.

2. Practise appreciating without possessing

Enjoy the good things in your life—relationships, achievements, comforts, opportunities—but experiment with holding them lightly. Appreciation often deepens when we stop demanding that things remain exactly as they are.

The Stoics did not reject life’s gifts; they simply encouraged us not to make our happiness depend upon them.

I hope to see you at an upcoming meeting.

🗳️ POLITICS

Mum is Drowning in One Nation AI Slop

“Your mum reckons Pauline Hanson is saving the homeless and kids with brain tumours. Your mum has been choking on AI slop. Call your mum.”

From The Saturday Paper

Hanson, an early technology adopter who understands digital media elections are often won on “feels” rather than “facts”, is perfectly positioned to exploit this looking [AI] info apocalypse. One Nation could wage a campaign straight out of the Trumpian playbook, deploying AI swarms to attack opponents, polarise voters, chill free speech, weaponise division and swing Australia massively to the right

The video shows some of the real-world impacts of disinformation — the bots and astroturfing — especially impacting parents who may be most at risk of falling for it.

🤖 TECHNOLOGY & AI

Sam Altman (ChatGPT) has said there is no confidentiality for what people share with ChatGPT - even if it *feels* more private than asking a person

The AI Collective offer a useful test for next time you open a chat:

Before you open a new chat today, ask what you’d be fine seeing read back with your name near it. Treat the box like what it is: a record, not a confessional. The delete button is a request, not a promise. The thing you typed to feel less alone is sitting on a server with a retention schedule you’ll never see, and a court has already shown it can reach in. Decide what’s worth that before you hit enter.

📍 TRAVEL

travelnow.info

This is really cool

Your passport, your map. Pick the passport you hold — the globe paints every country by what you’d need to enter today. Free, daily-refreshed, no signup.

For those of us with an Australian passport: 192 of 205 destinations are accessible, and 112 are visa-free. This puts us at number 9 on the global ranking.

Bali Is Everything Wrong With Society

aka, how Westerners have destroyed Bali.

📺 TV SERIES

Watching Love Island UK six nights a week and USA five nights a week really eats up all my TV-time…

Ground Up | 6 episodes | ABC iView + 🏴‍☠

A light and fun bureaucracy satire focused on the real chaos of the launch of an AFL team in Tasmania, including the AFL’s requirement of building a controversial new stadium in Australia’s poorest state. The AFL is contributing only $15m to the build, while the federal government contributes $240m, Tasmania — already $5bn in debt— will pay the rest of the $1.13bn bill.

Sugar S2 | 6 episodes | Apple TV + 🏴‍☠

I didn’t think this would get another season, but here we are. Colin Farrell returns as a private investigator and classic film nut, John Sugar. One episode per week. Here’s the trailer for Season 1.

I’m grateful for new holistic health endeavours, learning and reflecting after my mushroom trip, a lovely card and a big catch-up chat with Ben, and getting back into the routines of reality.