3: beauty and the emptiness of validation
marcus aurelius on the emptiness of validation:
"beautiful things of any kind are beautiful in themselves and sufficient to themselves. praise is extraneous. the object of praise remains what it was--no better and no worse...
does anything genuinely beautiful need supplementing? no more than justice does—-or truth, or kindness, or humility. are any of those improved by being praised? or damaged by contempt? is an emerald suddenly flawed if no one admires it?"
with all the discourse around "taste" lately, this quote is a sharp reminder that good and beautiful things stand tall on their own.
lately i've been thinking about what kind of personal brand i want to build.
being results-driven, my tendency is to start with the end in mind: setting SMART goals, metrics to hit, milestones that indicate success.
especially because it feels like i'm late to the game... i see my friends with 100k-1m+ followers and can't help but compare.
but when i reflect on the game i actually want to play, i realize that the shallow performance metrics don't mean much to me.
what matters is the quality of the stuff i'm putting out.
and i KNOW deep down what that means for me.
few.
-k