recovering economist
Umarell is a word for retired men who stand around construction sites giving unwanted advice.
It sounds like the exact thing my dad would enjoy.
He’s an aerospace engineer by training, and then he built his own house by hand.
Umarell is a form of flâneuring.
It sure sounds annoying if you’re a worker though! 🤣
I enjoyed this word from Austin Kleon to graduates.
My three favorite takeaways?
I would also add that graduates need to savor the days and enjoy their youth.
To be young and have countless possibilities in front of you seems like a dream…
Gosh, the time goes by fast, doesn’t it?
The classroom is a wonderful, if artificial, place: Your professor gets paid to pay attention to your ideas, and your classmates are paying to pay attention to your ideas. Never again in your life will you have such a captive audience.
Soon after, you learn that most of the world doesn’t necessarily care about what you think. It sounds harsh, but it’s true. As the writer Steven Pressfield says, “It’s not that people are mean or cruel, they’re just busy.”
This is actually a good thing, because you want attention only after you’re doing really good work. There’s no pressure when you’re unknown. You can do what you want. Experiment. Do things just for the fun of it. When you’re unknown, there’s nothing to distract you from getting better. No public image to manage. No huge paycheck on the line. No stockholders. No e-mails from your agent. No hangers-on.
You’ll never get that freedom back again once people start paying you attention, and especially not once they start paying you money.
Enjoy your obscurity while it lasts.