Daniel Bourke

Writing

Every day for a year

When you make it visual, you’ve got no choice. You can see it. It’s right there. You know if you miss it, the chain will break. It’s about to be a new year. And that’s exciting. Maybe tomorrow is a good day to start something. Something

Life and Living

Long gamma

I learned a new phrase today. Long gamma. It’s from the book Antifragile (you should read it). It was used in the quote, “Life is long gamma.” In non-jargon terms, “long” means “benefits from” and “gamma” means nonlinearity. In other words, “long gamma” means “benefits from volatility and

What could you take away?

The New Year is coming up. You might’ve given someone something recently. Or maybe even received a gift from someone. It's the season of giving. And it’s around this time, New Years resolutions start being formulated. This year, I’d like to... • Lose weight • Stop eating

An offer you can’t refuse

A sucker doesn’t listen to what his customers doesn’t have to say. A non-sucker listens, hears them out, offers their point of view and acts. A sucker doesn’t care for herself. Thinks she’s invincible (this is healthy at times) and misleads herself into oblivion. A

Thinking

Avoid being a donkey (but also be a donkey)

There’s a story I’ve heard a few times and each time I read or hear it, I think, I should remember this. It begins with a donkey who’s hungry and thirsty. To its left is a bucket of water and to its right is a pile of

The spatula that doesn’t reach

There’s a spatula here attached to the wall. It’s for cleaning the barbecues. Except when you go to use it, it doesn’t reach all the way to the end of the barbecue. So there ends up being a few inches which don’t get cleaned. There’s

Analysis paralysis

When you’re stuck thinking about something too much rather than acting upon it. I get it. It happens to me. The thought of the outcome holds back the process. Silly. I’m my own biggest road block. What if this goes wrong? What if they think that? What if

Creating

Hits and misses

Dave and I were sitting at the cafe the other day. Talking about the cadence of putting out work. Social media makes it look like something needs to come out every day. Multiple times per day if you can. Artists, Kanye West, Drake, some of our favourites, put out an

Poems

Laying in bed

At night I lay in bed. Think of her. Stare at the roof. Roll over, adjust the sheets. Think of her again. What if I never see her again? Doesn’t matter. What was there was there. Even if nothing comes up, even if the memories fade, the feelings won’

Life and Living

There’s no need for genius envy

I read through Twitter, watch videos on YouTube, read the headlines. See what others are up to. See their achievements. And I get jealous. All these geniuses! Why aren’t I like that? Why aren’t I earning the respect of others? Why aren’t I that smart? Why why

Travel

Looking forward to the future

I’m looking forward to future. A man has to be a excited about the future, otherwise, what is there? Some of the best parts of life are looking forward to something rather than actually having the thing. The whole year, my family and I look forward to getting together

Books

The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity: Which part of the graph are you?

A simple way to reflect on what you’re doing or what the people around you are doing is to imagine a graph with four quadrants. On the X-axis is whether or not your actions benefit you in some way. On the y-axis is whether or not your

Life and Living

Are you full of shit?

Two concepts worthwhile remembering are Cunningham’s Law and the Dunning-Kruger effect. Cunningham’s Law states, “The best way to get the answer on the internet is not to post a question, it’s to post the wrong answer.” And the Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in

Stories

What would the jellyfish think?

“Does she think I’m fat?” “What’s he doing?” “I can’t believe he said that.” “She doesn’t know what she’s talking about.” “He’s not doing that is he?” “Why aren’t I getting the attention they are?” And more things like this. There’s a

Learning

Knowing how vs. Knowing what

Traditional education teaches what. It’s obsessed with definitions, facts, processes, principles, the right way of doing things. Apprenticeship style education teaches how. The first thing you learn is there’s many ways to do the same thing. I failed my first two years of university because I was lazy.

Learning

Knowledge of absence

The best knowledge is knowledge of absence. What doesn’t work. However, knowing what doesn’t work comes with no rewards. For everything that is known to work, there are 100 things which don’t (made up number, ratio likely higher). The thing is, knowing what doesn’t work is

Travel

Alone but not lonely

In 2016, I went to Japan alone for 3 weeks. I flew into Tokyo with only a couple of nights accommodation booked. As I walked around, looking at different things, I let my thoughts wonder as much my feet. Every few nights I’d book into a new place. The

Poems

Let the animal out

Where’s it been? Hidden away Someone told you so Don’t do that Don’t do this You can’t You can’t do that It’s not all their fault You listened. Thought they were right. Held onto what they said. An early death comes to those who

Life and Living

You have to go deep inside yourself

The search of fulfilment, the search of meaning, the search of worth. It doesn’t come in anything you show can show someone else. It doesn’t end with some amount of numbers on a page. It’s generated from within. And it’s available right now. But be careful.

Getting Started

Talent not required

It’s easy to palm it off on natural ability. “He’s a natural... that’s why he can do it.” “She’s so talented, I could never do that.” But where did they start? Does a piano player get born with the ability to play piano? Does a programmer

Questions

The one-on-one with yourself

It’s getting close to the end of the year. There are 19 days left in this decade. If you work somewhere, one-on-one end of year reviews might start between you and your manager, you and your boss. But when was the last time you had one with

Creating

The project needs to drive you forward

In the beginning, your energy will drive you forward. You’ll start a new project with excitement, the quick wins will make you want to keep going. After a while, when your energy runs lows, the project itself will have to bring you forward. Discipline works, will power works, you

Poems

One last walk

From walking along the desks at school Everyone looking on There’s a dog in the classroom What’s a dog doing here? Soon enough everyone starts to enjoy it Good dogs do their own thing Play, walk, eat, sleep, shit Simple Conan was a good dog Black and fluffy

Stories

A good tired

It’s getting warmer. Getting up early is getting easier. The sun is up, you can walk out the front, feel it on your chest, feel the energy. I love the heat. I love this time of year. People say how hot it is, I tell them how much I

Life and Living

When it doesn’t go your way

You've got a choice. Accept it, learn from it, reflect on it, use it as fuel for the next one, be thankful for the opportunity, tell yourself this is a chance to improve. Or... Blame someone, "They shouldn't have done that!", blame something, tell