Full Width [alt+shift+f] Shortcuts [alt+shift+k]
Sign Up [alt+shift+s] Log In [alt+shift+l]
31

The Oak and the Reed

from The Map is Mostly Water [alt+shift+b] in life

Dear friends, there is a tale, The oak one day said to the reed: You have good reason to curse nature — A simple sparrow for you is a heavy burden. The slightest wind that by chance Makes the face of the water ripple Forces you to lower your head. However my own forehead, Not content to stop the rays of the sun, Braves the effort of the storm. Still if you were born under the shelter of the foliage With which I cover my surroundings, You would not have to suffer so much. I would defend you from the storm. But you are most often born On the damp edges of the realms of the wind. Nature towards you seems to me very unjust. — Your compassion, replied the shrub, Part of a good nature; but leaves this worry: The winds are less formidable to me than to you. I bend, and do not break. You have hitherto Against their dreadful blows Resisted without bending your back; But let's stay:
8th Jan 2023

Stay updated

Get a weekly newsletter with the top 5 articles worth reading every week.

More from The Map is Mostly Water

Fujifilm X100 vs Leica Q vs Ricoh GR

Notes on three fixed-lens camera lines

18th Jul 2026 • 2 votes
Veganism and Moral Intuitions

Inspecting some ethical claims, in the hope you might revisit some of your own intuitions

24th Jun 2026 • 1 votes
Designing a New Old Home: Mistakes

But in me haste to do the job, I was too blind to see

5th Mar 2026 • 1 votes
Ink in the Stomach

Something I believe very strongly, mostly from observing changes in myself, is that, once you’ve shoved your own hands deep in the entrails of a building, you’ve permanently altered your entire relationship with the world.

3rd Jan 2026 • 3 votes
Viscerality

some notes on pleasure

2nd Nov 2025 • 21 votes

More in life

The Beginning of a New Chapter

My move from fractional work to full-time employment!

3 days ago • 1 votes
Building a new publication

After a two-year absence from running a digital publication, namely Minimalissimo, I’m returning with a new project. Just when I thought I was out... Okay, no Pacino impressions. I definitely needed that break from curation and probably also from the constraints of minimalism for that matter. Over the past few years I’ve focused a lot on making digital tools and the odd experimental physical object. The latter still interests me hugely, and I’m casually working on a design for FFF, which I’ll cover in greater detail another time. Yet I became pretty disillusioned with the former: digital tooling in the age of AI. The sheer pace of development, replicas, slop, and hype just killed my enthusiasm for building. And I thought, “What do I actually enjoy doing?” The short and simple answer to that was “curation”. The longer and more complex answer is building a respectable publication that features journalistic deep dives, meaningful conversations, and tasteful curation. All presented and exhibited in a way that makes you appreciate the web experience over any social media feed or RSS reader. My new project is called MOUTHPRINT, which I’m building with my cofounder George Kroustallis, aka Minorstep. Together, our approach is to look closely at visual culture across art, fashion, and product design, tracing the people, processes, and choices behind the work. We’ll be publishing case files, which might sound a bit odd, but what the hell. These will examine individual projects through research and conversations with the people behind them. Ultimately, it’s about acknowledging and recording the many people who contributed to these projects and helped shape them. Alongside that, we’ll be publishing exhibitions that bring works together around a theme, making connections across disciplines and time. I’m under no illusions about how difficult it is to build a publication from the ground up. We’re totally up against it, but the web is a big place, we’re locked in, and we want to be heard. I’d now like to invite you to subscribe to our newsletter for the latest developments ahead of our official launch. We’d love to have you along for the ride. → mouthprint.com

4 days ago • 1 votes
Why Great Engineering Teams Don't Need Productivity Metrics

Measuring output and time spent is easy, while measuring efficiency and effectiveness is hard. Here's why trusting your engineers beats tracking their productivity.

5 days ago • 1 votes
You can just eradicate things

The technology to eradicate mosquito-borne disease already exists. We just have to be brave enough to use it.

5 days ago • 2 votes
Peak Burnham

A Champagne Supernova In the Sky

a week ago • 1 votes
📚 BoredReading

You seem to be enjoying this.

Join free to unlock everything.

Create free account

Already have an account? Sign in