Full Width [alt+shift+f] Shortcuts [alt+shift+k]
Sign Up [alt+shift+s] Log In [alt+shift+l]
94
There was joy in concentration, and the world afforded an inexhaustible wealth of projects to concentrate on. There was joy in effort, and the world resisted effort to just the right degree, and yielded to it at last. People cut Mount Rushmore into faces; they chipped here and there for years. People slowed the spread of yellow fever; they sprayed the Isthmus of Panama puddle by puddle. Effort alone I loved. Some days I would have been happy to push a pole around a threshing floor like an ox, for the pleasure of moving the heavy stone and watching my knees rise in turn.
a year ago

Improve your reading experience

Logged in users get linked directly to articles resulting in a better reading experience. Please login for free, it takes less than 1 minute.

More from The Map is Mostly Water

Growing a Hornbeam Hedge

What's involved and the cost

3 months ago 34 votes
creatures of temperament

It is the glory of God to conceal a thing:

3 months ago 33 votes
Why make something beautiful?

on starting a rose garden

4 months ago 38 votes
Love Grows

The world is covered with a thin film of inertia.

5 months ago 39 votes
Resist Summary

painfully quick thoughts about AI

6 months ago 68 votes

More in life

We Are Winning!

Something has changed in the last few days.

17 hours ago 3 votes
yet another dysautonomia episode

I went for a 5km run yesterday a couple of days after returning from thailand. Sometimes after a long break it may feel more strenuous but I felt better than expected, even...

8 hours ago 2 votes
The Diderot Effect

Who Owns The Story of You?

4 hours ago 1 votes
Is This Anything? 9

twitter + captchas

yesterday 3 votes
Could Substack Challenge YouTube?

8 predictions on the battle for your eyeballs

3 days ago 6 votes