Full Width [alt+shift+f] Shortcuts [alt+shift+k]
Sign Up [alt+shift+s] Log In [alt+shift+l]
92
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

2 months ago 31 votes
creatures of temperament

It is the glory of God to conceal a thing:

3 months ago 31 votes
Why make something beautiful?

on starting a rose garden

4 months ago 36 votes
Love Grows

The world is covered with a thin film of inertia.

5 months ago 36 votes
Resist Summary

painfully quick thoughts about AI

6 months ago 66 votes

More in life

Let People Know When You're Doing Them A Favor

It's nicer to let them know

15 hours ago 2 votes
South of the Haimish Line

Orienteering on the hedonic treadmill

2 days ago 5 votes
upcoming batwrite sessions + links

here they are for you, dear bathead

2 days ago 3 votes
Coaching Toolkit: Balance coaching to find new perspectives

The power of mindset shifts and choice and a Tech and Tea balance coaching tool to guide you through uncertain times.

3 days ago 7 votes
Why I Take Gifts Seriously

The digital economy is built on the unpaid labor of the gifted. What can we do to protect them?

3 days ago 4 votes