Common Discourse is a project designed to help others (and myself) think through creativity, focus, and intentional work. It hits your inbox every Tuesday + Friday at 9:17am PST.

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Mackenzie and I are headed to Mexico City for the first time tomorrow. If Duolingo doesn’t make me a fluid Spanish speaker by the time I land I’m firing off a one start review in the App Store.

I’m trying to eat well and see everything worth seeing. Staying in Roma Norte, willing to go anywhere.

Whatchya got?

Comment below to share publicly or respond to this email and lemme know. Google Maps bookmarks are ready to go.

Taco report coming next week. 🌮🌮🌮

— Alex

Ideas from me

I. BOTTLENECK

Waiting for the perfect idea or circumstances will always be the bottleneck. Write down words and start doodling until it makes sense to you. If it doesn’t make sense today, try again tomorrow. And then again the next day.

The person who sits down to make sense of their thoughts 100 times will strike lightning more than the person who sits down a few times before throwing in the towel.

II. DEFINITION

Humans are so hell-bent on assigning linear definition to everything that the opposite of definition has somehow resulted in confusion.

While language and prior successful styles of work have helped us make sense of the world, it should be the creative person’s mission to un-define and redefine those methods of thinking by drawing new connections and expound what we come to know as “good.”

Do this by telling the truth. The more we try to re-tell the stories of our successors, the further we get away from what makes us unique individuals.

There are 7.9 billion of us which means that if it speaks to you, it will likely speak to somebody else.

III. PRESENCE

We spend far too much energy in a state of preparation versus being present.

Better results occur when we’re dialed into working through problems as opposed to anticipating problems that have yet to happen.

A quote from somebody else

"When people say, ‘I’m the kind of person who,’ my heart always sinks. These are formulas, we’ve all got about ten formulas about who we are, what we like, the kind of people we like, all that stuff. The disparity between these phrases and how one experiences oneself minute by minute is ludicrous."

— Adam Phillips, The Paris Review

Links worth sharing

🎞 Our friends at Querida launched a great new site for Norte Image Studio.

🧰 DOODAD makes tools for making the internet fast, accessible, expressive, and green.

😵‍💫 This is the best and worst website of all time.

🧩 My business partner and friend Abraham is the best Art Director I've ever worked with. He finally is making his more focused research public. Start with this Russian Prison Tattoos channel he's curating.

🧢 Kiko Kostadinov temporary digital shop.

🧑‍🔬 SEGMENT provides an array of functional bags and accessories, all made from X-Pac® fabric, as well as mostly generic unisex merch.

Thanks for another week!

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