Formless, Timeless, Borderless, and More

Friday, March 15, 2024

Happy Friday y'all,

Here are 10 things I found interesting from the last week or so.

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Borderlessness 

Last June, when I was in San Francisco, I watched the Tetris movie with my Dad. 

As I mentioned in a previous newsletter, my favorite quote from the movie is when the Russian Inventor Alexey Pajitnov, played by Nikita Efremov, says to Henk Rogers, the Dutch video game designer played by Taron Egerton, "Good ideas have no borders." The duo went on to co-found The Tetris Company, and Tetris the game is still one of the highest-selling video games to this day.

Tetris is a living example of a borderless idea. The other week, I came across this ball maker named Jon-Paul Wheatley (@jonpaulsballs). His account serves, as he says, as his public R&D lab. One of his recent experiments was stitching together a 96-panel Tetris ball. What's even cooler is that he then gifted the ball to 13-year-old Willis Gibson, who is believed to be the first person ever to beat the original Nintendo version of the game. 

That is borderlessness personified.

Formlessness 

A former classmate of mine from NYU, Allie Hutchison, launched her own Substack this week, anatomy of formlessness. In its first edition, she explains the rules of formlessness as follows: 

1. You are not one thing. 

2. Contradictions are permissible and even encouraged. 

3. You are fluid.

4. You have agency. 

Reading the first addition of anatomy of formlessness made me think of Robert Greene's final law from his book, 48 Laws of Power: Assume Formlessness. Greene writes, 

"By taking shape, having a visible plan, you open yourself to attack. Instead of taking form for your enemy to grasp, keep yourself adaptable and on the move. Accept the fact that nothing is certain and no law is fixed. The best way to protect yourself is to be as fluid and formless as water; never bet on stability or lasting order. Everything changes." 

Everything changes, including you. 

You are not one thing, just like you are not living one story. 

Your fluidity grants you agency. 

Your complex, contradictory nature keeps you in power. 

Timelessness 

Every now and then, it's good for the soul to flip through Khalil Gibran's The Prophet. This week I flipped to the chapter on time to do a bit of copywork: 

"And an astronomer said, Master, what of Time?

And he answered:

You would measure time the measureless and the immeasurable.

You would adjust your conduct and even direct the course of your spirit according to hours and seasons. 

Of time you would make a stream upon whose bank you would sit and watch its flowing.

Yet the timeless in you is aware of life's timelessness. 

And knows that yesterday is but today's memory and tomorrow is today's dream. 

And that that which sings and contemplates in you is still dwelling within the bounds of that first moment which scattered the stars into space.

Who among you does not feel that very love, though boundless, encompassed with the centre of his being, and moving not from love thought to love thought, nor from love deeds to other love deeds? 

And is not time even as love is, undivided and spaceless? 

But if in your thought you must measure time into seasons, let each season encircle all the other seasons, 

And let today embrace the past with remembrance and the future with longing." 

Borderless. 

Formless. 

Timeless. 

Measureless. 

Boundless. 

Spaceless. 

Senseless. 

Pathless. 

Un-useless. 

Someway somehow, all of these concepts are tied together. 

I don't know how or in what way. 

Perhaps all will be better understood further downstream. 

Wisdom from Naval: 

"The great ones don't do it for money or fame or power. 

Or to build an institution, or to help others, or to save the world. 

Like a child tinkering, they create it for its own sake. 

Free of the burden of ambition.

Dead to the demands of the world."

Jam of the Week & Album of the Week

Jam: Kendrick Lamar x Kanye West Mashup by London-based DJ and Producer Raymond. 

Album: Pixar's Soul Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Note to Self: Listen to more movie soundtracks.

Question: What's your favorite? 

First Road Side Haircut

It's not every day you get a haircut on the side of the road. And you can't just go anywhere either. Luckily, thanks to a friend's recommendation, I found a guy on the side of the road nearby who deals a decent haircut at a good price in record time. $3 haircut in 20 minutes. That's a win. 

Oregon State Women's Basketball Video Content For The Win

A while back, I mentioned the Atlanta Falcons video content game going crazy. 

Last week, I noticed the Oregon State Women's Basketball page did something different I hope will catch on. They show all of the different angles of the shot and then feature each videographer's profile at the bottom. 

It's fun to show fans how much effort and coordination goes into creating a single shot like this one. 

This Was Never a Long Shot 

Last week I shared an advertisement that nailed it: Toyota's Unskippable Ad. 

Now, I want to share Caitlyn Clark's ad. Iowa Hawkeyes superstar guard recently passed "Pistol" Pete Maravich's record to become the all-time NCAA Division I scoring leader. 

Nike released a series of ads, including an instant classic with the tagline, "You break it, you own it." She was also on a Nike Billboard in Times Square with the caption, "This was never a long shot." But the best one was this perfectly placed duo right here. 

Well done, Caitlyn, and well done, Nike.

Why This Video Editing Style Hits Different 

Over the last few months, I've slowly been gathering different social media pages related to art that have caught my eye for different reasons. Here are some, not all, of the pages I've found so far: 

• Hunna G Beats 

• Discovering Artists IRL 

• Views from a Bridge 

• Tracklib

• Wrong Side of the Lens 

• Inspired to Write

• Sounds of Vietnam

• Art But Make It Sports

• Pebbles as Pixels 

So, I'd like to add another page to the list that I think is doing something unique: @bymaximise. 

First, I like the green tint the creator incorporates into their style. It looks good. 

Second, I like the looping—starting the video by actually hitting play on the laptop ending the video by slamming the computer shut pu, putting your phone down on the desk, or watching the video through your phone by watching the video through another phone. 

Something about it almost seems to catch you in the third person. You feel seen for a moment. You feel something different compared to those videos of people with cool-looking workspaces and cool lighting/gear who make videos of themselves making videos. It touches on that Bo Burnham: Inside Netflix Documentary from back in 2021, where he does a bit on the endless content loop. 

The point is that we all stare at our phones all day, and we all know what other people look like when they stare at their phones, but these videos almost give you a glimpse into what you look like when you look at your phone. In doing so, the magic of this looping style is all of sudden, not only do you feel seen, but you feel present and more aware of the video within a video you're now watching, allowing the message — which, after all, is content from elsewhere you most likely have already seen before — to hit you in a completely different way. 

It's tickling something. 

I mean, of course, that's easy to say now that the page has hundreds of thousands of followers in a short amount of time, but still – check it out. 

There's something unique happening on @bymaximise. 

One Other Thing on AJO Program

As an alumni of the New York University Journalism School, I was asked to help contribute to some marketing material for the online masters program I completed last May. We were asked to make a short video sharing what we learned and loved, what skills and connections we made, how it affected our confidence, our thoughts on the program's flexibility, as well as, professors/staff, and ultimately, what we got out of the program that helped get us to where we are now. I won't share my video submission here, but I do want to add one thing I forgot to mention in my submission. 

I started this newsletter the week after graduation. Since then, I've been writing to publish every week. By doing so, I've connected with many different people – friends, family, and other writers that I admire, and even found freelance work just by writing every week. My advice to anyone going into journalism school now is to start a newsletter in Week 1 of classes. Use the newsletter to document your learning journey. Share what you're learning in class. Share what you're reading. Share a quote you liked from a guest speaker in class. Share what you're working on and what you've published. You will look back and be proud of your journey, and those experiences will continue to pay dividends long after school. 

Don't wait. Start right away. 

As always, thank you for reading. I enjoy the weirdness of writing this thing, the opportunities it invites into my life, and the people it connects me with. Excited to see where this goes.

Have a great day and see you next week. 

–Garrett 

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