Nicolas Boulenger

We think of it as a chapter of Genesis that ends once the Earth and mankind have been made.

But what if we were still in it?

I create every day. So do you.

Our universe is nothing but a glorious mess that never stops creating, re-creating, re-re-creating.

Not a nanosecond goes by without an infinity of particles, cells and beings coming into existence, only to transform again, over and over.

No day on Earth ends without the invention of new concepts, new ideas, new fears and incredible new machines, material or spiritual.

"Creation" never ended.

We are right in the middle of it.

We are its engines.

It can be very easy. It has to be easy.

Instead of brainstorming, analyzing, calculating, planning and then, inevitably, getting it wrong, blaming yourself, correcting, improving...

Set down what is present right now.

What's obvious. What isn't thought through. What comes. Even if it's wrong. Even if it seems stupid. Even if it's completely off topic.

Set it all down, but nothing more. No need to dig.

Then do something else.

Then the next time something comes – an idea, an emotion, a constraint – set it down in turn. Whole. Without going any further.

And so on.

It's the shortest path to yourself, to pure action, to alignment.

You're not held back by any intellectual preconception. You no longer waste time chasing what's useless – which your brain had convinced you was essential.

Step by step, effortlessly, you go straight to the point.

I first touched on this in this article.

It goes hand in hand with the concept of alignment I've been talking about lately.

If it's about celebrating life, joy, the present moment: no problem, go for it.

But very often, what we celebrate is reaching a goal.

In other words: we hold a ritual to underline that, in the present, we've reached a mark we'd set for ourselves in the past.

And I see several problems with that.

First, it's an injunction. In the present, either I feel joy (because I'm acting according to my nature), or I don't. But the idea that I should feel it is always suspect.

Second, it's intellectual. A goal is always a concept: we reduce the future to quantities or qualities to reach, which don't encompass reality. We make comparisons in our head, instead of being here and now.

It's a blocker. Since it's an artificial moment where I simulate joy in response to markers I invented, I'm out of the flow of the present. If I don't get back into it, the next action will be artificial too.

Finally, it's dual: I place myself in a success / failure duality, which brings me back to a winner / loser identity. I've won this battle, but the war never ends.

Spiritual progress is realizing that this war isn't necessary.

It only exists in our head.

I made a 4x3 of it.

I'm happy with my watch, my phone and my computer. We can really stop progress now.

I'm happy with my watch.

I'm happy with my phone.

I'm happy with my computer.

I'd gladly keep them for the next 20 years.

I don't need more features, a new design, smarter apps.

As far as I'm concerned, you can stop right there.

All the energy and resources you're putting into progress, I suggest investing them in the planet.

Would it be possible to live without habits?

When I meditate for a long time, like this morning, everything becomes easy.

And because everything is easy, I catch myself no longer doing things the usual way.

I change the order, the places, the actions. I let things come, and I do them for the first time.

Then I realize how much my daily habits are built on obligation and on worry rather than on balance.

I follow my habits because, when I'm short on time, when I'm stressed, I'd rather repeat what worked in the past than discover new ways.

In doing so, I'm not present.

I don't really take into account my body, my mind, or the situation as they are right now. Action doesn't follow naturally from what's happening. I impose proven patterns, sure, but patterns built in the past.

When I'm in the creative flow, all of that disappears.

I move forward with what's there. Every move is made for the first time.

Is it exhausting? Do we then need habits to rest, to recharge?

Not sure.

The further I go, the more I'd like this to become my default mode.

All that holds me back is fear and comfort.

Meditation and Alignment now have videos and journal entries.

I've also added new categories, with just notes for now. I'll add videos later.

The categories are in the order they helped me. So I don't think there's much point looking at Productivity before you've been through Alignment – which I'm still thinking of merging.

Suggestions welcome. Let me know if it's useful.

Did you know? You can get to the resources by clicking "Beatnik" under my name on the home page 👆

The ocean is waving at you! So cool!!!

Just once, and then the ocean went quiet.

I hope I didn't hurt its feelings.

This is new.

I've gathered the video series I made on specific topics in one place. For now there's Meditation and Alignment. I've also added the sources (books, podcasts, etc.) that helped me, and I'll add the relevant journal entries.

Because people ask me about it a lot in the comments.

So now, I send them here.

I'm appalled by TV and radio journalists.

I haven't been able to watch the TV news in a long time – at least 15 or 20 years. It came fairly soon after I stopped being able to stand advertising.

What bothers me in both cases: the lack of sincerity. Polishing the form to make substance that doesn't hold up look credible. Hiding the choices that matter behind urgency and surface emotions.

And of course: mocking people who think differently.

So for a long time now, I've kept my distance.

I read the New York Times. Recently, I subscribed to Mediapart.

I've caught some TV news these past few days and I can't get over it.

The propaganda and bad faith dial has been pushed to extremes I didn't think possible.

How can people watch this? And believe it?

It's like advertising: "some of it is good". No. Because the substance, the intent, and the model of society hiding behind it are bad. No matter what, it's manipulation.

But for it to have become this blatant, shameless, arrogant...

I can't get over it.

It's a hard feeling to describe.

Meditating, for me, is often about convincing myself there's nothing to do.

Letting things happen.

Which doesn't mean doing nothing. Quite the opposite.

But you let go of the part of you that worries about what to do.

You switch to spectator mode.

Everything important will get done. (By magic).

But in an order you don't know.

Some of what you'd planned will be left aside.

Other things you weren't expecting will be carried out with care.

You learn what really matters to you.

Far from goals and structured thinking.

For me, that's the real foundation.

The one we often don't dare let emerge, out of fear and a desire for control.

You're not incapable. You're going about it the wrong way.

That's what I see in myself and in the people I help.

Neither the activity nor the result is out of your reach.

Failing once, twice, three times means nothing.

You haven't found your way of doing it yet.

Once you have, everything will become easy.

Take your eyes off the result. Find the action.

Do you condemn the violence?

"Don't try to convince" is one of my mantras in narrative strategy:

You don't communicate to convince those who don't believe in it. You communicate to bring together those who already love it but don't know you exist.

I'm realizing it's the same in politics, on television, even at family dinners.

Most journalists aren't looking for the truth. Neither are the commenters under your video. Nor your uncle at the table.

They talk to prove they're right. (I've talked about this before.)

But at that game, TV journalists have a certain talent that often drives their success: they use every trick of the trade to contradict, unsettle or ridicule anyone who doesn't support a line chosen in advance.

You have to know that. Otherwise you don't understand. You're stunned. You get angry.

So when you take part, you need to be clear about your goal.

You're not there to convince the people on set (or in the comments, or at the table). But to show part of the audience that another way of thinking exists.

Some will respond to it. I'd even say: that's all they're waiting for. Provided you're able to express it clearly, without getting angry, and without falling into the traps.

Which is perfectly possible once you've grasped the true nature of the game.

And understood that you must never answer the questions.

You must tell your story.

Received on Instagram:

I just passed you on rue Faubourg Saint-Denis, I simply wanted to exchange a few words. You spend your time talking about humanity and values on social media, but in real life, you brush people off with a wave of the hand. Some contradiction. More proof that authentic people are hard to find and that fine words don't make fine people. I'm unfollowing.

My reply:

You try to stop me in the middle of the street with a cop's gesture while I'm walking fast with headphones on, and then you come and lecture me?

I owe you NOTHING. And if you think that contradicts what I say, you've misunderstood: link to my "I'm not nice" video

When I made that video and the next one about niceness, I got a lot of criticism.

But this is exactly what I'm talking about.

The guy decides I have to stop, here and now. He does it very clumsily, without a smile, like an order. And when I don't obey? He lectures me. He talks to me about "humanity". Because obeying him would be the right thing to do. It would be "nice".

I know: it's a very, very light version of what a lot of women go through every day.

This is coming from an engineer.

And not necessarily "magical" in the way you'd think – I'm wary of charlatans.

But there's no denying it: it's something I notice more and more.

I've talked about it here, here and, more recently, here.

I'd define it like this: love and attention (which are the same thing) change the world.

For real.

The material world around you transforms according to the attention you pay it and the attention others pay you.

So trying to change the world by acting on matter is a mistake.

The world changes through magic. Matter is a consequence.

And magic starts from within.

I made a 4x3 out of this morning's thought.

I don't want to get better. I want my mistakes to become beautiful.

A photo of clouds, printed, drawn on, then photographed again with effects.

This is the longest "walkable" distance on our planet, according to this post.

About 3 years of walking, 8 hours a day, from South Africa to the far end of Russia.

Come on, let's ditch our stupid lives and go do it.

I don't want to improve my technique.

I want my mistakes to become beautiful.

If nothing comes, do nothing.

I think that's the first rule for reaching a flow state.

Though "nothing" doesn't really mean anything.

You're always doing something, just not what you'd planned.

Accept that what I'm doing now is exactly what I should be doing.

And the next thing too.

And the one after that.

Flow is less about producing than accepting.

On the train.

The last guy suffers from a lack of alignment... 😁

I'm not interested in people who want to debate.

I'm interested in people who are looking for the truth.

They're rarely the same people.

People who like to debate want to prove they're right.

They've often built their opinions on hidden interests or emotions they never reveal in the conversation. The source of their beliefs is out of reach. All you ever get to argue about is the crust.

People who are looking for the truth are always on your side.

They may disagree, but they're working toward the same goal.

A little boy tripped in front of the café.

His mom showed him what he'd tripped on, wiped his hands, gave him a kiss, and off they went, happier than before.

Children don't need anything else: just a little attention.

For them, attention fixes the world.

The antidote to what scares them, to what hurts them, is to show them that we saw, that we understood, and that what happened to them matters to us.

Magic is enough.

Either I had a mystical experience during meditation this morning.

Or yesterday's burger didn't agree with me.

Both?

Tonight I'm sleeping in a hotel and making a drawing to complain but actually it's fine I'm happy but joy doesn't sell as well. Damn I have to fill the 3rd line too. Stop.

I'm working on my naive style. There's room for improvement.

If your idea of "happiness" is too vague, it's out of reach.

All it does is devalue your present.

I'm still exploring "silencing my thoughts", and it's opening a lot of doors. Especially for creative work, as Thom Yorke described.

Right now, my brain is unplugged.

The sentences come one after another, without my having to think about them.

I was writing in my journal and tried an experiment: can I unplug my brain? The way I sometimes do when I read? Or when I create?

We tend to think of writing as an intellectual activity.

It isn't at all. Or not necessarily. Or not the way we'd expect.

Is this what they call "flow"?

Let's be clear: I'm often in a state of flow. I'd even say my days are organized around it. But just now, I spotted a new inner mechanism:

Switching thought off. Even more than before. And letting it come.

And when nothing comes?

Silence.

And that's fine.

The problem with AI is that it will never drop what we've asked it to do and say, "Stop! We have to save the planet first! It's a matter of survival!"

What good is a superintelligence that doesn't use its intelligence to set priorities?

It's only there to help us go faster in the direction we've already chosen.

The direction that brought us to the brink.