Paul E. Zimmerman.com

2026-10-09T14:47:54.491-07:00

Language, culture, and trained methodologies are forms of cognitive technology... tools that alter the nature of the tasks that the human brain must perform. They allow us to environment-engineer our own minds, installing new behavioral programs to solve complex problems.
— Andy Clark, Natural-Born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies, and the Future of Human Intelligence (2003)

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
— Arthur C. Clarke, Profiles of the Future (1962)

2026-10-05T17:17:48.416-07:00

2026-09-11T12:17:37.963-07:00

How much that you feel like apologizing over is not yours to apologize for?

2026-09-09T13:30:18.387-07:00

It is a mistake to imagine permanence where there is none, yet we concern ourselves with others' opinions of us.

2026-08-11T09:59:22.334-07:00

Are you loved, or are you useful?

2026-08-10T15:05:52.464-07:00

All things in your life are potentially traps.

The hardest to detect are disguised as things that serve you.

2026-08-03T08:36:16.607-07:00

An amusing paradox: the certainty that comes with making radical uncertainty the foundation of one's worldview.

2026-07-07T16:31:39.292-07:00

I didn't choose my own survival lightly. One almost never does.

2026-07-05T11:51:47.138-07:00

Both the doomer and the rational optimist will turn out to be right.

The question is: which does one want to be?

2026-06-27T15:09:58.534-07:00

Embracing kaizen is the first kaizen.

2026-06-17T07:18:41.311-07:00

Modern vampires do not drink blood. Instead, they seek to make someone not giving them what they want, both what is within their power to do for themselves and otherwise, a moral failing on the part of the one imposed upon.

2026-05-26T07:38:13.446-07:00

How has putting off the better because it isn't the best been working out for you?

2026-04-21T08:20:00.000-07:00

2026-04-03T12:48:00.000-07:00

Removing people from your life whose time is cheap makes a lot of things better.

(Check for your own reflection in that statement before agreeing.)

2025-12-08T19:21:00.000-08:00

"Anyone can imagine the invigorating feeling that comes with de-cluttering and minimizing, even if there are mountains of things lying around at home right now. It’s because we’ve all been through something like it at one time or another. Think, for example, of going away on a trip. Before you head out, you’re probably busy packing at the last minute. You go through your checklist of items to take with you and although everything looks fine, you can’t help feeling that there’s something that you’ve forgotten. But the clock is ticking, and it’s time to go. You give up, get up, lock the door behind you, and start rolling your suitcase along the pavement—with a strange sense of freedom. You think then that yes, you can manage to live for a while with this one suitcase. Maybe you’ve forgotten to bring something along, but hey, you can always get whatever you need wherever you’re going. You arrive at your destination and lie down on the freshly made bed—or the tatami mat if it happens to be a Japanese-style inn. It feels good. The room is clean and uncluttered. You aren’t surrounded by all the things that usually distract you, the stuff that takes up so much of your attention. That’s why travel accommodations often feel so comfortable. You set down your bag and step out for a walk around the neighborhood. You feel light on your feet, like you could keep walking forever. You have the freedom to go wherever you want. Time is on your side, and you don’t have the usual chores or work responsibilities weighing you down. This is a minimalist state, and most of us have experienced it at one time or another.

The reverse is true, too, however. Imagine your return flight. Though your belongings were packed neatly in your suitcase before you started your trip, everything has now been squeezed inside in a mess. The souvenirs you bought don’t fit in your suitcase, so you’re also carrying a couple of big paper bags. The admission tickets and receipts from the tourist sites you visited—you’re going to sort through those later, right? That’s why they’re still stuffed in your pockets. You’re standing in the security line and the time has come to pull out your boarding pass. Uh-oh, where have you put it? You start looking everywhere but you can’t seem to find it. You’re getting closer to the head of the line and your frustration mounts. You can sense the icy glares of the other people who are standing in the long line behind you, like your back is being pierced by pins and needles. This is a maximalist state.

These stressful situations tend to happen when you’re saddled with more objects than you can handle. You aren’t able to separate out what’s really important. With our desire to have more, we find ourselves spending more and more time and energy to manage and maintain everything we have. We try so hard to do this that the things that were supposed to help us end up ruling us.

Tyler Durden said it best in the film Fight Club: “The things you own end up owning you.”

-- Fumio Sasaki, "Goodbye, Things"

2025-12-04T10:33:05.761-08:00

It's easy to have a lot of friends if your aim is low.

2025-11-25T15:31:00.000-08:00

I have now seen the end of a 30 year long lesson, witnessed through the life of someone else.

The lesson is this: Do not seek to assign the responsibility for your own happiness to others, because you will then never achieve happiness.

Rest in peace, mom. All is forgiven.

2025-10-07T13:01:00.000-07:00

“Someone has to start. Other people might not be cooperative, but that is not connected to you. My advice is this: You should start. With no regard to whether others are cooperative or not.” -- Alfred Adler

2025-10-03T23:33:00.000-07:00

I've gone out of my way to attend one of Morrissey's concerts. It's a first for me after listening to his music for over three decades. It hadn't been in the cards for me before over all of that time.

It's not happening now as he's down with an infection in both of his ears.

Bad luck.

So, I can be mad about it. Or, I can try to spin this into some new opportunity.

I choose the latter.

Try it yourself the next time things go wrong. Immediately start looking for something to remake the pieces into. You'll be surprised at how much better the outcome of the thing you didn't expect often is versus the thing that you originally wanted when you decide to not just sit around feeling miserable.

It's not easy, but it becomes more so with practice.

I've done this many times, and it never gets old.

2025-08-13T14:43:00.000-07:00

2025-05-07T06:32:00.000-07:00

2025-02-13T13:56:00.000-08:00

We are now witnessing the truth of a meme being revealed: "taxation is theft."

2025-01-01T10:00:00.000-08:00

2025.

You may now be thinking of all of the things in your life and about yourself that you intend to improve.

A new year.

So what?

What about yesterday? What about that time that's passed and never coming back? Why haven't you already started?

2024-12-11T00:10:00.007-08:00

Destroying stuff is easy. Dumb, simple animals do it all the time.

Comparatively, building things is hard.

Keep this in mind when you think about who your heroes are.

2024-12-09T14:07:00.000-08:00

Intentional communities are superior to organic ones.

This also applies to the concept of family.