flâneur

containment

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Gunther Forg, Untitled, 2007 Two friends once told me that after a decade of working on startups together they had exhausted their ability to panic. I understood what they were pointing to—not enlightenment but a kind of hard-won resignation, an ability to be calm under pressure borne from living through intense chaos for a long period of time. I like think of it as containment, though some people would say

Gunther Forg, Untitled, 2007 Two friends once told me that after a decade of working on startups together they had exhausted their ability to panic. I understood what they were pointing to—not enlightenment but a kind of hard-won resignation, an ability to be calm under pressure borne from living through intense chaos for a long period of time. I like think of it as containment, though some people would say control, or poise. It’s the quality that’s most important to me, somewhat in other people but mostly in myself. The ability to distinguish between what’s outside and what’s inside, and…

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