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    <title>quotes &amp;mdash; One Thomas Alan</title>
    <link>https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/tag:quotes</link>
    <description>Reflections and photos from life in Japan and abroad.</description>
    <pubDate>Fri, 08 May 2026 17:07:04 +0000</pubDate>
    <item>
      <title>On Becoming Who We Are</title>
      <link>https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/on-becoming-who-we-are?pk_campaign=rss-feed</link>
      <description>&lt;![CDATA[!--more--&#xA;&#xA;Most of our life is spent chasing the person we think we’re supposed to become, until one day, we wake up and realize who we are.&#xA;&#xA;Did the billion little choices it’s estimated we make in a life guide us there?&#xA;&#xA;Or was it always meant to be?&#xA;&#xA;As always, your mileage may vary, so use what’s useful. Discard the rest.&#xA;&#xA;#quotes #philosophy&#xA;&#xA;hr&#xD;&#xA;pstrongWritten by a creative technologist, photographer, and an evolving human living in Japan—enhanced (and tangled) by technology./strong/p&#xD;&#xA;!--emailsub--]]&gt;</description>
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<p>Most of our life is spent chasing the person we think we’re supposed to become, until one day, we wake up and realize who we are.</p>

<p>Did the billion little choices it’s estimated we make in a life guide us there?</p>

<p>Or was it always meant to be?</p>

<p>As always, your mileage may vary, so use what’s useful. Discard the rest.</p>

<p><a href="https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/tag:quotes" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">quotes</span></a> <a href="https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/tag:philosophy" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">philosophy</span></a></p>

<hr>

<p><p><strong>Written by a creative technologist, photographer, and an evolving human living in Japan—enhanced (and tangled) by technology.</strong></p>
</p>
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      <guid>https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/on-becoming-who-we-are</guid>
      <pubDate>Thu, 24 Apr 2025 22:03:31 +0000</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title>On Faith</title>
      <link>https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/on-faith?pk_campaign=rss-feed</link>
      <description>&lt;![CDATA[blockquote“I have faith in humanity. I just don’t trust people. :)” &amp;mdash; citeMe (but I’m sure I’m not the first)/cite/blockquote&#xA;&#xA;As always, you may view it differently, so take what works, discard the rest.&#xA;&#xA;#quotes #philosophy&#xA;&#xA;hr&#xD;&#xA;pstrongWritten by a creative technologist, photographer, and an evolving human living in Japan—enhanced (and tangled) by technology./strong/p&#xD;&#xA;!--emailsub--]]&gt;</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[<blockquote>“I have faith in humanity. I just don’t trust people. :)” — <cite>Me (but I’m sure I’m not the first)</cite></blockquote>

<p>As always, you may view it differently, so take what works, discard the rest.</p>

<p><a href="https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/tag:quotes" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">quotes</span></a> <a href="https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/tag:philosophy" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">philosophy</span></a></p>

<hr>

<p><p><strong>Written by a creative technologist, photographer, and an evolving human living in Japan—enhanced (and tangled) by technology.</strong></p>
</p>
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      <guid>https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/on-faith</guid>
      <pubDate>Wed, 23 Apr 2025 18:58:58 +0000</pubDate>
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      <title>On Order and Chaos </title>
      <link>https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/blockquoteplan-for-order-and-youll-be-destroyed-by-chaos?pk_campaign=rss-feed</link>
      <description>&lt;![CDATA[blockquotePlan for order and you’ll be destroyed by chaos. Prepare for chaos and you’ll thrive in any condition. &amp;mdash; citeSahil Bloom, The Curiosity Chronicle, Jan 7, 2025/cite/blockquote&#xA;&#xA;From: 34 Life Lessons from 34 Years – Sahil Bloom&#xA;&#xA;As always, your mileage may vary, so use what’s helpful. Discard the rest.&#xA;&#xA;#quotes #philosophy&#xA;&#xA;hr&#xD;&#xA;pstrongWritten by a creative technologist, photographer, and an evolving human living in Japan—enhanced (and tangled) by technology./strong/p&#xD;&#xA;!--emailsub--]]&gt;</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[<blockquote>Plan for order and you’ll be destroyed by chaos. Prepare for chaos and you’ll thrive in any condition. — <cite>Sahil Bloom, *The Curiosity Chronicle*, Jan 7, 2025</cite></blockquote>

<p>From: <a href="https://www.sahilbloom.com/newsletter/34-life-lessons-from-34-years">34 Life Lessons from 34 Years – Sahil Bloom</a></p>

<p>As always, your mileage may vary, so use what’s helpful. Discard the rest.</p>

<p><a href="https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/tag:quotes" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">quotes</span></a> <a href="https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/tag:philosophy" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">philosophy</span></a></p>

<hr>

<p><p><strong>Written by a creative technologist, photographer, and an evolving human living in Japan—enhanced (and tangled) by technology.</strong></p>
</p>
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      <guid>https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/blockquoteplan-for-order-and-youll-be-destroyed-by-chaos</guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 21 Apr 2025 20:31:13 +0000</pubDate>
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      <title>On The Accumulation of Time</title>
      <link>https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/on-the-accumulation-of-time?pk_campaign=rss-feed</link>
      <description>&lt;![CDATA[!--more--&#xA;&#xA;I love this quote from a recent documentary I watched:&#xA;&#xA;https://youtu.be/8qdCNE0dHGQ?si=lFXiD_yr4QtQFnu1&#xA;&#xA;---&#xA;&#xA;To good light and moments that matter. ✌️&#xA;&#xA;#quotes #photography #philosophy&#xA;&#xA;hr&#xD;&#xA;pstrongWritten by a creative technologist, photographer, and an evolving human living in Japan—enhanced (and tangled) by technology./strong/p&#xD;&#xA;!--emailsub--]]&gt;</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[

<p>I love this quote from a recent documentary I watched:</p>

<p><iframe allow="monetization" class="embedly-embed" src="//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2F8qdCNE0dHGQ%3Ffeature%3Doembed&display_name=YouTube&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D8qdCNE0dHGQ&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2F8qdCNE0dHGQ%2Fhqdefault.jpg&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=youtube" width="640" height="360" scrolling="no" title="YouTube embed" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture;" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe></p>

<hr/>

<p>To good light and moments that matter. ✌️</p>

<p><a href="https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/tag:quotes" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">quotes</span></a> <a href="https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/tag:photography" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">photography</span></a> <a href="https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/tag:philosophy" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">philosophy</span></a></p>

<hr>

<p><p><strong>Written by a creative technologist, photographer, and an evolving human living in Japan—enhanced (and tangled) by technology.</strong></p>
</p>
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      <guid>https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/on-the-accumulation-of-time</guid>
      <pubDate>Sun, 13 Apr 2025 03:23:05 +0000</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title>On What I Used To Know</title>
      <link>https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/on-being-wrong?pk_campaign=rss-feed</link>
      <description>&lt;![CDATA[blockquote  &#xA;“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”  &#xA;&amp;mdash; citeStephen Hawking /cite  &#xA;/blockquote&#xA;&#xA;The irony about “wisdom” with age, is that you question what you think you know more than ever.&#xA;&#xA;Sometimes what we know blocks us from being open to the idea that we might be wrong about what we know…&#xA;&#xA;…and that quiet resistance can keep us from seeing the obvious, the new, or even the truth hiding in plain sight.&#xA;&#xA;So, I guess I’m say, the older I get, the less I think I know.&#xA;&#xA;---&#xA;&#xA;As always, your mileage may vary, so use what’s helpful. Discard the rest.✌️&#xA;&#xA;#thinkingoutloud #quotes&#xA;&#xA;hr&#xD;&#xA;pstrongWritten by a creative technologist, photographer, and an evolving human living in Japan—enhanced (and tangled) by technology./strong/p&#xD;&#xA;!--emailsub--]]&gt;</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[<blockquote>  
“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”  
— <cite>Stephen Hawking </cite>  
</blockquote>

<p><img src="https://i.snap.as/8xDXzC0w.png" alt=""/></p>

<p>The irony about “wisdom” with age, is that you question what you think you know more than ever.</p>

<p>Sometimes what we know blocks us from being open to the idea that we might be wrong about what we know…</p>

<p>…and that quiet resistance can keep us from seeing the obvious, the new, or even the truth hiding in plain sight.</p>

<p>So, I guess I’m say, the older I get, the less I think I know.</p>

<hr/>

<p>As always, your mileage may vary, so use what’s helpful. Discard the rest.✌️</p>

<p><a href="https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/tag:thinkingoutloud" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">thinkingoutloud</span></a> <a href="https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/tag:quotes" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">quotes</span></a></p>

<hr>

<p><p><strong>Written by a creative technologist, photographer, and an evolving human living in Japan—enhanced (and tangled) by technology.</strong></p>
</p>
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      <guid>https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/on-being-wrong</guid>
      <pubDate>Sun, 13 Apr 2025 00:02:11 +0000</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>On Oddity</title>
      <link>https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/on-oddity?pk_campaign=rss-feed</link>
      <description>&lt;![CDATA[Minimalist AI-generated drawing of a stickman in nature&#xA;&#xA;  There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. —Francis Bacon&#xA;&#xA;I have a thing for odd numbers, even a little OCD. They’re just more interesting—unbalanced, a little unpredictable.&#xA;&#xA;Odd numbers are the system’s way of embracing controlled chaos. They introduce asymmetry—just enough to make things resilient, interesting, or memorable. Like a glitch that makes the pattern more real.&#xA;&#xA;There’s beauty in things that don’t quite resolve and things that do, oddly, and I love that. :)&#xA;&#xA;---&#xA;&#xA;As always, your mileage may vary, so use what’s helpful. Discard the rest. ✌️&#xA;&#xA;#quotes #thinkingoutloud &#xA;&#xA;hr&#xD;&#xA;pstrongWritten by a creative technologist, photographer, and an evolving human living in Japan—enhanced (and tangled) by technology./strong/p&#xD;&#xA;!--emailsub--]]&gt;</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img src="https://i.snap.as/Xnm5m9c0.png" alt="Minimalist AI-generated drawing of a stickman in nature" title="Beauty in the odds"/></p>

<blockquote><p>There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. —Francis Bacon</p></blockquote>

<p>I have a thing for odd numbers, even a little OCD. They’re just more interesting—unbalanced, a little unpredictable.</p>

<p>Odd numbers are the system’s way of embracing controlled chaos. They introduce asymmetry—just enough to make things resilient, interesting, or memorable. Like a glitch that makes the pattern more real.</p>

<p>There’s beauty in things that don’t quite resolve and things that do, oddly, and I love that. :)</p>

<hr/>

<p>As always, your mileage may vary, so use what’s helpful. Discard the rest. ✌️</p>

<p><a href="https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/tag:quotes" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">quotes</span></a> <a href="https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/tag:thinkingoutloud" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">thinkingoutloud</span></a></p>

<hr>

<p><p><strong>Written by a creative technologist, photographer, and an evolving human living in Japan—enhanced (and tangled) by technology.</strong></p>
</p>
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      <guid>https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/on-oddity</guid>
      <pubDate>Sun, 06 Apr 2025 20:40:04 +0000</pubDate>
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      <title>On Simplicity</title>
      <link>https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/on-simplicity?pk_campaign=rss-feed</link>
      <description>&lt;![CDATA[  Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful.  — John Maeda, The Laws of Simplicity&#xA;&#xA;AI generated illustration &#xA;&#xA;---&#xA;&#xA;As always, your mileage may vary, so use what’s helpful. Discard the rest.✌️&#xA;&#xA;quotes&#xA;&#xA;hr&#xD;&#xA;pstrongWritten by a creative technologist, photographer, and an evolving human living in Japan—enhanced (and tangled) by technology./strong/p&#xD;&#xA;!--emailsub--]]&gt;</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[<blockquote><p>Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful.  — John Maeda, The Laws of Simplicity</p></blockquote>

<p><img src="https://i.snap.as/MCYbTppJ.png" alt="AI generated illustration "/></p>

<hr/>

<p>As always, your mileage may vary, so use what’s helpful. Discard the rest.✌️</p>

<p><a href="https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/tag:quotes" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">quotes</span></a></p>

<hr>

<p><p><strong>Written by a creative technologist, photographer, and an evolving human living in Japan—enhanced (and tangled) by technology.</strong></p>
</p>
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      <guid>https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/on-simplicity</guid>
      <pubDate>Thu, 13 Mar 2025 19:38:59 +0000</pubDate>
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      <title>On Impossibilities</title>
      <link>https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/the-impossibility-of-impossible?pk_campaign=rss-feed</link>
      <description>&lt;![CDATA[When my daughter was little, I&#39;d say, &#34;Nothing&#39;s impossible—just stuff we haven&#39;t figured out yet.&#34; &#xA;&#xA;&#34;Impossible&#34; is just fear talking. We get scared of what we don&#39;t know. Life isn&#39;t split into possible and impossible; it&#39;s more about what we know and what we&#39;re still learning.&#xA;&#xA;As Arthur C. Clarke wisely said:&#xA;&#xA;“The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.”&#xA;&#xA;So when I’m thinking about all the things in life that seem impossible, I remind myself: we’ll get there—we just haven’t figured it out yet.&#xA;&#xA;As always, your mileage may vary, so use what’s helpful. Discard the rest. ✌️&#xA;&#xA;#quotes #thinkingoutloud &#xA;&#xA;hr&#xD;&#xA;pstrongWritten by a creative technologist, photographer, and an evolving human living in Japan—enhanced (and tangled) by technology./strong/p&#xD;&#xA;!--emailsub--]]&gt;</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>When my daughter was little, I&#39;d say, “Nothing&#39;s impossible—just stuff we haven&#39;t figured out yet.”</p>

<p>“Impossible” is just fear talking. We get scared of what we don&#39;t know. Life isn&#39;t split into possible and impossible; it&#39;s more about what we know and what we&#39;re still learning.</p>

<p>As Arthur C. Clarke wisely said:</p>

<pre><code>“The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.”
</code></pre>

<p>So when I’m thinking about all the things in life that seem impossible, I remind myself: we’ll get there—we just haven’t figured it out yet.</p>

<p>As always, your mileage may vary, so use what’s helpful. Discard the rest. ✌️</p>

<p><a href="https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/tag:quotes" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">quotes</span></a> <a href="https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/tag:thinkingoutloud" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">thinkingoutloud</span></a></p>

<hr>

<p><p><strong>Written by a creative technologist, photographer, and an evolving human living in Japan—enhanced (and tangled) by technology.</strong></p>
</p>
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      <guid>https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/the-impossibility-of-impossible</guid>
      <pubDate>Tue, 04 Mar 2025 12:29:06 +0000</pubDate>
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      <title>Time and Identity</title>
      <link>https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/time-and-identity?pk_campaign=rss-feed</link>
      <description>&lt;![CDATA[  &#34;I like watches that remind me of a person that I&#39;ve never been.&#34;  &#xA;  — John Mayer&#xA;&#xA;A great watch can reflect who you are, or who you imagine yourself becoming.&#xA;&#xA;As always, your mileage may vary, so use what’s helpful. Discard the rest.✌️&#xA;&#xA;#quotes, #philosophy, #watches&#xA;&#xA;hr&#xD;&#xA;pstrongWritten by a creative technologist, photographer, and an evolving human living in Japan—enhanced (and tangled) by technology./strong/p&#xD;&#xA;!--emailsub--]]&gt;</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[<blockquote><p><strong>“I like watches that remind me of a person that I&#39;ve never been.”</strong><br/>
— John Mayer</p></blockquote>

<p>A great watch can reflect who you are, or who you imagine yourself becoming.</p>

<p>As always, your mileage may vary, so use what’s helpful. Discard the rest.✌️</p>

<p><a href="https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/tag:quotes" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">quotes</span></a>, <a href="https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/tag:philosophy" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">philosophy</span></a>, <a href="https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/tag:watches" class="hashtag"><span>#</span><span class="p-category">watches</span></a></p>

<hr>

<p><p><strong>Written by a creative technologist, photographer, and an evolving human living in Japan—enhanced (and tangled) by technology.</strong></p>
</p>
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      <guid>https://1thomasalan.writeas.com/time-and-identity</guid>
      <pubDate>Wed, 01 Jan 2025 19:49:32 +0000</pubDate>
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