12 Comments
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David Perlmutter's avatar

The mundane is more interesting than a lot of people think it is.

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Andrew Smith's avatar

I couldn't agree more. Are there any particular "mundane" things you've been thinking about lately that have turned out to be fascinating?

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Ryan Schneider's avatar

Cool stuff. Notoriously difficult to do justice to a full Moon's light cascading off the ocean and onto your retina. Or your phone's retina.

We were out today and stopped in a rural vista and sat at a picnic table. I wandered off to find a tree behind which I could dispose of the Schlitt's Gay I'd enjoyed earlier. On my way, I discovered a large trail of ants. Pretty large ones. Their trail was a good five meters back to the hole in the ground where they'd built their nest. It was like a tiny freeway. Half going one way, half going the other, many of them dragging things. Bits of grass, a dead bug. I tried not to step on them.

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Andrew Smith's avatar

Wonder is everywhere in nature! Those little ant freeways are cool to watch, and even cooler if you think about how they're doing it. That might be really fun to write about soon.

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Heather Martel's avatar

I really enjoyed your nerdy take on the moonlight. The mundane is more beautiful when I think of angles and photons. Thanks Andrew!

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Andrew Smith's avatar

Yay! Feynman once talked about an artistic friend who insisted that he could see beauty, where Feynman's understanding of the physics underlying what he saw ruined things. Feynman completely disagree, and unsurprisingly, so do I.

If anything, a deeper level of understanding helps you appreciate the beauty even more.

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Heather Martel's avatar

100%

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Daniel Nest's avatar

Most people upon seeing the Moon and its reflect: "Hey guys, check this out, pretty neat!"

Andrew: *writes an entire post about it*

Classic Andrew!

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Andrew Smith's avatar

Do you even overthink bro?

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David Perlmutter's avatar

Exploring a new place to you with fresh eyes. I did that a few weeks ago visiting British Columbia and Vancouver Island.

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Andrew Smith's avatar

Oh yeah! I love doing that. You can dive into history, biology, geography... basically, everything about a place.

Then, you go back home and you can (hopefully) see your home town in the same way, through new-ish eyes.

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Sum@sumdifference01's avatar

From my perspective the light is already within you. It is transformed into a thing (external) through thinking…

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