Is there new music that has captured your attention? What music are you listening to at the moment?
Share why if you wish.
Month: May 2026
What Have You Started That Didn’t Exist Before?
A plan, a business, a drawing, a person: what have you started that didn’t exist? When have you made something new?
Creation is a funny thing. Often, you start with nothing — a blank page, for example. And then an idea comes, you put that idea down on the page, and suddenly something exists that didn’t exist before. It’s like magic! You created something from nothing, conjured something from thin air.
Another example seems almost miraculous, but in fact is incredibly common: the act of giving birth. A man and a woman, together, create an entire human being who didn’t exist before. While the resulting baby can’t do much on their own at first, eventually they are a self-sufficient adult. It’s the way of the world, but it doesn’t make it any less remarkable.
Intellectual Roundtable is another example. Back in 2016 it started as a simple idea, and after some fine-tuning and some back and forth between Michael and me, in 2017 we debuted our first question, Why do we like what we like? Before we had the idea, registered the domain name, rented some server space, thought of some questions, and then published the first one, Intellectual Roundtable simply didn’t exist. Now, years later, not only does it exist, we’ve published more than 1300 distinct questions.
Indeed, the world is full of things — chairs, books, songs, spatulas, equations — that someone had to think up and turn into something to share with other humans. None of those things existed before, at least not in their current form.
So what about you? What is an example of something that you made, that you brought into being from nothingness? It might be something as simple as a doodle, or as complicated as a building. Because of you, what exists that didn’t exist before?
Related questions: Where do shared ideas exist? Create or consume? What art do you make?
Vegetables: Organic Or Not?
Do you buy organic vegetables, to avoid harmful pesticides? or does the higher price turn you off?
Share why if you wish.
What Makes You Feel Good?
There are many things in the world today that can make you feel bad. But what can lift your spirits and make you feel good when you need it?
Share why if you wish.
How Do We Improve People’s Lives?
Sometimes it feels as if everyone is struggling these days. In response, if you wanted to improve someone else’s life, what would you do?
Chances are, first and foremost you are worried about your own well-being. You need to pay the mortgage, get the shopping done, score tickets to the game, and so on. And everyone else is doing the same.
It would be nice, though, if other people made your life a little easier. Even something as small as letting you merge in traffic rather than cutting you off. A little bit of slack in one area might mean you have more time or energy to put toward something else, and it all could snowball to great effect.
Well, then, what about the reverse? What can you do, without it being too onerous to you, to improve the life of the people you come into contact with?
Obviously, the people you spend the most time with provide you the greatest opportunity. You might see your family members every day, and your co-workers and friends almost as much. You know about their lives, and you probably have a pretty good idea what would make them better.
But there also people you have minimal contact with. Folks in line at the coffee joint. Fellow commuters on the freeway. Shoppers at the local grocery store. Without knowing as much about them, there are still things you can do.
And of course, you know yourself best of all. What would make your life better? What could someone else do to help you out, even a little bit? Can you do that thing for someone else? Is there something you might even be able to do for yourself, to make your own life better?
Related questions: What are you doing to make the world a better place? What can you do to improve your surroundings? What will you do today to make your tomorrow better?