We all have ideas about how things should be. How the world could be a better place, if only x, y, and z.

Unfortunately, in most cases these ideas are tested only in the laboratories of our minds and fail to move beyond the dry-erase boards of conjecture. All the wine-sparked discussions and rage-laced manifestos in the world won’t change a thing if no one ever makes manifest the concepts they contain. Walks an actual walk, rather than endlessly talking the theoretical talk.

Even if the practical pedestrian stumbles with her first stride, at least she’ll have more data to take back to the drawing board. Informed insight to share with others, who can then publish better and better manifestos and have increasingly more educated discussions.

A philosophy unlived is doomed to remain mere theory and is as useless to its owner as a book never read or food never eaten.

Think. Do. Learn. Share. And grow.

Update: April 12, 2017

This is one of the two main pieces of advice I give people who ask how to get started traveling/simplifying/building something. The other is to take a step back and look at the big picture, and figure out what you actually hope to accomplish. But then it’s this: do stuff. Act on things, don’t just think about them.