Maria Popova

Yeah.

And so I thought, of course, the most obvious solution would be to build a website.

Now, this is before blogs.

So I wanted to learn how to do it, but I didn't have enough money to take a class.

So I ate store brand tuna and oatmeal for three weeks, which is the cheapest, most nutritious food you can get on a very limited budget.

And then I used the money to take a night class at the University of the Arts in downtown Philly, and I learned to code.

And I built the world's ugliest website.

But it was a website.

So at this point, I could just say, go to this URL and do your own thing.

I don't need to send anything to anyone.

And I don't know how it went from that to now this.

I've been just me...

continuously but incrementally changing and the little short blurbs of links became little essayettes became eventually 3,000 word essays and the nature of what I found interesting changed so much over the years but my process has always been the same to stay alive to stay curious to to help me through whatever I'm living through and to figure out how to live which I'm still learning.

Yeah, I'm the janitor.

I'm the web designer.

I'm the administrator.

Well, I don't believe in gifts because they presume a giver.

And I don't believe in burdens because they are anchored in kind of self-flagellation and self-blame.

I think it's an opportunity.

And I also think it's our destiny.