Sarah has illustrated the problem perfectly; waiting for some passive exposure to an outside influence to bring her enlightenment. Dividendium's response illustrates just a fraction of the thoughtful consideration that could be invested in those photos. Take the picture of the soldier hold the child high up on the wall. Before I saw the child's smile, I just saw a soldier pinning some kid high on a wall in what looked like aggressive behavior, and I thought OH NO! Then as my eyes moved up to the perfect grin on the boys face, my entire demeanor changed and I reflected on how many soldiers must be engaged in friendships like this with the local population, and kids that we hear nothing about. How much do these kids play a surrogate family role in the soldiers lives, who are so far from their own families? Those are my deeper reflections...but I think about the trivial as well...the boy is heavily clothed indicating that it might be cold, but he has sandals on...aren't his feet cold? Bottom line is that you change your own mind, your own life, by analyzing the opportunities that others provide you, and then making the valuable bits personal.

@sarah

The pictures could give you some perspective on your life, and help you see how awesome it already is, compared to how some other people are currently living.

Or they could let you know that even when things get really difficult (like stuff is literally blowing up around you), life still goes on.

So whatever little trifle life is throwing at you at the moment, it's never so bad that you should give up or even skip the fun stuff (beach day, cooking/tea, baby making :).

How are these pictures supposed to change my life? This blog is going downhill fast.

Tynan, I can never get any code working! Send me one please!

Sweet photos.

Guys, please remember to post if you use these codes. They all seem used and no one has commented that they used any of them. Thanks!

Jason mentioned that you killed it (in a good way of course) at, SXSW. I wasn't able to make it since I was at the convention center doing my thing,.

Avoiding the rain in SF? How many times have you used your Ortlieb Flight in the rain? How does it hold up?

Love the photos! Bits of color amongst the starkness, the smile of a child, flowers blooming, "a day at the beach", tending to animals, keeping a baby safe...life goes on.

@egr

"yc" is Y Combinator (http://ycombinator.com/). They do seed investing in very early stage startups. And try to get bigger investors (angels and venture capitalists) to make bigger investments later on.

Hey Tynan,

Just curious, how does applying to YC fit into your outside the box lifestyle?

PG and co supposedly do a good job of pimping out their students to VCs and angels. Which might get you more money in the end than bootstrapping. But it seems like you'd be giving up some of your freedom since you'd now have to answer to investors.

I kind of got the impression that you weren't willing to make that trade...freedom for money.

Do you see the YC deal differently?