Daniel Bourke

Life and Living

It all works out

Walking past older people and saying hello, talking to my Grandfather, seeing elderly couples at the cafe. I enjoy these moments. They remind me of where I’m heading. If I’m lucky I’ll get to that age. And I’m lucky enough to be here already so I’

Conversation

Silent is an anagram of listen

With unlimited information sources, it’s easy to fill your brain and drown out thoughts of your own with the thoughts of others. It’s not a bad thing, they can help you think better. But best not to let them crossover at the same time. When you’re listening

Life and Living

Thinking about starting a farm

I try to get to first principles as often as I can, keep it simple, with writing, with what I work on, with how I spend my time, with health. The more I learn about health, the more I keep coming back to food being a first principle which has

Take the pathway yourself

In order for a man to offer the greatest value to humanity, he has to take a pathway for himself. A man following an existing path is the same as a river flowing through an existing canal. The water flows through without much of a song and dance. That’s

Learning

How long does it take?

My physics teacher had a saying. Every time we’d ask a question which had many different possible answers, he’d say, “how long is a piece of string?”. Being physics students someone eventually realised the length of any piece of string is twice half its length. So from then

Creating

What if you couldn’t see the metrics?

When the like button arrived, things changed. When view counts were made visible to everyone, things changed. Changed? Now everyone had something to compare their work to. If you created a post and it had less likes than another, it wasn’t as good. When you search for a video,

Life and Living

Sudden vs. Gradual

Your biggest changes can happen suddenly or gradually. Losing 50kg starts with a decision starts with a decision to lose weight and get healthier. Getting a new job starts with a decision to get a new job. Running your own business starts with a decision to start and run your

Stories

The sun will shine on you differently

There was a bit of a bump getting into the car park. I found a spot and stopped. The door handle is broken so I opened the window, opened the door from the outside and held it open whilst I put the window up. As I got out, it started

Life and Living

Take care of your family

All of this worry? All of this work? The list of things to do. It never ends. But it all pales in comparison. What happens when something goes wrong with a loved one? That becomes your focus. It puts things into perspective. The arguments, the stress, the rush. What for?

Art

You can use your day to day as fuel for your art

Stuck? Write a story about what happened today. Working a job which doesn’t set you on fire? Remind yourself, it helps to pay for food, it gives you funds to work on your craft. Art and opportunities to create are all around. All it takes is looking at things

Stories

The girl from yesterday

It’s funny how it goes. You could be working on something all day and then run into a girl you know. One you used to lust over, not anymore but plenty in the past. And it throws your whole system out of whack. All the memories are so strong.

Art

No Eggs On Toast

If you’re ever in Melbourne (or Paris), you should visit Hardware Societe [https://hardwaresociete.com/]. I found them because of a book I picked up in a cafe at the markets. The book was pink with big green letters across the front spelling out NO EGGS ON TOAST. As

Stories

“Oh, so you’ve got a real job”

We were sitting at the dinner table getting to know each other. I’d been on a few dates with their daughter so I wanted to make a good impression. I was a mix of nerves and confidence. Nerves because I was 17 and meeting a girls parents for the

Life and Living

Don’t become a prisoner to yourself

More often than not, the only thing holding you back from where you want to go, is you. An old way of thinking preventing a new one from happening. Worried about what others might think if you do something differently to how you’ve always done things. When I started

Life and Living

Bend the goal around the life, not the other way round

Most people start with the goal first and work backwards. They start by choosing the thing they want to do first. I want to be a fireman. I want to be a software engineer. I want to be a songwriter. I want to be a writer. There’s nothing wrong

Life and Living

When will you be ready?

When you think of starting something new, sharing your work, putting your art out there, it can be tempting to wait. Wait until you know more. Wait until you're not a student anymore. Wait until your work is better than the rest (who decides this?/who are you

Life and Living

Hunter S. Thompson vs. Mark Wahlberg Schedule

One is a very popular actor, known for his physique and attitude. The other is one of the greatest writers of all time, known for savagery. Mark Wahlberg wakes up at 2:30 am. Mark Wahlberg's daily schedule.Hunter S. Thompson would wake up at 3:00 pm.

Life and Living

Hanlon’s Razor

Rarely do people seek to do harm to others on purpose. Instead, it might come down to them not knowing something and acting accordingly with their knowledge. The next step is they're plain stupid. This is Hanlon's razor. "Never attribute to malice that which is

Work

The reward always tastes better when you've worked for it

The hot shower at the end of a cold run. The big meal at the end of a hard training session. The paycheque after writing an article people enjoy. The view at the top of the mountain after hiking up it. But the best? The best reward? The best reward

Health

How to get healthy: 3 kinds of dietary restriction

Telling someone how you eat is like telling them what religion you follow. Some want to hear about it, some don't and some want to immediately tell you how theirs is better. What to eat can be a complicated question to answer. I've tried every kind

A trail of inspiration

Inspiration is fleeting. You have it for a moment and you feel ready to take on the world. Wait too long and it goes away. And if you're all out of it, instead of searching elsewhere for inspiration, flip it on its head. Ask yourself, how can I

Life and Living

Blue jeans, white shirt

Saw a poster of James Dean last night. He created his own style. Died when he was young and up and coming. Damo told me he had a saying. Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today. That’s how to do

Life and Living

Sometimes you need to get the thing before you realise you don’t need it

You don’t need to be hit by a car to know being hit by a car isn’t what you want. Why then does it take longer to realise these things with other events? I had to go to America to realise I didn’t need to move to

Poems

Riding the wave

You couldn't fathom being here 100-years ago Yet here we are Metal cylinders carting people across the globe The lady asks if I'd like something to drink, water and coffee please, black, sure she says, thank you How lucky am I? Sitting here thinking about what

Travel

If it doesn’t fit in this bag, I don’t need it

I’ve got a bag I take with with me most places. It carries my laptop, has room for writing accessories (a notepad and pen) and a few changes of clothes. That’s all I need. If I had to move overseas, I’d probably only take the bag. I