Friday Ideas 1/17/25: David Lynch on ideas, artists and suffering, Los Angeles, imperfection and beauty + Tom Cruise, Albert Camus, Robert Frost, John Coltrane, Walt Disney + Solving Chronic Pain
Welcome to Weisser’s Multitudes.
Every other Friday I share a wide range of things I enjoyed in the last two weeks ranging from podcasts to articles, books, film, and music.
Curious to see what you think. If you enjoy any of the ideas in particular please let me know.
David Lynch
“We’re all capable of doing many types of things.”
“I just wanna fall in love with ideas.”
WATCH 🎥
For many years I didn’t really “get” David Lynch. I saw a few of his most celebrated films but they didn’t resonate much. That was until I saw The Straight Story — his most “conventional” movie and the only time he teamed up with Disney (see the music section for more on Disney). It became one of my favorite movies ever. I won’t go into plot details because if you’ve seen it you already know and if you haven’t you deserve to go in cold. It’s not only one of the most beautiful and poignant films ever made, it is also one of the best representations of what makes America and Americans wonderful.
After seeing The Straight Story, the absurd “Lynchian” movies began to resonate for me. I think I needed to see Lynch at his most plain and heartfelt to understand him at his most sincere but outrageous.
Lynch seemed to possess an incredible heart. I’ve compiled some ideas and quotes that I’ve seen shared over the last 24 hours that I found particularly wonderful. If you never “got” David Lynch perhaps The Straight Story and the ideas below might help you connect with him. If you already loved him and his work, my condolences for your loss.
Inside, we are ageless...and when we talk to ourselves, it's the same age of the person we were talking to when we were little. It's the body that is changing around that ageless center.
Lynch seemed to feel there was nothing worse than forgetting a good idea:
If a person forgets an idea that they love. It’s a horror. And it can lead to a real yearning to commit suicide.
(it’s funny and slightly disturbing how many times he said some version of this)
On the unpolished and imperfect:
"I hate slick and pretty things. I prefer mistakes and accidents. Which is why I like things like cuts and bruises - they're like little flowers. I've always said that if you have a name for something, like 'cut' or 'bruise,' people will automatically be disturbed by it. But when you see the same thing in nature, and you don't know what it is, it can be very beautiful."
(This reminds me of “Honor your mistake as a hidden intention” from Brian Eno)
On artists and suffering:
People might bring up Vincent van Gogh as an example of a painter who did great work in spite of—or because of—his suffering. I like to think that van Gogh would have been even more prolific and even greater if he wasn’t so restricted by the things tormenting him. I don’t think it was pain that made him so great—I think his painting brought him whatever happiness he had.
On Los Angeles:
I came to Los Angeles from Philadelphia, where I had lived for five years, attending art school. Philadelphia is known as the City of Brotherly Love, but when I was there, it was a hellhole. There wasn’t a lot of love in that city.
I arrived in L.A. at night, so it wasn’t until the next morning, when I stepped out of a small apartment on San Vicente Boulevard, that I saw this light. And it thrilled my soul. I feel lucky to live with that light.
I love Los Angeles. I know a lot of people go there and they see just a huge sprawl of sameness. But when you’re there for a while, you realize that each section has its own mood. The golden age of cinema is still alive there, in the smell of jasmine at night and the beautiful weather. And the light is inspiring and energizing. Even with smog, there’s something about that light that’s not harsh, but bright and smooth. It fills me with the feeling that all possibilities are available. I don’t know why. It’s different from the light in other places. The light in Philadelphia, even in the summer, is not nearly as bright. It was the light that brought everybody to L.A. to make films in the early days. It’s still a beautiful place.
He spoke about the Jasmine trees in Los Angeles to many people over the years:
Those are jasmine trees. At night, only at night, they open up and make this smell. Have you ever smelled the smell? It's the most incredible thing.
When I first came here I would go up into the hills at night and smell that smell.
And I'd think, John Wayne smelled this smell. Marilyn Monroe smelled this smell. And now I'm smelling this smell.
You know what that smell is? It's the smell of Hollywood. You should go in the Hills tonight and smell the smell. That's what you should do.
Next time I go to Los Angeles I’ll be sure to smell the Jasmine. Thank you, David, for everything.
Ideas, Etc
Invest yourself in everything you do. There’s fun in being serious.
The best way out is always through.
- Robert Frost
I just felt sometimes like I had to go run a mile at 10:30 at night. Why? I had no idea. BUT I KNEW if I did run a mile right now, it would be important that I did later on when opportunity came up. So I'd run a mile. I needed to be FAST. The reason I had such a successful career is cause all these other guys I was doing movies with in the 80s, who now can't draw anyone to the box office like I can, is cause I was running a mile while they were out drinkin' and partyin'.
Incompetence in the limit is indistinguishable from sabotage
- Elon Musk
When the soul suffers too much, it develops a taste for misfortune.
- Albert Camus
Q: What product do founders want to buy from investors? A: “Improved odds”
Precociousness has an expiration date.
Inspiration is perishable - act on it immediately.
- Naval Ravikant
Something I've been trying recently: wake up and go directly to work. Do not check anything - no messages, no emails, no news, no nothing. There's something destructive / distracting about checking the outside world that I don't fully understand. It loads my RAM with a ton of distractors and my attention can't focus properly and fully on the highest priority work item. After a few hours, get lunch and optionally gather world state.
- Andrej Karpathy
Multitudes - The Show
I kicked off “the show” version of Multitudes where I highlight ideas and people worth exploring future — you can get it on YouTube, Spotify and Apple.
86% of Food Contained Plastic: Inside PlasticList's Groundbreaking Study with Yaroslav Shipilov
Show Notes | Listen on Spotify and Apple
PlasticList released a groundbreaking report showing that 86% of tested foods in the Bay Area contain plastic chemicals. I sat down with Yaroslav Shipilov, one of the four people behind this ambitious project, to discuss not just the concerning findings, but also what it takes to pursue an unusual and impactful project like this.
Solving Chronic Pain and Long COVID: The Mind-Body Connection with Dr. Michael Donnino
Show Notes | Listen on Apple and Spotify
Last week, I sat down with Dr. Michael Donnino, a Harvard Medical School Professor and physician who's published over 280 medical research papers, to explore a provocative idea: that understanding the mind-body connection might be key to treating chronic pain, a condition affecting 8% of Americans and costing over $300 billion annually.
Music
Sofo Session by Gustav Lundgren Trio
Gustav is an extraordinary jazz guitarist from Sweden. I particularly love the trio’s take on Giant Steps and The Time They Are A-Changin’.
Feed the Birds
One of Walt Disney's favorite songs. From co-writer Robert Sherman (he wrote the song with his brother, Richard):
On Fridays, after work, Walt Disney would often invite us into his office and we'd talk about things that were going on at the Studio. After a while, he'd wander to the north window, look out into the distance and just say, "Play it." And Dick would wander over to the piano and play "Feed the Birds" for him. One time just as Dick was almost finished, under his breath, I heard Walt say, "Yep. That's what it's all about.
Songs have been written about a myriad of subjects. 'Feed the Birds' is the first song written about the merits of giving charity.
John Coltrane sketches and notes for A Love Supreme (“Buy reeds in SF”)
Images
The original iPhone display at Macworld 2007 showed off Zoolander:
That’s it for this installment of Multitudes. Have a wonderful weekend.