Philosophy

Introduction

1.1 This is my own way of structuring everything I know about this world in a simple document. Here you may find my thoughts on a comfortable life and the ways that help me cope with anxiety and Tourette syndrome. Some of these conclusions came to me during conversations with my friends.

1.2 In this document, I use several terms, such as professionals and primary work, that are specific to my view of the world. I will explain them in the appropriate sections.

1.3 Unlike other philosophers, I want to express everything as simply as possible so that everyone can understand me. If you would like to read or watch something that inspired me to write this document, visit the Related Media section. It is not necessary, but it may be a fun or even emotional way to understand me better.

1.4 In its final form, this article is meant to represent my general views on different activities in life. The paragraphs are connected, so I will use arrows to refer to other parts of the text that support my views from a different perspective.

1.5 Heavily inspired by the writings of Arthur Schopenhauer, I will often refer to his ideas. His view of life can be described as a “pendulum between boredom and sadness”: when we try to achieve something significant, we suffer from the difficulties along the way; but if we do nothing, we become bored. His philosophy is about finding a balance between these two states.

not pleasure, but freedom from pain, is what the wise man will aim at.

Aristotle, "Nichomachean Ethics"

1.6 Buddhism is my second major source of inspiration. In a way that supports Schopenhauer’s ideas, Buddhism presents the concept of the Four Noble Truths: suffering → the origin of suffering (craving) → the end of suffering through the fading of craving → the Noble Eightfold Path as a way to end this cycle. I believe this is the same idea expressed in [↑ 1.5]: our desires are the main source of our suffering.

1.7 I consider the visual novel Higanbana the foundation of everything written here. This story changed my views on life and my future. It connects Higanbana to The Great in the same way that Faust is connected to The Master and Margarita. For this reason, I believe it is necessary to present some of these concepts through the motivations of Higanbana’s characters, while keeping the discussion spoiler-free. This website is my way of preserving the legacy of this brilliant romantic story forever.

Inspiration

2.1 Art reflects our emotions. When we read a great story, we usually identify with its protagonist. We imagine what it would be like to live in the world described in the book, what we would do to prevent the worst and achieve the best. That is why I believe art is meaningless without our own emotions and life experience: we cannot create art or draw inspiration from a story unless it resonates with us and our personal struggles.

2.2 At the same time, websites such as Rate Your Music, with lists like “Best Albums of All Time”, represent what I consider to be a kind of cancer of art and inspiration.

2.3 Everyone has their own tastes, so it is pointless for someone to tell you that you know nothing about art simply because you have not listened to every album on a particular list. You will never find something truly great and life-changing merely by following someone else’s recommendations.

2.4 Your own taste in movies, music, and books is the most important thing defining your style - your personal path from inspiration to creation. Finding something great is a pure accident, not something you should actively search for.

2.5 This is a brilliant quote from the Stoic philosophers that I strongly agree with:

Be careful, however, lest this reading of many authors and books of every sort may tend to make you discursive and unsteady. You must linger among a limited number of master-thinkers, and digest their works, if you would derive ideas which shall win firm hold in your mind. Everywhere means nowhere.

The internet has made access to every kind of media as easy as possible. At the same time, it has made valuable thoughts harder to find. As a result, the ideas of brilliant master-thinkers often inspire their followers to create small communities instead of sharing their wisdom with everyone.

But who are these master-thinkers? It is difficult to define only the best authors in history, because that would eventually lead us to recreate the infamous lists found on Rate Your Music. I believe that a master-thinker is someone who created a piece of art that became meaningful to us. Usually, we can create a small “network” connecting our favorite creators. These master-thinkers may have created art together or inspired one another, as I described in [↓3.7].

Let me give you a small example. Higanbana was created by Penguin Tarou and Hero Pandara. Both of them stopped creating new works a long time ago, but you can still find interesting things from their earlier projects, such as sakanaajikan - a library of free pictures by Penguin Tarou - or his personal blog. Higanbana was translated by a group called insani.org, which has released many excellent visual novels for free, including True Remembrance and the legendary Narcissu.

Starting with just one selected work, you can create a large network of connections between authors, their inspirations, and the people who created their own masterpieces after being inspired by that brilliant style.

2.6 Sakura Ayase from Higanbana did not have the opportunity to become familiar with every form of media in the world, so she simply limited her list to the things she was truly interested in. She seems so happy when she says this in the game.

2.7 It is important not only to create a great piece of art, but also to present it well. Large companies invest a lot of money in creating attractive “cover art” and presentation for their products. For example, I love the SpongeBob SquarePants DVD menu and the Finding Nemo DVD menu. They are far too good to be just menus for cartoon DVDs, which makes me want to spend hours looking through their animated, interactive designs.

My mother’s Samsung Galaxy La Fleur, with its beautiful flower patterns and fashion-inspired design [1, 2], and even the comic book created by Underoath to commemorate the anniversary of their album are all excellent ways to make fans love an artist even more. Bonus content is always a good thing.

2.8 In the end, I recommend finding inspiration in the art you love. Higanbana inspired me to create this website’s design after years of using a boring, clean HTML style. You can improve your drawing or storytelling skills by creating fan art and writing fan fiction!

Creation

3.1 Creating art is something that helps me during stressful moments. When I was living through the most horrible and frightening days of my life, I still felt nostalgic about those quiet evenings when I sat at my computer and worked on something small just to forget my negative thoughts for a moment. Even during the most terrible moments in life, you can create your own comfortable environment, even if the world outside is dangerous.

3.2 There are two kinds of content creators: amateurs and professionals. Professionals usually create art to make money, while being an amateur is more about enjoying yourself and making things as good as you can, without being restricted by quality standards, deadlines, or perfectionism.

3.3 Being an amateur does not mean that you are bad at what you do. Being a professional means treating art as a full-time job and doing everything necessary to remain relevant. Amateurs cannot spend eight hours every day making a song or writing a book. Some of my friends can, but let us consider them exceptions to the rule.

I give myself one hour a day to make music, so my music-making process is rather slow. In a way, though, I like this slow process of creating something by yourself and shaping every part of the project file.

3.4 Looking through the lifestyles of professionals in interviews and documentaries can hypnotize a teenager. Colorful posters can make them feel as if these artists are making history right now. I spent years trying to be as cool as my idols, including SHE Music, Madeon, who made his first international hit at sixteen, deadmau5, Nero with their epic cinematic arrangements, SebastiAn with his insane production techniques, and Linkin Park with their catchy hard-rock melodies.

3.5 Looking through their complex disco-rock-electro-opera productions, sometimes containing more than 200 audio tracks in a single song, made me believe that I was doing something wrong. Not because I actually was, but because I was trying to be a professional while remaining an amateur. I love music, and that is precisely why I cannot push myself beyond my limits. Otherwise, I might start hating the thing I love most.

3.6 Being a professional also means having a “quality standard”: professionals cannot release a bad song. Bands like Nero may prefer to remain silent for ten years rather than disappoint their fans. SebastiAn has also said that it is difficult to write music for Saint Laurent when they require a studio-quality track from you every week.

It is impossible to remain carefree in situations like these, which is why many amateurs burn out before reaching even half the level of professionalism achieved by artists like Nero and deadmau5.

3.7 On the other hand, there are producers like Kavinsky. After 21 years of making music, he released two full-length albums and a few mini-albums consisting mostly of remixes made by his friends. This makes Kavinsky one of the least productive musicians in the chaotic world of EDM, but he has always remained relatively relaxed about his music.

Instead of trying to create as much complex, high-quality music as possible, like his friends from Justice and Daft Punk, he created a powerful atmosphere inspired by 1980s movies in each of his songs and simply enjoyed life while driving his Testarossa.

Rather than spending eight hours a day on a single song, he sketched simple beats on a computer gifted to him by Mr. Oizo and worked with SebastiAn and Daft Punk to create catchy songs. Does that make you or me uncool if we have no contracts with major companies or have not released a worldwide hit before the age of twenty?

3.8 I prefer to create art only for my website. It is comforting to know that there may always be someone who enjoys my thoughts and music, even though I am an amateur. They may not think I am doing something great; they may simply like it because it is me expressing my own thoughts.

Creating something should always be fun, but comparing yourself to others destroys everything you might like about yourself and your own style. Sometimes I may release a bad song, but no one is going to blame me because I am making music for my friends. We can then collaborate on songs or release remixes of each other’s tracks.

That is the real joy of working with friends - not working for someone popular just to appear on the radio.

3.9 Releasing your art worldwide is difficult in the age of commercial distribution. To release a single song on popular services, you usually need a contract with a company and a good advertising strategy. It takes time to enter the world of marketing, so I decided not to do that. Instead, I will self-release everything I create on my website.

Services like Neocities make online blogging and independent creativity much easier for everyone by providing tutorials on website creation.

3.10 It is difficult to both enjoy art and create it. That is why I stop listening to music when I am writing my own, and stop reading articles by other people when I am writing my own. This helps me stop comparing myself to others and find my own style.

Arthur Schopenhauer expresses a similar idea in his essay “On Books and Reading”:

we read, another person thinks for us: we merely repeat his mental process. In learning to write, the pupil goes over with his pen what the teacher has outlined in pencil: so in reading; the greater part of the work of thought is already done for us. This is why it relieves us to take up a book after being occupied with our own thoughts. And in reading, the mind is, in fact, only the playground of another's thoughts. So it comes about that if anyone spends almost the whole day in reading, and by way of relaxation devotes the intervals to some thoughtless pastime, he gradually loses the capacity for thinking; just as the man who always rides, at last forgets how to walk.

Family

4.1 Family is probably the most powerful bond in every person’s life. There is no one closer to us than our family.

4.2 In the context of The Great, family is not necessarily a biological concept, but rather an emotional one. Someone may have no biological family at all, yet still have people who sacrifice themselves for them and care about them more than they care about themselves. Your family is the most important part of your life. It is with them that you can feel more protected and understood than anywhere else.

4.3 Since marriage between cousins is completely legal in my country, I believe that if you develop romantic feelings for your cousin, there is no reason to be ashamed of them. Spending time with your family is one way to build stronger relationships within it - both emotional and practical.

4.4 Being married to your cousin also means taking the relationship extremely seriously. If a marriage between cousins falls into crisis, it can become a tragedy for the entire family. However, there have been successful marriages between cousins, such as those of Christopher Robin and his wife Lesley, or Charles Darwin and Emma Wedgwood. They built strong families by respecting each other, accepting their different views on the same subjects - in their case, religion - and avoiding jealousy. This is the only way people can have a good relationship, whether they are cousins or not.

4.5 I have always wanted to have a big family. It is something I would like to experience even during the saddest moments of my life. We might have conflicts, but that would only mean that we are different, not that we are enemies. We would still support each other no matter what.

4.6 I like games such as Kanon because they show us these warm and entertaining family situations. They remind me of my childhood, when I always had someone to talk to: my cousins, my aunts and uncles, or even my grandparents. It is heartwarming to return to games like this one and feel that family comfort once again.

I was raised in an Eastern Orthodox Christian family. However, I am not a Christian, although I respect religious people for their kindness toward others. I am Wiccan, and I believe that if God exists, He simply does not care about us, since hatred and sadism have taken over our world and continue to do so. I cannot believe that someone kind created a world full of terror.

Seeing places such as Mexico, Palestine, Israel, Iraq, and even the region where I live, caught in the middle of the Russia–Ukraine conflict, sometimes makes me want to cry. Practicing Wicca or talking to deeply religious people is my own way of staying calm. Listening to Christian rock bands such as Underoath or reading quotes from Buddha helps me remain open to kindness, even in the most horrible environments.

I am neither for nor against religion. I believe that we should remain open to everything new in life instead of taking an extreme position. At the same time, I am somewhat skeptical of atheism because of its rejection of spirituality. Sometimes, I feel that people who reject spirituality can become more vulnerable to hatred, although this is only my personal impression and does not apply to every atheist.

The Great

5.1 The Great is an analogy for a large family. It shows that even amateur artists can work together in harmony and create something great.

5.2 A good example of an artistic collective like The Great is Ed Banger Records, a French music label that includes professionals such as Daft Punk, Justice, SebastiAn, Kavinsky, Busy P, Uffie, DJ Mehdi, and others. They actively help each other and perform live together.

5.3 My artistic collective was created to help amateurs share their drawings, music, and animations under one common brand and philosophy.

5.4 The core concept of The Great is to share our work with everyone for free. DRM systems cause many problems for people with slow internet connections or outdated hardware and software. That is why you will be able to download any release created by The Great Band and our partners for free, in high quality, and enjoy it on any device.

5.5 We create all the works we publish during relaxed evenings together, when we draw, compose, and write as a group.

5.6 The style of The Great is inspired by the culture of the 2000s and early 2010s. If I had to choose the most influential people from that era, I would mention Taylor Momsen of The Pretty Reckless and Peaches Geldof. They are excellent examples of people who can succeed in different creative fields, such as acting, music, journalism, and fashion.

Peaches Geldof was a journalist, as I am, and I believe that her connection to fashion and her appearances in documentaries make her a particularly good representative of The Great. The Great’s musical world combines emo rock, electronic music, and symphonic elements. I especially like bands such as Escape the Fate and Underoath because of their emotional intensity and rebellious image. I wish I could create something this exciting in the near future, although I have other priorities in my life at the moment.

I was excited when I discovered the community surrounding She Music, also known as Lain Volta. He does not need to release music every year. Instead, he draws comics and creates 3D models, while talking, laughing, and answering fans’ questions about music production on Discord - just like a regular person rather than a famous artist.

That is why I would like to build a similar community around me: a place where I can release high-quality tracks whenever they are finished, without following a strict schedule. I also want to find time for this website and stay connected with my readers.

General

6.1 I have a habit of archiving everything I do - from musical ideas and synthesizer sounds saved as files on my computer to a personal archive of school projects I made during my childhood.

If you build a personal library of the content you have created in the past, it becomes much faster to work by reusing programming functions you have already written or small musical ideas you have already developed. Never delete your projects. Just save them, even if you think they are bad.

I call this the “Building Blocks” method. You can see how I used it in my article “Let’s Learn DevOps: Git”: I explain only the basic concepts in the main article while also providing instructions for more specific topics.

Sometimes, when I get bored with or frustrated by programming, I take a break for a few months to draw in my artbook or simply write music. You may be surprised, but all the building blocks I have collected over the years help me in every kind of activity. For example, I can use programs I have created to speed up the process of writing music, or use my own music in the games I am making.

6.2 It is easy to fall down the rabbit hole of technology, so I am usually less distracted when I am somewhere without electricity. If I have only one hour of battery left on my power bank, checking my email will be the last thing I do.

6.3 It is wise to ask yourself, “Am I willing to spend an hour of my life on this?” whenever you want to watch a long YouTube video or read a massive book. The average person in the 21st century does not have that much free time, since we are always busy with something.

Spending your time on things you consider important should be one of your main goals in this busy world. Sometimes, even playing your favorite video game or completing some university work is the least painful choice available.

Remember that this also applies to workaholics. I struggled with this a lot in the past, often wasting hours of my life on things I no longer cared about [6.6]. Please love your life, and do not take your own grand plans too far [6.9].

6.4 Wasting your time is sad, but sometimes “time-killers” can be useful when you have work to do. It can be nice to play a YouTube video in the background. If you are doing routine work where you already know what to do - for example, helping my parents - background music or a YouTube video played at 1.25x speed can make the task more enjoyable.

Sometimes I feel that we are happier when we do not have easy access to information. There is no infinite social media feed and no fear of missing out. When information is not always at your fingertips, you are usually left alone with your own thoughts.

For example, if I want to create a synthesizer sound, I have to figure out how to do it by myself. This can open new horizons, helping me develop my own style and views. I cannot be spoiled about what will happen next in my favorite franchise, because all I have is my own idea of what might happen.

Today, we can access all the “greatest” works of art in a matter of seconds. As a result, however, we end up with lifelong lists of movies we want to watch and books we want to read. Simply opening such a list can feel like work, forcing us to choose between thousands of movies before we even start one.

Before watching a video on YouTube, I ask myself, “Do I really want to spend the next 50 minutes watching this?” This helps me set priorities, since I might have university homework to do or simply have a better way to relax in my free time.

6.5 A diary is a way to stay connected with yourself. To me, a diary is more than just writing, “Today is a nice day.” As [6.1] demonstrates, even your thoughts can be useful notes about your future plans.

I usually write down random ideas for my music and programs, and I have actually completed some of them. When you have a list such as “Things I need to do before Christmas,” you can feel the pressure to work hard toward your goals [6.6].

A diary is more like a flow: you write, and then you let go. There are no requirements that you have to meet. A diary can also be a good way to relax in the evening. You can write down your thoughts and sleep better because all those annoying ideas are now on paper. You can forget about them and return to them later if necessary.

However, I cannot remember a single moment in my life when I wanted to return to my stressful diary entries.

When you learn something new, it is important to put it into practice. There is a rule called the “80/20 rule,” which means “20% theory and 80% practice.” I consider it one of the best ways to improve, because some people, including me, spend too much time learning and trying to master every concept instead of using the skills they already have.

Even short videos such as VITAL: FM Tutorial and Tips can be enough to teach you the foundations - your building blocks for creating something more advanced. Knowing a few simple techniques and mastering them is the key to learning quickly.

You may not know much about music theory, but you may still know how to create a good melody. Nobody really cares how complicated your song is; they simply want to hear something they enjoy. That is how much alternative rock was made in the 1990s and 2000s. Many great songs, such as “Easier to Run” by Linkin Park, use simple chords and notes arranged around the vocals. Yet this simplicity is what makes them so effective.

6.6 As Arthur Schopenhauer says in “Counsels and Maxims”:

Care should be taken not to build the happiness of life upon a broad foundation—not to require a great many things in order to be happy. For happiness on such a foundation is the most easily undermined; it offers many more opportunities for accidents; and accidents are always happening.

Instead of making grand plans, try to look at life within a shorter period of time. Rather than saying, “I am going to complete this song in one month,” say, “All right, I believe I can write a few melodies for my future songs this week.” Look into the near future with simple plans instead of looking too far ahead with grand ambitions.

As “Counsels and Maxims” also says:

lastly, even though the goal should be reached, the changes which Time works in us have been left out of the reckoning: we forget that the capacity whether for achievement or for enjoyment does not last a whole lifetime. So we often toil for things which are no longer suited to us when we attain them; and again, the years we spend in preparing for some work, unconsciously rob us of the power for carrying it out.

6.7 Looking at all of this, it may seem that every activity in life is simply a waste of time, right? But I believe that even the most “useless” hobbies can give us interesting thoughts or skills that may become useful in everyday life.

Even deadmau5 said the following in his masterclass:

You might be way overcritical of your idea than it's like... it's sucks, but it's cool that I get that becuase I work at it more. You know, when I'm doing something, ultimately I spent two hours on something that doesn't work, well - no I saved two hours next time I'll try again. The process gets quicker.

Masterclass - The deadmau5 Process: Theory

6.8 This is a common problem for me. In the summer of 2026, I decided to spend my time completing songs for my album Dimetra and Friends. However, fate is something we cannot predict. I spent the entire summer without electricity at home and could not even turn on my synthesizer to write music.

Some of us also develop what could be called “Magnum Opus Syndrome” - in other words, perfectionism. This can be terrible to deal with when all you want to do is have fun.

6.9 I believe that everyone should know their place in the world. We should understand our limits and quickly recognize when we are taking on too much. Having a stable mental and physical routine is much better than doing everything at the last moment while suffering from extreme stress.

Sometimes it is better to say, “All right, this is not the best moment for my grand plans. Let me simply do something I can manage right now.”

Everyone has only three kinds of work in their life:

Let me explain this in the context of my own life. I am a programmer, or more specifically, a DevOps engineer. Right now, I have neither a full-time nor a part-time job, but I do and learn something new every day - even if it is the smallest fact about my profession or the software I use. Usually, even 15 minutes a day is enough to make progress.

I know that this will shape my future, so I want to take my professional development seriously. At the same time, I am passionate about music. I have listened to it since childhood, and I feel that I want to create something of my own.

However, I cannot earn money from music. Turning it into my primary job could be destructive because I am not a professional, but an amateur who simply loves music and can listen to it for hours. I might eventually start hating it if I had to make it my primary occupation.

If I wanted to earn money from my music, I would have to dive deeply into marketing and self-promotion, and I am absolutely uninterested in that. Therefore, I have decided simply to enjoy the moment. It is good if I can release a few tracks a year, but it is also fine if I do not release anything. Writing articles for my website is another form of creativity.

Since I started writing the “Let’s Learn DevOps” article series, it has become part of my learning process for my primary work.

After all, it is important to be honest with yourself. From time to time, I have days when I simply do nothing and play video games or watch cartoons. That is part of my break.

6.10 Although I give advice on how to improve at the things you love, I am skeptical of productivity podcasts and other media connected with the cult of productivity. I have one main reason for this: most of them simply do nothing.

The only product they release is motivational content. There is often nothing behind their supposed productivity - no drawings, music, books, or other creative work of their own. They teach you how to get more things done while producing almost nothing themselves.

I believe that everything in life has its own time and place. Pushing yourself to do things before you are ready can be cruel. My advice is mainly about minimizing the amount of stress in my own life.

No one has the right to teach you how to live - not even me. Please enjoy your life: read the books you like, play the video games you like, watch cartoons and films, write your own poems, and eat meat buns. That is what life is for. Simply enjoy it, because we do not get a second chance to enjoy it again.

6.11 In the end, I believe there is no perfect way to become good at life. Even this document is only a collection of life hacks that work for me and may be useless to someone else.

I agree with David Goggins in this interview:

But how I grew a will was constantly doing these things to now it's just life. I wake up. While it still sucks, it's just life. You don't sit back and like, oh my god. Like I have days I don't want to do. But I know I'm going to do it. I know from years of just doing it.

So that's beautiful. And this is why I came on here with you today. And I'm glad that you're talking about this because human beings need to hear this. They need to stop hearing these hacks on this and that.

There's no f***g hack, bro. There's no f***g hack. Yeah, you may this and that and saunas and all this s**t that they-- yeah, it's great. There is no f***g life hack. To grow that thing-- how do you grow it? Do it, and do it, and do it, and do it. That's the hack. The hack is going to f***g suck. And that's what I realized.

It is worth noting that David Goggins takes an extremely demanding approach to his workout routines after years of military service. However, these words can apply to almost anything in life.

Our lives are similar to the famous meme “This Is Why Dogs Are Happier” - and there is some truth in it. There is a big difference between teenagers and adults: a teenager’s mind is easy to influence, and someone can easily turn “I want” into “I need.” When working on personal projects, it is important to separate our own progress from the achievements of others.

For example, when making music, we often compare ourselves with the entire music industry. It is easy to admire Justice’s synthesizers and complex drums, but we should also consider our own progress. Six months ago, we could not even create synthesizer sounds by ourselves; now, we understand how to combine waveforms and make them catchy with effects.

People often overthink simple things. We conduct endless research and watch countless tutorials, but eventually become afraid of making mistakes. In reality, there is often no wrong way to create something. The author of “STOP Watching Tutorials, Trust Yourself.” demonstrates this well.

Accepting challenges is a good way to have fun. Draw your next masterpiece in Microsoft Paint, use colors you dislike, make a song with only your synthesizer’s built-in sounds, or abandon productivity apps and write your ideas in Notepad.

When SebastiAn asked on Reddit, “What advice would you give young Sebastian who just started making music?”, he received this answer:

No advice is the best one. Accepting to be alone with all this and losing yourself can help you find what you have to do.

Related Media

These works changed my life, inspired my philosophy, and helped me appreciate it more:

1. Higanbana - a monumental work about family, love, and making the most of life. It is the center of my philosophy, and this website is dedicated to Radiata.

2. Happy Birthday: Inochi Kagayaku Toki - an animation by Studio Magic Bus about the importance of kindness. Everyone has their own problems, yet everyone wants to live. I also like My Sister, Momoko by the same studio.

3. World Masterpiece Theater - an anime series collection by Nippon Animation. Anne of Green Gables, The Story of Pollyanna, Girl of Love, and Heidi, Girl of the Alps are wonderful stories about finding happiness in life.

4. Ghibli Animation - The works of Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata are beautiful, warm, and easy to connect with. My favorites are Only Yesterday and Howl’s Moving Castle.

5. Arthur Schopenhauer’s The Wisdom of Life - a good introduction to his ideas and a collection of practical reflections. It is part of Parerga and Paralipomena.