HeyJaredRuby’s Studio
Notes on cultivating an intellectual life Essays to help you think more deeply about philosophy, literature, and the ideas shaping our lives
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 17
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- Sep 30, 2026
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- Aug 23, 2026
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Commonplace Pages #15: The Philosophy of the Yin Yang (opens the original)
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This month I’ve been pretty deep into ancient Chinese philosophy. Confucius, Laozi and Zhuangzi to name a few. Each of them has their own views on how to live, how to become the person you want to be, but they all share one idea. The yin yang. We all know it, of course. I grew up in the 90s, when it was the tattoo du jour along with that tribal band. I had a loose understanding of it. Balance. Inner peace. Something like that. But the further I got into my self-study with Laozi and Zhuangzi in p
A big bag guide for the library sherpas (opens the original)
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Last week I talked about the return of the Big Bag. What it may be signalling, whether it’s showing us something about class or the state of our economy…either way I for one am chuffed they’re back.I’ve always been that person who won’t leave the house without at least one journal, several pens, couple of books and the bits and bobs pouch. You know, the thing that carries the nurofen, the hair ties, the plasters, the p
The Trouble With Translations (opens the original)
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Without really planning it, this summer has been one of reading translations. First was The Odyssey: Emily Wilson’s (being the most accessible) with Daniel Mendelsohn’s (the closest to Homer’s Greek, apparently). Despite the intention to read both over the summer, it’s taking me a lot longer than I’d anticipated, I’m only about halfway through both.I’ve been reading one book of one and then the same of the other. As Wilson’s is generally considered the most accessible I started with her first. I
Commonplace Pages #14: on the bleakness of wonder (opens the original)
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When I saw wonder as the theme for this year’s National Poetry Day, one poem immediately came to mind. A poem that I was made to read at school and overanalyse within an inch of its eight short lines. Emily Dickinson’s Wonder is Not Precisely Knowing. I remember looking at how she described wonder as a “beautiful but bleak condition” thinking whether I’d ever heard wonder described in such a joyle
Big Bag Energy (opens the original)
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I’ve always loved a big bag. The kind of bag that you can whack your entire life inside of. Laptop. iPad. At least 2 books and a magazine. My entire lip product and hair accessories collection. You name it, you can find it in my bag. It doesn’t matter if I don’t use all of the things in there every day. It’s the comfort of having it all in there for me. Because it’s always that day isn’t it, the day you decide to travel light that you need that blister plaster or you’ve finished the book you’re
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