For many years, I had a project called Just The Factoids. The idea was conceived as a conceptual art project to make art out of pure idea in text form. I drew inspiration from Jenny Holzer₁, a conceptual artist who creates works of text in public, and L.M. Boyd₂, a newspaper columnist who wrote articles that were lists of interesting and amusing trivia.

A “factoid” is a short fact that is probably true, but is not necessarily provable. I would collect these semi-substantiated facts and try to make them into a body of work using social media as my artistic media.

From 2017 to 2020, I posted a new factoid every day on Twitter. I posted over 1500 factoids and got a little over 1000 followers. I had a Facebook page, a blog, and Tumblr, and I even sold a couple of shirts with factoids printed on them.

Though I am still collecting factoids, I never figured out a way to make money from it and I never really got any engagement, so I lost steam and shelved the project a couple of years ago.

Sprinkled among the factoids, I came up with more philosophical factoids; unprovable bits of philosophy. To create the t shirts, I culled about 50 of these and had friends vote on their favorite ones. Here is what they found to be the top 10:

1. Self discipline is overrated and unreliable.
2. If you want everyone to be above average, you’re doing the math wrong.
3. Every weapon is a sex toy if held it right.
4. Hating yourself does not make you interesting.
5. Optimistic people are often late.
6. Not everything is art, but everything can be appreciated as art.
7. It takes even less muscles to shut the fuck up and smile.
8. The survival of our species depends on on more women in tech.
9. Cumulus are the friendliest of the clouds.
10. A burp is a wish your heart makes for more beer.