Nine Feet of Feces – 7 Takeaways No. 194

Use your phone to read. Possible piles of poop. Fiction matters. Learning from failure. Making life choices. Critical reading skills. Boring.

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1. “Swap your phone activities for something else.”

5 Ways to Increase Your Learning Throughput – Scott H. Young – (blog)

Another listicle, yay? This caught my eye mostly for its overall topic, but the takeaway above is one, in item #2, “Be aggressive about using fragmented time.”, I think about often.

having the Kindle app on your phone can greatly increase the number of books you read

Kindle app, any other book reading app. I would also include a well-organized collection of newsletters (I use a unique email address and a different email reader specifically for all the newsletters I subscribe to). I’m honestly shocked that so many people with more than the Library of Alexandria in their pocket choose instead to doom-scroll, or play mindless games as much as they do. Relaxation has a place, to be sure, but still … if you’re waiting somewhere, open a book. On your phone.

Do this: Use your time well.

#downtime #reading

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2. “Worrying about nine feet of feces”

The Great Poop Crisis of 1894 – Tom Greene – (The Wit and Wisdom of Tom Greene)

Another reminder that everything old is new again.

I think we can both agree that the goal of the news media today is to keep us anxious and polarized. The point is to scare viewers into tuning in so the networks can sell advertising for expensive drugs like Jardiance and Ozempic.

Greene goes on to describe the “Great Poop Crisis of 1894”, where the media of the time was doing the exact same thing.

For several years, the Press was hyper-focused on the doomsday scenario of the nine feet of poop that was just around the corner. The newspapers declared that the end was nigh. The people fretted while newspaper sales boomed.

The prediction by the London Times was that London would, because of increasing horse-drawn traffic, eventually find itself covered in poop nine feet high. Of course, that didn’t happen.

It may feel like we’re being covered in poop today (fortunately(?) metaphorical), but the fact is that the media — traditional, social, new, whatever — has a deep investment in making the pile seem higher than it really is. I’m not debating its existence. There are definitely issues, as there always are. However, things may not be as bad as you read.

Do this: Remain skeptical.

#poop #skepticism #media

3. “Our brains are wired for narrative”

Why We Need Fiction – Joan Westernberg – (@Westernberg)

The essay argues for the fiction being as important, and perhaps even more important, than non-fiction, in human progress and development. Apparently, there’s a contingent of pure rationalists that feel fiction is a waste of time.

Stories have a way of burrowing into our minds, setting up shop, and influencing our thoughts and behaviors long after we’ve closed the book or left the theater.

It’s an interesting discussion, but my mind went elsewhere with it. There are those among us who understand the power of story and are using it in various ways to proactively shape our reality and beliefs.

You think you’re making rational decisions based on cold, hard facts? Think again.

It’s so important to realize that. Not just to understand our own behavior, but to understand how our behaviour can be manipulated.

Do this: Pay attention to the stories.

#stories #manipultation

4. “Playing in the ruins”

Turning words – Oliver Burkeman – (The Imperfectionist)

Burkeman shared three examples of  “‘turning words’ – phrases that seem to possess a mysterious power to cause liberating change, all by themselves.” The takeaway above is an interesting perspective on failure.

You’re not seeing the landscape around you as something that needs to transform. You’re just seeing it as the scrapyard it is. And then you can look around yourself and say, okay, what is actually here, when I’m not telling myself constant lies about what it’s going to be one day?

I take it as a mental model that says, “Well, that didn’t work. What did we learn, and what do we do with what’s left?”

Do this: Embrace inevitable failure, and play in the ruins.

#failure

5. “Demonstrating that options exist can be powerful.”

You Don’t Have to Live the Way Others Expect – Chris Guillebeau – (A Year of Mental Health)

This is so hard for so many people. They’re raised a certain way, in a certain community, with certain expectations. They don’t even consider that there may be other options.

We often imagine that some of the unnamed “people” who expect us to behave in certain ways are like evil bosses. They’re Monopoly villains, generic corporate figures who lurk in the shadows and issue edicts for the rest of us to follow. But it’s just as true that the people we are close to have expectations of us. And this is harder to resist! Yet it’s just as essential, if not more so.

With options, we get to make choices. That choice might be to stay the course, or it might be to live your life some other way, but at that point, it’s a choice rather than an assumption.

Choices often lead to a more satisfying, fulfilling life.

Do this: Make choices, not assumptions.

#assumptions #choices

6. “The death of critical reading harms the sentient minds of billions”

The Death of Critical Thinking Will Kill Us Long Before AI. – Joan Westernberg – (Medium)

Another well-written piece on the death and importance of critical thinking and reading comprehension.

Without reading comprehension, we cannot thoughtfully process information and make reasoned decisions.

Too many people are skipping the “understanding” part of reading and skipping right ahead to the “emotional response”, focusing only on headlines, perhaps lightly scanned text, and the comments & reactions of others. Even then, those comments are often misunderstood, leading to even more confusion and animosity.

Do this: Take the time to understand what you consume.

#understanding

7. “It’s okay to like pumpkin spice”

Thirty-one things I wish I knew earlier – Elise Myers – (YouTube)

Elise is hard to categorize. I believe she really got her start on TikTok, but has since moved to other platforms like YouTube. She shares her life and lessons in a very approachable, personal way.

Happiness and health feel very boring when you’re used to chaos and you’re used to un-health. Very boring. Takes a while to unlearn how to crave the chaos and you’re going to want to refill it with all the chaos because that’s what you’re used to. Don’t do that. Just give it some time.

My wife and I often say, somewhat wistfully, “boring is good”. (Usually after some period of chaos.)

It’s an insightful list, with some valuable items I’ve not seen elsewhere.

Do this: Dare to be boring.

Other things that caught my eye

• A long walk can lighten most anything

What I’m reading

In progress:

• How to Read a Book – Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren
• Where Good Ideas Come From – Steven Johnson (re-read)
• Thinking, Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman (audio)

Daily:

• A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul, Written and Selected from the World’s Sacred Texts – Leo Tolstoy

A full list of my common sources is on the sources page, and I list the books I’ve read on my Reading List page.

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-Leo