What we owe the dead. Manifesting is BS. Travel is no cure. Uncertainty hype. It's not about the [brown] rice. New tech fears. Belief in science. My path to writing.
The invention of writing will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it,
because they will not practice their memory.
– Socrates
1. “We remember them. We honor them. When necessary, we forgive them.”
To What Do We Owe the Dead? – John Patrick Weiss – (Blog)
This crossed my inbox on the 110th anniversary of my father’s birth. Weiss describes visiting his grandfather’s grave for the first time, a grandfather whom he had never met.
Many years ago, I went on a similar quest. I never met my paternal grandparents. On my second trip to the Netherlands, when I was 15, we went searching for my grandfather’s grave in a small church in the city of Putten. Likely an unmarked grave, or perhaps due to years of neglect, we never found it. I was surprised at how emotional I became for a man I never met. (I don’t recall visiting my grandmother’s grave, and in more recent years, when I went looking for it, I learned it had been “recycled”, a common practice there.)
What is our responsibility to those who came before us? The ones who began or carried forward our family line. The ones who worked, endured, sacrificed, and loved in ways that made our lives possible.
Do this: Remember. Honor. If needed, forgive.
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2. “Manifestation, as a practical concept, is unscientific and ineffective.”
How to Be Manifestly Happier – Arthur C. Brooks – (The Atlantic)
Manifestation, in this context, is “The Secret” style. Dream hard enough about the outcome you want, and The Universe will provide it for you.
No. That’s not how any of this works.
However, this observation was interesting:
But a person can also envision the process of working toward improvement—and this turns out to have scientifically measurable and different effects.
When manifesting “works”, it does so because we don’t just sit back and wait for the universe to provide; consciously or otherwise, we end up taking steps to the end we desire. Focusing on the process makes that concrete.
Do this: Focus on the process.
3. “… unresolved issues you have at home will follow you wherever you go.”
Travel Is No Cure for the Mind – Lawrence Yeo – (More to That)
To be specific, Yeo is talking about travel being seen as a solution to the boredom and frustration of our normal, daily lives. Travel as experience gathering is one thing, but travel seeking escape is something else.
We tend to grossly overestimate the pleasure brought forth by new experiences and underestimate the power of finding meaning in current ones. While travel is a fantastic way to gain insight into unfamiliar cultures and illuminating ways of life, it is not a cure for discontentment of the mind.
What I found interesting are the themes Yeo lands on: gratitude, meditation, and curiosity.
While travel does expand and stretch the horizons of what we know about the world, it is not the answer we’re looking for in times of unrest. To strengthen the health of the mind, the venue to do that in is the one we are in now.
Do this: Start with gratitude for where you are … or even that you are.
#curiosity #gratitude #meditation #travel
4. “Uncertainty is our basic state of existence”
Nobody’s ever ready – Oliver Burkeman – (The Imperfectionist)
Using the hype and fear over AI as our current example, Burkeman points out that implied messages like “you have only 18 months before your skills are obsolete” are at best misleading, and amazingly anxiety-inducing if you take them at face value.
Which you really don’t need to do.
Realizing we’re never ready for what comes next — whatever that may be — frees us:
… to notice a different way of approaching life: not by anxiously bracing against impending doom, but by taking a deep breath and settling down a bit into the basic uncertainty of it all. And then, in that tremulous and vulnerable state, to navigate from one day to the next by choosing, from the paths available to you, whatever seems to lead in the direction of more aliveness.
It’s not the phrase he uses, but I’ll say it: change is inevitable. The better you can accept and cope with it, the more aliveness you’ll feel.
Do this: Accept change and uncertainty.
5. “Our relentless search for status and for affiliation.”
Brown rice and status – Seth Godin – (Seth’s Blog)
It’s not about the rice. The essay details the reasons white rice seems more popular, and how brown rice has become a kind of status symbol.
But it’s not about the rice.
If status and affiliation transform the market for one of our most basic commodities, it’s not hard to imagine what they do for wine, for clothing, or even for smartphones.
Not hard to imagine at all.
Do this: Look beyond status.
6. “Each generation fears new media will corrupt youth”
Your inability to focus isn’t a failing. It’s a design problem, and the answer isn’t getting rid of our screen time – Carlo Iacono – (Aeon)
I think by now we’ve all encountered the litany that “they said TV would corrupt”, “they said radio would corrupt”, “they said novels would corrupt”, all the way back to “they said writing would corrupt” (credit Socrates for that last one). Needless to say, a) it repeatedly didn’t happen — each turned out to be a significant advancement for society, and b) the same alarm is being raised today about devices.
Some may see this as splitting hairs, but it’s an important distinction: it’s not the technology at fault, but how it’s being used to manipulate. Attention-stealing feeds are fixable if we have the will. Devices are just as capable of hosting long-form deep content as they are rapid-fire social media posts.
Your inability to focus isn’t a moral failing. It’s a design problem. You’re trying to think in environments built to prevent thinking. You’re trying to sustain attention in spaces engineered to shatter it. You’re fighting algorithms explicitly optimised to keep you scrolling, not learning.
The solution isn’t discipline. It’s architecture.
Although, to be fair, the incentives aren’t yet there for architecture to win out. Until then, discipline seems all we can rely on, and thus an incredibly important skill to develop.
Do this: Pay close attention to what you consume, and how it’s presented (not what device or app it happens to come via). Develop discipline.
7. “Whose interest does ignorance serve?”
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark – Carl Sagan – (ebook)
… the consequences of scientific illiteracy are far more dangerous in our time than in any that has come before.
That line was written 30 years ago, and it’s become even more true today. In an age where medical science is not just ignored but actively suppressed by certain governments, people are dying as a result. Add a layer of politics where power and favoritism, not objective scientific consensus, drive decisions, and the stakes couldn’t be much higher.
Science used to be the gold standard for progress and innovation. Our lifespans and quality of life in general have benefited immensely as a result. Yet even 30 years ago, discussing the then-popular myth of Atlantis:
Skepticism does not sell well. A bright and curious person who relies entirely on popular culture to be informed about something like Atlantis is hundreds or thousands of times more likely to come upon a fable treated uncritically than a sober and balanced assessment.
The same is true for almost any topic today: diving into popular culture is likely to highlight reams of hype, conspiracy theories, political posturing, and probably sex, drugs, and who knows what else as well, all diverting from the boring scientific truth. No wonder people have become so scientifically illiterate.
Do this: Learn how science really works, and apply healthy doses of skepticism to anything before you believe.
8. “One of the most laborious, time-consuming and awful methods of communicating”
My Writing Journey – Leo Notenboom – (Blog)
That line above might be the oldest takeaway I’ve captured to date. I wrote it in 1979. The essay, which quotes my 1979 journal entry, chronicles some of the stages of my journey as a writer. In the follow-up, I make an additional observation.
When I was in school — grade school, high school, and even college, I absolutely hated writing. Loathed it.
And yet, these days I enjoy it.
Honestly, it took me a long time to realize what it was that made the difference between my reaction to writing in school and my enjoyment of it in the workplace.
In school, I was required to write about things I had no interest in, for an audience that I didn’t care about. It was a task to get done as quickly as possible so I could move on to the things I felt mattered more.
When I entered the workforce, I was asked (or I simply began) to write about things I actually knew and cared about, for an audience I understood.
Writing what you know and care about makes all the difference.
Do this: Write. Have I mentioned writing more? Write more. About things you enjoy.
What I’m reading now
- Dungeon Crawler Carl – Matt Dinniman
- The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark – Carl Sagan
- Everybody Has Something to Hide: Why and How to Use Signal to Preserve Your Privacy, Security, and Well-Being – Guy Kawasaki & Madisun Nuismer
My Reading List – everything I’ve read since 2021.
My Sources Page – the common sources I scan/read regularly.
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