There is grace. Being yourself. There's always more work. Attention spans. The dog in the window. Expressing yourself. Is your job safe?
“Storytelling is the oldest form of education.”
– Terry Tempest Williams
1. “You will remember that there is still grace in this world.”
Let It Pass Through You – John Patrick Weiss – (Blog)
A story of disappointment. Encounters that might have you lose a little hope.
And yet.
There will always be sullen teenagers in coffee shops, poor service, broken systems, and small frustrations that accumulate if we let them.
But these things are not the whole story.
A story of another encounter.
If you let them pass through you, if you refuse to let them settle and harden, something else reveals itself.
An encounter that reminds us all that there is hope; that there is grace in the world.
Do this: Let the disappointment pass.
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2. “Built into the definition of authenticity are boundaries”
Brené and Adam on What They Will Never Agree On – Brené Brown, Adam Grant – (The Curiosity Shop with Brené Brown and Adam Grant – podcast)
Apparently, Brené and Adam had a public dustup some years ago on the topic of authenticity. This brand new podcast begins with them discussing the particulars of what happened and why.
What caught my attention was this:
Be yourself with people who earn the right to see yourself.
Share your story with people who’ve earned the right to hear your story.
The episode was a fascinating exercise in disagreement, apologies, clarifications, and more. I expect interesting and insightful discussions in future episodes.
Do this: Be yourself … when it’s appropriate.
3. “There is always, always more work yet to do.”
Why I’m Not Worried About Running Out of Work in the Age of AI – Dave Kellog – (Blog)
Kellog puts into words what I’ve felt for a long time.
Every time technology dramatically increases our ability to do something, we don’t run out of work. We discover many more things worth doing.
This is absolutely the case with AI. It may make some jobs and tasks go away, but that will clear room for more tasks we never had time for, or tasks we haven’t even thought of yet.
Change will suck at the individual level. All I can say is if you’re in a job that will be impacted by AI, you need to consider switching horses.
You want to be driving the tools, not driven by them. Aggressively learn AI. Be the person who knows the most about solving problems using AI tools — integrating them, automating workflows. Not just generating content.
Do this: Pay attention to where your work is headed.
4. “Children today are writing more words than you or I did when we were teenagers.”
The Internet Has Not Killed Reading—or Attention Spans – Kristen French – (Nautilus)
A fascinating contrarian viewpoint.
A teenager spending three hours on social media might be watching long-form YouTube essays, reading Reddit threads, participating in BookTok, or creating content. Collapsing all of that into a single variable and drawing conclusions about format isn’t justified.
I’ve often wondered if we’re looking at the attention span thing wrong. It’s not that teens don’t have the ability to focus; perhaps we just don’t approve of what they’re focusing on.
Though it still concerns me, the number of reports from college professors about the number of students who have never read a book. But, again, is that just disapproval or is it a more serious issue? The author’s interviewee, Kevin Ashton of MIT, states:
And long-form reading is booming. United States young adult print sales went from approximately 23 million copies in 2018 when TikTok launched to a record 35 million in 2022, a 52-percent increase.
I’m not sure what to make of it all.
Do this: Read a book anyway.
5. “It didn’t blow up our marriage.”
5 Years of Lessons From Running My Own Bookstore – Ryan Holiday – (Blog)
This resonated on several levels because my wife and I ran a collectible doll shop for 14 years. Holiday has a long list of lessons, and the majority ring very, very true. Well worth reading through.
One made me laugh:
… came home with two cats who have lived at the bookstore ever since. They’re literally the most popular thing about the store.
He has cats. We had Jerome. And I can confirm, a disproportionate number of visitors were to visit him. As Holiday puts it:
But keep in mind, some of the best parts of any project are things you can’t possibly predetermine.
Indeed.
Do this: Be open to the things you can’t predict.
6. “Think of yourself as a storyteller.”
How to express yourself clearly – Darius Foroux – (Blog)
I gravitate to items relating to writing because I consider it such an important skill for success in life. In reality, though, it’s a manifestation of a different skill that is arguably even more important: communicating clearly in any form.
Most people just start talking and hope it lands somewhere useful.
Guilty. The point here is that the same advice and structure we talk about for writing clearly applies equally well to how we express ourselves in person.
You can tell by a couple of the books I’m reading right now that I’m focusing a little on storytelling, but it hadn’t really occurred to me that it’s about more than writing.
Do this: Learn to tell a good story. It’s a skill, so practice and improve.
7. “Should I be worried that my job is going to disappear?”
What Jobs Are Safe? – Andrew Yang – (Newsletter)
It’s a question that more and more people are asking. Yang hears the question a lot. In this essay he includes both “Factors that Suggest Your Job Might Get Automated”, as well as “Things that Might Make Your Job Safe(r for the Time Being)”. They’re good lists to review, not for the specific items on them but for the commonalities and trends that they suggest.
One comment Yang makes at the end is only partially tongue-in-cheek:
The best way to keep the boss from automating your job is to become a boss, because then the only person who can fire you is yourself.
Spoken like a true entrepreneur, but it’s true. Not all are cut out for it, but for many people at risk of job loss for any reason, not just AI, I have to wonder if some kind of independent, entrepreneurial alternative might make sense.
Do this: Consider AI, and its impact on what you do for a living. Then make contingency plans.
Random Links
What I’m reading now
- Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life – Anne Lamott
- The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better – Will Storr
- The Way of Kings: Book One of the Stormlight Archive – Brandon Sanderson
- The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke – (Audio)
- The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark – Carl Sagan
My Reading List – everything I’ve read since 2021.
My Sources Page – the common sources I scan/read regularly.
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