Watching the inexplicable. In-your-face advice. The sum of who you are. Acting "as if." Journaling. Beautiful facts. Efficiently lazy.
Stop trying to be spectacular. Start being consistent.
– Shane Parrish
1. “We have beans. We have a nose. They must be united.”
Beans and Noses – Jared Spool – (Blog)
A very entertaining essay about the fact that some people are bound and determined to do things that make absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Now, there is no logical explanation for this. There is no way to say, “Yes, I can see exactly why you’d want to do that.” They came to this decision all on their own. The way they got to this decision defies logic.
It’s a useful analogy for deciding where to spend your energy. Sometimes there’s simply nothing to be done. Rationalizing won’t help. All you can do is watch the bean train wreck and move on.
Do this: Look for beans. And noses.
#rationality #the-inexplicable
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2. “The World Only Cares About What It Can Get from You”
6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You a Better Person – Jason Pargin – (Cracked)
Brutal. Blunt. And yet, if you take the time to read and understand the in-your-face perspective, it’s also very eye opening.
The bottom line is simple: if you want to become or get “X”, then become someone who deserves it. And that’s one hell of a lot of work. Most people prefer to complain about it all while sitting on their couch scrolling social media.
And they’ll have help.
Whatever you try to build or create — be it a poem, or a new skill, or a new relationship — you will find yourself immediately surrounded by non-creators who trash it.
Take responsibility for your life, your desires, and your results.
Do this: Be a creator, starting with creating the person you want to be.
#adulting #growth #responsibility
3. “How you love, how you give, and how you suffer is just about the sum of who you are.”
18 Life-Learnings from 18 Years of The Marginalian – Maria Popova – (The Marginalian)
It’s end of the year reflection time. Various writers sum up their year, or in this case 18 years, with a list of lessons learned. Many, like this one, are insightful. Continuing the takeaway above:
Everything in life is a subset of one or a combinatorial function of all three. Seek people who love and give generously, who have the strength to suffer without causing damage. … Seek to be such a person.
The full list is worth a read.
Do this: #14: “Choose joy.”
4. “What you do matters a lot more than what you feel.”
The Virtuous Circle of a Happy Personality (gift link) – Arthur C. Brooks – (The Atlantic)
What caught my attention was this phrase:
make a resolution to behave as a happier person would
followed by this:
You may feel no desire to do any of them, but if you can manage it anyway, that will probably make you happier.
This is a classic approach to self improvement or change: acting “as if”. The concept is simple: acting as if you had some desired characteristic is likely to develop that characteristic. Over time it becomes less and less of an act, and more of who you are.
Coincidentally, this week’s newsletter from James Clear phrases this in a slightly different way.
You get better at what you practice.
Everything is practice.
Do this: Practice. Act “as if”
5. “You are not broken, and the world is thirsting for your gifts.”
The Source – Rob Hardy – (ungated.life)
This is a deeply person, almost TMI examination of where the author is, and his attempts(?) plans(?) desires(?) to move on.
There’s plenty of thought-fodder right there, including the takeaway above, but what got my attention is more the approach he’s taking.
I’ve struggled with journaling forever. I’ve tried every technique in the book, and it always ends up falling by the wayside. Hardy’s been in the same place. The approach he’s taking is simple:
Try writing yourself a letter. Tell yourself what you need to hear. Trust me.
And that’s exactly what this piece is. A lengthy letter from Rob to Rob. You can see that the mechanics allow him to examine aspects of his life in ways that “plain old writing” might not have. It’s fascinating.
It doesn’t feel like something that would work for me, but it is spurring some thought on what kinds of out-of-the-box techniques might.
Do this: Journal. Seriously, I keep reading piece after piece about how helpful it is. But do it in whatever way works for you.
PS: I’ve written one important letter to myself. You’ll find it here.
6. “Facts that seem beautiful tend to survive much longer”
We Fell For The Oldest Lie On The Internet – Kurzgesagt- (YouTube)
OK, it might not be the oldest lie, but it’s an interesting one. This was a fun analysis of trying to track down the source of a very commonly accepted factoid:
Did you know that YOUR blood vessels taken together add up to 100,000 kilometers, enough to wrap them around the planet twice?
I love this because it’s such a beautiful example of how much effort it can take to actually verify something. It’s a clear example of why misinformation is so much easier.
The most interesting stories survive on the internet and, often with each retelling, they get more exciting and memorable. It takes a lot of energy to get to the bottom of things, and a factoid is easily repeated, so misinformation can persist.
Do this: I’m not going to say “research everything”, because that’s impractical. Rather, understand just how difficult that can be, and because it’s so difficult, how easy it is for misinformation to spread.
#fact-checking #misinformation
7. “Efficiency is a little bit lazy”
Takeaways on efficiency, passive learning, & optimization – Eleanor Konik – (Obsidian Iceberg)
The timing on this is a tad spot-on for me. Konik discusses note taking which, a) I suck at, even with all the cool tools, and b) I wish I had done recently, since there’s a great quote I read and now can’t find. Sigh.
If the things that you care about are easily searched on the internet, they might not be the best candidates for taking notes about.
That’s my counter example. The thing I’m missing has definitely not been easily searched, and something I should have captured as soon as I saw it and laughed. I’m also on the fence about the concept of “easily searched”, mostly because things we think are easy often aren’t, and what’s searchable today can often be gone tomorrow.
Do this: Take note of important things as you encounter them.
Random links
- Your Comfort Zone Is Where Dreams Go to Die – Lovely story/reflection from John P. Weiss
What I’m reading
In progress:
- Fortune Hunter – Jana DeLeon
- Own Your Weird – Jason Zook
- Meditations for Mortals – Oliver Burkeman
- The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century – Steven Pinker (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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