Can't get no satisfaction. Time after time. You're so vain. Think for yourself. Freedom of choice. Respect. What a wonderful world.
“Too many of us,” she said, “take great pains with what we ingest through our mouths, and far less with what we partake of through our ears and eyes.”
– Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings
1. “There is no end to the desiring in sight.”
You Will Never Be Satisfied – David Pinsof – (Everything is Bullshit)
The Buddhist position is that desire is the source of all suffering and that desire can be controlled, if not eliminated. Pinsof disagrees. Instead, he posits, that understanding that desire is inevitable, and often ever-increasing, can protect you from manipulation:
The next time some propagandist is trying to sell you a vision of utopia, you might remember this post and realize that utopia is bullshit. The next time some self-help guru is trying to sell you a vision of nirvana—some trick to finally being satisfied—you might remember this post and realize the guru is full of shit.
I’m somewhere in between. Just because desire is an inevitable source of suffering doesn’t mean it’s not a worthwhile endeavor to reduce it as much as possible.
Do this: Desire less.
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2. “Every possible lunch already exists.”
Time is a User-Interface – Joan Westenberg – (Blog)
OK, I’ll admit it’s a head scratcher, but something I’ve scratched my head about often over the years. What is time, really?
… the one-second-per-second thing are the resolution at which whatever time actually is becomes something a human brain can use.
The implication is that time is something more complex than that; we’re just capable of viewing it a certain way because it’s useful, and the reality wouldn’t be. Westenberg compares it to a computer’s user interface: we understand the abstractions of icons of files and folders, but most would be totally lost with the bits and bytes under the hood that they represent.
Do this: Watch your time.
3. “You are so spoiled.”
Long-Term Money – Morgan Housel – (Collabfund blog)
An interesting insight that many people fail to realize:
The goal of some parents is to work so hard that their kids and grandkids get to live a life that appears spoiled by the standards of previous generations.
That children appear spoiled is the system operating as designed. Parents worked for a better life for their kids, and they achieved it.
That doesn’t mean things necessarily got easier, just … different.
What’s common to miss here is that when one generation’s life becomes comparatively easier than before, their life does not become objectively easy; they just move on to worrying about higher-order problems that were previously deemed not urgent enough to worry about.
Something to consider before you remark that “kids these days have it so easy”.
Do this: Remember that life getting easier was kinda the point.
4. “I’m done ceding my brain…”
In Defense of Thinking – Cal Newport – (Blog)
Newport’s book, Deep Work, was published in 2016, and he muses on what’s changed in the ten years since. It ain’t pretty.
The problems I focused on in Deep Work, and in my writing since, have been getting steadily worse. In 2016 my main concern was helping people find enough free time for deep work. Today I think we’re rapidly losing the ability to think deeply at all, regardless of how much space we can find in our schedules for these efforts.
Losing the ability to think deeply at all. It’s not hard to look around society these days and come to a similar conclusion.
The takeaway’s full quote is, essentially, his manifesto:
I’m done ceding my brain — the core of all that makes me who I am — to the financial interests of a small number of technology billionaires or the shortsighted conveniences of hyperactive communication styles. It’s time to move past fretting about our slide into the cognitive shallows and decide to actually do something about it.
“In Defense of Thinking” seems to imply nothing more than making an argument that thinking is good. I think it’s much more: we must actively defend the act of thinking.
Do this: Think deeply.
5. “But we waste that power every time we fail to realize we’re making a choice.”
Where do bad choices come from? – Seth Godin – (Blog)
It’s a typically short post, as is his style, but has interesting insight.
You might not know what you need to know. This is where experience is created.
You might have an identity that pushes you to make those choices. If you’re determined to act like the person you have assumed you are, the choices come with the role.
Or, you might prioritize short-term benefits over the long-term costs of a bad choice. In this sense, the difference between a good choice and a bad one is simply which timeframe we’re considering.
I think the second one is worth expanding on: you may have an identity that pushes you to make choices you know to be bad. As in an identity rooted in, say, one political perspective or another.
Do this: Consider your choices.
6. “Giving quality feedback is a skill we should all have”
Are we becoming too harsh without even realizing? – Rachna Ghiya – (Take a Little Pause)
This is a skill I’m horrible at. I have no shortage of opinions — both positive and negative — but sharing that as feedback in a constructive way? I don’t screw it up, I just don’t do it.
A class the author and I were both recently in included a framework for constructive feedback: simply thinking through and answering three questions.
What did you like?
What might you do differently?
What do you wonder about?
Fine, open-ended questions, all phrased in a way that encourages constructive commentary. I like it.
Do this: Learn to give quality feedback in a constructive way.
7. “What problem solved itself while you weren’t looking?”
Are You Noticing This? – Ryan Holiday – (Blog)
Things get fixed, and we take it all in stride. Things get better — sometimes amazingly better — and we simply fail to notice.
How often do we update our world view to account for what has been fixed, for what’s gotten better, for sources of annoyance that have been eliminated?
It’s easy, too easy, to focus on what’s wrong with the world. Heck, most of our sources of information encourage the heck out of it. And yet, what’s going right is astonishing, if you’ll only notice that it’s happening.
Do this: Notice.
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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PS: Can’t get no satisfaction. Time after time. You’re so vain. Think for yourself. Freedom of choice. Respect. What a wonderful world.
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