Welcome to mid-November. Post election. Winter is here. COVID on the rise. Lockdowns looming. Daylight gleaning. Must. stay. positive.
Luckily, we have many things to be thankful for these days. You just have to know where to look! Seriously.
With things looking bleak here in the US (and more broadly) with the ongoing uptick in cases, I encourage you to take the time to before/during this upcoming holiday season to think about some of the silver linings that have come out as a result of this year in quarantine we have all experienced.
During the ebbs and flows this year, I have found when I am feeling unenergized or discouraged, it helps to take a step back.. look big picture (detach)… and think about the positives that have occurred this year. I bet you have more highlights than you think… in the interest of sharing, some of mine include: 1) reconnecting with nature on a more regular basis (after living in big cities NYC/London/Chicago the last ~10 years); 2) more appreciation for my upbringing (and thus, the little things in life); 3) increasing time spent on relationships that matter (like family/close friends/partners); 4) realizing how core wellness/fitness is to my value structure; and 5) empowering myself to pursue my dreams despite all adversity because, lets face it, taking the leap to pursue your ambitions at worst a phenomenal learning experience and, at best, the opportunity of a lifetime.
May you take the time to find your silver linings heading into holidays…
❤️ Like, share, and add to ‘my contacts’! It helps others discover what they have been missing out on while ensuring gmail doesn’t junk this newsletter either :)
⬇️ #thinkingthings, #followerthings, and #otherthings ⬇️
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🤔🤔 #thinkingthings
🟥 >>>> Violence as a Quest for Identity
Featuring a 6-minute clip from a 1977 interview with Canadian Philosopher Marshall McLuhan. It is profound. Idk where this philosopher came from but this 6 minutes is filled with punchy points that really make you think… it is so very relevant to the information abundant society we live in. One that is continuously propagated by media manipulation and constant surveillance. This is the cost of a digitized world… or what Mr. McLuhan refers to it as the ‘electronic age’ - which is funny because he is really only referring to the radio and TV. Oh, how far we’ve come since then….
the clip + more thoughts below 👇
Opening script from the interview… quite a way to kick things off.
(For reference: Bicameral: “(of a legislative body) having two branches or chambers.” Sound like anyplace you know…?)
A few more quotes from the interview that I found very thought provoking:
“All forms of violence are a quest for identity. The threat to people’s identity is what makes them resort to violence”
“When you live out on the frontier, you have no identity. You are a nobody. Therefore, you get very tough. You have to prove that you are somebody. So you become very violent. Identity is always accompanied by violence. This seems paradoxical to you? Ordinary people find the need for violence as they lose their identities. It is only the threat to people’s identity that makes them violent. Terrorists, hijackers - these are people minus identity. They are determined to make it somehow, to get coverage, to get noticed.”
“People in all times have been this way. In our [electronic age] time, when things happen very quickly, there’s very little time to adjust to new situations at the speed of light. There is little time to get accustomed to anything. Even radio has sent tribal societies around the globe up the wall with intensity of feeling. One of the major violence makers of our century has been radio. Hitler was entirely a radio man and a tribal man.”
“At this moment, we are on the air. We do not have any physical body. When you’re on the telephone or on radio or on T.V., you don’t have a physical body - you’re just an image on the air. When you don’t have a physical body, you’re a discarnate being. You have a very different relation to the world around you. I think this has been one of the big effects of the electric age. It has deprived people really of their identity.”
…. “Everybody tends to merge his identity with other people at the speed of light. It’s called being mass man. By the way, one of the big parts of the loss of identity is nostalgia. So there are revivals in every phase of life today. Revivals of clothing, of dances, of music, of shows, of everything. We live by the revival. It tells us who we are or were.”
“I think you get a certain immunity, just as you get a certain immunity from booze by literacy. The literate man can carry his liquor; the tribal man cannot. That is why in the Muslim world or in the native world is booze is impossible; it is the demon rum. However, literacy also makes us very accessible to ideas and propaganda. The literate man is the natural sucker for propaganda. You cannot propagandize a native. You can sell him rum and trinkets but you cannot sell him ideas. Therefore, propaganda is our Achilles’ heel. It is our weak point. We will buy anything if it fairly hard sell to it.”
I am no doubt in the camp of “technology as a whole is good for society” but these types of comments from a renowned Canadian philosopher really make you think about where we are headed as a collective society. It raises more questions than answers about the future of our world. The first step is to educate oneself to begin to understand it (by ‘it’, in this case, I mean the flows of information/how media manipulates our mind). Once you understand the inner workings, only then can one start to change things - because if one thing is clear, its that our business-as-usual approach to information sharing is not healthy. 2020 is wake up call for many, I hope.
🟥 >>>> Inventor/writer Lin Yutang on the magic of reading:
I’m on the look out for a good fiction novel these days. Preferably science fiction. @me with any suggestions you got so I can be as happy as Will Ferrell before eating meatloaf.
P.S. I am doing no-meat November (but cheating with fish) and its going swimmingly. Shout out to any of you who have taken a ‘month off’ in regards to regular habits. Its definitely not easy.
Found this one in James Clear’s 3-2-1 Newsletter (if you like self improvement stuff and don’t subscribe, I highly recommend). I love Lin’s perspective - especially given the relevance to the first 2 posts above (i.e. mass man media and quarantine). We all need to explore new worlds during these times.
"Compare the difference between the life of a man who does no reading and that of a man who does. The man who has not the habit of reading is imprisoned in his immediate world, in respect to time and space. His life falls into a set routine; he is limited to contact and conversation with a few friends and acquaintances, and he sees only what happens in his immediate neighborhood. From this prison there is no escape.
But the moment he takes up a book, he immediately enters a different world, and if it is a good book, he is immediately put in touch with one of the best talkers of the world. This talker leads him on and carries him into a different country or a different age, or unburdens to him some of his personal regrets, or discusses with him some special line or aspect of life that the reader knows nothing about. An ancient author puts him in communion with a dead spirit of long ago, and as he reads along, he begins to imagine what that ancient author looked like and what type of person he was...
Now to be able to live two hours out of twelve in a different world and take one's thoughts off the claims of the immediate present is, of course, a privilege to be envied by people shut up in their bodily prison."
🟥 >>>> Don't give me advice, help me find it myself
I’ve been following Loic Le Meur on various social platforms for some time now. His accounts are worth a follow… and if you do follow him, know that you won’t be hearing much from him in the coming weeks. The guy just recently sent it to Brazil to go live 8+ hours (via boatride) up the Amazon with an indigenous tribe. Pretty wild.
I like following Loic’s material because he is a software entrepreneur who built disruptive businesses, is a master at curating online communities (with a real world component), and is one of those people who knows how to get his message out simply and effectively - a skill that I am working hard on to hone.
SO, in the spirit of sharing unique perspectives from various thought leaders this week, I thought I would close with a recent post from Loic. He shares his thoughts on something that we can all put to good use - how to be a better conversationalist. More specifically, how to be a better listener - something so simple, yet so impactful. Enjoy!
We all have different views of the world and different masks.
I am often given advice “do this” or “don’t do that” and it is often a challenge to not be influenced by a friends or family view on something. Yet, what works for them is likely to not work for you as much as they might be convinced it would.
When we give advice we influence the person more than we think. It is also a way of telling them that they don’t have the resources to discover the solution themselves.
Finding yourself the solution to a problem or working around it is much more powerful than following anyone’s advice.
The alternative to giving advice is to listen, ask how you can help and instead of advice use “this is what helped me, it might not work for you […]”
Celeste Headlee has an excellent talk on how to have “better conversations” with 10 recommendations for a good conversation.
If you disagree with someone or find that person annoying, you can still have a conversation and listen. Take it as a meditation. Don’t judge. Don’t say the person is wrong. See it as an interview. Be curious.
Don’t multitask. Be present. Listen deeply. Don’t think about anything else or leave the conversation
Don’t pontificate. Enter every conversation assuming you have something to learn. Set aside your personal opinion. Everyone you meet has something to teach you.
Use open-ended questions. Let them describe. What was it like? How did it feel. Make the other think.
Go with the flow. Questions, ideas and thoughts will come to your mind while the other speaks. Let them come and go instead of focusing on them focus on the person talking.
If you don’t know say that you don’t know.
Don’t equate your experience with theirs. If they’re talking about having lost a family member, don’t talk about how you lost a family member. It is not about you. Not about how amazing you are or how much you suffered. Conversations are not a promotional opportunity.
Try not repeating yourself.
Stay out of details. People care about you, not the details. Watch the eyes of the person in front of you if you see them moving away you’re giving too much detail or you’re too long already.
Listen. Naturally we like to talk instead of listening. The average person talks at about 225 words per minute but we can listen at more than 500 words per minute.
Be brief. Keep your mouth shut and always be prepared to be amazed.
Be interested in other people and less in talking about yourself.
📲🧑🏽🤝🧑🏻 #followerthings
^the future of shopping..? cant wait.
Idk why but this meme just got me 😂
“On the other side of your maximum fear are all of the best things in life” … so send that cold email, what do you have to lose? :)
📚⏯️🎤 #otherthings
I am starting an online community built on the curiosity pillars of this newsletter.
Why? Well because, in the spirit of bursting echo chambers, we have hundreds of readers from all over the world and I think its time we get to know one another a little more intimately and foster some connectivity sparks.
I am looking to continue to progress the experience that comes with reading #thebalance. My hope is that this is another way to add additional value into your life.
SO….
🚨🚨 I will be launching a community group chat on WhatsApp in the coming month whereby connections will be facilitated, knowledge will be shared, and digital meetups will be had.
…. hit reply and respond with a ‘✋’ if you are interested!
(for those that have already responded, I will be in touch soon!!)
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Stay safe out there. Peace and love to all y’all.
Curiously,
-Block
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About me:
My friends call me Block. I am the CSO & Cofounder at Alkemi.Network, a company building capital markets plumbing for the internet economy. This newsletter is my passion project.
I am endlessly curious and blissfully dissatisfied. I love new ideas, obsessed with all things technology, and am always seeking to broaden my perspective while striving for balance, of course.
I am a futurist, investor, entrepreneur, builder, advisor, life long learner, hockey player, traveler, podcast addict, hip-hop head, e-newsletter junkie, event planner, and comedic-short producer. Follow me on Twitter here and Instagram here.
“Find a question that makes the world interesting.” - Paul Graham