MYB #32: Travel is no cure for mind

Short Takes

Jun 20, 2021

Welcome to 𝙈𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙔𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝘽𝙞𝙩𝙚 𝙉𝙚𝙬𝙨𝙡𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧—a Sunday email with 5 long reads to get you moved and thinking deep. 🧐

📕 Reads of The Week

1. Travel is no cure for mind by Lawrence Yeo

We travel to get out of the mundanity of the daily life. The truth is we only try to escape our minds. Yet, when your mind is not at ease, no matter how long and far you go, the recklessness will remain.
But if travel is not the answer to life problems, what is?
- The appreciation of "now" 🙏
  - One way to feel content in the present is through the practice of gratitude. "Being grateful about our existence and its relation to others allows for a blossoming of meaning and purpose in our exploration of this life."
  - Meditation is another powerful practice that brings us the clarity to see the Daily Box Of Life for what it is: "a reflection of the life that can be eased into fluidity with the proper attention and care."
  - Only when we are conscious can we see beauty in the mind of others (our loved ones, friends, and books).
💡"The key is not to discard The Box of Daily Experience and find a new one — it’s to warmly embrace the one that we have now — with its joys, its flaws, and everything in between." that we have now — with its joys, its flaws, and everything in between."

2. Why generation Y Yuppies are unhappy? by Tim Urban:

The formula to happiness 😍: Reality - Expectation = Happiness.
If your reality is better than your expectation, you will be content and optimistic. The other way around, you will end up miserable.
The reason why Gen Y (The Gypsy) is unhappy is because they see the world through rose-colored glasses. When the perfect dreams shatter, they get drown in pain and disappointment.
Social media also make a case for Gen Y to compare themselves with others, which deepens their suffering.
💡 Key takeaways:
- Life has always been difficult. To believe it not only brings suffering.
- Everyone is just as confused as they are. Their social profile is not as awesome as they paint it to be.
- Don't fall back to complacency. Work hard to achieve your dreams and goals.

3. Infobesity: the spendour and misery of information overload by Marie Dollé

Curation means selecting relevant information and presenting it to an audience in a clear and organized way. 📚
How to make your curation useful?
- Bring out the right content at the right time: Have you built the right structure to give your readers what they need at a given time?
- A way to retain and make the curation actionable: The key is to create a framework that is actionable. (Related: Looking for Syllabus 2.0)
💡 A quote to bookmark:
"The curator has a bright future ahead provided that they take a serious look at their processes and tools and accompanies their communities for a better learning experience."

4. Who wants to play the status game by Agnes Callard

There are 3 games that every human plays: The Basic Game, the Importance Game, and The Leveling Game. 🎮
- The Basic Game happens when you first meet someone and look for common grounds to continue a conversation.
- The Importance Game is when people compete for the top position whether through their wealth, connection, talent, or achievement.
- The Leveling Game is the one where players use empathy to equalize with others.
The last two are also known as the advanced games because those playing them often pretend they are not.
Self-effacing rule: While the players of the basic game can say explicitly: "Let see what we have in common", with the other two games, this explicitness violates the rule.
How comes the self-effacing rule? Saying "I'm so important" or "I am nobody" is just dull, so people come up with creative ways to express it.
💡 But while these games exist as part of life, they are not what makes your life valuable. You are valuable because you are a person — who can talk about your value, express your choice and capacities in the way that makes you valuable.

5. Best story wins by Morgan Housel

In many fields, the best story wins.
Examples:
- Yuval Noah Harari sold 27 million copies of the Sapien not by introducing any new facts, but by his masterful storytelling.
- Ken Burns took 130-year-old history facts of the Civil War and turned it into a publicly acclaimed and award-winning documentary series.
- Charles Darwin isn't the first to discover evolution but he's the first to write about it in the most compelling way.
💡 Takeaways:
- Stories are the leverage to complex ideas.
- Stories can create hidden opportunities
- A good story causes everyone to look in the same direction.

That’s it for the week.

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Until next time

Naomi

The Longform Addict