Wednesday Weekly Wisdom #6

Technology, skill development, history and more...

Greetings friends and lovers of wisdom,

Welcome to this week’s issue. Let’s proceed.

What am I reading?

• The Book Of Practice, by Laido Dittmar – world-class juggler that works with Cirque du Soleil but had a very difficult time before figuring out how to practice then proceeded to rapidly improve within two years to become world-class

• Discipline Is Destiny, by Ryan Holiday. I know I’ve mentioned this book a few times in recent issues, but I was profoundly moved by an entry on the relationship between Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. Antoninus had spent decades in Roman politics vying for the highest offices yet in a twist of fate was ultimately assigned the role of grooming the boy Marcus Aurelius to become emperor. It is a stark contrast to read about two humans entrusted with absolute power (who handled it relatively well) versus the modern political landscape rife with corruption, incompetence, and buffoonery.

• The Skill Of Deep Focus, by FOCI. An instructional booklet that accompanied the Christmas gift I mentioned a couple of issues ago. I’ll link an infographic of the Cambridge Focus Framework, the model upon which the product is designed. While I’m still considering my opinion, feel free to read more here [if this piques your curiosity as it did mine. A quick update: I recently finished the preliminary machine learning the device undergoes to learn the peculiarities of each user’s breathing patterns. It took longer than expected – I estimate about two weeks or so.

What am I watching?

• podcast with Sam Harris and Andrew Huberman covering the skill and utility of meditation, free will, consciousness and its contents, perception, and self, among others. I have found Sam’s Waking Up app to be valuable in my own meditation practice. For anyone interested, here’s my link to a 30-day free trial. As an addendum, it has probably one of the most peculiar business models in that it’s free for anyone that can’t afford it.

• After Socrates – Episode 1 of John Vervaeke’s new series. It serves as a great introduction in addition to going into instructional detail for a variety of practices designed to cultivate wisdom: meditation, reciprocal re-interpretation, and dialogue. [include reference here]

• training videos for copywriting. The irony of how dry my newsletter is not lost upon me while I’m studying to become a better storyteller.

• Exit The Void – another video hosted on the Stoa YouTube channel. There are some useful and well articulated distinctions and analysis on present culture around containers, sacredness and values as sources of meaning. 

What am I listening to?

• A handful of binaural beats to help induce flow for writing as well as interrupt any anxious or negative thoughts. Invaluable aids for focus and work: 

• Brain Waves app as recommended by Dr. Andrew Huberman. It is plain and unadorned and gives the pure frequency. I shoot for 40Hz as recommended by the good doctor (not a medical doctor).

• I like this track on Spotify as well as this one and this one.

What am I thinking about?

• what is value? A seed of a journal entry a few weeks ago as I reconcile my internal conflict between commercial and creative interests. For the intermediate term, I’ve decided to prioritize my copywriting efforts. There’s likely psychological material to explore around self-worth and deservingness, and attitudes about money.

• mortality and nostalgia. It would have been my mother’s 76th birthday this past Monday on January 16.

• the value of tradition. I had the wonderful opportunity to attend a Lakota sacred pipe ceremony and potluck. Some observations included the value of patience, witnessing the beauty of apprenticeship and mentoring, and the teaching that the main cause of problems in our lives centers around disconnection with ourselves, our ancestors, and nature. 

• reconciling the deep love I have for my family with the incongruity of our personalities. While this may be a touch of an exaggeration, other than the fact we share the same parents, over the holidays I had the epiphany I have little in common with my siblings in terms of interests, values, passions and worldview. I yearn to better connect with them and to show up as a better brother.

• how transient moods really are. I remember last week how much stress I felt conducting my annual review, how much relief I experienced upon publishing, and how quickly I forgot about it within a couple of days.

• “Unrestrained moderation.” The motto of Marcus Aurelius. I recall listening to a modern lecture series on psychology that attempted to measure self-control and how it tracked in terms of human flourishing i.e. was there such a thing as too much? According to that lecture, it was quite linear – overall, more is better, akin to g, the psychometric of IQ.

• “Equanimity.” Antoninus's last word to Marcus. I find it particularly touching given my appreciation for Buddhist psychology.

What am I working on?

• building up a copywriting portfolio of sample assignments to share with prospective clients.

• implementing better note-taking per Building A Second Brain

• the Ultraworking Pentathlon has commenced. To summarize, it’s a team-based event for 16 days scoring on the categories of work, sleep, fitness, nutrition and planning. So far, so good. It’s amazing how far a little social accountability by way of cooperation (teams) and competition (scoring) goes.

That’s all for this week. I’d enjoy hearing from if anything I share resonates, so consider this your friendly invitation.

Stay wise,

Tai