8/23/2017

• This is going to be a dense entry. Finally back from London. The trip marked my longest vacation yet. While it was a much needed change of pace from the city (the fact that I was reluctant to step away from my routine probably meant it was time to do so), I’m so glad to be back. Have a lot of work planned for this fall that I’m eager to get started on (more on this later).
• “Regimented Boredom” seems to be cropping up more and more as our default mode of operation these days is tending towards constant consumption of inputs (media, stimuli, etc.). I’ll be covering this in my next post on “earned fatigue.“ The initial draft is in review (if you’d like to help edit, let me know). More resources on this:
  • http://www.raptitude.com/2017/08/the-long-lost-thrill-of-doing-nothing/
  • https://qz.com/1020976/the-scientific-link-between-boredom-and-creativity/
  • http://nearthespeedoflight.com/article/2017_01_25_don___t_kill_time_2
• “Thinking aloud, doing quietly.”
• Earlier, I noted that abstaining from social media is almost a competitive advantage. A second-order effect of doing so might be stronger independent thinking. Imagine how clearly one would think for themselves in the absence of digesting opinions/takes and instead preferring primary sources first.
• Been thinking a bit about a small, lighthearted “test” Ryan gave me a few weeks ago. While we were waiting to meet Greg for a concert, I had shown him that if you 3D touch the iOS keyboard, it more easily moves the cursor around a text field. Once Greg arrived, Ryan showed him this trick and deliberately took credit for the find. I immediately jumped in and let Greg know I had originally shown Ryan. I fell for the trap. Why did it matter who knew about the feature first? Ryan referred to that incident as a “humble test.” This was a small (arguably innocent) example, but made me pause and gut check my intentions there.
• I never connected the common adage that separating one’s bedroom and office is better for separating concerns (sleep and work) as a concrete instance of working memory resetting when switching rooms.
• Very much a nascent thought here. So, pardon the stream of conscious. Arjun and I recently discussed how most of the risks my peer group takes these days (e.g. joining an early-stage startup) aren’t actually that risky. Or, as he called them, they’re “50/50 flips.” The odds aren’t bad. We then went on to enumerate what some “80/20 flips” in our life might be (acknowledging that they are completely the product of our respective situations). One that immediately came to mind: taking my writing full-time (Patreon tier and scheduled cadence).