22: Notes To Self

Yo, it’s Luke!

To all my fellow Chicagoans that just got some snow, isn’t life so much better now?

Anyways, here is your weekly dose of 5 noteworthy ideas & things I learned about last week. Click on each link to dive further on that topic.

1. Krishnamurti Quote on Inward Joy (Think On These Things)

“There are very few who can look you straight in the face and smile. And it is very important to smile, to be happy; because, you see, without a song in one's heart life becomes very dull. One may go from temple to temple, from one husband or wife to another, or one may find a new teacher or guru; but if there is not this inward joy, life has very little meaning.”

You can feel it when somebody genuinely looks you in the face and smiles. A warm aura washes over. You feel welcomed. Calmed. Like this is exactly where you should be in this moment.

I like to call this a Jack Johnson moment.

The more Jack Johnson moments you have (or create), the better.

2. Google Books Is An All-Time Humanitarian Project

Google Books has digitized over 40 million books in more than 500 languages.

All of which are available for free to anyone with an internet connection.

First, it’s awesome to think about how many more people can now access A1 knowledge to learn (for free).

Second, it’s crazy to contextualize how efficient they were. Let’s do some math. The project started in 2002. That’s 22 years (~8000 days) ago. That means Google scanned and uploaded ~5000 books every day. That’s 207 books per hour. Or about 3 books a second on repeat for 22 years! So cool.

3. A Few Thoughts On Depression (Noahpinion)

This was an interesting blog by someone who has dealt with heavy bouts of depression. Here’s my notes on insights I want to remember:

• Depression is not sadness. It’s more like a numbness to reality.

• Coming out of depression is the most dangerous time. Your emotional system is turning back on and you can have spiky behavior. This is where people feel most raw & can spiral into make harmful decisions.

• Depressed people don't need good listeners, a sympathetic ear, or a shoulder to cry on. Why? Depressed people tend not to think that anyone can really understand what they're going through. Also, talking about negative thoughts doesn’t really expunge them like it would for a sad person.

• The single most important thing that a depressed person needs is to talk to people. Not about their problems or their negative thoughts or their depression, but about anything else - music, animals, science.

• Friends are especially important because friends offer an opportunity for understanding and positive interaction without much feeling of obligation or shame.

• To help a depressed person, friends need to become a bit more like family, and family a bit more like friends.

• Cognitive behavioral therapy really works. Depressed people have negative thoughts that they can't get out of their head; cognitive therapy teaches you to habitually identify, examine, and correct these negative thoughts.

4. Cells Are Very Fast And Crowded Place (Ken Shirriff)

This blog post will blow your mind with human biology facts. Here’s some crazy ones:

• You may wonder how things get around inside cells if they are so crowded. It turns out that molecules move unimaginably quickly due to thermal motion. A small molecule such as glucose is cruising around a cell at about 250 mph, while a large protein molecule is moving at 20 mph. Note that these are actual speeds inside the cell, not scaled-up speeds. If you scale it up, driving through a crowded Times Square at 20 mph is like driving through Times Square at 20 million miles per hour!

• A typical enzyme (the molecule that kickstarts a chemical reaction) can collide with something to react with 500,000 times every second.

• In addition, a typical protein is tumbling around, a million times per second. Imagine proteins crammed together, each rotating at 60 million RPM, with molecules slamming into them billions of times a second. This is what's going on inside a cell.

5. The Value of Daily Surprises (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi)

"Try to be surprised by something every day. It could be something you see, hear, or read about. Stop to look at the unusual car parked at the curb, taste the new item on the cafeteria menu, actually listen to your colleague at the office. How is this different from other similar cars, dishes or conversations? What is its essence? Don't assume that you already know what these things are all about, or that even if you knew them, they wouldn't matter anyway. Experience this one thing for what it is, not what you think it is. Be open to what the world is telling you. Life is nothing more than a stream of experiences — the more widely and deeply you swim in it, the richer your life will be.”

Thanks for wanting to know more today than you did yesterday! If you liked this edition, send it over to a friend who would like it too 🤝 

Cheers,

Luke

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