24: Notes To Self

Yo, it’s Luke!

I’ve been learning a lot about the human experience from the lens of eastern philosophers. I can feel it change how I approach the world around me. Hope some of these passages get you interested too!

That said, 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. In Praise of Slowing Down (Nix)

“Time moves differently when you’re fully present. When you walk down your childhood street and admire the greenness, the softness after torrential rain: the streets thoroughly cleaned by downpour. The freshness of flowers and fruit: frangipani, crepe flower of bougainvillea, green chillis. Glinting in the mid-afternoon sunlight. You’re not used to moving without a phone on you, it feels strange — no music, no podcasts, no scrolling. No ambient noise. Just the world in full detail. Time feels like honey, slow and sweet.

In a world that is increasingly accelerating — social media eyeballs and immediate gratification and a pressure to live a saturated, intense, rapid life — slowing down might be the greatest antidote and meaningful rebellion.”

2. The Amazingness Of What’s Right In Front Of Us (The Surrender Experiment)

“What manifests in front of us at any given moment is actually something truly extraordinary—it is the end result of all the forces that have been interacting together for billions of years.

We are not responsible for even the tiniest fraction of what is manifesting around us.

Nonetheless, we walk around constantly trying to control and determine what will happen in our lives. No wonder there’s so much tension, anxiety, and fear. Each of us actually believes that things should be the way we want them, instead of being the natural result of all the forces of creation.”

Surrendering to the world might be the most underrated life approach out there. More appreciation, less stress. Not bad.

3. Intentionally Making Close Friends (Neel Nanda)

One of the greatest sources of joy in life are close friends. People who bring excitement and novelty; who expose you to new experiences, and ways of seeing the world. Who can point out out blind spots. Who you can lean on when I need support, and who lean on you in turn. Friends who help you grow more into the kind of person I want to be.

This blog post does great job of explaining how to make close friends. Here’s some notes:

• “Trying to form close friendships” isn’t something that even crosses lots of people’s mind.

• Emotional connection can happen intentionally. It doesn’t “need to happen naturally.”

• To have close friends, you need to be vulnerable and form emotional connections.

• Friendships grow leaps and bounds in intense, 1-on-1 conversation where you are emotionally vulnerable and authentic. Where you talk about personal things. Where you ask questions like…

• What’s your life story? What traits do you envy/value in those around you? What in life do you get truly excited about?

• Exciting conversations > safe conversations.

• Ask an open-ended question (ex: “tell me about X”). Listen and notice parts when they’re excitement or you find something interesting in their answer. Then ask another open-ended question about that part. After 2-4 times, you’ll probably get somewhere exciting.

• Sharing anxieties and insecurities feels stigmatized but people tend to respect you when you do. It also helps break people’s social scripts, which is a good first step to having a meaningful conversation.

4. A Few Questions (Morgan Housel)

Some thought-provoking questions that can lead to good personal insights (if you spend > 3 min just thinking about the question):

• Whose life do I admire that is secretly miserable?

• What annoys me about other people that I sometimes do myself?

• What do I think is a universal truth but is actually just a norm unique to my own culture?

• What do I believe is true only because believing it puts me in good standing with my tribe?

• Do I spend more time defending what I already know instead of trying to learn something new?

5. The Greatest Dancing Duo of All Time (Jason Colacino and Katie Boyle)

No matter what you’re doing, this is worth 2 minutes and 14 seconds of your time.

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

PS: Have a topic you think I’d like learning about? Send it to me here.

PPS: Got questions you want me to answer? I made an anonymous form for that.

PPPS: you can find more rabbit holes here & my writing here.