6: Notes To Self

Yo!

Here is your weekly dose of 5 things I’m pondering and exploring.

1. Tuesday’s With Morrie (Mitch Albom)

“As long as we can love each other, and remember the feeling of love we had, we can die without ever really going away. All the love you created is still there. All the memories are still there. You live on—in the hearts of everyone you have touched and nurtured while you were here.”

This is one of those books I will re-read for the rest of my life. It’s quotes like these I never want to forget.

2. Everything You Need To Know About Sound (Tim Urban)

When I learn about science, I occasionally feel a spiritual sense of awe. I can’t help myself but be amazed at the world around me (especially when reading Tim Urban).

This blog post on the science behind sound absolutely floored me. Here’s 2 snippets from it:

Fun fact: The loudest animal on Earth is a blue whale, whose calls can reach an outrageous 188 decibels, far louder than a jet engine.

Do trees make a sound? We think of sound as something we hear—something that makes noise. But in pure physics terms, sound is just a vibration going through matter. It is a pressure wave, which causes each piece of the air to be either higher-than-normal pressure or lower-than-normal pressure.

Our ears pick up on that difference.

So, does a tree falling in the forest with nobody there to hear it make a sound?

I now think that no, it doesn’t make a sound. It makes an air pressure wave and that’s it. The concept of sound is by definition a biological being’s perception of the pressure wave—and if there are no ears around to perceive the pressure wave, there’s no sound.

Goes to show that our “reality” is a very small sliver of the real world. We are just a little speck trying to make sense of all this stuff. So much left to learn!

3. A Gardening Guide For Your Mind (Anne-Laure Le Cunff)

This way of learning feels so right. It just makes sense. You nurture your mind like a garden. Anne-Laure breaks it down beautifully:

• Seeds. Seed your garden with quality content and cultivate your curiosity. Plant seeds in your mind garden by taking smart personal notes.

• Trees. Grow your knowledge by forming new branches and connecting the dots. Write short structured notes articulating specific ideas and put them in your digital garden. One note in your digital garden = one idea.

• Fruits. Produce new work. These are more substantial—essays, videos, maybe a book at some point. The kind of work that will live on without you.

The quality of your garden is a direct reflection of the quality of your life. Socrates said it best, “an unexamined life is not worth living.”

4. Are You Illiterate?

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn” - Alvin Toffler

5. Intro To Longevity (Laura Deming)

Laura Deming is my kind of person. She’s an expert in longevity (how to help humans live longer). Along the way, she collected a treasure trove of resources for newbies and experts.

From high-level overviews to hand-drawn graphs simplifying complex concepts, her website is a roadmap for anyone diving down the biology rabbit hole 🐐

Thanks for wanting to know more today than you did yesterday!

Cheers,

Luke

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