- Deep Loafe
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- A few things I believe about the world
In the Smokies backpacking with friends a few years ago.
I’ve listened to several podcasts this week with Kevin Kelly, the co-founder of Wired magazine and overall wizard of living. He’s fascinating.
To me, he’s a wonderful blend between someone grounded to a deeper sense of being in the world and someone who’s deeply invested in technology and its upsides. Find yourself someone who doesn’t really compute and listen to them.
He’s written several famous essays (find them here) and on two birthdays (68 & 70) he pulled together collections of “unsolicited advice.” You have to buy the books to read them all, but in this episode of Freakonomics he goes over a few.
I loved hearing someone I admired write/talk about things they believe in, so in this Sunday’s newsletter I decided to do the same. Hopefully you don’t have a “no solicitation” sign up on your email inbox, because here it comes. If so, at least I have a shirt and shoes on.
Dare you to respond to this email and tell me something you believe in.
Pet the dog when you walk in the door.
Sitting on a public bench, especially if it’s outside of a place like an ice cream shop, is a good thing to do every so often. Older people seem to be good at this.
Pickup sports, and sports in general, with other adults, help alleviate stress and tensions. This could be basketball at the Y or organized pickleball.
Resumes are a poor way to ask for, or judge, a first impression of someone’s ‘work.’
Most good marketing is movies, tv shows, and YouTube. Most bad marketing has industry lingo.
We should have high expectations for what we can get out of life. This could be called optimism and it’s worth the uncertainty of whether what you hope what will happen will happen.
We should have low expectations about any one thing delivering a ‘good life.’
It’s fine, even good, to consume. It’s hard to have a philosophy about how.
You won’t regret going on a walk outside, especially with someone you love.
People are more revealing about who/how they are and what’s going on with them when they recognize they’re on a break from their routine. Even better, they are far away from where they live. Remote places like the woods might be the best for this.
Resisting to buy something, or buying something of similar quality that costs less, or is used, feels better than buying the most convenient thing.
Everyone should plant at least a few kinds of vegetables every year. Vegetables are important because you develop a relationship with your food (if they grow). Decorative plants and trees are good too, but there’s no relationship to consuming them.
There’s a point at which you can over budget. Or at least, too much constraint can make life/pleasure too conservative.
I don’t really want to do most of the things I think are quick solutions to my problems.
Creating or working on something and not sharing it anywhere or with anyone is good for the spirit. It could be physical or digital: fixing a toilet, or creating a logo or an image for a random idea.
It’s a confidence boost to eyeball the seasoning and ‘doneness’ of something you’re cooking.
Stuff I’ve been into
Readies
This Twitter thread about condescending sorts of language people use in emails was gold.
I can’t stop laughing at this.
— Sahil Bloom (@SahilBloom)
11:34 AM • Mar 17, 2023
Music
This is the first Grateful Dead I put on my Spring Spotify playlist. Won’t be the last.
Doing
Walks. Just so many walks.
Welp, have a great week. Thanks for reading.
Andrew