Cities often seem unfriendly relative to small towns. What gives? I’ve spoken with several folks about the dichotomy in friendliness between small towns and dense urban centers. I suspect it’s due to our threat detection systems. Let’s say that 1 in 1,000 people is a criminal, for example. In a town of 30,000 people, thatContinue reading “Making the World Smaller”
Author Archives: StegDrew
Coping with the Societal Flakiness Epidemic
I’m 28, and most of my friends are in the 40-plus demographic. Why? I don’t know for sure, but I have some ideas. For one, they didn’t grow up with cell phones. This gives them an increased presence during face to face interactions. They have higher integrity- their words and actions are more closely aligned.Continue reading “Coping with the Societal Flakiness Epidemic”
Comedy Is So Crucial Right Now That It Isn’t Funny 🤣
In days of old, the jester was one of few people who could speak truth to the king without fear of repercussion. In days of recent, Sadam Hussein famously literally shot the messenger. Scratch that. Messengers. It got to a point where people feared giving him any bad news, so they didn’t! When truth becomesContinue reading “Comedy Is So Crucial Right Now That It Isn’t Funny 🤣”
Why Are There No More Heroes?
Where have they all gone? I’d argue that they are still here, and have been here all along. Martin Luther King cheated on his wife. Thomas Jefferson owned slaves. Andrew Jackson was responsible for the Trail of Tears. Now that we are connected via a global hive mind with instantaneous information transfer, blemishes are harderContinue reading “Why Are There No More Heroes?”
Life As A Resource Allocation Problem
Our primitive mind keeps us alive. It is excellent at identifying threats and tolerates many false negatives. A single false positive can mean severe injury or death. Our threat detection systems not only identify threats, but they also identify many non-threats as threats. The primitive mind also reminds us to eat, sleep, and procreate. ProcreationContinue reading “Life As A Resource Allocation Problem”
Diversify Your Identity
If our identity clings to too few things, we become fragile. Jim Carey’s father wanted to be a comedian, but it was risky. He decided to become an accountant instead. One day, he lost his job as an accountant. He was fragile. Jim took this to heart, learning that “You can fail at what youContinue reading “Diversify Your Identity”
Crafting Your Environment With Language
Frameworks to think and live better The way we think and express ourselves impacts how we show up in the world. This post outlines techniques to show you how changing your thinking and linguistic frameworks in a few simple ways can drastically improve your life outcomes and relationships. “You’re the average of the five people spendContinue reading “Crafting Your Environment With Language”
Retaining Knowledge From Books
TL;DR: Write notes by hand while reading. Teach others what you’ve learned from the reading — this can happen many times (retrieval practice, spaced repetition, Feynman technique). Type said notes (spaced repetition). Send notes to others, with targeted nuggets (spaced repetition, retrieval practice). Getting into the weeds I accidentally stumbled upon a number of the techniques I useContinue reading “Retaining Knowledge From Books”
You Are What You Read
Garbage in, garbage out. If you want your mind to run like an F1 Racecar, you need to put the proper fuel in the tank. Putting grape juice in the engine will destroy it. Across all time, there have been approximately 130 million books written. Let’s say that you read 50 books per year withContinue reading “You Are What You Read”
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