On intelligence trap, integrating the “functions” of life, ancient habits and more
4 ideas for smarter living
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4 ideas for smarter living
Nat Eliason on integrating the many “functions” of life
“Instead of looking at some problem like “I don’t see enough friends,” or “I don’t work out enough,” or “I don’t have enough fun,” and then trying to find time to fit those priorities into, we should see how we can incorporate them into what we’re already doing. Could you make your workout less perfectly optimized so you can do it with friends? Can you loosen the reigns on your Super Duper Productive Routine to hang at a coffee shop with friends for a few hours a week? And for the love of God, can you please stop drinking fucking Huel or Soylent at your desk and talk to someone instead. The more creatively we can integrate the various parts of life that matter to us, the more satisfied we’ll be in our day to day.” — Source
Emily Ballesteros on burnout
“You might notice yourself checking things, picking at things, thinking obsessive thoughts, or fiddling with your own body in a routinized kind of way. These are signs that the stress has overwhelmed your brain’s ability to cope rationally with the stressor.”
“All your body requires of you is that you turn toward it with kindness and compassion, with nonjudgment and plain-vanilla acceptance of all your contradictory emotions, beliefs, and longings.”
Source: The Cure for Burnout: How to Find Balance and Reclaim Your Life
Katherine May on happiness and sadness
“If happiness is a skill, then sadness is, too. Perhaps through all those years at school, or perhaps through other terrors, we are taught to ignore sadness, to stuff it down into our satchels and pretend it isn’t there. As adults, we often have to learn to hear the clarity of its call. That is wintering. It is the active acceptance of sadness. It is the practice of allowing ourselves to feel it as a need. It is the courage to stare down the worst parts of our experience and to commit to healing them the best we can. Wintering is a moment of intuition, our true needs felt keenly as a knife.”
Source: Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times
David Robson on why smart people are less likely to learn from their mistakes
“Intelligent and educated people are less likely to learn from their mistakes, for instance, or take advice from others. And when they do err, they are better able to build elaborate arguments to justify their reasoning, meaning that they become more and more dogmatic in their views. Worst still, they appear to have a bigger “bias blind spot,” meaning they are less able to recognize the holes in their logic.”
Source: The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Make Dumb Mistakes
New on Medium
These Ancient Habits Are So Powerful, They Will Change Your Life in 21 Days
Human problems haven’t changed in over 2,000 years. The Stoics dealt with difficult people. Buddhists battled distraction. Aristotle figured out why we live between extremes and sabotage ourselves. I’ve been borrowing and apply ancient habits for years. What worked for some of the wisest humans who ever lived is still working for many people now. These ancient habits can transform how you think, react, and live in 21 days. Starting now.
Questions worth asking
Instead of asking yourself, “What should I do first?”
Try asking, “What should I neglect first?”
Trim, edit, cull. Make space for better performance.
Before any task, ask:
What will happen if I don’t do this?
It’s remarkable how many things can be eliminated from your to-do list.
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“Everything starts from a dot.” I certainly take it out of context, but I couldn’t agree more with its sentiment: I’m a firm believer that if you want to connect the dots in magical, meaningful ways, it all starts with collecting a whole lot of dots.— Wassily Kandinsky
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