Dear wonderers,
It’s been a while.
I’ve been working and travelling the past 5 weeks and time moved at a different pace. With every new space I encountered, something else unraveled.
But I kept jotting down notes and thinking about what I could say to you — about this experience, about all that’s shifting in the world, about the past that we shouldn’t easily forget.
So here it is, a long list of thoughts and findings, curated for the sake of function, but raw in its meanings:
1.
Something that made me think about the pressure of “being your best self”, “a life worth living”, and other such lenses we carry around as easy motivational quotes and inner burdens:
Perfectionism “makes for a thin life, lived for what it isn’t rather than what it is” + “By linking the spread of perfectionist anxiety to the atmosphere of precarity and competition conjured by the free market, these psychologists anticipated a critique of meritocracy by Michael Sandel, an American philosopher. In “The Tyranny of Merit”, published in 2020, Sandel argues that meritocratic capitalism created a permanent state of competition within society, which corrodes solidarity and the notion of the “common good”. This system sustains an order of winners and losers, breeding “hubris and self-congratulation” among the former and chronically low self-worth among the latter.” (paywall, yet can be read with a free account)
2.
An exercise in introspection and the kind of limits you choose to define your worldview:
What are your non-negotiables?
For me, one that is always a measure of how I carry myself in society is — speaking up when I feel I have something to say versus people-pleasing. It’s a tough one and I’ve been struggling most of my life with it, but it’s a powerful lesson that I keep on learning. I’m far from “perfect”.
3.
Talking about worldviews and things we take at face value, here’s another exercise in introspection. You can take the author’s views with a pinch of salt, but the questions still remain:
4.
We’ve been travelling through Poland, Latvia, and Estonia, walking in the shoes of their history of occupation and resistance against nazism and communism.
Yes, we have some common historical contexts, but there’s also a world of difference — and I feel, in the current socio-political climate, it’s all the more crucial to learn about this. And not repeat past mistakes:
VABAMU — The occupation museum in Tallinn
KGB building in Riga
I realized I’m so ignorant about the recent history transpiring in Eastern Europe, only knowing the big discourses about World War II, but not the lived experiences, the individual stories, or how each city managed to survive.
I’m still processing the experience, connecting the dots with what I’ve seen in Romania and Albania, and will probably write more about the subject.
5.
A thought to consider, when thinking about what is normal or natural — What Biology Enables, Culture Forbids
6.
A book worth reading not just for marketers and product managers, but for everyone who is curious about the inner workings of “growth” and “success” in tech — LOVED.
7.
Since we’re on the topic of tech and inner workings, this social sciences essay poses a very good and somewhat chilling question — Yes,social media really is undermining democracy. If we completely lose our ability to question our beliefs or to hold a conversation with conflicting views, then it’s not only a matter of censorship, but of overall social collapse at some point.
Yet, the author also comes with potential solutions: I should have noted that all of us, as individuals, can be part of the solution by choosing to act with courage, moderation, and compassion. It takes a great deal of resolve to speak publicly or stand your ground when a barrage of snide, disparaging, and otherwise hostile comments is coming at you and nobody rises to your defense (out of fear of getting attacked themselves).
8.
Where do ideas for new products and services come from?
9.
I’ve just started watching Michael Pollan’s How to Change Your Mind series on Netflix. There’s a book, too. I wonder if this rising interest in altering consciousness is a direct response to the crisis of radicalization that we seem to be traversing. Another thing I’m pondering.
If you don’t want to watch the series, here’s Pollan giving a talk. I do appreciate his balanced views.
10.
A photographer worth discovering. While visiting his ehibition in Fotografiska, I was struck by something he said that I will try to reproduce here — In the current creative environment where everyone’s building audiences, I’m creating for myself, not for an audience.
After all, what’s an artist’s vision?
11.
A newsletter worth reading every single time: The Imperfectionist.
The latest idea I’ve taken from it — Aliveness, not meaningfulness: "People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life," said Joseph Campbell – but "I don't think that's what we're really seeking. I think that what we're seeking is an experience of being alive… so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive." There's something extremely important about this distinction, and maybe one day I'll be able to articulate what it is!
So, how do you feel alive? Whenever I find myself questioning my meaning, I’m also wondering whether I’m living or being lived.
These are my messy, yet untangled musings. What new idea have you been questioning or pondering?