The Art of Self Destruction

Earlier in the week, Mark Manson had a great observation on Twitter that I couldn't stop thinking about.

His posts often trigger something inside that makes me want to take a step back, and question or even reimagine my perspective on how I work, think, lead and live life.

His top three (for those that are curious):

• The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck
• The Most Important Question of Your Life
• How to Start a Cult and Save the World

But this idea of 'self-destruction' to make room for something newer and better excited me.

I went down a rabbit hole of rethinking things - and what I found was that there was a lot I wanted just to blow up. Parts of my workflow; how I take notes; long-standing tasks that I haven't gotten to; even some perspectives that I had held - dump them.

Coincidentally, today I ran across this methodology for grouping things 'to do' that I want to adopt as part of that new workflow:

And while I'm not yet there to write it all up yet the changes, I found this lens valuable in getting to a new place.

If you're struggling with something or have too much on your plate to make sense of it all, this may be an excellent place to start: blow something up.

"Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world. All things break. And all things can be mended. Not with time, as they say, but with intention. So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you." ― L.R. Knost

Or, maybe it's as simple as getting a little bit of philosophical perspective from Tyler Durden.

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Forward Thinking

Oh my - lets jump back to 1995.

This week, someone posted a full VHS copy of the entire Windows 95 launch event to YouTube. While excerpts have been shown in the past, the whole event has never been published.

There are some terrible jokes/memes from days gone by here.

It's almost as wacky as the old Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry video teaching Windows 95 (you’re welcome if you've never seen it).

Thought of the week

This weeks "Deep Links"

Here are a few of the articles and videos that resonated with me over the last week:

• In "Hard to work with," Will Larson explores how 'grinding yourself down in frustration about paths not existing doesn't solve anything.' A must-read. - More
• I knew that your phone was terrible for you but didn't realize how bad it messes with both your brain and body until I watched "What Happens To Your Brain When You Mindlessly Scroll?" - More
• Easily the fascinating discovery of the week - "Seven Decades Later, the 1950 Census Bares Its Secrets". I was able to locate my dad at age three and several other family members while searching through the handwritten document - More
• On November 14, 1994, at the COMDEX expo, Bill Gates gave a keynote that described 'this next era that we're moving into,' with 'a high-tech crime drama set in the futuristic year of 2005'. Read more about "What a 1994 Bill Gates keynote tells us about the metaverse" - More
• "I think the humble job title has passed its best-by date." was a quick, fun read on what pigeon-holed job titles do. I always like to introduce myself as Chief Disruption Officer :) - More
• This week felt pretty heavy to me with everything going on in the world, and a good read to shake me out of it was "The Anatomy of Kindness". Read a bit more about ten things that researchers learned from the world’s largest study of kindness - More
• 'In psychology, there's something called the saying-is-believing effect, and thanks to cognitive dissonance, after you say something to someone else, you're more likely to believe it yourself.' Read more in "Useful" - More
• "Rebalancing Inputs" was a valuable read for me this week (see my intro). I was spending way too much time and effort curating inputs and this re-affirms my decision to slow that down; to destroy it - More
• "What It Takes to Run a Sub-Four-Minute Mile for 20 Years Straight"; apparently, it takes 'not doing too many vomit-inducing workouts.' (Good to know!) - More
• While the last 2 (3? 5?) years have tapped into leaders trying to be more empathetic, here are "3 reasons not to bring your authentic self to work" - More

Fin

Closing out this week with this short interview with Steven Spielberg, which he described as one of the best interview questions ever.

His response: "Thank you for that."

Be well. ✌🏻