Time Flies

It was really rewarding to hear from so many people last week after writing Random Acts, a simple idea that we humans should just appreciate each other more and verbalize it. Thank YOU, it really made my week hearing from so many.

This week, I've been thinking, again, about time. Tempus Fugit, which is Latin for describing the way "to draw attention to the rapid passage of time". Roughly means 'time flies', however, Albert Einstein is the one who coined the term "time flies when you're having fun."

Looking back over the years of journal entries, newsletters, talks, blog posts, whatever, I've started to observe a pattern that I actually spend quite a bit of time, thinking about how I spend time. Whether its through some crazy structure to treat time like a bank with rigid calendar management, saying no to unimportant things, or even just revisiting how I think about linear time, it's a lot of thinking about.. yes, time.

"Time is basically an illusion created by the mind to aid in our sense of temporal presence in the vast ocean of space. Without the neurons to create a virtual perception of the past and the future based on all our experiences, there is no actual existence of the past and the future. All that there is, is the present." -Abhijit Naskar

Maybe it's just natural to be more acutely aware of all this as we slowly get older. Or that my own observations on how little time we all have and, even though im getting better at self correcting it, I still waste time doom-scrolling or on other pointless cruft and brain candy.

"The Shortness of Time" also explores it:

Time is invisible, so it’s easy to spend. It’s only near the end of our life that most of us will realize the value of time. Make sure you’re not too busy to pay attention to life.

Just remember, time can only be spent once. Spend well, friends.

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Slow Tech

One of the more frequent questions I get in mastermind groups or a 'ask me anything' forum is how to get started writing, primarily if they've never written before. It's funny because I never considered myself a writer, per se. I do it because it helps empty my brain.

But the advice(?) I always give the same: Write. Whether in a journal, moleskin, privately, or online, it doesn't matter. Look for something other than an audience. Just write for yourself. If you want to share it, share it. If not, don't.

It's also cheaper than therapy...

But I came across a post from Austin Kleon, 'A blog post is a search query to find your people' which struck a chord with me. In it, he quotes Henrik Karlsson:

A blog post is a search query. You write to find your tribe; you write so they will know what kind of fascinating things they should route to your inbox. If you follow common wisdom, you will cut exactly the things that will help you find these people.

I like that thinking a lot. One of the reasons I've been continuing writing (since 2020) is that it is helping me work through my thinking and helping me cultivate cultural perspectives to running a team, and it's connecting me. I can't underscore the number of quality people and thinking that public writing has introduced me to, and that is immeasurable.

"Life is about collecting good people around you. You can't have enough good people." - Robert Kraft

Brain Dump

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

• I think a lot about my personal board of directors, and I think this 'question' posed by the article would be a great one to ask in a group setting. I'm not going to spoil it, but think about it for your next team meeting — [via Ask This Question at Your Next Meeting]
• More proof of why we can't have nice things. — [via Sci-fi publisher Clarkesworld halts pitches amid deluge of AI-generated stories]
• I found this post from 37Signals, the makers of Hey, on why they are ditching the cloud super interesting. — [via We stand to save $7m over five years from our cloud exit]
• The simplicity of 'the Pixar pitch' and how it can be used to improve pretty much any presentation. — [via The Pixar Pitch and the 22 Rule of Storytelling]
• I've posted about Tim Urban's new book a few times now, but I also enjoyed his story on how the book came to be — [via A Short History of My Last Six Years]
• I've written before about the power of saying 'I don't know,' but as Lex points out in this post, 'it shows that you heard their question and are willing to respond.' — [via “I don’t know” is more powerful than you think]
• From one of the all-time masters, Teller (of Penn and Teller) explains how magicians manipulate the mind. I need to re-read this one, great stuff in here. — [via Teller Reveals His Secrets]
• How to spend bad, or spend well. The idea that 'buying cheap is expensive' is not only true for goods, but for other parts of life as well. — [via The Simple Mental Model That Changed My Financial Life]
• I love reading about note-taking/pkm/knowledge systems, as I have now completely obliterated my own, too, almost nothing. This post is from Oliver Burkeman (who wrote the amazing book Four Thousand Weeks), asserts that 'a much more relaxed approach to knowledge consumption – one that involves putting way less pressure on yourself to retain what you read, listen to, or watch – isn't only more enjoyable, but better for your creative output, too.' — [via How to forget what you read]
• Keeping tabs on 'Work 2.0' articles, this one on how making people return to the office hurts productivity, was fascinating. — [via The return to the office could be the real reason for the slump in productivity. Here's the data to prove it]
• I've been enjoying the writing of David McCarty, and this one, 'a curmudgeon's guide to finding purpose, fulfillment, and hope through creative exploration,' was particularly good. In his spin of 'say no to protect the yes,' he says, 'it begins by saying, fuck this shit and getting on with it.' — [via F*ck This Shit]
• An oldie, but I always love sharing this one about how to play ultra-aggressive Monopoly. You should know all the rules - for example, 'there are only 32 houses and 12 hotels', so buy up all the houses and don't upgrade to hotels. Evil. Perfect. — [via How to Win at Monopoly and Piss Off Your Friends]

This Weeks Vibe

This week has been a long week of writing performance reviews, and I needed to get into a deeper headspace for writing. While I enjoy apps like Endel.io and Brain.fm for that, nothing beats listening to Hans Zimmer.

Be well. ✌🏻