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46 | 🤔 How to Be Right + The Power of Boredom

46 | 🤔 How to Be Right + The Power of Boredom

February 22, 2022

Hello,

Today’s email is based heavily off things that I’ve been reading at the moment. Enjoy!

P.s. apparently there are issues with the email service, so if you don’t receive this on Tuesday apologies!

💭 Three things you need to know:

👍🏻 How To Be Right

In the first place, the rightness of one’s assertions has nothing to do with winning or losing. If you think you are right, regardless of what other people’s opinions might be, the matter should be closed then and there. However, many people will rush into a power struggle, and try to make others submit to them. And that is why they think of ‘admitting a mistake’ as ‘admitting defeat’.

— The Courage to Be Disliked

TL;DR - if you’re right in a disagreement, you’re right. There’s no need to convince others.

💭 White Space - For The Mind

In design, white space is left empty. It isn’t ‘blank’, as such, because it serves a purpose.

It puts whatever else is on the page into focus.

There’s obvious parallels with the mind.

From the minute we wake up to the minute we go to sleep, we are bombarded with information from phones, computers, TVs, books, conversations... There is never quite enough time to internalise everything.

Because we are constantly stimulated, we are never bored. But being bored isn’t a bad thing.

Boredom is actually a major strength. Leaving your mind free of any distractions allows it to wander, making connections that it wouldn’t have otherwise.

I guess in many ways, this is a direct precursor to meditation.

There’s 2 times in the day where we are almost guaranteed white space:

In the shower
In bed, waiting to fall asleep

The whole concept of ‘shower thoughts’ (and here’s subreddit) is because it’s one of the only places we are free of distractions.

And how many times have you remembered something while waiting to fall asleep?

Here’s a great write up on the topic.

🛰 The ISS Will Crash to Earth In 2030

Look - this isn’t really self-improvement related. But it is cool and I thought it was worth sharing.

Operations at the International Space Station are expected to wind down at the end of the decade, when NASA will crash it in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean, the space agency announced this week. (NPR)

✅ Two Recommendations:

📖 Mistborn: The Final Empire

I just finished this amazing 24 hour long audiobook and immediately gave it a 5 star rating on Goodreads. I’ve been keen to read something by Brandon Sanderson for a while and this did not disappoint.

If you think you might enjoy fantasy novels, this is a great place to start. It’s the 1st of a trilogy (which is then the first trilogy of a trilogy of trilogies - I didn’t know this when I started...).

📺 This Is Going to Hurt

I don’t watch much TV (apart from football), so it takes something really good to get me to sit down and commit. This show is definitely one of those - written by the same person as the book, Adam Kay, it’s hilarious and sad, and the main actor is bloody brilliant.

It’s different to the book (which if you haven’t read it yet, what are you doing?) but it’s equally as good.

💬 And finally, one quote

If you do hard things now, you’ll have an easy life later; and if you do easy things now, you’ll have a hard life later.

— Steven Bartlett, Happy Sexy Millionaire

Thanks!

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In the meantime, you can find me on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, and have a look at what I’m reading on Goodreads.

Cheers!