Welcome to Tuesday.
Knowledge
Stuck Culture: Is culture stuck? Paul Skallas wants to know. In his essay of that title, he explores what happened in the mid-2000s and how many aspects of our culture were blasted with ice and frozen in time. In our digitalized world, the internet has the biggest say in what we care about. And in the mid-2000s, the internet shrunk. Before the mid-2000s, the internet was a vast and decentralized space. There was no single source of truth, but many competing threads to discover. Then things changed. The iPhone became universal. Wikipedia became the de facto source of knowledge. YouTube was cemented as the video platform of the internet. Facebook hit the scene. Twitter launched. Netflix’s streaming service was born. Amazon Prime became a thing. You get the point. If culture is stuck — then why? Here’s Paul’s take:
Culture is no longer made. It is simply curated from existing culture, refined, and regurgitated back at us. The algorithms cut off the possibility of new discovery.
Wisdom
Shaan Puri: In his usual fashion, Jack Butcher delivered a ton of value recently when he interviewed Shaan Puri, a founder, educator, and investor with a fascinating worldview. Here are some key takeaways from their discussion:
Choose your story, choose your adventure. It’s been said that you’re the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. Spending time with people who are more successful than you changes the story you tell yourself and reveals new paths.
The ABZ method. There’s no real gameplan in the game of life. But there are frameworks. Know your ABZ’s — (A) where are you now, (B) what’s the immediate next step, (C) what’s the end goal. If you always know your next step and follow a North Star, you won’t trip or get lost.
Be radically self-reliant. Learn to control how you feel and how you act. This is entirely within your capabilities; control is a skill we can practice and it can completely change your life. We’re programmable and we’re programmers.
Inspiration
Nonzero Action: Building durable habits is about doing more than zero, consistently. In the words of @deprocrastinate:
Something > nothing.
5 minutes > 0 minutes.
You gotta start somewhere. Don't try to go from 0 to 4 hours a day. That won't work.
Start with something, and then repeat. Do something every day, and soon you'll be doing more and more.
But start with >0.
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Notes
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