Daily Reads:
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Victor Frankl’s Method to Overcome Fear – Paradoxical Intention – sweating, public speaking. Fighting fear doesn’t work – simply adds pressure to the existing pressure. So how do we break this cycle?
- "Hyper-intention" – excessive focus on achieving or preventing a particular outcome.
- Paradox: statement seemingly contradictory, opposed to common sense.
- Wish for the fear, rather than fight it, and you will conquer it. I want to get rid of fear vs I want to feel fear ironically gives you what you need to ignore the fear!
- At the core is detachment, and using humor to laugh at ourselves.
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Identify one thing in your life that you take for granted, and ask how it got that way. We take for granted the physical world, especially the built world, but everything has a backstory! Rob Walker’s excellent newsletter asks "What’s the Question"
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Anne Kadet’s report from the Department of Personal Experimentation: One Thing at a Time, has this quote: It just makes sense that if I reduce my information intake by an hour or two everyday, my mind will quiet down faster. It’s got a lot less data to process!
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Museum employees exhibition of their own work – this is a fascinating idea!
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Roger Martin: Heuristics, Management, & Strategy You will often be told that you should use an algorithmic approach: crunch this data, this way, and it will tell you the answer. Be wary. Much of the business world is using algorithmic approaches that aren’t backed by the work necessary to push knowledge from heuristic to algorithm. You will be told that it will give you the ‘right answer,’ or ‘the truth.’ Audit them carefully to see whether that is hype or a valid promise.
QOTD:
The Daily Stoic quote from Marcus Aurelius, on the value of goodness and truth, made me giggle:
In short, the straightforward and good person should be like a smelly goat – you know when they are in the room with you
Music:
Isto covers Irving Berlin’s It’s a Lovely Day Today