3 Minute Monday
Hi friend,
“You can gauge someone’s ignorance by the number of phenomena they explain with the same answer.
Those who blame many different issues (e.g. war, poverty, pollution) on just 1 cause (e.g. capitalism) are recycling explanations because the demand for answers outstrips their supply.” — Gurwinder Bhogal
We could call this monothinking.
This got me onto another idea which might explain why you get ostracised for not being a card-carrying extremist or cookie-cutter ideologue.
If I know one of your views, and from it, I can accurately predict everything else that you believe, then you’re not a serious thinker.
If you tell me your view on abortion, and from it I know your stance on immigration and healthcare and gun control and vaccines and taxation, it seems likely that you haven’t arrived at those beliefs on your own.
Rather, that you’ve just unquestioningly adopted an entire suite of beliefs from some group.
You’ve outsourced your worldview to the crowd.
These people are very predictable.
I can be pretty confident about what they’ll say if a new social campaign comes along, because it’s exactly what everyone else in their group will say.
This is why anyone who thinks for themselves and doesn’t adhere to a cookie-cutter ideology wholesale is so unpopular.
You are an unreliable ally.
Sure you might agree with me on abortion, but I know that you disagree with me on your opinion of Donald Trump.
These unreliable allies need to be treated with much more skepticism and distance.
In a tribal warfare game, the most reliable members are the most popular.
Something to remember if you ever feel like you don’t fit in.
MODERN WISDOM
I do a podcast which has had 280 million+ downloads. You should subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
This week’s upcoming episodes:
Monday.
Sara Saffari – one of the internet’s biggest fitness influencers on what it’s like trying to date Gen-Z guys, why everyone is so fragile in the modern world, her 10 best exercises for building muscle, what she thinks of OnlyFans and more.
Thursday.
Dr Anna Machin – just how important are dads to the raising of boys & girls? How can fathers better bond with their children? Why is there a war on fatherhood? Fascinating evolutionary lens here, don’t miss this one.
Saturday.
Ben Lamm – the CEO of Colossal is bringing the wooly mammoth and dodo bird back to life using ancient DNA. Actual real life Jurassic Park happening within 5 years. So cool.
THINGS I’VE LEARNED
1.
Involuntary childlessness is a male problem too.
“25% of men over 42 do not have children – 5% more than women of the same age group.
Almost 40% have experienced depression.
25% feel a deep anger.
There’s lots of publicity, quite rightly, about women and childlessness but men are very mute about this.” — The Guardian
2.
How to get what you want.
“Ambition is when you expect yourself to close the gap between what you have and what you want.
Entitlement is when you expect others to close the gap between what you have and what you want.” — James Clear
3.
Productivity Dysmorphia is a thing.
Productivity dysmorphia is the inability to see one’s own success, to acknowledge the volume of your own output.
It sits at the intersection of burnout, imposter syndrome and anxiety.
It is ambition’s alter ego: the pursuit of productivity spurs us to do more while robbing us of the ability to savour any success we might encounter along the way
“I have started thinking of this unhealthy relationship I have with my professional achievements as ‘productivity dysmorphia’.
I have realised that it is an inability to see my own success.
It’s like I’m looking in the mirror of my professional life and I don’t see the published author staring back at me.
All I see is a failure.” — h/t Anna Codrea-Rado
LIFE HACK
Work out what you actually want.
Many people complain about not achieving their goals, whilst not having them clearly defined.
It’s almost impossible to hit a target that you haven’t decided to aim at.
Every time I whine to myself about not making the progress I want, one of the most clarifying questions is “precisely what would success look like here?”
If I don’t have an answer, I don’t need to work better, I need to plan better.
Big love,
Chris x
Tell your friends they should read this Newsletter.
PS
I saw a guy wearing an ankle tag going into Pryzm Brighton this weekend. Gotta love the UK.
