Circle Three 74 / Sleep on the Floor
2022 is finished and wrapped with a bow. A week off was nice, I enjoyed some light reading and Spanish tapas while reflecting on the past gone by and the future ahead.
Thanks to you for playing a role in my year, large or small.
Contents:
brain bites: Psychology & Health
Brian Johnson’s Project Blueprint
Following the inscrutable exhortations of my soul
brain bites: Business & Investing
Why Competitive Advantages Die
The End of Globalization
Axios Finish Line: Start something
Lyric: Sleep on the Floor by the Lumineers
brain bites: psychology & health
Brian Johnson’s Project Blueprint. Here’s the website. And a thread of how one person followed Brian Johnson’s health guidelines to improve the health of his organs. I find this interesting not necessarily as a case study, but moreso the sheer progress of human advancement in understanding health and wellness, to the point of slowing down the aging process of individual organs.
Following the inscrutable exhortations of my soul. Here. On leaps, scarcity, abundance found during the author’s sabbatical.
brain bites: business & investing
Why Competitive Advantages Die. From Morgan Housel of Collaborative Fund. TL;DR it’s incredibly difficult to not lose a competitive advantage, you can’t hold your cards close to the chest forever.
My thoughts: the shortening attention spans or consumers and increasingly fast development of new technologies accelerate all five of his factors. The factor that struck me as most difficult to overcome:
The decline of paranoia that made you successful to begin with. I like the idea that systems are better than goals, because once you reach a goal you tend to stop doing the thing that made achieving the goal possible. “I’m going to work out every day” is better than “I’m going to lose 10 pounds” because once you lose 10 pounds you’ll probably stop working out.
The End of Globalization. From Mark Moss on his thesis around the point when the revolutionary cycles of finance, politics, and technology converge.
Axios Finish Line: Start something. Here. ****Five reasons to consider launching or joining a startup. My favorite — and one that I have experienced viscerally this year:
Discover the real you. Nothing reveals true spirit, grit, and creativity like starting something with a high probability of flopping. It’s easy to be cool, nice and sane when things are easy. Fear and exhaustion unearth unfathomable layers.
Lyric: Sleep on the Floor by the Lumineers
The opening shimmer of sound that starts this song and the Lumineers’ Cleopatra album is the sort of sound that can kick of a new year.
The music video tracks a daughter’s decision to take a leap of adventure.
And despite the opening line, the video features a lot of finger-brushing of teeth.
Pack yourself a toothbrush, dear
Pack yourself a favorite blouse
Take a withdrawal slip,
take all of your savings out
'Cause if we don't leave this town
We might never make it out
