Circle Three 75 / Never Gonna Be Alone
Heavy on the psychology and culture sections this weekend. It’s representative of a week of moving the needle forward in both large (relationship & business changes) and small (carved time alone) ways. Enjoy.
Contents:
brain bites: Culture
Important, Not Important’s 2023 Preview
A Handy Vehicle for Social Interaction
brain bites: Psychology & Health
Solitude and Leadership
How To Simplify Your Life
brain bites: Business & Investing
How Not to Play the Game
Lyric: Never Gonna Be Alone by Jacob Collier, John Mayer, Lizzy McAlpine, HONNE
brain bites: culture
Important, Not Important’s 2023 Preview. Quinn Emmett covers a lot in his year-end piece: climate policy, renewables, and data usage to name a few. But I’ll leave his conclusion here:
These aren’t new ideas. They’re in practice the world over, and it’s on us to come together to enact them in more places, to help more people. But in 2023, coming together may be the most difficult hurdle to overcome. Trust is what suffers when it feels like the world is collapsing in around you. Measurable action across cities and continents can take you and all of us a very long way, rebuilding trust in one another, and in our ability to build a better today and tomorrow, for everyone.
A Handy Vehicle for Social Interaction. Not the best title, but a short article from the New York Times on The Daily Mini Crossword. I could have written the first paragraph — for multiple years I tracked my times in a shared spreadsheet. I’ve loved solving crosswords. It’s more than words in a grid: as the author describes it’s a creative endeavor and can be shared.
brain bites: psychology & health
Solitude and Leadership. Here. If you read anything from Circle Three this week, read this. We even have a holiday tomorrow to cozy up. Two key thoughts from the piece:
“True leadership means being able to think for yourself and act on your convictions.” Thinking through big issues before they rear their head is the essence of leadership.
“Thinking means concentrating on one thing long enough to develop an idea about it.” In other words, as he writes: read books over tweets. Books were crafted, nurtured, and thought about, the result of the author’s solitude and concentration.
How To Simplify Your Life. So many New Year’s goals are about additions. Get in shape, volunteer, travel, study, etc. Now felt like a good time to watch this <10 minute video on a couple ways to simplify.
We refuse to take seriously how much of our babyhood is left inside our adult selves - and therefore how much care we have to take to keep things simple and very, very calm.
brain bites: business & investing
How Not to Play the Game. Here. Matt Levine’s postscript to his The Crypto Story. He sums up the less-than-redeeming qualities of the current state of crypto, one of which is below, but acknowledges that there are good actors. He has a point, but I strongly believe the weight of the bad actors will be overshadowed by the people who care about more than money building actual decentralized products.
Crypto is, now, less necessary. Nobody has to have anything to do with crypto: You don’t need it to pay your mortgage or buy groceries, and if you want to ignore it, you just can. Crypto is like a—large, distributed, decentralized—startup; as a social project it has big plans to change the world, and some cool prototypes, and a lot of hype, but it has not yet made itself essential to most people’s lives.
Lyric: Never Gonna Be Alone by Jacob Collier, John Mayer, Lizzy McAlpine, HONNE
Jacob Collier is far from a household name, surprising for someone with five Grammy’s. He’s brilliant and I can’t recommend enough listening to more of Jacob’s music for its harmonies, depth, and unique sounds.
“Jacob Collier can do anything, and he wants you to know it — though that isn’t borne from arrogance or ego. Listen to him talk for all of 30 seconds, and you’ll understand that it’s just because he is so excited about music — what it can make you feel, where it can go, and what it could become.”
His concerts look damn fun for music fans too. (Teaser: “Collier is known for bringing his audience into the sonic landscape of his performance.”)
This collaboration reminisces on the memories and places associated with past loves. Not many words, leaving plenty of mindspace to reminisce.
Take me back to the window, take me back to the door
You'll bе right where I left you, sitting on the floor
Now I'm never gonna be alone
You can see all the songs from Circle Three in an album here.
Stay Curious,
Dan