Mental Pivot #76: Vague Instructions
An anecdote about assuming too much, entropy explained with sheep, and a brief intro to the Johnny Decimal system.
Here’s an anecdote on the importance of clear, detailed, and explicit communications with others. Failure to do so can result in unexpected outcomes. As someone who frequently fails to communicate clearly with others, I can completely relate!
I recently traveled to Hawaii with my sister for a reunion with our extended family. Both of us grew up on the islands and now reside on the West Coast (aka “the mainland” to Hawaiians). Visiting paradise is always a treat.
After the trip, my sister took two Hawaiian leis back to the mainland. For those who don’t know, a lei is (commonly) a garland of fresh flowers meant to be worn around the neck. They’re frequently given as gifts to friends, family, visitors, and dignitaries. The lei-giver will typically place the lei on the recipient, and—at least in pre-COVID times—offer a friendly kiss on the cheek for a loved one. In addition to their wonderful fragrance, leis are beautiful to behold.
Like fresh-cut flowers, floral leis have a limited shelf life. Upon arriving back home, my sister spritzed the leis with water, inserted each into a Ziploc bag, and placed them in the refrigerator.
She asked her nine-year-old son—born and raised on the West Coast—if he’d like to give the leis to someone. He said yes, he wanted to give them to his two favorite teachers.
My nephew took the two leis, each nestled inside a Ziploc bag, to school the next day.
My sister neglected to instruct him on the practice of lei-giving; she assumed he’d know what to do.
When he encountered the first teacher, my nephew unceremoniously handed her the Ziploc bag. Fortunately, this teacher knew what to do. She thanked him, removed the lei from the bag, placed it on her shoulders, and wore it for the rest of the day.
Later, my nephew encountered his second recipient. This teacher was as unfamiliar with lei-receiving as my nephew was with lei-giving. When my nephew handed over this Ziploc bag, the perplexed teacher asked him what she should do with it.
Having received no advance instruction from his mother, my nephew shrugged and said he wasn’t sure, but that he had seen his mom put the lei in the refrigerator.
And that is precisely what the second teacher ended up doing with it.
Now onto this week's recommendations…
Thinking Tools:
Entropy Explained with Sheep: Physicist Aatish Bhatia delivers a fun and interactive account of entropy via whimsical illustrations of sheep. The key lessons: entropy is “all about arrangements” and the fact that “high” entropy states are more probable than “low” entropy ones.
The Johnny Decimal System: Sébastien Dubois offers a short intro to a practical system for organizing information. The gist of the system is to organize your info into a maximum of 10 distinct categories, and then further subdivide those categories into a maximum of 10 subcategories. If you find the idea intriguing, you can read more at the official Johnny Decimal website.
List of Good Habits for the 21st Century: Iyalo Durmonski’s list includes valuable habits like reflection, adaptability, motivation, and reminders.
What Is Schrödinger’s Cat?: Like Aatish Bhatia’s article above, science blogger and cartoonist Becky Casale opts for a whimsical approach to a profound topic. She explores Schrödinger’s famous thought experiment, determinism, quantum physics, the Copenhagen Interpretation, the Many-worlds interpretation, and the nature of reality.
Why Free Stuff Makes Us Irrational: “When something is free, people feel a positive glow—and standard cost-benefit analyses go out the window.” A few of the real-world cases explored in the piece include the power of free shipping, the sales engagement boost that comes from free samples at stores like Costco and Sam’s Club, and the impact of free news on paid subscriptions.
Reading Enrichment:
The Forgotten Stage of Human Progress: Derek Thompson offers his thoughts on innovation and progress. His gripe: we focus on invention (which are abundant), but implementation—which often requires political will and a cultural shift—is the real challenge. “Progress is a puzzle whose answer requires science and technology. But believing that material progress is only a question of science and technology is a profound mistake.”
Letter to My Younger Self: A heart-breaking piece by Tarik Cohen, an American athlete torn between his NFL aspirations and “staying behind” to support his single-mother and troubled brothers. Despite his professional setbacks and the tragic deaths of his brothers, Cohen maintains a positive outlook of optimism and hope.
The Secret World Beneath Our Feet Is Mind-Blowing: George Monbiot reminds us that soil is not merely “a dull mass of ground-up rock and dead plants.” Instead, it’s a rich and complex biological structure of bacteria, fungi, plants, and soil animals that are essential to food production and the survival of our species. Monbiot also examines innovations in horticulture that leverage new insights in soil biology to increase yields while ensuring the long-term health of the land.
Trends are Dead: Social media has completely upended the dissemination, frequency, and significance of trends. “With the mass decentralization of culture, even while platforms are becoming increasingly centralized, there’s no way for a sane person to keep up.”
Odds & Ends:
The 100 Highest-Paid Athletes in the World 2022 ranks athletes from a wide range of sports and includes salaries, prize money, and endorsements earned in a single year. LeBron James ($126.9M USD) just edged out Lionel Messi ($122M USD) in total earnings—this despite the latter having the higher team salary. Tennis superstar Naomi Osaka leads female athletes with $53.2M. Basketball (my favorite) is the best-represented sport, with 36 representatives.
The Kids Should See This is a Webby award-winning collection of 5,000 family-friendly videos spanning a wide range of topics like science, space, nature, music, history, and art. Although it’s geared for kids, visitors of all ages can find something interesting from this curated collection.
The Rules of Civil Conversation offers eight principles for better interpersonal engagement. To get a sense for the rules, here are the first two: “1) Try and reach a shared understanding rather than win the argument. 2) Clarify with others to make sure I genuinely understand their perspective.”
Cross-Promotions:
Refind is a content discovery tool that sends curated articles to your email inbox or via mobile app (iOS and Android). Focus your attention on what’s really relevant to you.
The Sample: A newsletter discovery tool. Based on your interests and feedback, The Sample sends a new newsletter recommendation to your inbox on a daily or weekly basis.
Thank you for subscribing to the Mental Pivot Newsletter. If you’re enjoying it, be sure to share it with your friends and spread the word.
I want to be able to deliver a top-notch newsletter to all of you. To that end, I’d love to hear your thoughts on what’s working, what doesn’t, and things you’d like to see more of. You can reach me by replying directly to this email or by adding a comment on Substack.
If this newsletter was forwarded to you, visit this link to subscribe.