The Mental Pivot Newsletter: No.11
In this issue: William Zinsser’s wisdom, reading literature like a professor, China’s YY social network, and a healthy serving of curated links.
There’s a passage in William Zinsser’s classic book, “On Writing Well,” that’s always stuck with me. In the excerpt, Zinsser notes that good non-fiction writing requires a combination of humanity and warmth. After describing these qualities he remarks, “Can such principles be taught? Maybe not. But most of them can be learned.”
It’s not the pithiest quote, but I think of it often. I have tremendous respect and appreciation for teachers; they have taught me a great many things. But to Zinsser’s point, there are some things that cannot be taught. The onus is on the individual to learn them. While the quote doesn’t specify the how of learning, experience suggests this involves some combination of individual motivation, practice, discovery, and reflection (none of which precludes seeking guidance from others).
It might seem an obvious piece of advice, but I find that the simplest truths are the easiest to dismiss, forget, or overlook. I think that’s why I appreciate this bit of wisdom from Zinsser so much: it reminds me that if I want to see progress in my own life, I need to foster that desire and engage in effortful learning. This doesn’t mean it’s easy, but it is possible. And knowing we’re in the driver’s seat is the very definition of empowerment.
Here’s my summary and notes for Zinsser’s book “On Writing Well.” It offers tremendous advice on improving your writing (you just need to supply the effort and desire). I’m still far from writing well, but I hope to learn and improve over time.
Now onto the updates...
What’s New on the Blog:
1. Book Notes: How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster
Foster takes the reader on a journey through the “literary language” of mythological archetypes, symbolism, patterns, irony, and other story-telling conventions. The result is an introduction to an analytical toolkit that promises to make your fiction reading more meaningful and satisfying.
What’s next on the reading list? I haven’t selected my next book but I’m considering “Naked Statistics” by Charles Wheelan (2012), “First Principles” by Thomas E. Ricks (2020), and “The Blank Slate” by Steven Pinker (2002).
2. Articles and Podcasts of Note (Week of 11/16/2020)
This is my weekly roundup of interesting links and internet finds. I’m reposting the full list in the newsletter because there was so much good stuff this week—it’s too hard to cull the list!
Articles:
The Big Lessons from History: Morgan Housel asks: “How do people think about risk? How do they react to surprise? What motivates them, and causes them to be overconfident, or too pessimistic?”
The Biology of Dads: How Raising Children Can Change a Father’s Brain: New research shows how men are changed by the experience of fatherhood (reduced testosterone, increased oxytocin, dopamine activation, and more).
Every Thought about Giving and Taking Advice I’ve Ever Had: An article about the challenges of giving good advice—poor communication, misunderstanding the recipient, misunderstanding your own ideas about good advice—that ends up being pretty good advice!
How I Read: Slava Akhmechet’s approach is quite different from mine but interesting to consider.
How to Overcome Your Limiting Beliefs: Yes, it’s a self-help article by Mark Manson, but that doesn’t diminish the importance of the lesson.
Information Overload Helps Fake News Spread, and Social Media Knows It: “Understanding how algorithm manipulators exploit our cognitive vulnerabilities empowers us to fight back.”
The Inspiring Quest to Revive the Hawaiian Language: The story about the Harman family’s efforts to keep the Hawaiian language alive (as someone who grew up in Hawaii, island-themed content will always figure into my link lists).
Intel’s Disruption Is Now Complete: James Allworth considers Clayton Christensen’s disruption theory in light of Apple’s recently launched M1 chip.
The Last Children of Down Syndrome: Prenatal screenings placed a new power (and moral dilemma) “into the hands of ordinary people—the power to decide what kind of life is worth bringing into the world.”
Megatrends Shaping the Next Decade: People are generally terrible at prognostication, but it remains a fascinating exercise to ponder the future. Peter Diamandis, more qualified than most, offers up his thoughts.
My Priceless Summer on a Maine Lobster Boat: Wonderfully evocative story of a female college student’s experiences on one of the few lobster boats captained by a woman.
Not Every Trump Voter Is Racist or Misled. There’s a Rational Trump Voter Too: Nesrine Malik cautions those on the left not to be so dismissive of the votes Trump accrued in the 2020 general election: “There’s a rational Trump voter who we need to understand if we want to keep the forces of populism at bay.”
On How to Be Discovered: Inspirational piece from 2019 on the serendipity and opportunities created via blogging.
Reading Quickly Is Reading a Lot: Cedric Chin considers the compounding returns of digging deeply into books covering the same topic.
The Reality that People with a Full-Time Job Have to Have a Home Inside a Tent: Profiles of people fallen on hard times and live in Tent City 4 in Seattle.
Podcasts:
A Bit of Everything with Adam Grant: Conversation between Grant and Simon Sinek. Many insights about business, leadership, status, and personal growth.
Daily Stoic: Matthew McConaughey On Winning the Role of Life: Host Ryan Holliday talks to the actor about his new book.
Status Games with Eugene Wei: Conversation that draws on Wei’s well-regarded “Status-as-a-Service” article and explores product design ideas, digital scarcity, virtual goods and social status.
Think Like an Economist: Excellent and accessible economics 101 lessons from the power couple of economics, Justin Wolfers and Betsey Stevenson.
Vice: Source Material Podcast: New series in which real-life events unfold from the voices of those who experienced it (using primary materials and minimal narration). Episodes aired so far: life on a COVID cruise ship, a shooting at a popular BBQ spot, a fire in a London residential tower.
Odds & Ends:
The People’s Republic of Desire is a documentary film from 2019 that explores the online subculture of China’s YY social network. It’s a platform where live-streaming personalities vie for attention from fans and free-spending patrons. In the West, we see a similar dynamic on sites like Twitch and OnlyFans, but the Chinese market is clearly years ahead in this space. The phenomenon is simultaneously fascinating and unsettling. There’s a raft of themes to think about—social status and popularity, social loneliness and isolation, aspirational dreams, vicarious experiences, and more.
The Dick Cavett Show was a popular talk show and part of the American zeitgeist in the late 60s and early 70s (Cavett continued to host programs well into the 1990s). There’s a wonderful archive of interviews on YouTube that has been continuously added to over the past year. It’s a time capsule of conversation with notable entertainers and athletes of the day: Muhammad Ali, Jimi Hendrix, Marlon Brando, Bobby Fischer and others.
A medievalist website asks, “Could a peasant defeat a knight in battle?” I’m a sucker for these kinds of hypotheticals. Reminds me of a thread on Reddit years back that contemplated whether a US Marine infantry battalion could travel back in time and conquer the Roman Empire (here’s the thread).
If you prefer hypotheticals with a scientific and humorous bent, check out Randall Munroe’s series “What If?” There are 150+ entries asking questions like “What would happen if you gathered a mole (unit of measurement) of moles (furry critter) in one place?” and “If there was a fireman’s pole from Moon to the Earth, how long would it take to slide all the way down?”
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