Embraces & Barriers
If you find yourself in a dangerous environment, there are two primary paths you can take to reduce the potency of those dangers: you can build barriers between yourself and the threats, and you can acclimate yourself to them.
The barriers we might build range from weapons to clothing to artificial shelters. These are all things that other creatures also make for themselves, but we humans are particularly good at tool-making.
Acclimation generally takes quite a bit more time, but it also doesn’t remove us from our environments the way tool-making can. This approach might entail learning new food-gathering techniques so that we don’t collect and eat the poisonous berries that look a lot like the edible ones, or perhaps adjusting our sleeping patterns so that we’re safely hidden when predators are on the lookout for easy prey.
I sometimes find this to be a useful analogy when considering how I might respond to other sorts of environmental pressures, like personal or professional adversity, psychological stress, or even larger-scale issues like increasing societal and economic uncertainty.
Is this new threat something I should avoid as much as possible, even to the point of building walls around myself for protection? Or is it something I should embrace until it’s no longer a threat to me, becoming something alongside which I can coexist and even thrive?
Should I focus my attention on extracting myself from this inconvenient, perhaps even dangerous new scenario? Or should I try to hug it to death, perhaps changing myself and how I do things along the way so that I better fit within the new reality it portends?
It’s worth the effort required to become comfortable and competent with both approaches, especially since many of us reflexively default to one or the other without giving our less-favored option fair consideration—even when the alternative might be more optimal in a given situation.
Also worth remembering is that these options are not zero-sum.
Most of us, most of the time, end up doing a bit of both, and that’s often the most ideal option based on the outcomes we want to achieve.
Understanding what outcomes we want to make manifest, though, and recognizing that we are capable of leaning more heavily in one direction or the other as we try to achieve those outcomes, can help us wobble toward equilibrium as we attempt to weather increasing imbalance.
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I full-timed in an RV a few years ago, which was a lot of fun and very educational, but ultimately not for me, longer-term. A few years before that a friend of mine (hi Hank!) invited me to visit the Sony Studios lot out in LA, where I met the Breaking Bad RV.
Projects
This week on Brain Lenses I published an essay about the News-Finds-Me Perception, and a podcast episode about the Intention-Behavior Gap.
Last week’s episode of Let’s Know Things was about the relatively newfound fashion-world dominance of sweatpants and Athleisure.
Another famous RV I met back in the day: the NASA Astrovan, which was used to transport astronauts to the launch pad during the Space Shuttle era of space flight.
Interesting & Useful
Some neat things:
How Cork is Made(a beautifully documented process)
Silurian Hypothesis(interesting thought experiment)
The Soviet Union’s Flawed Rival to the Concorde(compelling story)
An Invisible Crown: How To Be an Heiress(great long-read)
Videos from Cities in Late-19th, Early-20th Century(blown away by these; wow)
The Giant Dolls’ House Project: Alone Together(beautiful collaborative art project)
For more interesting things of this kind, pop on over to Curiosity Gadget.
Outro
I’m venturing forth from isolation to risk a hair cut later today.
It’s been six months since my last cut, and my mop has completely taken over my head during that time. Left to its own devices I suspect it would gleefully consume half the block, so for my lockdown-neighbors’ sake, I looked around for a professional who seemed to be taking the right precautions and who works in a well-ventilated space.
We’ll see how it goes. If the place looks good when I get there, I’ll be five pounds lighter this evening, after the bulk of the shag has been shorn.
Any big plans on the horizon, hair-related or otherwise? Making any adjustments, changing any habits, shaking up any rituals? How’re you feeling about the future at the moment, and has that changed at all over the past few weeks?
Drop me a line and tell me what’s up. I respond to every message I get, and would love to hear what’s been up in your neck of the woods, but I’m also happy to play the role of a stranger on the internet if you just need to vent: things are weird and uncomfortable and more than a little scary right now, and you’re not alone if you’re feeling off-kilter or anxious.
You can send me a message by responding to this newsletter, or by emailing me directly at colin@exilelifestyle.com.
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This Apple / Epic Games story is a legitimately interesting / important one.