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Many ambitions require periods of soil-tilling and seed-planting if we want to make them a reality.
Consistent habits can help us realize outcomes that outweigh the total aggregated inputs: our small, daily efforts transmogrify into more than the sum of their components so that 1 + 1 = 3 (or 4, or 5).
In some cases, though, the goal and the practices that help us pursue that goal may be very different in shape, focus, and function.
Learning about business fundamentals, for instance, may require a different type of effort and mindset than is optimal when running a bakery.
There are components that translate from one to the other, but hitting the books to acquire a basic knowledge of assets, expenses, and tax-law is distinct enough from the day-to-day requirements of producing sellable baked goods, hiring the right staff, dealing with customers, and figuring out (and performing) an appropriate social media strategy that they may as well be entirely disconnected undertakings.
Similarly, a daily exercise regimen can hone the muscles, balance, and flexibility we utilize while playing sports, but they don’t train us for the sport itself. Having bulkier biceps won’t make us better badminton players any more than running fast will help us shoot baskets.
Our philosophical and psychological ambitions, and the paths we tread to achieve them, tend to have the same dynamic.
Most minimalists I know don’t spend all their time thinking about minimalism: once you’ve familiarized yourself with the concept, applied it to your life, and worked those learnings into your habits, there’s little point to rehashing the same ideas ad infinitum.
The goal is typically to use minimalism as a tool that helps us get from one place to another, in thinking and in practice.
Orienting one’s life around this concept, then (unless you’re attempting to reframe, rework, or communicate the philosophy itself in a novel way), is a bit like trying to get really good at doing pushups and redefining oneself as a pushup-enthusiast: there’s maybe some kind of value in the kind of recalibration, but more typically it’s an exercise meant to help you get better at other things, not an end unto itself.
Thinking about these processes as journeys rather than destinations can help, but it’s also useful, in my experience, to maintain a focus on our intended outcomes even as we intentionally and purposefully traverse the path leading toward them.
Tilling that soil and planting those seeds can be meditative and enjoyable activities unto themselves, but unless the habit alone is what you’re aiming for, it’s prudent to maintain a solid sense of the larger context of which those interstitial labors are just one component.
Do the best pushups you can do, and strive to get better at them over time so that they’re more likely to help you achieve your ambitions. But don’t forget that these habits are meant to help us evolve from one version of ourselves into another, currently aspirational iteration.
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If you found some value in this essay, consider supporting my work by buying me a coffee.
Projects
Brain Lenses: Bayes’ Theorem & Received Knowledge
Let’s Know Things: Debt Cancellation
Yesterday’s Newsletter: Malaria, Qatar, Digital Currency
Curiosity Weekly: January 5, 2021
Other: I’m rejuvenating my atrophied photography chops with an online course and a lot of practice, finishing up the outline for an introductory guide to economics I’m planning to start writing soon, and doing some early design work for that guide book series and the entity that will house it and other projects of a similar nature.
I’m also making all kinds of aspirational plans for where I’ll go and what I’ll get up to when the pandemic subsides—though I’m also aware that those plans will likely be tempered by reality for quite a while, and any near-future implementation of them will almost certainly be watered-down by prudence and necessity.
Interesting & Useful
Some neat things I came across recently:
The Rejuvenation Roadmap(it’s a good idea to maintain a healthy skepticism about such life- and health-extension efforts, but they’re still interesting and exciting)
Shearing Sheep, and Hewing to Tradition, on an Island in Maine(good read and photos)
Unheralded Classics of Electronic Music(nice YouTube playlist)
Time Lapse of a Red Bell Pepper from Seed to Fruit(this content is what the internet was made for)
DALL-E: Creating Images from Text(interesting application of a neural network)
There Are An Insane Amount of Cool Space Things Happening in 2021(yes!)
The Golden Ratio (Why It Is So Irrational) (video about math, aesthetics, plants)
74 of Our Favorite Facts for 2020(pretty good list from the Times)
Outro
There’s a lot that we’re going to need to fix in 2021 and beyond—and that’s true across essentially every possible social, governmental, and economic spectrum—but I am optimistic that we’re equal to the task, even if it won’t be easy or pleasant, and even if the payoffs won’t always be evident right away (or even in our lifetimes, in some cases).
That said, if you’re interested, I’d like to propose a little homework assignment: take a bad, awkward, strange, and/or just really uncomfortable selfie and send it my way.
If I get enough of these (and if you give permission), I’d like to share some of them in a future newsletter, along with where you’re located (just the country is fine, but feel free to be more specific).
This is partially a selfish ask because I love hearing from the folks who read this missive each week, and I love awkward selfies. But it’s also a potential means of sharing a little wave and wink with each other across all the (geographic and otherwise) barriers we have between us, at the moment, for various reasons.
Submit your bad selfies (taken with the camera on your phone is fine, but you can use whatever’s available) to colin@exilelifestyle.com, or by responding to this email.
My usual offer also applies: if you just want to say hello and/or are keen to share something about yourself with a stranger from the internet, you can do so via the same methods mentioned above.
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You can also communicate via the usual channels: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or quantum-cracked nonlinear equation.
If you’re finding some value in what I’m doing here, consider supporting my work via one of these methods: Become a patron / Buy a book / Subscribe to Brain Lenses
You can also buy me a coffee if that’s simpler :)
Happy new year everybody!