Balance, boredom, not drinking and erupting volcanoes 🌋
Living better is about balance
Hey there, happy Sunday!
I'm changing up the Filter format in an effort to make it the most interesting and actionable newsletter you receive every week. Let me know what you think about the changes by replying to this email. 🚀
Society idolises people who live unbalanced lives.
The entrepreneur who barely sleeps. The athlete who sacrifices relationships to win. The celebrity who gives up integrity for fame.
But these people are often the least happy. They struggle with addiction, hurt those around them, and divorce their partners - because they lack internal balance.
Instead of idolising these people we should idolise those who achieve incredible things whilst maintaining balance.
Living better requires long term balance.
Balanced consumption and creation.
Balanced health and wealth.
Socialising and learning.
The present and the future.
Work and play.
In the short term things will be unbalanced. Sometimes you need to focus more on work, other times you need to prioritise health. But long term you need to focus on balance.
From political views to physical health, all bad things come from extremes.
Living a balanced life requires the pain of discipline, to avoid the pain of regret.
How do you ensure you're living a balanced life?
Here are this weeks four finds:
I.
On never being bored
(Article)
📱 Having a computer in your pocket that’s more powerful than the computers that put a man on the moon is incredible. But having a never ending feed of entertainment and distraction leads to overstimulation.
Never being bored makes the focus and concentration needed to think clearly and do meaningful creative work difficult.
I’m interested in experimenting with an old Nokia 2330 a few days per week to try to break that itch to fill space with scrolling.
II.
On not drinking alcohol
(Article + Podcast)
🍷 The research shows that drinking alcohol has a negative effect on all areas of the brain.
"Higher volume of alcohol consumption per week was associated with lower grey matter density – the researchers found, with alcohol explaining up to a 0.8% change in grey matter volume, even after accounting for individual biological and behavioural characteristics."
While this number seems relatively small it is more than 4 times higher than any other risk factor like smoking or BMI.
I don't think alcohol is all bad, socially it can have great benefits. But personally, I find when I do drink it affects my mood, messes with my sleep, and generally makes me feel like crap.
After reading this and hearing Sam Parr share his story about getting sober I think I'm going to give up alcohol because the cons outweigh the pros for me.
III.
On millennials not being worse off
(Article)
💸 There's a narrative that "Millennials are much poorer than their parents" but most of the articles supporting this narrative cite that millennials own less % of overall wealth than their parents generation, which is true.
But when you look at individual wealth it's very similar to previous generations. Where millennials differ is the amount of debt they accumulate at a young age. But on the whole things are not that different for most millennials, the media just has a bias towards the more inflammatory headlines.
As a result "We don’t hear about all the succeeding Millennials, only those who struggle."
The media pushing this narrative can be dangerous because "By suggesting that all Millennials can’t get ahead, you are painting the entire generation as victims of unfair circumstances. This is true for some Millennials, but not all."
I'd highly recommend checking out this article for yourself and making your own conclusion.
IV.
On Indonesia erupting
(Article)
🌋 This video exploring the massive amount of volcanic activity in Indonesia is fascinating. It touches on why these volcanoes occur and why people continue to live so close to them.
But more than anything I couldn't help but focus on how good Johnny Harris is at teaching. He takes complex topics and distills them down into simple explanations and visuals.
I often think extremely smart people overlook this ability, but if they could better communicate ideas through writing and video then society would be better off.
We're currently seeing those who can communicate and explain ideas best build huge businesses by leveraging platforms like social media, blogs, youtube and newsletters.
One interesting quote
In Icelandic, the word for "idiot" means "one who has never left home to journey aborad". Only idiots think they're always right. - Derek Sivers
End note
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Have a great week!
- Stephen