š”Curious Friday : Thomas Jefferson on hard work and luck, You are what you consume and 15+ great lessons to learn from sports.
Episode : 06
Today at a Glance :Ā
One Quote : Thomas Jefferson on hard work and luck.
One Article : You are what you consume.Ā
One Tweet : Sahil Bloom on 15+ great lessons and principles to glean from sports.
One Quote :Ā
āIām a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.ā
The more you do hard work, the more āLuckā will favor your side. I also believe that our luck is the macro results of 1000 micro life-decisions and hard work.Ā
One Article :Ā
You are what you consumeĀ
In the 1960s,there was a famous media theory that said - āThe medium is the messageā. This point was that the way we receive all kinds of Information or content is often just as Influential, if not, than the content itself. So, we tend to become what we consume, read, look, see and observe. Then we behave, think, act, choose, decide and make our opinion according to what we consume, that primarily influences us to do such things.
For Instance- In late 1960s, the television was a medium that i nspired a kind of mindless passivity in the viewer, making them particularly suggestible to whatever information or entertainment they were being exposed to, and therefore, easily herded into accepting predominant views.
But I think that it all makes sense to me. Unlike reading a book, listening to an exciting podcast episode or watching any helpful Youtube channel, watching television requires an unbelievable little amount of effort. You just open your āIdiot Boxā, change the channel, sit back, relax and let that crappy bot consume inside your head with some bull*hit. And if you continuously consume those crappy things, then probably, you just become ā¦ā¦crappy. Pre-streaming TV was just pure id, 24/7, on demand. You just kindaā¦ sat there. The content was not designed to delight or inform as much as it is to keep you placidly watching.
People who watch craploads of TV are generally unhappier, unhealthier, and more paranoid about the world. Kids who watch dizzying amounts of television perform worse cognitively and are more likely to have behavioural social problems. When I was a kid, my mothers used to yell at me that all that TV would rot my brain. And while a little dramaticā¦ our moms were kind of onto something.
Thatās why you should start reading and reading doesn't suck.
Reading books, newsletter or any kind of information on blogs/article never sucks, unlike watching continuous ācappry sh*t monster idiot boxā - talking about Television. Reading has all sorts of cognitive benefits and itās likely due to the nature of the medium itself.
The reason why reading is primarily cognitive is because reading anything - whether this newsletter, a book, a blog or an article - requires a specific or an adequate amount of an effort that pushes us into the spectrum of reality and fantasy and makes us happier while reading something. The medium that we consume while reading miraculously changes our way of thinking and lets us think outside the box. For example, reading this newsletter takes mental effort. Unlike TV, the second you stop trying, it stops delivering. The concepts must be interpreted and then formulated and visualized within your mind.
The most basic point Iām trying to make is that reading is an inherently interactive medium. The conveyance of information is not only dependent on me writing these words, but also dependent on you actively choosing to read, interpret, and react to them.
This increase in mental creative effort then leads to all sorts of positive outcomes. Reading makes us more empathetic, improves our attention span, enhances logical reasoning, and so on and so forth.
So, I will suggest everyone to read continuously everyday or every week.Ā
New Media is coming where we live in - decide what to consume and what not to
The medium of most of the things that we consume daily - whether itās a newsletter, a book, a podcast or a daily blog - is totally the Internet. The point is that the new Media can go either way. This is all relevant because with the internet, you not only have complete control over what you consume, but also the medium through which you consume it. You have complete control on listening to good and mindset-growth podcasts, maybe on Youtube , spotify or apple podcasts, itās your way of consuming those things. You have the control over reading this newsletter and the medium on which you are reading this newsletter. So, itās you who are controlling what you are consuming and what you are becoming - whether becoming a great person or becoming a crap.
There are some sort of media that just want to grab and hold some of your attention - whatever the costs may be. But then there are mediaālong-form podcasts, well-written streamed television, some (but not all) video games, etc.āthat are like reading. They encourage sustained attention, challenging you with powerful new concepts or unique imagery.
But, today there is a buffet of information to choose from - If you want to learn about meditation, then there are Instagram stories and pages, you can even learn on Youtube, listen to some mindset growth podcasts, and tweetstorms, or long-form written explainers.
The point is that there are a handful of platters - hot and streaming and ready to go form of contents and medium ( i.e. the internet) from which you can consume and learn from.
Similarly, when you choose what media to consume, you are choosing your future thoughts and perspectives and opinions. And if you chose poorly, you will think poorly. Itās not just that you are what you eat. You are everything that you consume.
One Tweet :Ā
In the above twitter thread, Sahil gives us the essence and learning of playing sports that it had in our everyday life.Ā
Sports teaches us so many new things - on career, growth, life and relationships. Read it. Itās an amazing piece of content.Ā
Thatās it for todayās newsletter. I hope that you have learned something new and valuable from this piece of content, and if you do, I know you have - then please do me a favor :Ā
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