Hey everyone! Back with the 3rd issue of ‘I’m Interested’. This one takes about 10 minutes to read.
If you’ve enjoyed what you’ve read so far, consider passing it along to a friend via an email forward or the share button. I’ve already heard that folks have had compelling conversations about these ideas, let’s keep it rollin’. The conversations are what fuel me to keep writing.
I'm interested in a lot of things. I know YOU are too. Not everyone has the energy or attention span to dig through the vast expanses of the internet and then read & prioritize what would be worth a chunk of that idle time we spend on our phone.
I'll be that someone.
Weekly Thought Provokers
TL;DR: These are relatively short, but should to get you thinking and hopefully discussing with people in your life.
Reduce the friction, make it easier to ‘do’
By removing the friction, you remove obstacles to process.
- Chris Oakley, writing essays with a “Beginner’s Mind”
I came across a short ‘atomic’ essay on Twitter about reducing the friction between you and the things you’d like to do. I loved it. Chris used the example of grilling more often. Changing the location of the grill, charcoal and utensils multiplied his grilling frequency by 8x. It made me think about other things in our lives we want to do, but don’t make the time for often enough. How can you reduce the friction between you and a favorite pass-time? A hobby you have all the gear for but rarely get out and do? Something that energizes you, but has a discouraging amount of set-up and take down? How do you make the path to it easier?
For some things, I’m great with this - for others, not so much. I keep all of my sports gear in a box in one place, ready to use at a moment’s notice. My basketball bag is pre-packed and ready at all times…and I chose to live 50 yds from a park (ah you’ll be back on court soon, John, stay strong). My camping and skiing gear have their own boxes - consolidated and ready for a trip. Yet, my DSLR is packed away and left uncharged. My fly-fishing pole is stuffed into the back of the closet. I’m not good about getting clothes set out and making time for a workout. My writing habit could use an investment in space and time too. I think when it comes to picking up a new skill, hobby, or habit - friction stops us from starting more often than we think.
How can you reduce the friction between you and things you like to do?
150 Friends
Following up on the topic of friends from the last issue - Robin Dunbar, emeritus professor of evolutionary psychology at Oxford University, suggests there is a cognitive limit to the number of people we can maintain social relationships with. Human beings usually can have about 150 friends. Typically, just five can be described as intimate.
His commentary on our bandwidth for friendships is not a new philosophy, and his latest book brings new research to the table to support his ideas. I haven’t read the book, but this article from The Guardian on ‘how important are your pals?’ is a good start. The most important takeaway, continuing this newsletter’s thread about friendships, community, and happiness:
The number and quality of our friendships may have a bigger influence on our happiness, health and mortality risk than anything else in life save for giving up smoking.
The Epidemic of Busyness
Alastair Humphreys - of ’Flabbiness’ in Issue 02 - dropped another nugget of thought provocation I had to share. He claims that we are experiencing an epidemic of busyness.
We have become lunatics, suffering under an epidemic of busyness. When did anyone last say, ‘gosh, I don’t really have anything to do today.’ If you’re reading this on your phone, I know you’ve checked social media or email in the past five minutes. If you’re listening to my dulcet tones (read: podcast), I bet you’ve cranked me up to double speed. We are all too frantic to be able to savour life or focus on the important things. And we live in a society that applauds the wildest ball jugglers. ‘Yowzers, I’m so busy,’ we boast, pretending not to be gleeful if we win the busiest person contest. At its heart, being busy makes us feel important and necessary.
- Alastair Humphreys, The Doorstep Mile1
If not contracted in the first year of post-grad work, I think it takes root years before college students try to one up each-other’s lack of sleep or on-campus involvement (these conversations drove me insane). More likely, this may establish itself around the same time parents are trying to get their kid to ‘SPECIALIZE’ (you can bet I’ll be writing about this at some point) or high schoolers go crazy trying to pad their stats for college admissions. I believe we build the busyness culture much earlier in life than we realize (it’s fine,I’m sure it has no effect on teenage anxiety…)
Alastair romanticizes, for sure, but how can we take steps to feel and act less busy?
Opportunity
Are you pursuing enough asymmetric opportunities? I always enjoy the mental frameworks for evaluating decisions and enjoyed how this was messaged. This can be as simple as investing in a good stock market index fund or moving from a secluded, economically depressed mountain town in West Virginia to the bustling LA metro area in the economic/social powerhouse that is the California coast (I don’t mean to specifically reference someone in my life, but…). This article was a helpful reminder about vetting opportunities in a time of change.
Products
Last issue, I highlighted fitmeal. Now, I turn the spotlight to Levantr.
“It’s like Pinterest meets Trello for travel.” Say no more. One of their value propositions struck a chord:
Sick of nagging people in group chats? Tired of long email threads? Our surveys allow you to ask questions to the group and summarize the responses efficiently.
Make decisions faster.
Now, it might be more difficult to get friends to create an account on a new platform than it is to plan the trip the usual way with google sheets, group chats, FB events, and good old fashion executive decision making. Think of the last time you tried to plan a multi-day group trip, including flights, accommodation, food, activities, etc.? I doubt the planning process was a breeze. There is potential here, but I have some thoughts on their suggested New Zealand itinerary.
Designing Cities at Human-Scale
TL;DR - We should work to transform our cities into something closer to a college campus (or an old European city center). Making sure that they are navigable by foot, filled with amenities within walking distance to residences. This will increase residents’ social capital and quality of life.
I want continue the conversation on what makes people happy where they live, and how to improve our cities post-pandemic. I will continue this thread across multiple issues. We’ve designed for automotive traffic for 100 yrs in the United States, and it’s resulted in wide avenues, massive swaths of pavement for parking around our businesses, and cities that are spread over wide expanses - stretching utilities, maintenance, public services/amenities.
Pause here, close your eyes. Think about how much space we use for parking lots. Now, millennials, think about how difficult it is to afford property. Ok, carry on.
It’s become easier to order that thing online, because the small business shop you could buy it from really isn’t a 3 minute walk away, else, you probably would go there. Everyone loves a nice meal, coffee, or happy hour spent outside on a nice day in an area with some energy and buzz (created by the gathering of people). But most restaurants are limited to a couple of tables and chairs outside their doors, because we widened the roads another 10 feet for street parking. We can’t spill out, revel, and congregate on our streets like we do when the local sports team wins the Stanley Cup. The pandemic and emphasis on outdoor dining has started to change the narrative here.
Paris plans to remove 70,000 surface parking spots to free up space on residential streets for more eco-friendly transport options and leisure pursuits.
In Sweden, parking spaces are being replaced by tables, benches and plants as part of a plan to improve the immediate environment around people’s homes.
In many cities this year, full streets were closed down to allow for people to socialize, drink, and eat outdoors with the full width of the street to work with.
College Campuses
Why do we love our time on college campuses? Maybe it’s because we can walk/bike safely and easily to whatever we need, and most importantly - see our friends within minutes?
It’s because college campuses are designed at human-scale.
…colleges are built to facilitate face-to-face human interaction and an integrated lifestyle. In essence, they are 15-minute neighborhoods owned by a single entity. Meanwhile, most American cities are built to facilitate efficient commercial exchanges and a compartmentalized lifestyle. The latter might be more convenient, but the former make for greater happiness in the long run.2
This isn’t a pipe dream reserved for municipalities flush with cash and budget surplus. This is something every city and large town can work towards as we move beyond the age of suburban sprawl development and long commutes and into the age of flexible working schedules and locations.
You need to watch Ted Lasso. You just do.
TL;DR - Watch Ted Lasso.
Disclaimer: I wrote this before Jason Sudeikis won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series, Musical or Comedy this week. That adds some clout to my overtures. Cheers for that, Ted.
This show is heart warming, hilarious, witty, and it has unexpected depth to its character arcs in such a short span. There is only one season out right now. It’s 10 episodes - 5 hrs total. It’s on Apple TV+, so you’ll have to fire up a 7 day free trial and knock it out. There goes one excuse.
Well, I have to eat my words. Ted Lasso the sitcom … seriously rules. The series has no right to be as good, funny, and moving as it is. And yet I devoured all 10 episodes in a single day while frantically messaging my editor in disbelief that this is one of my favorite new shows. As far as TV productions go, this might as well be Leicester City winning the Premier League…It’s a quietly moving showcase for Sudeikis, and the first of many times Ted Lasso will tug at your heartstrings…
^A quick note on the Leicester City comparison (low expectations —> being the best). In 2016, they entered the Premier League season with 5,000-1 odds of winning. Let’s just say they became the greatest underdog sports story most Americans have never heard of (don’t we love a good underdog?). To me, Ted Lasso is the best TV show in a year when just about all people did was release, watch, share, and critique TV shows. You need to watch Ted Lasso. You just do.
Closing with the Vibes
I’m getting a John Legend vibe from this - but mostly I’m a sucker for some good brass (listen for it: “horns!”). A Chance the Rapper verse would be the perfect feature here. Am I wrong?
If I can get you to replace 15 minutes of mindless phone scrolling with some intentional content in a newsletter, I'll rest easy. The psilocybin content I promised will have to wait, but if you’ve read this far…you get to read ahead.
If I made that happen, or there was something here that you enjoyed, please pass this along to a friend or comment below on this post.
If you’re not feeling it, please reply or reach out and provide some feedback. I don’t know what I’m doing and I can only improve through iteration - stick with me.
https://alastairhumphreys.com/the-epidemic-of-busyness/
https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2021/1/6/college-campuses-as-a-model-for-urban-planning
https://www.theringer.com/tv/2020/8/14/21367994/ted-lasso-apple-tv-jason-sudeikis
A) great song choice B) Have you seen a certain persons new hair choice? It’s really pushing the limits of their asymmetric opportunity C) on the topic of specialization have you read the book “range”? While I didn’t make it through the full book (it gets a bit redundant like some malcom gladwell books) it offered an interesting lense on the topic