Last updated on March 10th, 2025 at 10:05 pm
March 9, 2025
Here is the best thing I heard (What?), saw (Eye.), and read (Read.) this week, as well as the best idea (💡) I developed.
What?
Plain English with Derek Thompson Podcast | S4 E14 | The End of Reading | February 28, 2025:
- [Derek Thompson] “So, million-dollar question. What is this all about? What’s really so valuable about reading whole books?
[Rose Horowitch, Atlantic staff writer] “Well, I think that there’s a couple of things that are so valuable about reading books and one is just the content that’s in books. … It’s where we have access to … a lot of things that are … passed down through generations. And certainly, you could read a summary or it could be translated into a different form, but that would take you … ever further away from the original form and therefore the original meaning of a text. So I think that that is sort of one bucket – what’s contained in the text. And then I think the second is what reading books does for us.
“I spoke with the neuroscientist Maryanne Wolf, who told me that deep reading, that really immersing yourself in a text, stimulates critical thinking and self-reflection. Another professor said that engaging with someone else’s ideas or experiences can really expand our empathy and reading can really train us to engage with nuanced arguments. I think a lot of this is bound up with changes in our attention, because we don’t know the causation of whether we read less and then that weakens our attention muscles or did our attention atrophy and therefore we read less.
“We know that a lot of the discovery of new ideas and the understanding of existing ones really requires sticking with them and thinking about them for an extended period of time, even when it’s not immediately gratifying. And reading can really train us to do that. And I think if we aren’t reading, we’re missing out on something that we kind of can’t get in any other thing that I can think of.
[Derek Thompson] “I agree with much of that. I think at a personal level, I feel smarter when I’m in a phase of my life where I’m reading books consistently and where the practice of reading is knit into the fabric of my day-to-day habits. The truth is, when I think about the people I know who I consider very successful, there are very few of them who are like: ‘Yeah, I don’t read. I don’t have enough concentration to focus on a book or long essay. I’m just incredibly successful and yet I have no faculty of reading concentration.’ Those things don’t hang together in my experience.”
Eye.
WICKED (2024) | ‘Defying Gravity’ Scene:
- “I’m through accepting limits ’cause someone says they’re so
“Some things I cannot change, but ’til I try, I’ll never know …
“To those who’d ground me, take a message back from me
“Tell them how I am defying gravity …
“Nobody in all of Oz
“No wizard that there is or was
“Is ever gonna bring me down” - At the conclusion of this scene, all I could say was: ‘Whoa!’
Read.
“The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work, and Team with Positive Energy” by Jon Gordon:
- “Ten rules for the ride of your life.
“1. You’re the driver of your bus. … Always remember that you are the driver of your bus. It’s the most important of the rules because if you don’t take responsibility for your life and control of your bus, you can’t take it where you want to go. If you’re not the driver, then you’ll always be at the whim of everyone else’s travel plans. …
“2. Desire, vision, and focus move your bus in the right direction. … Without focus, buildings don’t get built, paintings don’t get painted, and energy gets scattered. … The Law of Attraction … says that the more we focus on something, the more we think about something, the more it shows up in our lives. …
“3. Fuel your ride with positive energy. … Desire, vision, and focus help you turn the bus in the right direction. But positive energy is necessary to take you where you want to go. Every day when we look at the gas pump of life, we have a choice between positive energy and negative energy. Positive energy is high octane fuel for the ride of your life, while negative energy causes sludge to accumulate in your energy pipeline. …
“4. Invite people on your bus and share your vision for the road ahead. … As you drive, you want to keep asking people to get on. The worst they can say is ‘no.’ If you don’t ask, they won’t know to get on. Plus, the more people you pick up along the way, the more energy you create in your ride. The goal is to eventually have a standing-room-only bus. And since this is an energy bus, it’s always expanding, so you will always be able to add more people. …
“5. Don’t waste your energy on those who don’t get on your bus. … Some people are going to get on your bus, and some people won’t. Don’t worry about the people who won’t get on your bus. Don’t waste your energy on them. Don’t try to make them get on. You can’t drive anyone else’s bus. You can only drive your bus. …
“6. Post a sign that says ‘No Energy Vampires Allowed’ on your bus. … You’ve got to be strong enough to tell people that you will not allow any negativity on your bus. You’ve got to say that this is where we’re going, and to get there, we need a positive and supportive team. And whoever is negative will be kicked off the bus or left at the station. …
“7. Enthusiasm attracts more passengers and energizes them during the ride. … Chief Energy Officers live and work with enthusiasm. They tap the power of their heart by getting excited about being alive. They fill up with loads of positive energy and by being optimistic about life and work. They don’t let fear stop them. No, they charge forward with positive and powerful energy and look at challenges … as an opportunity to learn, grow, and succeed. …
“8. Love your passengers. … Love is the answer for the team’s success. … Enthusiasm is important, but love is the answer. To really, really, … really tap the power of your heart and lead with positive, contagious energy, you must love your passengers. You’ve got to become a love magnet. …
“9. Drive with purpose. … Purpose is the ultimate fuel for our journey through life. When we drive with purpose, we don’t get tired or bored and our engines don’t burn out. …
“10. Have fun and enjoy the ride. … We only have one life and one ride. This is not Disneyland. We only get one ride, so we might as well enjoy it to the max. Too many people think they’re going to live forever. They spend their life accumulating wealth, possessions, and power, only to leave it all when their bus ride is over. It’s not like you can take it with you. So what’s all the fuss about? Too many people stress over too many meaningless things.”
💡
It is easier to gain weight than it is to lose weight. It is easier to lose weight than it is to maintain weight.
- Inspired by my effort to maintain weight, and with my experience with all three scenarios.
Additional Content
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