Curiosity's Compass: Exploring Following-Up, Releasing Emotions, Deeper Learning & More
This week's smorgasbord of tips for productivity, well-being, and a touch of space fantasy.
Usually my newsletters are focused on one topic or book. Today I'm sharing a smorgaboard of things that caught my attention and might for you too.
It Is Your Responsibility to Follow Up
This blog post is an excellent reminder about communication. People these days are inundated with messages and activities. If you really need to connect, assume you will have to reach out a few times. Try to space it out so you don't pester or annoy. It reminds me of a great this quote from Kevin Kelly.
Don’t take it personally when someone turns you down. Assume they are like you: busy, occupied, distracted. Try again later. It’s amazing how often a second try works.
Why we’re more hungry after a bad night’s sleep
Getting enough sleep and making sure to drink enough water might sound trite but are probably the most underrated pieces of advice for keeping your weight.
One of the best changes I have made recently was to stop all screen usage after 7 pm. I sleep better and it's easier for me to wake up in the morning.
TL;DR - If you don’t get enough sleep, your body will make you hungrier and eat more.
Taking notes vs. taking belief
Seth Godin is one of my heros. On the surface, he seems like a quirky marketing guru. But once you start to dig into his writing he's actually a terrific thinker on creativity and delivering that creativity to the world.
My sister once asked me what my note taking method was. She was shocked to hear I don't actually have one at all. When I read, I rarely take notes. I never highlight. When I write a review of a book, I just have a copy with me and thumb through it to remind me of the main points. My goal is to understand the underlying ideas.
I was pleasantly surprised to find out Seth Godin agrees and wrote about it in a post.
"If taking notes is making it easier for you to postpone (or avoid) the possibility of belief, better to put down the pencil and focus. Facts are easy to come by. Finding a new way to think and a new confidence in our choices is difficult indeed."
If I feel a book is extraordinarily good, I will create an Anki deck with the main concepts to regularly review like I did with Kevin Kelly.
Seth was interviewed in the Every newsletter about his thoughts on work and organization. I particularly liked his story from his college days studying engineering.
He was in a design class where everyone had to design their own case for their tools. Students would spend days putting together elaborately constructed cases to fit everything perfect.
What did Seth do? He got a simple paint box and put pieces of foam in it. He could put everything in it and it would stay safe and in the same place. Brilliant. Easy and it works.
His professor wasn't impressed and threatened to fail him on the assignment but Seth successfully argued that he met the qualifications of the task.
I easily get into rabbit holes of trying to make things perfectly coordinated. I now ask myself if I'm overcomplicating it. How can I make a simple and useful solution like Seth’s paint box?
The Higher Pantheism
I have a couple old poetry books back from the late 19th century. One of them is by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, arguably the preeminent poet of the Victorian age. Thumbing through I came across one poem I liked. It almost sounded like a Biblical Psalm.
The sun, the moon, the stars, the seas, the hills and the plains,- Are not these, O Soul, the Vision of Him who reigns? Is not the Vision He, tho' He be not that which He seems? Dreams are true while they last, and do we not live in dreams? Earth, these solid stars, this weight of body and limb, Are they not sign and symbol of thy division from Him? Dark is the world to thee; thyself art the reason why, For is He not all but thou, that hast power to feel "I am I"? Glory about thee, without thee; and thou fulfillest thy doom, Making Him broken gleams and a stifled splendour and gloom. Speak to Him, thou, for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meet- Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet. God is law, say the wise; O soul, and let us rejoice, For if He thunder by law the thunder is yet His voice. Law is God, say some; no God at all, says the fool, For all we have power to see is a straight staff bent in a pool; And the ear of man cannot hear, and the eye of man cannot see; But if we could see and hear, this Vision-were it not He?
There are many poems praising nature and God like from Whitman and Wordsworth. And there a great philosophers too, like Spinoza, who made an entire tract. But Tennyson seems to have encapsulated the entire idea in just 18 lines. This is why I sometimes like poetry. It has a power to express a lot in a little.
The Sedona Method
Have you ever read a book where you thought the idea was fine but the book itself was bleh? I rarely give up books but I stopped about halfway through this 400 page tome. The concept presented is straight-forward enough. It's about having awareness of your emotions and asking yourself a few simple questions so you can process the emotion and let go.
I asked Google Gemini AI how to do it and it gave the answer in seconds as shared below.
Focus on the Issue: Identify the emotion, thought, or situation that's bothering you.
Welcome the Feeling: Don't try to resist or suppress the emotion. Allow yourself to fully experience it.
Ask Yourself 3 Questions: Here are the core questions of the Sedona Method:
Could I let go of this feeling? (Yes or No)
Would I let go of this feeling? (Yes or No)
When? (Just answer "now" whenever it feels right)
Repeat Until Relief: Keep asking yourself the questions and allowing the emotion to flow through you. The goal is not to force the feeling away, but to detach from it and create space for letting go.
Let Go and Be Free: As you continue with the process, you may find the intensity of the emotion diminishing. This is the letting go part. Remember, the Sedona Method is about allowing, not forcing. Be patient with yourself and keep practicing.
I agree with this Amazon review of the book. It quickly became repetitive and tedious as it discussed this method with dozens of different thoughts and emotions. And it quickly fell into psycho-babble territory. I also didn't like how the book presented the method as an end-all-be-all solution to all of your life's problems. Any method, like this one, is a tool in a box. A hammer is excellent but you can't do everything with it. You wouldn't use a hammer to loosen a valve or tighten a screw.
While reading this book, I couldn’t help but recall the classic Seinfeld episode The Serenity Now. One of the characters learns from a self-help tape to yell “Serenity Now!” whenever confronted with negative emotions. Another character warns that using the same technique later put him in a mental hospital, “Serenity now, insanity later”.
To be fair, Sedona Method is about letting go whereas Serenity Now is just yelling a phrase.
So, does Sedona Method work? I don’t think it hurts. I tried it a few times to release some annoyances and frustrations at work and I felt it helped relax me. There were even coincidences where after I released an emotion projects had a turnarounds and people actually got back to me.
Space Pirates!
While drinking coffee on a Sunday morning I randomly wondered “What would pirates in space be like?” To my delight, I found out it’s actually a thing. In some ways, it reminds me of the science function subgenre Steampunk — meshing sci-fi ideas with historical styles and scenery.
I used Microsoft’s Co-Pilot AI to make an image to fit the mood. I would love to watch a Pirates of the Caribbean meets Star Trek saga. Jack Sparrow—but in space! Of course, it makes no sense for pirate-astronauts to dress like the 16th century sea pirates, but, eh, why not?