Adversity and Transformation
The Relationship Between Pain and Growth, Mental Models and Decision Making, Digital Minimalism, Claude III, Kill the Newsletter
Hey guys! Here’s a few things that have stood out from my previous week:
On Growth
I read THIS ARTICLE that talks about how pain can often be part of the personal growth process. I thought this was very interesting, because a lot of things related to growth and personal development focus on positivity and being grateful, but we rarely hear about the other side. That sometimes things are tough. The article even takes this a step further by presenting the "Theory of Positive Disintegration" by Dąbrowski, which argues that "a certain amount of psychological pain is necessary for growth and self-improvement." I am not sure about it being "necessary" but I do agree that there is always the possibility of positive outcomes. Yes, adversity can bring transformation if dealt with well, and this article was a good reminder that daily struggles are not pointless.
On Podcasts
I listened to Tim Ferris’s Podcast Episode 695 with Shane Parrish. A great episode with lots of practical advice for self development and productivity. A few takeaways:
Focus on being in the best position for success rather than just doing your best in the moment. Prioritize preparation and overall positioning over maximizing efforts in a particular moment.
Utilize mental models to overcome blind spots, avoid cognitive biases, and examine problems from different perspectives.
Separate problem identification and solution for efficient decision-making, create rules for desired behaviors.
This last point about creating rules for desired behavior was particularly insightful. Many times, especially in decision-making or in the formation of habits we do tend to rely on willpower. Creating rules that we know we won’t break take will power out of the equation.
I listened to Cal Newport's EP 288 on how to deal with constantly being distracted by your phone and social media. The episode gave me some valuable insights on the concept of digital minimalism One key point that stood out was the idea of seeking quality leisure activities like reading, physical exercise, hobbies, and quality films, rather than simply trying to escape or quit social media and phones altogether. Listening to this episode made me realize that during the past two or three years, when I've been the least active on social media, it's actually because I've been engaged in such diversified activities. Essentially, once we have a variety of activities that capture our attention, it becomes easier not to depend on the constant pressure of grabbing our phones with having nothing to do. For me, another helpful approach has been to follow my curiosities and, when using social media, focus on following areas of interest rather than specific people. These areas of interest are constantly evolving.
On AI
Anthropic's Claude 3 has been released! This is a very solid competitor for ChatGPT, especially ChatGPT 4. It has an extended 200k context length, and it seems pretty capable at handling whatever tasks you throw at it. Previously, Claude was limited to only a few countries, but now it's open to everyone! Actually, I had been using Claude V2 through OpenRouter, and I will most likely continue to access it that way instead of opening an account with Anthropic. I've done a few tests with creative writing tasks, and so far, Claude 3 seems much better and more natural than ChatGPT in this area. I've been using it to develop the outline and content for a class I'm preparing, and it's been VERY helpful. There are a couple of things that still make me hesitant to fully commit to Claude 3. First, the price of Claude 3 Opus seems to be the most expensive among LLMs right now. Second, their extreme policies for content moderation have been very limiting in the past. I haven't tested Claude 3 long enough to encounter this moderation issue yet, but I expect it to be similar to previous versions. Still, this is awesome to have available and it makes me excited to see what OpenAI will come up with to rival this new model.
On RSS and Newsletters
One of the features that always intrigued me from Readwise's Reader is the ability to subscribe to newsletters using an email that they provide to their users. This is a handy feature, but I think it's not without some issues. Mainly, I see there's a potential risk of receiving spam emails, and there's no easy way to block senders other than clicking the "unsubscribe" link from received emails—which, as you may know, doesn't always work for spam emails. I have asked about this multiple times but have never received a solution. Last year, I was happy to discover SimpleLogin, a service that allows me to create email aliases on the go, which connect either to my personal email or to my Reader's email. If I ever start receiving spam, I can simply log in to SimpleLogin and block the alias there. It's been an INCREDIBLE service, and now I have email aliases not only for newsletters, but also for most websites where I create an account. This past week, I discovered another solution: Kill the Newsletter. Kill the Newsletter allows you to create RSS feeds for email aliases that you can use to subscribe to newsletters. You could essentially convert a newsletter to RSS, subscribe to that with Reader, and in case of spam or similar issues, simply unsubscribe. It sounds like a good alternative, and I hope some of you may find it useful. I’m bookmarking this in case I ever need it.
On Cinema
Manhattan (1979). A couple of decades back when I was a teenager and was starting to get into cinema and filmmaking I watched one or two Woody Allen films and I just didn’t like them. I think at the time I couldn’t understand their rhythm, tone, humor and how the director develops all the plot through a lot of conversations. Over the years I’ve come to appreciate this more and, even though several of Allen’s most recent works are very different and easier to get, I can now go back to a classic like this and I thought it was pretty good. Actually, I was surprised I was able to understand most references in the art world of that time. Synopsis: Manhattan explores how the life of a middle-aged television writer dating a teenage girl is further complicated when he falls in love with his best friend's mistress.
The Ciambra (2017). A family-made arthouse-type film. It’s so good. A character portrait that almost feels like a documentary at times. Pio Amato, a 14 year-old member of a small Romani community in southern Italian town of Gioia Tauro in Calabria, is in a hurry to grow up. Pio follows his older brother Cosimo everywhere and from him he learns how to hustle and how to navigate the streets of his hometown. One night Pio sets out to prove to his brother that he is as good or better than him but, when things go wrong, a series of events will forever change the way he sees the world.
mid90s (2018). I had heard of this one for years but just now watched it. If The Ciambra was a portrait of a teenager in Italy, this one is a similar but in America. Funny coincidence that I watched these two almost back to back. It’s also very good. Synopsis: In 1990s Los Angeles, a 13-year-old spends his summer navigating between a troubled home life and a crew of new friends he meets at a skate shop.
The Pig, the Snake and the Pigeon (2023). It started with what seemed a very typical asian gangster film but it became better with its plot. It even had some good Oldboy moments. Synopsis: The arrogant, third most-wanted criminal in Taiwan, decides to get rid of the top two competitors and crowns himself the most-wanted criminal before dying.
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