Deep Thinking
Dependence & Connection, Slow Distractions, Tips on the Use of Tools, An Alternative to Perfectionism or Imperfectionism, Kiki Update and More
Hi guys, here’s some things that stood out from my previous week.
On Podcasts
I listened to Ep. 719 of The Tim Ferriss Show with Greg McKeown. I read Greg’s book Essentialism a while back but I realized just now that this podcast was with the same author. This podcast episode and the book are both excellent resources for anyone seeking a more meaningful and purposeful life.
A couple of highlights I found insightful & prompted me to stop and think for a moment:
Instead of striving for independence and invulnerability, we should aim for effective dependence, where we feel deeply connected, seen, and emotionally safe with our partner.
You need to focus on the essentials and eliminate non-essentials, but it's challenging because many times our systems are designed to make non-essential tasks easy and addictive. To overcome this, build a system that makes execution easier, but also makes not doing the task harder or more painful than doing it.
I listened to Ep. 282 of Deep Questions with Cal Newport, where he discussed the concept of "slow distractions." This idea is connected to his previous talks on "slow productivity," which highlights the importance of focusing on quality and maintaining a steady pace rather than trying to do more and risk burning out. I found the concept of slow distractions quite insightful. For me—a productivity nerd—it's easy to mistakenly view all distractions or forms of entertainment as obstacles to productivity and focus. Instead, I think it's much more helpful to categorize distractions as "slow" or "fast," with slow distractions being those that offer depth and meaning.
A few of the things that stood out the most to me:
Slower distractions require full brain deep thinking, engaging our minds in a way that surface-level distractions do not. I believe slower distractions are better because they involve our entire brain, encouraging us to think deeply about what we're experiencing. This is evident when we engage with a book, film, person, or the world around us. Our minds thrive on being fully engaged in thought-provoking activities, whether it's exploring our own thoughts or immersing ourselves in an invented world.
Figure out what you want to do. Figure out the right tools to do that. Use those tools to do that. And anything else those tools try to get you to do, say: I'm not interested. Just take control over how you use your digital life.
On Perfectionism
I read this short article on perfectionism and how creatives can consider “excellencism” as an alternative. It’s been already a few years that I read the book ‘How to be an Imperfectionist’ which was helpful for understanding and overcoming some of my perfectionist tendencies, but IMO it also kind of swung too far in the “it is better to be imperfect… just wing it” direction. It’s still a great book, but I personally find the idea of seeking excellence much better than the idea of trying to seek imperfection. Of course, balancing excellence with perfectionism remains a challenge, and because of that I continue to enjoy reading articles that can give me insights in the topic.
Some highlights:
Excellencism is a tendency to aim and strive toward high, yet attainable standards, in an effortful and flexible manner. People who pursue excellence are satisfied once they reach it, and do not see the value of exceeding it.
Excellencism puts a bigger, healthier space between our work and ourselves—between what we do and who we are. One problem with perfectionism is that achieving perfection becomes tightly bound up with people’s sense of self: If my work is bad, I’m bad. Excellencism avoids this trap.
On Updates
The awesome Little Snitch for monitoring internet traffic just got its v6.0 update, but it seems mostly interface changes. I'll probably stick with my current version until issues force an update. If you don't have Little Snitch though, I can't recommend it enough—it’s so useful for seeing and controlling what apps are communicating online. For a free alternative, check out LuLu.
Dehancer, my go-to film emulation plugin, updated their Lightroom version. I notice a much better performance all across the board.
Kiki, my Alfred workflow to use with AI text models received another update. This latest version allows you to use a custom API token in addition to the custom URL endpoint, making it compatible with many more online and offline services that have an API compatible with OpenAI's. I've been testing Kiki with Groq, which is impressively fast.
On Youtube
Did you know you can press the number keys 1-9 on Youtube to jump ahead to specific percentages of any video? Crazy how I'm still finding basic functionality in websites or apps I use every single day.
On Cinema
Wonder Boys (2000). This film seems like a ‘classic’ that I’d somehow missed. It’s similar to the recent film The Holdovers in theme and characters, but in some ways even better. Synopsis: Grady is a 50-ish English professor who hasn't had a thing published in years—not since he wrote his award winning 'Great American Novel' 7 years ago. This weekend proves even worse than he could imagine as he finds himself reeling from one misadventure to another in the company of a new wonder boy author.
Challengers (2024). I first saw that this film was about Tennis and I thought I’d let it pass. I’m just not into sport films. Then I saw that it was a film by Luca Guadagnino and knew I had to see it. I love the way Luca portrays the complexity of human relationships. Synopsis: Tennis player turned coach Tashi has taken her husband, Art, and transformed him into a world-famous Grand Slam champion. To jolt him out of his recent losing streak, she signs him up for a "Challenger" event — close to the lowest level of pro tournament — where he finds himself standing across the net from his former best friend and Tashi's former boyfriend.
Civil War (2024). I love photojournalism, and war photography has always been something that I’ve seen and respected only from afar. Because of that, this film was something I was looking forward to. There were some questionable things, but overall I think it was a good film and happy to recommend it. After watching, you may want to read this short interview with a real war photographer and thoughts of the film. Synopsis: In the near future, a group of war journalists attempt to survive while reporting the truth as the United States stands on the brink of civil war.
If you liked this you may also enjoy some content I have up on my YT Channel! I don’t hang around social media a lot, but when I do I’m on IG or Twitter. You can also check out some of my online classes, listen to my music, or in case you haven’t already, subscribe to my weekly newsletter. Thank you for reading!
The YT tip is so well hidden! Thanks Robert Mo