September Retrospective

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Written by Eddie B

Category: post

Published: 01 October 2021

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My public retrospective for September 2021

Welcome to my very first ever public monthly retrospective.

The podcast -  an update

For those who have been following my #buildinpublic efforts this summer, you deserve a brief update.  I announced this summer that I would be starting a podcast.  At first I thought I would launch it in July, but I quickly realized that wasn't realistic.  Now, I'm beginning to think that launching this year isn't realistic.  I'll briefly explain why.

It has been a year since I began blogging about personal development.  My goal was to improve my writing skills while learning about topics that interest me personally.  I wanted to share what I was learning with the world so I began searching for knowledge about audience building.

I found what I was looking for when I discovered Kevon and his Public Lab.  In order to join the course, I had to build something in public.  I'd been thinking about starting a podcast for many years, and I thought the podcast would be a faster way to build an audience than blogging.  So as a project for his course, I started "building" my podcast.  Though I'm still excited about the podcast, I've been weighing my values recently, and I've decided to slow down, but not stop, my podcast development.  The discovery that there isn't a large audience of engaged Chinese learners on Twitter helped in making this choice.  Consequently, my decision is unlikely to disappoint many people. 

I've decided to devote more time to part of my life that I don't write about online.  I need to add some context first.

My first public retrospective

As I've been doing monthly retrospectives privately for years, this month requires some mental adjustments for me.

I have always understood my values, so I didn't have to explain them when writing my monthly retrospectives. As I'm putting this out there, however, I'm discovering that it makes me look at things from a different perspective, making me understand things better.

First I feel like I need to establish one way I'm different from most people. In our society people strive for "financial independence," whatever that means.

If I look for 'financially independent' people, I usually see people who could retire if they wanted, but they keep working hard.

If you love money, you will never be satisfied; if you long to be rich, you will never get all you want. (Ecclesiastes 5:10, Good News Translation)

I recently received an email from Jay Crouse. He quoted the short story about the Fisherman and the Businessman. You can read the story here or watch the video below.

I love what Jay had to say afterward:

We want to have the freedom to be ourselves and spend our time doing the things WE want to do. To create what we want to create and share that with people who will appreciate it – even if it's just the people close to us.

I call that creative independence. The ability to express ourselves in the ways that we want without the need for external validation or approval. To make the things that WE want to make on our own terms without compromise.

To me, our culture is fixated on financial independence but what we really want is that creative independence. We want to have control over our lives and our relationship to the world around us.

I am fortunate, because I already possess creative independence.  I treasure the freedom I have, and I do not want to sacrifice it for more money.  Why do many people who might be satisfied with a life like the fisherman's end up spending their life like the businessman?  The desire for financial security is often motivated by fear.

Re-examining my values

During the last year, I went through a list of values and selected 20 as my core values.  I've been re-examining those values and I've decided the podcast does not hit enough of them to make it a prominent part of my life at this moment.

I am increasing my time in ministry, starting this month.  My time spent writing and doing related activities will remain about the same.  For a while, however, I will be spending less time on the podcast.

The values of an individual determine their actions. You can measure their actions by watching how they spend their time.

I use Toggl to track my time 24/7 so I never have to guess how I've been spending my time.  Here's how I spent my waking hours during the last four weeks:

(doesn't add to 100% due to rounding)

I consider all these activities essential. If I am going to find more time for other projects (podcast), I will need to chip away at the largest category, routine activities. I think I could reduce this category a bit if I structured my time more carefully.

In order to accomplish this, I am integrating my current productivity system with DayCaptain. I believe I can squeeze in a bit more time for what I value by using timeboxing.

Good things from September

As far as my fitness is concerned, I would say I'm in the best shape of my life right now. Despite my age I feel very young. My Coros watch has helped me step up my running this month. Running 5k (3 miles) is not too hard for me, and I have run 5 miles three times in a row. I'm grateful to my past self for making physical activity a priority.

My ministry work has reconnected me with some old friends.  I now see them on Zoom every week.  I'm more aware than ever of the value of social relationships. 

What's ahead for me

I may be scaling back my #buildinpublic efforts, but I'll still be active on Twitter.  I don't expect much to change in October, but who knows?

The Asymmetry of Age

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Written by Eddie B

Category: post

Published: 04 September 2021

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The asymmetry of age

Yesterday I got to thinking about how young adults view older adults and vice versa.

Young people often feel that anyone older than 30 is out of touch, and in some ways that's true. A lot of us, including myself, are out of touch with what David Perell describes as "the never-ending now."  He is referring to people who perpetually scroll through social media and news feeds to stay current, but who do not study history or understand their place in it.  

To the best of my knowledge, David is 27 years old, but he has insight far beyond his years.

Whether an individual is 21 or 81 I consider them adults.  Since I am in the middle, adults just seem like adults to me. I hope to be wiser in 30 years, so I tend to look at older adults as a possible source of wisdom, but I also recognize that they have their own strengths and quirks.

It's not often that I consider how young someone is compared to me, but I'm often stunned when I realize things I assume everyone knew happened long before the person was born.

Stanislaw Pstrokonski is also a young person, not much older than Perell.  I am continually amazed by his insights as I listen to his podcast Education Bookcast.  When he reviews The Defining Decade by Meg Jay, he discusses how young adults tend to have a blind spot between their 20s and old age when thinking about their future.  

I remember doing this myself.  In my twenties, I aspired to become like certain people ten years older than me.  However, it was harder to relate to someone much older.  

A paradox

The paradox of this situation is that young people often believe older people are out of touch but at the same time do not think they have anything to teach older people. According to the study cited here, this viewpoint is common.

It is generally assumed that older people are the ones who offer knowledge and advice to younger people - and not the other way around - but the above study shows that young people have a surprising amount of knowledge to share.  The examples of Perell and Pstrokonski illustrate this point.  Their wisdom constantly amazes me.

In summary, I believe many twenty-somethings think adults my age are out of touch with the times but knowledgeable about everything else.  In contrast, I tend to consider that all adults have something they can teach me. However, sometimes it surprises me to be reminded of a fact that they do not know.  Yesterday, when this thought came into my head, I named it the asymmetry of age.  I'm sure there's a better phrase out there.

My advice

To younger adults:  Maybe the now you know so much about isn't as important as what older people can teach you about the big picture.  Also, don't underestimate the value of your knowledge.  Additionally, think of your life as progressing through the decades.  There is no smooth transition from your 30s to 70s.  Try to do something now that will prepare you for each of those decades.

To those who are older, don't underestimate how much you can learn from young people.  But try not to act surprised when they haven't heard of someone or something you know well.

What Are Emotions? - A Summary

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Written by Eddie B

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Published: 15 September 2021

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What Are Emotions?

This is a machine-generated summary of the article What Are Emotions? at BrightOutlook.com.

As I was writing about emotional intelligence, I began to wonder, what are emotions?

What can science tell us?

While researching this topic, I found what I consider to be the mother lode. I'm breaking from my practice of using multiple sources to gain a well-rounded understanding of a topic, and I will focus this entire post on one article.

This is no ordinary scholarly article.

How much do we know about emotions?

No aspect of our mental life is more important to the quality and meaning of our existence than emotions.

Despite the research done on emotions in the last 100 years, we still don't have a clear understanding of what they are.

A person may be alarmed quickly by a looming object, or they may realize gradually that they are losing a chess match.

Three modern approaches

In the evaluative tradition, emotions are primary in the way they understand the world, and emotions are (or involve) distinctive evaluations of the circumstances eliciting them.

They are considered to be similar to other sensory experiences, like tasting chocolate or feeling a pain in one's back.

The idea that emotions are due to thoughts (cognitions or evaluations) is held by some, while others believe that emotions come from cognitions or evaluations.

The presence of recalcitrant emotions, that is, emotions that contradict a person's cognitive assessment of their situation, is problematic for this tradition.

Some theorists add other components to judgments, such as feelings, beliefs, or desires, in order to compensate for this.

The proponents of this tradition believe that motivation stems from the feeling that something is worthy of attention and action.

Yes, and to the extent they are pleasant or painful, they move us closer to or farther away from the stimulus.

In this view, no. Emotions are considered to be attitudes rather than judgments.

This tradition doesn't appear to offer a clear explanation of the relationships between emotions and associated objects.

How do modern theories of emotion view the relationship between emotions and rational thinking?

Changes in prominent academic views on emotions over the years

Recent research has shifted the focus from the role of emotions in moral and social life to the role of emotions in motivating behavior.

Even though they cannot be directly tied to the brain, they are part of the body and being as a whole.

The Barbell Approach

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Written by Eddie B

Category: post

Published: 03 September 2021

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The barbell approach

After a year of writing a long, highly researched blog post once a week on Brightoutlook.com, I'm trying to do something new. The long articles will continue, but I'm also hoping to publish shorter articles regularly on this site.

These will be more based on what I'm doing and thinking about, rather than carefully researched.   I'll be taking what David Perell describes as his "barbell approach to writing." 

Keeping myself from going down the research rabbit hole is proving to be a challenge. I spent half an hour researching my next article. It was mostly spent finding links to articles I have already read.

I originally wrote this as an introduction, but I decided to make it a separate post.

I'm proud of myself for keeping this post so short.