I’ve lost my way. It’s nothing to become alarmed about. It happens everyday around this time. Unlike an early onset of dementia I usually can find my bearings around 5:45 am with my Apple News ritual.
“5” Steve Kerr, 54: “Projects have a beginning, middle and an end, though that is not the best order of approach. Begin with the end in mind. If you don’t have an end in mind yet, assist someone who does and you’ll learn a lot.” Libra
Hi and welcome to Friday’s Episode 41 in Season 3 of “My Paradoxically Normal Year” on this 7th day of May in the spring of 2021 — which is a three-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed during the “normal” pre-pandemic year and then in the pandemic year, and now months after.
“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”
Previously from Season Three, the Paradoxically Normal Year
S3 E40 — How Stealing Your Sign Led Me to a Nobel Prize; S3 E39 — Ready for Your Big Leap Forward?; S3 E38 — Sliding on a Super Slippery Slope to 2nd or 3rd Cousins
Related from Season Two, The Pandemic Year
S2 E41 — A Pandemic End to Real Estate and Consulting?; S2 E40 — The Profound Impact of the Pandemic on Nouns; S2 E39 — The Best Tau for the Pandemic Year, Don’t You Agree?; S2 E38 — What Should You Do If You Stumble Across Loaded Information?
Related from Season One, The Normal Year
S1 E41 — The Dream Was Over, Long Live the Dream; S1 E40 — Nothing to See Here, Keep Moving On; S1 E39 — What’s Up with Facebook?; S1 E38 — Day 38 of My 1-Year Experiment
Context
I’ve been feeling the pull of returning later in the day to Apple News for a destination-specific summary of headlines that sometimes go back a couple of years.
Especially for those that have very little news like Telluride or Humboldt County or Bodega Bay.
For instance “Stay at Keystone Resort in Colorado for only $109 per night” in “Travel and Leisure” 3 yrs ago. Every time I open “Keystone Resort” this is the lead story at the top of other scrollable photos and headlines and almost always prompts me to return later.
But, it’s a ritual, which I wrote about as a section in my natural experiment report’s “Conclusion.”
When I finish those eight iPhone screenfuls I’m still effortlessly following my bliss remaining in Daniel Kahneman’s, System 1 as described “Thinking Fast and Slow”. Click on a place like Keystone, quickly scan photos, headlines and dates until I recognize the last one I captured and move on in under 5 seconds, tops.
There’s more.
From the same source, Travel and Leisure, “Save 40% on Stays at the Santa Ynez Inn in Santa Barbara” — 3 years ago.
But my favorite from NBC News is, “Bear freed from SUV in Tahoe, California, as family looks on” — 1 year ago. The video screen shot shows the bear like he’s a member of the family looking in through the rear window as if he forgot to grab his backpack.
And, there’s the second story, but from 2 years ago written by the SFGate that churns my stomach before breakfast, “4th of July revelers pile Tahoe beaches with thousands of pounds of trash.”
My report write up currently in the Conclusions chapter is where I feel adrift. So last night I began to re-read it and edit it from the beginning forward until 8:35 pm. I left off in the section, “Two Fortune Cookies and Dove Dark Chocolate.”
My renewed interest actually started with two fortune cookies from our local Panda Express at the end of mall across the street from the high school, shared with Emma the Baroness, the Scorpio love of my life, and after dinner by the chance discovery that our favorite dark chocolate wrappers hid B-side quotes of encouragement.
I wanted inspiration and motivation and found a little hiding under the red wrappers:
“Life happens between an inhale and an exhale!” Brianna Z., Nevada
“Be the sculptor of your dreams.” – Joanne C., California
“Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations.” – Jetta L. Massachusetts
“Don’t stop until you’re proud.” Lauren N., Colorado
But, my next ritual on mornings like this, Friday, in addition to selecting the Holiday Tau for the day which confirms my biases, is reading the comics, or as my day called them, the funny pages.
From today’s “Pearls Before Swine” by Stephan Pastis — who should request a time out from the sidelines for a ruling about his first name — is he or isn’t he a Steve?
In the first panel with yellow background Rat and Pig stand barely shoulder height behind a brown table with two plates on it.
Pig says, “Hey look we got fortune cookies.”
Rat says, “Mine says next year brings you great success.”
Pig says, “How nice.”
But, Rat can’t help himself and complains, “Yeah, but they’re all too general and bland like that. I’d prefer some specificity.”
Read yours.”You will get run over by a 1989 Accord.
To which Pig says, “Specificity is overrated.”
Random ones that make me want change my sign.
And, so are birthdays. If Kahneman verifies that bliss equates to “System 1” I’d specifically consider changing my birthday to today’s. But, too much effort and paperwork would be involved — clearly “System 2” stuff which goes against the sentiment, right?
Today’s Holiday Birthday:
In a way, following your bliss is the most responsible thing you can do. For one thing, it pays. Lucky financial moves will be the result of a stellar perspective, which comes from delving deeply into your delights. You’ll work with your emotions to create circumstances that ultimately benefit many, a skill that rubs off on others.
Our Patron Saint’s Carbon Beach house made the real estate news yesterday in Malibu, California. Of course, the celebrity pedigree headline wasn’t really needed in this super heated, pre-bubble-licious market. But his Holiday Tau reminds me of my approach for sizing up one of my coaching clients to zero in on how I could best help.
“5” Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “When you’re talking to someone you’re trying to understand where they are coming from. You can picture their life outside the interaction with greater accuracy because of the excellent questions you ask.” Aries
Wait, what? Was I reading your mind? Or at least pre-reading your Holiday Tau last night after 8 pm? Or am I reverse engineering your TauBit of Wisdom? Who cares, I make the rules and I’m stealing it.
“5” Steve Kerr, 54: “Projects have a beginning, middle and an end, though that is not the best order of approach. Begin with the end in mind. If you don’t have an end in mind yet, assist someone who does and you’ll learn a lot.” Libra
What’s Going On …
Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll
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- @KnowLabs suite of digital magazines jumps from 8003 to 8088 organically grown followers
Foresight
Quality-of-Life
Long-Form
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- “Future Shock” by Alvin Toffler, a classic I feel which still holds up. As the pace of change quickens we experience self-doubt, anxiety and fear. We become tense and tire easily, until we are overwhelmed, face-to-face with a crisis situation. Without a clear grasp of relevant reality or beginning with clearly defined values and priorities, we feel a deepening sense of confusion and uncertainty. Our intellectual bewilderment leads to disorientation at the level of personal values. Decision stress results from acceleration, novelty and diversity conflicts. Acceleration pressures us to make quick decisions. Novelty increases the difficulty and length of time while diversity intensifies the anxiety with an increase in the number of options and the amount of information needed to process. The result is a slower reaction time.
- Daniel Kahneman’s, “Thinking Fast and Slow”describes two different ways the brain forms thoughts: “System 1” which is meant as a fictional shorthand — not as a brain system or structure: Fast, automatic, frequent, emotional, stereotypic, unconscious. “System 2”: Slow, effortful, infrequent, logical, calculating, conscious. I’m learning a lot about my energy levels first described from within an introversion frame now, from within differences between System 1 and the harder working, energy depletion System 2. Self-control, for instance is hard and takes a lot of energy to accomplish. When I write the concentration requires effort until I can find the “flow.” Implications for True Belief — it’s easy to stay in System 1 vs. critical thinking — System 2. Set some marketing and working on the business goals — System 2 and then ignore them by following the lateral thinking and associative thinking which Leo da V invites me to do — System 1.
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate
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