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Sloww Sunday Newsletter 056 (Apr 11, 2021) — Ego Development, Copying Nature, Surrender, & More
Hi friends,
Sloww Sunday is a free newsletter delivering the latest from Sloww along with the most interesting modern knowledge and timeless wisdom I discovered last week.
I always aim to respect your time and attention, so every newsletter can be read in under 5 minutes. Enjoy!
Sloww Stuff
In Case You Missed It:
📈 An Introduction to “Ego Development Theory” by Susanne Cook-Greuter (EDT Summary)
If you’re interested in human development, EDT is a must-read. I find myself referencing EDT all the time lately and decided to revisit this summary in order to conduct the self-assessment below.
New Premium Post:
🔒 Behind the Scenes: My Ego Development Theory Self-Assessment
The last newsletter included my self-actualization self-assessment. I decided to keep going by giving myself an EDT self-assessment. My aim here isn’t to be scientific (self-assessments are subject to self-bias). I just want to attempt to get a directional sense of how I’m doing—better understand where I feel like I’m excelling and where I have opportunities for growth. If you’re interested in doing the same, simply take this post and give yourself your own assessment!
Modern Knowledge
🌎 What is Biomimicry?
(22 mins | YouTube)
Biomimicry is innovation inspired by nature. It’s one of the most interesting—and seemingly obvious—concepts I’ve come across lately. The examples in the video are nothing short of incredible.
Core Idea:
- The best ideas might not be ours—they might already have been invented.
Key Question:
- What in the natural world has already solved what I’m trying to solve?
Main Principles:
- Life runs on sunlight (except for a few organisms in sulfur vents at the bottom of the ocean)
- Life does its chemistry in water (as the universal solvent)
- Life depends on local expertise (organisms have to know the limits and opportunities of their places)
- Life banks on diversity (and rewards cooperation)
- Life upcycles everything (wastes nothing)
- Life uses safe elements (a small subset of the periodic table)
Key Takeaways:
- “We’re a very young species, and probably our best stance as a young species is to be apprentices to these masters.”
- “The answers we seek—the secrets to a sustainable world—are literally all around us.”
- “In all the diversity, there is a hidden unity.”
- “Life creates conditions conducive to life.”
“The idea is that perhaps we should be looking at (our) biological elders—they have figured out how to create a sustainable world.” — Janine Benyus
Timeless Wisdom
🎈 What does it mean to Surrender?
(63 mins | YouTube)
For whatever reason, this happened to bubble up in my consciousness. It turns out that I originally shared this almost exactly a year ago to the day. I took that as a sign/synchronicity that it’s time to share it again. Michael Singer is the bestselling author of The Untethered Soul and The Surrender Experiment.
Pair with:
- The Untethered Soul Book Summary & 🔒Premium Summary
“If we pay attention, we will realize that every moment around us there is a world that we do not create—that’s been there for 13.8 billion years—and there are trillions of cells in your body that are doing what they’re supposed to do, all of nature, everything. And, you wake up and you realize, ‘I’m not doing any of this. I didn’t make my body, I didn’t make my mind think, I don’t make my heart beat, I don’t make my breath breathe—yet I have this notion that I have to make things happen. Yet, all throughout the universe things are happening everywhere, and I’m not doing them. So, why exactly am I the one that’s in charge of what’s unfolding in front of me?’ And, what you realize at some point, is that you’re not. That the moment in front of you that’s unfolding is no different than all the zillions of other moments that aren’t in front of you that are unfolding in accordance to the laws of nature, the laws of creation. So, you start to practice saying, ‘I don’t want to check inside of me first to see what I want and what I don’t want. I want to pay attention to what the universe is creating in front of me—just like it’s creating everywhere I’m not—and let me see how I can participate in that, be part of that, instead of interfering with it with my desires and my fears.’ That’s living from a place of surrender.” — Michael Singer
🤯 Mind Expanding
Thinking about introducing this as a new recurring section of the newsletter. Mind-blowing, jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring content has the power to shift your perspective in an instant.
As a start, did you see the monkey playing video games with its mind (Neuralink)?
💭 Deep Quote
“Every culture that’s ever existed has operated under the illusion that it understood 95% of reality and that the other 5% would be delivered in the next 18 months, and from Egypt forward they’ve been running around believing they had a perfect grip on things and yet we look back at every society that preceded us with great smugness at how naive they all were. Well, it never occurs to us, then, that maybe we’re whistling in the dark too!” — Terence McKenna
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Have a humble week!
Kyle Kowalski
Founder, Sloww
