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Sloww Sunday Newsletter 075 (Sept 5, 2021) — Self-Reliance, Free Will, Meta-Crisis Movements, & More
Happy Sunday!
Here’s the latest from Sloww along with the most interesting things I discovered last week.
To respect your time and attention, every newsletter can be read in under 5 minutes. If you enjoy it, please take 5 seconds to share it with some friends or family. 🙏
New News
🎉 This is the 75th issue of Sloww Sunday! If you missed it, here’s a summary of the first 50 newsletters. I’ll publish another summary when it hits 100.
💬 Sloww is now on LinkedIn if that’s one of your preferred social networks. Don’t forget you can also follow on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest to stay in touch during the week.
Sloww Stuff
📚 A Mini Guide to Picking a Path & Making Progress:
📙 Book Summary: “Atomic Habits” by James Clear
📘 Book Summary: “Find Your Why” by Simon Sinek
📕 Book Summary: “Essentialism” by Greg McKeown
🔒 How to Build Effective Habits with “Atomic Habits” by James Clear (+ Infographics)
🔒“Essentialism” + “Atomic Habits” Synthesis: How to Pick a Path & Make Progress (+ Infographic)
PS: If you’re a new Premium member and wondering where to start in general, here are a few recommendations.
Modern Knowledge
🌎 Resolving the Meta-Crisis With Emergent Movements — Jacob Lund Fisker
(90 mins | YouTube)
Jacob Lund Fisker is one of the most intelligent and interesting people alive (in my opinion). He’s a retired astrophysicist, the founder and author of Early Retirement Extreme (ERE), lives on $7,000/year, and currently has a net worth that is 151 years worth of his annual expenses! He’s now putting his mind to work on how we resolve big and complex problems like the meta-crisis with post-consumerist philosophies, emergent movements, and more. Like all of Jacob’s work, this latest session on The Stoa goes deep.
“A good philosophy is like a good diet. A good diet requires good ingredients, good recipes, good balance … We need a post-consumerist philosophy of new ingredients, new recipes…” — Jacob Lund Fisker
Pair with:
- 🔒“Early Retirement Extreme” Synthesis: How to Build a Lifestyle Design Strategy & System (+ Visuals)
Timeless Wisdom
🏕️ Alone in the Wilderness — Dick Proenneke
(10 mins | YouTube)
Dick Proenneke was a naturalist, conservationist, writer, and wildlife photographer who—in his early 50s in 1968—left civilization behind to live in the Alaskan wilderness for the next 30 years. He filmed himself selecting a homestead site, building a log cabin from scratch, writing and journaling, and doing his day-to-day activities. The footage is a rare blend of awe-inspiring and peaceful with simple words of wisdom. While I can’t find the full documentary online, you can watch various segments on YouTube here and here.
“I suppose I was here because this was something I had to do—not just dream about it but do it. I suppose too I was here to test myself—not that I had never done it before but this time it was to be a more thorough and lasting examination. What was I capable of that I didn’t know yet?” — Richard Proenneke
Pair with:
Mind Expanding
🤯 Do we have free will? — Robert Sapolsky
(15 mins | YouTube)
Robert Sapolsky is a researcher, author, and professor of biology, neurology & neurological sciences at Stanford. His book “Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst” is on my reading list, and he’s working on a new book called “Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will.” Sapolsky was on the Huberman Lab Podcast this week where he shared his latest thinking on free will. His perspective is that we are biological organisms, and free will is just biology that hasn’t been discovered yet. But, don’t worry, it’s not all doom and gloom!
“I don’t think we have a shred of free will—despite 95% of philosophers and probably the majority of neuroscientists” — Robert Sapolsky
Pair with:
- 7 Intellectual YouTube Lecture Series to Pursue Lifelong Learning Online for Free (features Robert Sapolsky)
🤔 Deep Thought
Deep change often happens in one of two ways:
- Deep desire that attracts/pulls you (+)
- Deep suffering that repels/pushes you (-)
💭 Wise Words
“The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.” — Henry David Thoreau (Walden)
Sharing: If you enjoyed this issue, please help grow Sloww by sending this post to some friends or family who could benefit from it or by sharing it on social media. Anyone can subscribe for free here.
Support: Sloww is a one-human labor of love. If you’re interested in supporting my work, there are several financial and non-financial ways to support.
Feedback: Have something you want to say, or just want to say hi? It’s always much appreciated. Just send me an email or reach out socially.
Have a conscious week!
Kyle Kowalski
Synthesizer & Solopreneur, Sloww
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