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Sloww Sunday Newsletter 090 (Jan 2, 2022) — Thinking Clearly, Backwards Law, The Pathless Path, & More
Happy New Year!
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. 🙏
🆕 New News
🎉 2022 Challenges: Here are 22+ intentional living challenges to start the new year with slow living, simple living, decluttering, minimalism, and more.
📚 Reading List: I recently updated my full reading list (Google Spreadsheet)—50+ books added with all reviews/links updated.
🧠 Synthesizer Course: The bad news is that I’m still working on the course. The good news is that it’s all coming together better than I expected! It will include everything I’ve learned about the art of synthesis, how to cultivate a synthesizing mind, how I synthesize for Sloww, and more.
🌀 Sloww Stuff
🆕 25 Cognitive Concepts from “The Art of Thinking Clearly” by Rolf Dobelli (Book Summary)
This book is an easy read about some deep concepts. Here are 25 common biases, fallacies, and misjudgments that we should all know.
Premium members have access to the full summary of 98 (!) cognitive concepts. Usually, the Premium summaries are more distilled than the public summaries. Due to the nature of this book, this particular Premium post is more comprehensive than the public version. Enjoy!
🧠 Modern Knowledge
The Backwards Law (or Law of Reversed Effort)
(11 mins | YouTube)
The backwards law (also known as the law of reversed effort)—popularized by Alan Watts and Aldous Huxley—proposes that the more we pursue something, the more we achieve the opposite of what we want. Simply put: the harder we try, the less we succeed. On the flip side: when we stop trying, we’ll have what we want.
“The harder we try with the conscious will to do something, the less we shall succeed. Proficiency and the results of proficiency come only to those who have learned the paradoxical art of doing and not doing, or combining relaxation with activity, of letting go as a person in order that the immanent and transcendent Unknown Quantity may take hold. We cannot make ourselves understand; the most we can do is to foster a state of mind, in which understanding may come to us.” — Aldous Huxley
☯️ Timeless Wisdom
The Pathless Path (Samadhi Part 3)
(90 mins | YouTube)
Daniel Schmidt is a fascinating human and the creator of Awaken the World—an initiative created for the purpose of humbly serving the awakening of humanity to their true nature. All of their spiritual films and guided meditations are available at no cost and translated into as many different languages as possible, in order to ensure that the perennial teachings are freely available to all. The award-winning “Inner Worlds, Outer Worlds” films have reached over 30 million people in over 30 languages!
Inner Worlds, Outer Worlds Films:
- Part 1: Akasha (31 mins)
- Part 2: The Spiral (33 mins)
- Part 3: The Serpent and the Lotus (26 mins)
- Part 4: Beyond Thinking (32 mins)
Samadhi Films:
- Part 1: Maya, the Illusion of the Self (60 mins)
- Part 2: It’s Not What You Think (70 mins)
- 🆕 Part 3: The Pathless Path (90 mins)
“The pathless path is to realize an ever-deepening development process within the self-structure, and to simultaneously realize the emptiness of the self-structure. Samadhi is when the world that is constantly changing merges or unites with the changeless.” — Daniel Schmidt
🤯 Mind Expanding
10+ Mind-Blowing Tweets
(Twitter)
I recently ventured down the @Rainmaker1973 rabbit hole on Twitter. These were my favorites.
💡 New Learning
Circle of Competence
(Wikipedia)
· A mental model from Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger describing the subject area which matches one’s skills or expertise.
· Buffett summarized the concept: “Know your circle of competence, and stick within it. The size of that circle is not very important; knowing its boundaries, however, is vital.”
· Benefits of Your Circle: an unfair information advantage, the narrowing of available options, and the reduction of poor decision making.
💭 Deep Thought
I’ve realized I can broadly separate the focus areas of my life into three phases:
1. Body (first ~20 years of my life): Competitive sports were a big part of life from childhood all the way until mid-college.
2. Mind (last ~15 years of my life): A decade of knowledge work led me to burnout, an existential crisis, and the self-directed learning path I’ve been on for several years now.
3. Spirit: This seems to be where everything is heading. My journey reminds me of Siddhartha’s journey but with the Body and Mind phases switched. Either way, all roads seem to lead to Spirit.
How about your journey?
💬 Wise Words
“The major problems in the world are the result of the difference between how nature works and the way people think.” — Gregory Bateson
PS: Here’s a simple visual to help you remember.
Sharing: If you enjoyed this issue, please help grow Sloww by sending the email version of this issue to some friends and family. It’s free for them to subscribe here.
Support: Sloww is a one-human labor of love (it’s just me over here 👋). Your support keeps the site ad-free and invests in me while you invest in yourself—a true win-win! There are a few financial and free ways to support.
Feedback: Have something you want to say, or just want to say hi? It’s always greatly appreciated. Just send me an email or reach out socially.
Have a wise week!
Kyle Kowalski
Synthesizer & Solopreneur, Sloww
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