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Sloww Sunday Newsletter 094 (Feb 6, 2022) — Super Thinking, Digital Minimalism, Four Noble Truths, & 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 forward the email version to some friends and family. 🙏
🌀 Sloww Stuff
📖 100+ Mental Models from “Super Thinking” by Gabriel Weinberg & Lauren McCann (Book Summary)
This is a beast of a book! It’s the most comprehensive book on mental models that I’ve read to date.
“Recurring concepts are called mental models. Once you are familiar with them, you can use them to quickly create a mental picture of a situation, which becomes a model that you can later apply in similar situations … We call these broadly useful mental models super models because applying them regularly gives you a super power: super thinking—the ability to think better about the world.” — Weinberg & McCann
🔒 How to Think in Mental Models with “Super Thinking” (300+ Mental Models)
Premium members get access to the full book summary of EVERY mental model mentioned in the book. I’ve also added them to the comprehensive Mental Mastery Cheatsheet. Enjoy!
“By the time you’ve finished reading this book, you will have more than 300 mental models floating around in your head from dozens of disciplines.” — Weinberg & McCann
💻 Modern Knowledge
30-Day Digital Minimalism Challenge
8 mins | Tim Ferriss (YouTube)
Cal Newport, bestselling author of Deep Work and Digital Minimalism, sits down with Tim Ferriss to explain how the 30-day declutter is at the core of his philosophy of digital minimalism. Here’s another short video about slow productivity from the full podcast episode.
Do you think you could go 30 days with a “low information diet” where you don’t use social media, don’t stream online videos, don’t listen to podcasts, and don’t consume online news? What would you do with all the time and energy you free up? How about reflection and experimentation in other areas: thinking about life, trying new things, going new places, going for walks, riding your bike, joining a club, hanging out with friends—the possibilities are endless.
At the end of the 30 days, write out a code: “Here is the tech I use, and the rules by which I use it … Get specific. I’m using this service for this reason, and this is how I use it. You’ve reset. You’ve Marie Kondo’d your digital closet. You took everything out and only put back the stuff you cared about.”
Pro Tip: Those who view this challenge as “subtraction” tend to fail (humans are bad at trying to avoid things that are negative). Instead, view this as an experiment with new “additions” to your life (humans view positive things as more motivating).
Pair with: Digital Minimalism Defined & 10 Digital Declutter Tips
“Digital minimalism is a humanist philosophy where you figure out what you’re all about—what you really care about and what you want to do—and then work backwards to figure out what tech supports that … You start with what’s important to you and then you put the tech to work.” — Cal Newport
☯️ Timeless Wisdom
The Four Noble Truths — Thich Nhat Hanh
18 mins | Plum Village (YouTube)
Buddhist monk, peace activist, spiritual teacher, and prolific author Thich Nhat Hanh passed away a couple weeks ago at the age of 95. This video is his teaching on the Four Noble Truths. Even watching his handwriting is like a visual meditation.
The Nature of Interbeing of the Four Noble Truths:
- Ill-Being
- The Making of Ill-Being (Wrong Views / Ignoble Path)
- Well-Being (The Cessation of Ill-Being)
- The Path of Well-Being (Right Views / Noble Path)
Favorite quotes from Thich Nhat Hanh:
- “Smile, breathe and go slowly.”
- “Take the time to live more deeply.”
- “There is no enlightenment outside of daily life.”
- “Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.”
- “There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.”
“Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves—slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
🤯 Mind Expanding
Noosphere Map: A Sensemaking Workspace
Miro
Wow! There’s so much here that I could spend all day exploring this Noosphere Map. It’s described as, “A living, interactive, collaborative map of concepts, people, movements, and frameworks worth paying attention to.”
💡 New Learning
First Principle
Wikipedia
· A basic proposition or assumption that cannot be deduced from any other proposition or assumption.
· Used in philosophy, physics, mathematics, and other sciences.
More about first principles thinking: An Intro to General Thinking Concepts: “The Great Mental Models Volume 1” by Farnam Street (Book Summary)
💭 Deep Thought
Don’t blame the lettuce:
“When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don’t blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet if we have problems with our friends or family, we blame the other person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the lettuce. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and argument. That is my experience. No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding. If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
💬 Wise Words
Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.
— Japanese Proverb
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Have a wise week!
Kyle Kowalski
Synthesizer & Solopreneur, Sloww
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