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Sloww Sunday Newsletter 113 (Aug 7, 2022) — Metathinking, Free Will, Meaning of Life, & 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. 🙏
🆕 New News
Newsletter Design Refresh!
You may notice some changes to the newsletter format this week. Going forward, I’d like the newsletter to holistically represent all of the Sloww Stages below so that each week has something for everyone—no matter where you are on your journey.
All the same types of content that you’re accustomed to are still included; it’s just reorganized in a slightly different way. The “Sloww Stuff,” “Deep Thought,” and “Wise Words” sections are now integrated into the corresponding stages. This seems to make much more sense, but please let me know what you think of the updates.
🔒 Bonus: If you’re a member of the Sloww Society community, you’ll notice that the newsletter sections and community spaces are now more closely aligned.
🌎 Lighter Living
Money Mind Manifesto: Master Your Mind from the Mental Disease of More Money
15 min read | Sloww
This is a lesson the vast majority will have to live and learn the hard way (as I did). Why is that?
“I finished your Ikigai 2.0 eBook this weekend. Thank you, it has helped me a lot. I like your views on money. I think today’s society, especially here on social media, is totally obsessed with money which keeps them from really living a full life. You can earn money, even a lot, but it will not give you completeness and happiness. There is no one talking about this, only you. Social media absolutely empowers this. It looks like a disease.” — Victor M.
🔒 Sloww Society Exclusive: Radically rethink your relationship with marketing and advertising
The community deep dive this week expands on this Twitter thread I published with 25+ quotes to radically rethink your relationship with marketing and advertising. Don’t miss this one if you want to learn how to become immune to marketing and transcend advertising!
“In a society that profits from your self doubt, liking yourself is a rebellious act.” — Caroline Caldwell
🧭 Higher Purpose
10 Deep Thoughts to Guide Your Hero’s Journey to Finding Life Purpose
7 min read | Sloww
This is a great place to start when it comes to finding purpose in life. It covers a little bit of everything: interconnectedness, inner & outer purpose, knowing thyself, following your bliss, self-actualization & transcendence, and more.
“The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.” — Alan Watts
🧠 Mental Wealth
What is Metathinking?
45 mins | Center for Applied Dialectics (YouTube)
Maybe you’ve heard about metacognition, but what about metathinking? Nick Shannon and Bruno Frischherz are the authors of the book Metathinking: The Art and Practice of Transformational Thinking. In this video, Nick covers the following: logical thinking vs dialectical thinking, history of dialectical thinking, his own synthesized model, four thinking modes, case studies, and more.
🔒 Bonus: Video highlights shared in the Sloww Society community.
“Metathinking enables complex thinking skills. It involves the practice of reflecting on one’s own thoughts. When we recognise patterns in our thinking, we can notice what might be missing from our thinking and, from there transform our thinking and become more fluid, complete and creative thinkers … The essence of Metathinking is to ask oneself questions about the way we are thinking … A metathinker is always thinking in such a way in order to get a deeper and richer understanding of reality.” — Nick Shannon and Bruno Frischherz
☯️ Timeless Wisdom
What is the Meaning of Life?
10 mins | Lex Fridman (YouTube)
Sam Harris delivers one of the best answers I’ve ever heard to the ‘meaning of life’ question:
🔒 Bonus: Full quote shared in the Sloww Society community.
“I think it’s either the wrong question, or that question is answered by paying sufficient attention to any present moment such that there’s no basis upon which to pose that question. It’s not answered in the usual way. It’s not a matter of having more information—it’s having more engagement with reality or consciousness as it is in the present moment. You don’t ask that question when you’re most captivated by the most important thing you ever pay attention to. That question only gets asked when you’re abstracted away from that peak experience and you’re left wondering, ‘Why are so many of my other experiences mediocre? Why am I repeating the same pleasures every day? When is my Netflix queue going to run out? I’ve seen so many shows like this, am I really going to watch another one?’ That’s a moment where you’re not actually having the beatific vision. You’re not sunk into the present moment … The sense that there is some kind of basis for doubt about the rightness of being in the world in this moment can evaporate when you pay attention. The kind of meta-answer to that question, the meaning of life, for me is to live in that mode more and more. And, whenever I notice I’m not in that mode, to recognize it and return … Eventually you get the lesson that you never quite arrive. You don’t arrive until you cease to step over the present moment in search of the next thing. We’re constantly stepping over the thing that we think we’re seeking in the act of seeking it.” — Sam Harris
🤯 Mind Expanding
The Illusion (or Non-Illusion) of Free Will
60 mins | Lex Fridman (YouTube)
To really let this sink in, I listened to this conversation twice.
🆕 I also just read the book Free Will by Sam Harris (Book Summary).
🔒 Premium members also get access to my new synthesis (and infographic) of all things Sam Harris on free will. Sometimes a synthesis just flows together perfectly. This is one of those!
“The popular conception of free will seems to rest on two assumptions: (1) that each of us could have behaved differently than we did in the past, and (2) that we are the conscious source of most of our thoughts and actions in the present. As we are about to see, however, both of these assumptions are false.” — Sam Harris
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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 an alive week!
Kyle Kowalski
Founder, Sloww
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