Hi Friends,
Welcome to a new edition...of new addition 😉 I can't believe its already February.
On this week's episode:
- Updates
- Upcoming Interintellect salons (on addiction, social technologies)
- Strengths Finder
- Curation
- Coffee (the wonder-drug)
- Some actionable life advice from Matt D'Avella
- Reframing and destigmatizing mental health struggles
- Visualizations of the week (featuring a guest appearance from climate change)
- Parting Thoughts
Updates
Interintellect (upcoming salons)
Social Technologies: Cultural Infrastructure for Cooperation and Meaning
This salon examines what systems can we build that would allow people to coordinate effectively, achieve shared goals, and hold societies together.
What are social technologies?
- They are working systems made up of beliefs, habits, responses, preferences, and other concepts shared within a population, such as religions, institutions, customs, and traditions.
- The continued existence of our societies depend on them: we are born helpless into the world and must rely on others for survival. We need shared families to raise us, a shared language to communicate, shared tribes or states to maintain a peace we can live in.
Understanding Addiction: How Addiction Works
This salon is the first of a four-part series on the nature of addiction and new approaches to treatment and care.
These salons aim to challenge the dominant but misguided disease model of addiction, one that tends put the blame and onus on the individual, which in turn labels their suffering as irrational and unnecessary, stigmatizing them and robbing them of hope.
Strengths Finder
I retook the Strengths Finder last week, and I'm processing and sorting the takeaways from it. I'm hoping to share those with you all in the next newsletter.
Curation
Coffee: Our Patron Saint of Energy
This week's drawing is inspired by the religious experience that is the morning's first cup of coffee.
How Caffeine Has Fueled History
A staggering 90% of the world's adults consume some form of caffeine every day, making it the most widely used [and socially acceptable] psychoactive drug on earth.
Caffeine contributed to the Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, and the rise of Capitalism. Before coffee came to Europe, people were drunk most of the day (as the fermentation process would kill the microbes that made water so contaminated during those times).
Caffeine has allowed us to break our rhythms with the sun...it seems to defy the laws of thermodynamics — borrowing energy from our future and giving it to us in the present.
Related: One of the most powerful (and psychedelic) drug experiences that author Michael Pollan ever had in his life was the first cup of coffee after three months off. (Source)
10 things college doesn't teach you
Matt is one of my favorite youtubers, with consistently authentic, relatable, and useful videos. If you are looking for actionable advice to use in your life going forward, this video is for you.
Some of my favorite takeaways:
- Basic personal finance
- Save more than you spend
- Never make purchases on a credit card if you don't have the cash
- How to build healthy habits
- Never miss twice. Simple as that. If you skip working out one day, set it upon yourself to not skip a second day
- How to cook simple, nutritious meals
- Come up with a handful of simple but nutritious recipes that you can keep on rotation
- Basic fitness advice
- If you're not enjoying it, you haven't found the right routine (so keep experimenting until working out is something you look forward to!)
Using sports injuries as a metaphor for mental health struggles
Related to my above mention of alternative models for viewing addiction, this example seeks to try to help others understand struggles with mental health through the lens of a sports injury metaphor.
It aims to explain mental health issues by treating them as responses to a stimulus (overexertion) that can be expected, and more importantly alleviated, through preventative measures and on-going maintenance.
Related: In my essay The Right Amount of Stress Is Called Stimulation, I wrote about the importance of removing the shame and stigma behind mental illness, so that those who struggle with it can start feeling like courageous survivors, and not damaged invalids.
Visualizations of the Week
In light of the the recent inclement weather across the world, both of this week's visualizations highlight the increasingly frequent world temperature anomalies in recent years (yay capitalism!).
How long ago were the hottest and coldest years on record around the world
The Monthly Temperature of the World since 1850
Parting Thoughts
Last week was the two year anniversary of passing of Kobe Bean Bryant, an athlete that inspired a generation to pursue what they love and to give everything they can towards what they're doing — to always do their best.
The day after his accident, I came across this makeshift memorial near my home. I felt like the quote written on a piece of cardboard in the picture was particularly poignant.
The most important thing is to try and inspire people, so that they can be great in whatever they want to do - Kobe
