Every Sunday, I write a quick newsletter to share some thoughts, things I’ve learned, and a few of my favorite things from the week. Enjoy!

Hey friends,

Hope you’re all having a great start to the new year. One thing from this past week that I wanted to highlight was a webinar I was a part of with Professor Markus Brunnermeier and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. When asked about a positive note to end the talk on, Chair Powell emphasized optimism and perspective. He described the despair, from both a public health and economic standpoint, that was felt in Washington, across the country, and around the world, when this pandemic was just beginning to unfold. Since then, however, we’ve developed a vaccine in record time, elected a new president, remained steadfast through insurrection (although the issues of systemic racism and injustice in which the Capitol riots were rooted are by no means gone or solved) and a temporary delay in democracy (that cannot be permanently defeated), and are seeing the light at the end of tunnel that is this public health crisis. Although we are still in the midst of this pandemic and have much to do, I agree with Chair Powell that we ought to remember to maintain perspective and keep in mind how far we’ve come since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis when this virus first started to take hold.

Have a great week!
Dan


Things that resonated with me this week

  1. A nice blog post from Eight Sleep on how to get your sleep routine right. Sleep is foundational to all health - structure and be diligent about your sleep like you would any other work product and the like.
  2. I totally agree with this tweet. I like calling it “positivity inertia.” Diligence and good habits compound over time, and consistency increases your chances for positive serendipity. Broaden your time horizon.
  3. This resonated with me. I love the respect shown between the two competitors throughout their careers. Embracing competition and retaining your principles of respect within competition always lead to positive outcomes, in my mind.

Things I’m trying out

  • I took a quick walk outside before writing this newsletter (and also wrote bits of it outside during the walk from my phone in Notion) - it’s amazing what some fresh air can do for making writing that much more enjoyable.

Stuff that’s on my mind

  • I think the muscle analogy applies to a lot of things in life, both physical and mental. I wrote in a prior newsletter about awareness (in a multicultural as well as interpersonal sense) as a muscle that we should build constantly. There is no “completing” or determinately “attaining” - and that shouldn’t be an unsettling or unfortunate conception. We ought to always be striving for something, always chasing “it” (whatever that may mean for you) - and that’s good. It’s an invigorating notion. It goes back to a theme in Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning - “what man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him,” as well as this interview with Ryan Tedder that I find myself going back to, where he talks about “always chasing it” and enjoying that state in and of itself. For things like poise, presence of mind, and even writing - I think the muscle analogy also applies and serves as a comprehensive mental model for these concepts.

Quote of the week

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.” - Marianne Williamson