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Greetings from Bali - where I am trying to make sense of the people creating a life as digital nomads.
#1 Careers: I have tried to make sense of this questions of how to think about a career for years and never have found the right (write) way to make sense of it all. Thankfully, Tim Urban, has done the dirty work - making sense of "careers" in the only way he knows how - tons and tons of words. He lays the stakes pretty early: "a typical career will take up somewhere between 20% and 60% of your meaningful adult time" - and frames the following issue exceptionally well:
Society tells us a lot of things about what we should want in a career and what the possibilities are—which is weird because I’m pretty sure society knows very little about any of this. When it comes to careers, society is like your great uncle who traps you at holidays and goes on a 15-minute mostly incoherent unsolicited advice monologue, and you tune out almost the whole time because it’s super clear he has very little idea what he’s talking about and that everything he says is like 45 years outdated. Society is like that great uncle, and conventional wisdom is like his rant. Except in this case, instead of tuning it out, we pay rapt attention to every word, and then we make major career decisions based on what he says. Kind of a weird thing for us to do.
#2 Podcasts / Con-Men: This podcast titled "Dirty John" was a fascinating listen - about a guy who preys on the insecurity of women and who has a violent streak, all with a surprise ending of a great story. Highly recommend - let me know what you think.
#3 Change: Throughout our live's we consistently underestimate how much we will change. There is always the illusion that we will reach one point where we are "done" and have achieved all our dreams. This says it never ends...
#4 Regrets: This week seems to be turning into a reflection on our lives and how we should spend our time. If you are still alive after reading or skimming Urban's essay, perhaps just look at what parts of life people have regrets. The research is unclear to me (for example - education - it is not clear whether people regret doing it or not having done it) - as with most academic research, the raw data is not easily accessible. However, if you flip the chart provided to focus on the areas of life people do not have regrets, we may have some wisdom: Community, Spirituality, Friends, Health, Family:
#5 Giants: Fun read on the literal giants who couldn't cut it playing basketball.
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