FS | BRAIN FOOD
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Consuming information is not the same as acquiring knowledge. No idea could be further from the truth. Learning means being able to use new information. The basic process of learning consists of reflection and feedback. We learn facts and concepts through reflecting on experience—our own or others'. If you read something and you don't make time to think about what you've read, you won't be able to use any of the wisdom you've been exposed to.
— How to Remember What You Read
Explore Your Curiosity
★ "I mean to say that a strong man must be militant as well as moderate. He must be a realist as well as an idealist. If I am to merit the trust invested in me by some of my race, I must be both of these things. This is why nonviolence is a powerful as well as a just weapon. If you confront a man who has long been cruelly misusing you, and say, "Punish me, if you will; I do not deserve it, but I will accept it, so that the world will know I am right and you are wrong," then you wield a powerful and a just weapon. This man, your oppressor, is automatically morally defeated, and if he has any conscience, he is ashamed. Wherever this weapon is used in a manner that stirs a community's, or a nation's, anguished conscience, then the pressure of public opinion becomes an ally in your just cause. Another of the major strengths of the nonviolent weapon is its strange power to transform and transmute the individuals who subordinate themselves to its disciplines, investing them with a cause that is larger than themselves. They become, for the first time, somebody, and they have, for the first time, the courage to be free."
— An interview with Martin Luther King Jr.
★ "To imagine is really the first step in creating anything. Therefore an essential chore for making a future we want to live in, is to imagine what it is like and how we get there. That plausible path is a form of optimism. Believing it is possible makes it more likely to happen. When hurdles and setbacks arise -- and they will -- the belief in its possibility serves as motivation. History is filled with accounts of people who held an optimistic belief others thought unlikely, or even impossible. This optimistic previsualization is a necessary component of change. Since we can not be certain of the future, optimism is only a belief -- a stance that could be incorrect. On the surface, an optimistic belief might seem no more valid than the stance of pessimism. But the deep history of new ideas makes it very clear that the optimistic stance of believing something is possible is a requirement to make anything new real, and is thus more powerful than pessimism. In the long run, optimists shape the future."
— An interview with Kevin Kelly
Timeless Insight
"How we spend our time is how we spend our days. How we spend our days is how our life goes. How our life goes determines whether we thought it was worth living."
— Keith Yamashita
Tiny Thought
Discipline creates opportunity.
Recommended Reading
"An important part of freedom is not having to make sacrifices for people who don't have to make sacrifices for you."
Freedom by Sebastian Junger
This is the first book by Junger I've read. For much of a year, Junger and three of his friends walked the Eastern United States. The short book weaves together his musings on freedom, obligation, and society. It's a short book, with as many words as necessary but no more. The book is full of interesting thoughts like the one above. Another example is this one, "The freedom that comes from being feared is tempting for people who have suffered that fear that themselves ..."
Quick Hits
+ Cities like Paris may be an optimal urban form for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
+ Children are lonelier than ever (Complement these two interviews).
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Finding Value Off the Beaten Path
Stay safe,
Shane
Decision by Design—our course that teaches you the skills and systems you need to master decision making— is opening again in October. Join the waitlist and we'll send you more information next month.
P.S. We got mentioned in the New Yorker.
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