System Of Life - On Beginnings & On Thinking
Hey you, 👋
Welcome to the beginning of System Of Life (SOL), my new project to try to think with you, and to stay in touch.
If you are receiving this, you are someone I consider to be a dear friend or someone who’s an inspiration, but most likely both.
I plan to share a new edition of SOL every 1 to 2 weeks. They'll consist of a quick update on what I've been up to, and the most inspiring thoughts I've come across.
I'd love to hear back - even if it's a quick "lol". The purpose is to stay connected & think connected. We all need more of that, I know I do.
STORIES
I launched a limited friends-of-friends-beta of System2, the remote personal trainer product I've been pouring my heart into, and the response has been amazing! I've never worked on anything that's been nearly as rewarding.
2 days ago was my fiancé Upeka's birthday, and this is how we wrapped up our workout that day. Happy birthday Upeka!!
Alan Ruth - an amazing man & and a renowned electronic sculpture artist I have been lucky to have known passed 4 days ago after battling multiple sclerosis. (More below)
SYSTEMS
[I'm obsessed with systems. Now you can guess the namesake of both my company (System2) and this newsletter (System Of Life). So in each edition, I want to talk about a system that I’m awed by]
Do you have a system for thinking? 🧠
Since the 1950's we've known that the brain can hold just about 7 pieces of information at a time. Kind of pathetic!
And yet, the brain is a super-computer at creativity. A super-computer completely crippled by a god-awful working-memory, and not much better long-term-memory.
But what if you can supercharge your RAM? What if you had instant access to everything you ever read, AND every brilliant idea you ever had, at all times?
For that, you need a system for thinking. (At least while we wait for Neuralink 😉)
Hemingway and Ben Franklin famously supercharged their brains with prodigious use of notebooks. But hey, it’s 2020. Isn’t there something better than papyrus 📜?
Enter Roam Research. A product with terrible UI (alas!) yet genius insights, built for taking bi-directionally linked note-taking.
The tough news is that building your system for thinking with Roam is not easy and takes discipline. Many amazing how-tos are being written on this. Here’s my friend Padmini talking about how she uses Roam for active reading, and here’s Nat Eliason, who teaches a course on Roam, sharing his insights.
Trust me though, having a system for thinking is a superpower 🚀, and Roam is the best tool I've ever come across for creating one. Will share more in the future.
TREASURES
I once asked Alan (from above) what inspired him to create the incredible art that he did.
He said that he absolutely loved music 🎶, but after several failed attempts, realized that he had no musical talent. Still, his heart yearned to engage with music. So he used his craftsmanship and MIT-trained electrical engineering skills to create physical things that responded to music.
The treasure Alan didn't have in life lead him to create treasures that made his life extraordinary.Many of us are driven to make up for what we weren’t gifted with at birth. Isn’t it remarkable, the-gift-of-no-gift? 🎁
Also, I had forgotten to reply to Alan’s last email to me from the 5th of Oct. Life got in the way. And now he’s gone.Note to self: treasure relationships.
RIP Alan.
QUESTIONS
Did you ever wonder "When does civilization begin?" 🌍
Margaret Mead, an anthropologist famous for studying the original inhabitants of Oceania, was once asked the same question. You'd think she'd have talked about ancient tools or artifacts.
But no. Mead said that the first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur (thighbone) 🦵 that had been broken and then healed.In the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die.
A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety, and has tended the person through recovery. "Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts", she said.
59th presidential election is in 2 days. We are drowning in toxicity engineered to demonize we-the-people. Yet I think of the very long line of good humans that took care of each other so that you and I could be here.
What can you do to help our civilization heal?
Till next time with ❤️,
Dilan