It’s been a couple of weeks since I shared some items for you to check out. I suppose that I’ve been trying to reclaim my routines. Some of them have gotten away from me.
Quote that’s been giving me a hard time: What gets measured gets managed. This gem from Peter Drucker has left me wondering about certain things in my personal life, as well as the way we interact with tracking apps and apps that give achievement progress in terms of streaks – how many days in a row you’ve used the app.
For instance, I wake up every morning a write. There’s no app, no tracking (other than notebooks filled with pages and dated, so I guess that counts), and nothing to be accountable to – save for myself. I suppose that being accountable to a device in a way feels like I’m missing the point. It’s something I’ll spend more time considering.
What I’m reading this week: Financial Freedom by Grant Sabatier. Recommended by someone, I checked it out at the library and gave it a a pretty quick read. It’s only about three-hundred pages, not offering much in the way of new information, and it includes spreadsheets and graphs. What it does do well, though, is give you a call to action. Every chapter is a workable suggestion for how to make more money, save more money, and, in some cases, spend less money. Most of what I spend my time thinking about anyway.
Some stories that I found interesting:
- On Shadow Work. Assume for a moment that the old adage is true: within each of us are two wolves, one light and one dark. The grow in size depending on our actions, our thoughts, and our intents. The light wolf encompasses the positive aspects of us: the good, the kind, the charitable. The dark wolf indulges in all the negative emotions and bad actions that we commit. Which one grows? Whichever one we feed. This binary way of looking at self can prevent us from understanding that negative emotions are a part of us. Fundamentally. Shadow work delves into attempting to reconcile that understanding.
- How a generation grew up thinking about the internet thanks to the film Hackers.
- How C.S. Lewis conned children into asking for Turkish Delights.
- Emmy Award Show this weekend, trying to stay interesting amid pandemic weirdness.
And, finally, a thought about Halloween. October is often my favorite, most busy month of the year. This year, however… Well, my hopes aren’t high. I’m reminded, though, of a tv special I watched as a kid. And I wanted to share it here. The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t.
Michael's Musings 