RadReads n°158
This week: Growth happens at our edges, “Craft” careers, Tame the Inner Critic
Good Morning, RadReaders!
Welcome to the weekend! Thank you for being a part of this special community, you all rock! Today’s stories include abandoning traditional careers for the world of “craft X”, the brain’s “default mode network,” and my Inner Critic, Mr. Saltypoop. Don’t miss my postscript on the book The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully.
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🎙 Have a plan, hold it lightly
61 mins | Rad Awakenings Podcast | iTunes | Google Play
This podcast arose from a cold email. I heard Frank Ostaseski on Sam Harris’ (massive) podcast and extended him a humble invitation to my tiny corner of the Internet. Ostaseski had founded the Zen Hospice Project and his work inspired and shifted my perspective on life and mortality. I honestly didn’t think he’d respond, and two weeks later we’re having a moving conversation about life, death, love, kids, delayed gratification, fear, ego, and mystery. I cried both times I re-listened to this conversation. Ironically (and given Frank’s subject matter) these weren’t tears of sadness. On the contrary, just complete awe and gratitude in the beauty of life. (My full 6 minute postscript, as a blog post.)
Crafting a life
15 mins | The Economist
Traditional neoclassical economics treats work as a cost, but is this an oversimplification? The craft economy in the form of beer, coffee, antiques, and notebooks is real. One can dismiss it as privilege in its most rarified form, but that too may be an oversimplification. Empirically, I know that my friends in the craft economy work longer hours than they did in their corporate jobs. More people are making an explicit trade-off between money and fulfillment. And there’s the frustration experienced as “knowledge workers” and the end product of their work gets abstracted away. (This article pairs well with my pieces on Financial Security and Career Unbundling.)
The Neuroscience of Suffering and Its End
7 mins | Jeff Warren
Meet your 75,000 year old operating system (i.e. your brain), known by neuroscientists as “the default mode network” (or “the blah blah blah” network). It can manifest as the “obsessive list-maker, the anxious scenario planner, the distracted daydreamer.” What are the benefits of training this DMN? Softened reactivity, increased concentration, and attentional clarity.
The wealth of Sapiens
6 Minutes | Daniel P. Egan
Last week I shared Paul Graham’s essay How to Make Wealth and noted that the definition felt a bit incomplete. Dan reminds us of the declining marginal utility of money through a scary experience his little girl had with the flu. He writes about our hedonic adaption and how our baseline happiness “resets” as we acquire more stuff. (He also successfully uses “Lambo money” in a post). What’s the benchmark, what is wealth? “My family and I are alive, safe and fed.” The rest is luxury.”
Beating yourself up is not as helpful as you think
4 mins | Quartz at Work
The Onion trolled me with the following headline: Neurologists Find Brain Still Shows Signs Of Self-Criticism Minutes After Death. Many RadReaders are particularly hard on themselves. The thinking goes that it’s extremely tough to stay motivated without that pernicious and berating voice. But does it come at a cost? How can one shift that thinking, without sacrificing “performance?” Meet Mr. Saltypoop.
Below the Fold
LONG READS
🙋 How We’ll Win (Multiple Stories, Quartz at Work): A comprehensively awesome 50-part interview series by my colleague Leah Fessler on empowering women, profiling Lena Waithe, Tracy Chou, Lauren Duca, Arlan Hamilton, and Erica Joy Baker.
🗺 When Youre a Digital Nomad the World Is Your Office (24 mins, The New York Times Magazine): Freelancing from Bali may not be as awesome as it seems.
🎸 Daniel Rossen on How to Be in a Band (17 mins, The Creative Independent): A lovely reflection on creativity, aging, external orientation, and empathy from the Grizzly Bear frontman.
ICYMI
😔 What Unhappy Millennials Can Learn From 70 year olds (3 mins, The Mission): Last week’s postscript on “the perfect age.”
👜 RadJobs: Still working on that New Year’s resolution to dedicate your time towards something you’re more passionate about? We’ve got new roles at Journey Meditation, IEX, working w/RadReader Darrah Brustein, AUrate, and a stealth company 🕵 in NYC looking for a Head of Product. If you’re looking to have your dream job delivered directly to your 📱, sign up here!
🎙 Lisa Daron Grossman (Rad Awakenings): Fifteen years later, her Peace Corps experience during Swaziland’s AIDS epidemic continues to shape her life.
LAST WEEK’S MOST READ
🚀 My Personal Moonshot (3 mins, Marginal Revolution): How Tyler Cowen plans to use the Internet to change the way Economics is taught.
