Legend
• Check out this video of Paul McCartney with Ringo and George. Just riffing, trying to create a song. Starts out very rough the first 30 seconds, but then over the next 60 seconds you witness the creation of the song Get Back. Amazing. I have watched it several times. As always, the comments are entertaining, and not the normal toxic twitter material.
Sleep position
• It is difficult to study how to sleep. Much of the advice for the ‘best’ sleep position is based on opinion. But this Wirecutter article at least provides a few references. They describe the different ways one could sleep, based on a few issues one may have (snoring, reflux, shoulder pain, etc.). One issue: It is very hard to change your sleep position, especially in adulthood.
Grandmothers
• There is a good amount of research in anthropology on evolution and grandparents. This article covers Emory researchers who used fMRI to look at the brains of grandmothers when they viewed photos of their grandchildren, their children, or strangers. They felt emotional empathy toward their grandchildren, but cognitive empathy predominated when looking at photos of their adult children. Also, where are the grandfathers? Maybe in the next study.
• “When they’re viewing these pictures of their grandchild, they’re really feeling what the grandchild is feeling (emotional empathy). So when the child is expressing joy, they’re feeling that joy. When the children are expressing distress, they’re feeling that distress.”
Oldest energy drink?
• If you run out of Gatorade Zero or Phocus, just whip up some posca, a “blend of vinegar and water—and possibly salt, herbs, and other stuff—holds a special place in beverage history thanks to its role as the Gatorade of the Roman army.” Its very similar to a drink I have about every other day: apple cider vinegar, turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, and sweetener packet. Thanks Dan for the link.
“It’s possible posca was Greek in origin. Its name may have derived from the Greek word epoxos, which means ‘very sharp'”
“Plutarch wrote about how Cato the Elder, an officer during the Second Punic War (218-202 BCE), dealt with his thirst, according to Roth: Water was what he drank on his campaigns, except that once in a while, in a raging thirst, he would call for vinegar, or when his strength was failing, would add a little wine.”
LoFi Christmas
• Check out this album on Spotify, Lo-Fi chill music but in the style of Christmas. Remember when you could only play Christmas music one month of the year, on the radio? Thanks Becca for the Lo-Fi tip.
Oats
• Its hard to argue with the health benefits of oats. The fiber and slow digestion help feed your gut bacteria. The trouble is the carbohydrate content, which is usually at least 30 grams for a small serving.
• But these 100 calorie oats have 15 net grams of carbs, and they are already lightly sweetened. You can get them on Amazon, but Kroger has them too. Thanks Ashley for the recommendation.
Less
• I was about to write up some notes on the book the Catalyst by Jonah Berger (the subtitle is How to Change Anyone’s Mind, but the book is about so much more than that). But then I started thinking about the link between several big ideas.
• Berger writes that to get people to change, instead of pushing them (pushing doesn’t work because of reactance (see: teenagers)), remove obstacles that are in their way. A couple months ago my friend Josh threw out the quote ‘addition by subtraction,’ which is such a great idea. You add to your life by removing things that don’t give it meaning. In order to accomplish more in life, say no to more propositions, but also actively seek out and remove (or delegate) time-wasting activities. They just sort of accumulate and all of a sudden you have one or two hours a day of stuff that is not fulfilling your life goals.
• This idea leads in to minimalism or Essentialism, which is a cool book that ironically was far longer than it should have been. The whole book could really just be this one figure, which is an illustration of how far you can go in one direction if you aren’t pulled in 50 other directions. You can apply these concepts to how you spend time and money. If you want a new TV or some clothes, you must work extra hours, even more than the cost of the items to cover taxes on the income. Or you can just subtract that entire expense and save your time and money.
• Then I started thinking about Nicholas Nassim Taleb and his coverage in the amazing book Antifragile of the concept of via negativa. The Latin phrase via negativa likely originated in apophatic theology: “Used initially in Christian Theology to explain what God is by focusing on what He isn’t. If God transcends all things, humans cannot apply qualities and attributes to him in the affirmative (God is light, God is love, etc.). Instead, via negativa presents God as a mystery that humans cannot describe in words.” We might not know the best course of action today, or know in general what it means to live the good life, but we know what will not lead us there: social media, drugs, envy, material things, gossip, chasing wealth, TV (excluding Ozark).
• So your call to action is to take a few minutes this morning or tonight, subtract out all of the immediate crap you were going to do or think about, and assess your day, week, or whole life for nonessential things that should be removed. Maybe a bad habit, a vice, or something neither bad nor good, just nonessential.
Quotes
After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.
– Aldous Huxley
All men’s miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.
– Blaise Pascal
Saying nothing sometimes says the most.
– Emily Dickinson
or one of my favorite directions to residents
Don’t just do something, stand there!
– unknown
