Greetings everyone,
This week’s newsletter at a glance:
The Art of Slowing Down
Creativity = Intelligence x Expertise
Patience & Time
Enjoy!
To realize one’s destiny is one’s only obligation
—Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
✏️ The Art of Slowing Down
Life is what happens to you when you are busy making other plans.
John Lennon
It seems to me that our modern culture values quantity over quality. We are over-concerned with how much we can get done or obtain in the shortest space of time. But there is a latent joy in slowing down, being present, and appreciating each passing moment.
Everything is a race to the finish line. We praise those who are able to achieve great things so early: the musical prodigy, the promising academic, the athletic wonderkid. There is merit to such praise — who would not want to be on Time's 30 under 30 list? Great minds and rare talents often have some form of innate talent which, when nurtured and developed optimally and from an early age, result in amazing accomplishments early in life. However, there is something to be said for taking the less traveled path, one which relishes every second of the human experience, and one which does not necessarily concern itself with convention or praise. The gap year in between major periods of formal schooling is not only a necessary choice for some but may perhaps even allow one to bring the best version of themselves to the table, using such a time to develop other areas of their being and re-align one's interests and passions with one's chosen direction in life.
A similar phenomenon is seen in literary circles. I see so many videos and articles about reading efficiency as if the number of books you read is more important than the lessons you learn from them and the integration of said lessons into your being. 'I Read 40 Books in a Month' or 'I Read 1 Book a Week for 4 Years' are common titles I see, that in a way disparage the utility of slowing down when reading and taking the time to properly digest the message. Surely, different types of books must be read differently: fictional story books, often meant to be 'page-turners' and fluently read, can be read (generally) at a faster pace than, for example, a philosophical treatise. Yet, too many people rob themselves of the value of a certain book, the joy of a particular moment or period in life, by focusing too much on quantity maximization or the future and less so on thorough, quality reading and savouring the present.
Don't be afraid of taking the slow lane in life. It brings more happiness.
Jennifer West
Malum consilium quod mutari non potest. (Publilius Syrus)
Bad is the plan that cannot change.
💡 Food for Thought
Money spent building relationships is money well spent.
🔗 Sunday Best
The Death of Prigozhin - The Crash & Its Implications for Wagner, Africa, Ukraine & Russia
A video by Perun
Over the course of the war in Ukraine, Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin and Wagner Group became household names around the world. From their fighting at Bakhmut, to their standoffs with the Russian MoD leadership, to the dramatic march on Moscow followed by a public truce, the PMC and its leader often dominated the news.
But on 23 August, Prigozhin's story seems (so far) to have come to a very public end, when a jet carrying him and other Wagner members crashed in Russia with no reported survivors.
My Morning Routine as a Spine Surgeon
I am a big fan of morning routines. Might do my own video for my own channel 👀
In this video, Dr. Webb shows viewers what a typical morning looks like as a spine surgeon.
A Minimal Theory of Creative Ability
A great article on creativity and its components, by Stevenson, Bass, and van der Mass (2021)
Despite decades of extensive research on creativity, the field still combats psychometric problems when measuring individual differences in creative ability and people's potential to achieve real-world outcomes that are both original and useful. We think these seemingly technical issues have a conceptual origin. We therefore propose a minimal theory of creative ability (MTCA) to create a consistent conceptual theory to guide investigations of individual differences in creative ability. Building on robust theories and findings in creativity and individual differences research, our theory argues that creative ability, at a minimum, must include two facets: intelligence and expertise. So, the MTCA simply claims that whenever we do something creative, we use most of our cognitive abilities combined with relevant expertise to be creative. MTCA has important implications for creativity theory, measurement, and practice.
The two most powerful warriors are patience & time.
—Leo Tolstoy
Thanks for coming!
AT