Just Start: The good kind of spiralling
Hey all,
For the past couple of weeks I’ve been reading Oliver Burkeman’s new book, Meditations For Mortals (I could have read it faster — it’s short, and really good — but I’m trying to respect the author’s suggestion to read, and then ponder, one chapter a day). One thing that’s struck me about it, having also read Four Thousand Weeks and The Antidote, is that it isn’t trying to give you an entirely new set of ideas to worry about: it feels more like a refinement of his earlier work, an expansion of the most important principles and a more digestible way to think about the really important stuff. It’s probably his most actionable book yet: there’s stuff in it that you could, and might, start doing as soon as you put it down.
Something I’ve always struggled with a bit is the feeling of needing to say new things, here and everywhere else I post stuff. Nobody wants to feel like a one-trick pony, or like they’re just rehashing old ideas: but coming up with stuff that feels completely original is, as you’ve probably noticed, hard.
More and more, though, I’ve noticed that some of my favourite writers and thinkers actually don’t do this. Seth Godin, for instance, has been saying pretty much the same thing for a couple of decades: you need to find ways to stand out, and do it without shouting at people (this is an oversimplication). What’s changed is that he’s constantly presenting these ideas in new ways, refining them for a changing world, and finding different ways to explain them. Saying the same thing, but saying it better.
Spirals generally have a bit of a bad reputation: think downward spirals, spirals of decline, whirlpools, circling the drain, and all of Junji Ito’s Uzumaki. But I’ve started to think about this process of making your ideas clearer and more intelligible as the good kind of spiral: you keep going around and around an idea that you’re trying to get to, hopefully getting a bit closer to the core of it each time, until you come up with something really useful. It’s not a million miles away from what you do in martial arts: at some point, you have to stop learning new moves and refine the ones you have, making them better and better until they work against (almost) everybody.
I’ll probably forget some of this in six months. But hopefully I’ll spiral back to it.
Have a great weekend!
Joel x
Stuff I like
📖 Book - Quit: The power of knowing when to walk away by Annie Duke
This was one of those books that’s a zippy little read if you’re already steeped in self-improvement: I recognised a bunch of the ideas and case studies in it from other books. But Duke, as a very successful poker player, knows more about successful quitting than most people, so there’s a lot of helpful stuff in here.
📝 Script - Gladiator 2: Nick Cave edition
With Gladiator 2 set to drop soon, I was pretty surprised to learn that Russell Crowe originally asked Nick Cave to write a sequel to the original that brings Maximus back from the dead. What he got is…worth a read, especially the ending.
🎶 Hype Music - Chopin - Nocturne in C Sharp Minor (No. 20)
I dropped by the King’s Cross pianos this week (I always try to when I’m in London), and ended up having a chat to a lovely guy called Rafael who knew a bunch of Chopin Nocturnes (not the famous no. 9, which is the only one I can even half-play). This one was beautiful: I’m going to learn it ASAP.
🧐 Quote of the week
"Just doing something once today is the only way you'll ever become the kind of person who does that sort of thing on a regular basis".
From Oliver Burkeman, Meditations for Mortals
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