Newsletter #3 - Writing, Unconventional Thinking, and Life

Hello everyone,

There has been some radio silence from my side on here recently and that is unfortunate. I fell out of the habit of publishing both blog posts and newsletters for some time. Hopefully, this can mark a return to more frequent publishing as I find writing these newsletters and blog posts deeply enjoyable.

A short summary of the last few months. I started back at Chalmers last week here in Gothenburg, doing my Master's degree in Management and Economics of Innovation (quite the mouthful I know). I left Switzerland at the end of July and went traveling through Europe with Elin. It was great fun and I found especially Slovenia a beautiful country I would love to go back to. After returning to Sweden I had some vacation time here before going to Dublin to wrap up my Unitech year. In Dublin, I had an intense but highly enjoyable week together with the rest of the students in my Unitech cohort marking the end of summer. I am now excited to get going with my studies again.

This is a newsletter that I began writing earlier this spring but never finished so I have added some finishing touches to it. I hope you find it an interesting read. I have added some comments about what parts were written earlier this year and which ones are more current.

💭Idea From Me

Few things make me as happy as having a friend reach out randomly. It is a small thing that brings me a lot of joy. I try to do the same for others and hope they get the same joy that I do. But it is hard to stay in touch with the people you meet so I suggest you build a system that allows you to stay in touch with others.

For most of my life been pretty bad at staying in touch with people. Don't get me wrong I am still not great at it. But I am trying to improve. I recently set up a system to remind myself of reaching out to people I have met. I am not sure how well it is going to work but hopefully, it will lead to me connecting with old friends more frequently. This was inspired by this article by Derek Sivers.

The earlier paragraphs were written this spring and unfortunately, I can inform you that the system did not help terribly for me. I still feel it is important to stay in touch with old friends but this did not end up being the solution for me. If any of you have better tips for this please let me know!

🖋Quote of the Week

Here is a quote by writer William Arthur Ward on the topic of life and the many different phases and purposes of it.

“The adventure of life is to learn. The purpose of life is to grow. The nature of life is to change. The challenge of life is to overcome. The essence of life is to care. The opportunity of like is to serve. The secret of life is to dare. The spice of life is to befriend. The beauty of life is to give.”
-William Arthur Ward

I came across this quote somewhere online recently and found myself pondering it. It highlights the many different parts of life and the ever-changing nature of it. I agree with the sentiment that a lot of life is about growth and learning. This makes life exciting but as the quote states at the end, much of what gives life beauty is sharing it with others and giving back.

🎧Content I Have Enjoyed This Week and Recommend

Derek Sivers interview on the Tim Ferriss Podcast. This was a great episode and it sparked a lot of ideas for me. I spent the entire weekend diving down a Derek Sivers rabbit hole. He is a fascinating thinker who has a unique perspective on life and the world. He voices a lot of unconventional insights and opinions. I don't agree with everything he says but that is part of the allure. He states strong opinions that you can agree or disagree with.

To get an insight into how his mind works I will share a short Ted Talk clip where he talks about Japanese street addresses. It is a niche topic but illustrates the way his mind works and what he finds interesting. I think he has a lot of wisdom to share and it is often very digestible I find.

This earlier segment was also written this spring but it still stands that I find Derek Sivers incredibly interesting and someone you can learn a lot from. My favorite quote from Derek is the following:

“If more information was the answer, then we'd all be billionaires with perfect abs.”
-Derek Sivers

It highlights the importance of execution. Don't spend too much time analyzing or focusing on information gathering, instead get out there and execute. This is something I need to remind myself of often.

✍This Week's Blog Post

As there has been some time since I published on the blog this will serve as a teaser for the blog post I am currently working on. It will be another book summary (shocker) on the book Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman. It is a book about how we should think about spending our lives. 4000 weeks correspond to 80 years of life which is about the average life span of people today.

The book makes an interesting case for why prioritization is a much more important tool than productivity in a life well-lived. It has helped me have a different perspective on how to spend my time. Hopefully, I will have this post published by the end of this week.

It is great to be back to writing and I look forward to publishing more.