Hello there!
Welcome to the 37th edition of ‘The Lighthouse’ and the last one for 2020!
Here’s wishing all of you happy holidays and a great 2021!
This is by far the most touching response I’ve received till date. I’ve been saving it up right until the end of the year:
“Just beautiful man.
I appreciate you!
Thanks for replying.
I hope I continue to add value to you and others going ahead.
You and your insights are much more helpful to me than I can put into words.
Thanks, and have a great day! ”
Thanks a lot for giving me feedback to improve and share stuff that I hope really matters.
Over the past few days I’ve been thinking about the “long game”, not in terms of months, or years, but in terms of decades - about ideas and principles that remain the same. One of the links I’ve shared today resonated deeply with me, and I hope you enjoy it too.
2020 threw everything at us, but in the end, as one, humanity continues to stand and endure. It sometimes overwhelms me to see all that we collectively went through and came out of. If something made bearing this pandemic easier, then we owe it all to one man - “Tim Berners-Lee”. Without his vision, things would be radically different.
With that note of thanks, let’s dig in!
A Cure For The Ego
Photo by Gary Butterfield on Unsplash
There are two times you commit a mistake:
When you're doing something for the first time.
When you're doing something for the twenty-first time.
You can attribute mistakes from the former to so many causes - one of them being a first-timer.
But what about the latter? Why did that happen? Where did you go wrong?
When you go back and review where you've gone wrong - you're stunned. It seems silly. "That was so simple. How could I have not seen that." But you've done it, and now you're baulking at it.
You committed the error because you knew how to do something perfectly well. You were comfortable doing it. This happens when we develop the feeling of - "Yes, I've arrived". It is also precisely when we take wrong decisions and falter. Why?
I've seen it to be because of the ego. The ego thrives in comfort.
I've also discovered a simple cure - "Be curious" a.k.a "Ask questions".
Why?
When you are curious, you are keen to learn.
You're asking questions.
You are sceptical about things.
You're cautious. You are aware of what you're doing.
As an infant does, you are inquisitive. Always inquiring. Leaving no place for "Ego" to sprout.
The approach to question everything will never make you feel like you've arrived at an answer. Consequently, there is no place for the ego to take root, fester, and grow. Always keep your mind open to learning, which in turn will keep the ego at bay. Also, there's this amazing fact - "YOU CAN'T KNOW EVERYTHING!!". For the entirety of your life, you can continue to learn and ward off the ego. Ask, learn, repeat.
There are so many questions that plague me every day. It serves as a constant reminder that there is a lot to learn, unlearn, and relearn. This constant dialogue hammers the ego. Questions are like the Ring Master's whip. Crack the whip often and tame the ego. A question "?" is also shaped like a whip! (-;
Also, asking questions doesn't always lead to answers. In most cases, you end up with a few more questions. The initial questions are superficial. The questions that follow, however, penetrate deeper towards fundamental ones. They are concerned with the nature of existence, awareness, and death. The paradox is - the deeper you go, the simpler the questions, but the answers not so much. When you start clawing away into these depths, you will find questions that you cannot answer, and your ego ultimately falls apart.
Simply put - Questions dissolve your ego. Where do Questions arise? In curiosity.
Cover Photo by Gary Butterfield on Unsplash
Something interesting stuff I came across this week:
Pace Layering: How Complex Systems Learn and Keep Learning by Steward Brand: “Consider the differently paced components (of a complex system) to be layers. Each layer is functionally different from the others and operates somewhat independently, but each layer influences and responds to the layers closest to it in a way that makes the whole system resilient. From the fastest layers to the slowest layers in the system, the relationship can be described as follows: Fast learns, slow remembers. Fast proposes, slow disposes. Fast is discontinuous, slow is continuous. Fast and small instructs slow and big by accrued innovation and by occasional revolution. Slow and big controls small and fast by constraint and constancy. Fast gets all our attention, slow has all the power. All durable dynamic systems have this sort of structure. It is what makes them adaptable and robust.”
Whining by Seth Godin: “...Over time, people hate being around a whiner. The selfish desires of the habitual whiner eventually become clear. We realize that our shared reality is the world as it is, and that the whiner isn’t actually being singled out. And through practice, we learn that the best way to make things better is to work to improve them, not to demand special treatment. Reminding myself of the perils of whining is helpful indeed.”
There Is A Maximum Human Bandwidth And We Have Reached It by Brian Roemmele: “Out of all the millions of bits that enter all of our sense organs from our eyes to our sense of smell only a very tiny fraction is made available to your consciousness. Most of the data and information is lost to your conscious mind. To put it simply only about one millionth of all the data and information from your senses make it into your consciousness.”
Here’s a thought I’m ruminating on:
“For most important things, though, success actually requires avoiding many separate possible causes of failure.” ~ Jared Diamond (Guns, Germs, and Steel)
Here’s what I think:
Till next weekend,
Take care, and stay safe.
Cheers! 🍻
Prashanth.
If you would love to discuss anything I’ve written about and shared, please reach out to me by replying to this email or sending a direct message on Twitter 🐦 @iam__prashanth. The tribe there is close to 2000 members and continues to grow.
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