This email is probably cut by your email provider. Go here if you would like to see the full uncut version.
💡
🧠Mental Models Part 2 - Second Order Effects
This part is new extension to my newsletter. A series. First one will be on mental models.
Second order effect is my number two thinking framework, mental model.. The secret is hidden inside the name, whenever you make a decision do not just think about the first order effects, think second orders and third orders also. You have to think about what possible consequences are there for your decision. Then, the consequences of this decision will also result in different consequences.
Let us see a popular example. This example is cited a lot in system thinking lessons and mental model books also.
Famous example is the use of antibiotics in animals. When you use antibiotic-supported medicine your animals are getting stronger and heavier. You get more money. However the bacteria resisting this antibiotic, transforms and go through mutations. When your animal get sick then there is no use of old antibiotics.
Another famous example is the Great Hanoi Rat experiment. They gave incentives to people to kill rats and submit rat’s tail to municipalities to get paid. In one day, thousands of rats were being killed. Then wat happened? People could not find a rat to kill. Therefore they protected the tailless rats, feed them to reproduce. Now there are a lot of tailless rats hanging around. Not good.
We need better ways to look at the problems to find solutions. Here are some steps:
You devised a solution, then ask yourself. Okay we did it, now what? What are the possible consequences of this? List anything you can come up with.
Always always ask yourself “and then what?”
Try to list the third order consequences. We pay people to kill rats → They cut the tails and leave the rat alive → There are thousands of tailless cats.
How can you eliminate possible unintended second and third order consequences?
Ask people to submit the whole body of the rat.
Stop incentives, use chemicals to kill rats.
Incentivize people to capture the rats and submit. You will replace the rats to another location to preserve the ecosystem.
Is there anything you can do without killing rats?
Always kill your darlings. First solution you come up with can create problems along the way. Even if you love the solution, kill it to see whether you can come up with more alternatives.
📘1 Book Summary:
Miracle Morning:
Hal Elrod explains that you set the tone for your day in the morning. If you ever want to accomplish anything throughout the day, you have to have a good standard of starting out. It was a light read, could have been an article instead of a book.
Here are my highlights:
There are 7 possible reasons you are not living the life you imagine, think carefully about the reason holding you back.
You are living in the past, you have no purpose, you are isolating your decisions, there is no accountability, you have a circle of influence that promotes mediocrity, you aren’t working on personal development and finally, you lack a sense of urgency.
How to wake up easily. I found Step 2 very effective. Also, I have added a 45 minute gym session to my morning routine to pump up my body but you may prefer meditating, writing, walking. Experiment with the styles.
Step #1: Set Your Intentions Before Bed
Step #2: Move Your Alarm Clock Across The Room
Step #3: Brush Your Teeth
Step #4: Drink a Full Glass of Water
Step #5: Get Dressed or Jump In the Shower
Halrod recommends SAVERS. You do not need to do every one of them. Try to craft the best solution possible for yourself.
S.A.V.E.R.S.: silence, affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading, and scribing.
While implementing silence, I would suggests some resources.
Here is a good video that dives into the importance of your breath.
Visualization seemed different to me. Our most unique feature is to plan ahead, visualize and create scenarios unlived. Halrod suggests you pick a goal and visualize the time when you hit the target. How does it make you feel? This will surely fuel your motivation. You can visualize your dream life in order to keep grinding.
When you are doing your morning Visualization, visualize yourself effortlessly enjoying the process of achieving your goals (like I did while writing this book) and keep a clear picture of what it will look like once achieved. Remember to involve all of your senses —see, feel, taste, touch and even smell every detail of your vision and your ideal outcomes. The more vivid your vision is, the more effective it will be in increasing your desire and motivation to take the necessary steps towards your goals each day.
Habit stacking was mentioned in Atomic Habits also. Find your old habit, and add another new one onto the old one. This makes it a little bit easier to do the new and will give you the initial momentum of acquiring a habit.
Habit stacking simply means you pick a few habits that you want to practice, make a sequence out of them and then make the sequence itself a new habit. For example, if you want to read while drinking your coffee in the morning, you can sequence the habits with a simple commitment. “After I make my coffee in the morning, I will read.”
To my experience, the best way to create and implement a habit is to find a higher goal. For example I wanted to incorporate writing in my daily schedule and I aimed at writing a book. As soon as I defined my goal and end result I found new ways to create time for me. Netflix? No thanks. Beer every other night ? Not necessary. Watching football, boring if you are not watching Premier League. Try to find a higher purpose. Find you idol in terms of body look for example. Try to visualize what would your life would be like when you turn into that person.
🐦2 Tweet Threads:
Here is Alex’s recommendation of 20 Youtube Channels. I scored 13/20, not bad huh. My favorites:
Although the title is a clickbait, I had to admit, there are good gems in this thread:
My highlights:
You don't value enough what you already have.
The more sarcastic you are, the more healthy your mind is.
Your fear of embarrassing yourself is the biggest hurdle to your growth.
The best way to calm your mind is to 'write it' down.
You don't need more 'productivity hacks', you just need a burning reason to do it.
📝2 Articles:
2 articles for this week are somewhat related. It is about our quest to be happy. Our ultimate goal, to be happy not for something else, just for the happiness.
First is a simple and strong fact, to be happy you need to lose yourself doing something. Painting, playing guitar, basketball, recording podcasts, whatever. You do, you lose track of time.
Research shows that when people throw themselves into an activity for the sake of the activity itself — and not for some sort of external reward, like money or fame or Instagram followers — they tend to report long-term well-being and fulfillment
What does matter is that you respect and honor the traditions of the craft, pursue long-term progress in it, and participate not for the sake of raising yourself up (i.e., an ego boost) but for the sake of transcending the very notion of your “self” altogether.
Second one is related to meditation practice. If you are like me, you may have some hard time meditating. I think I partially hate it. Distinct sounds, trying to not think anything, sensing all bodily emotions. It is disturbing. I kind of started this newsletter to ease my worried monkey mind. My mind jumps from one place to another all the time. Meditation was no cure for me, I took the blame though, there must have been something wrong in my production.
If you cannot madidate try:
Visualization
Coloring
Drumming
MY FAVORITE : Watching Bob Ross painting videos
If you cannot lure yourself into meditating, create your type of meditation. There is no one-size-fits-all meditation style. Be a creator. Find what activity it is that soothes your mind, takes all your attention and elevates you.
📺1 Video:
Here is a good breakdown of how endless and mindless scrolling affects us.
Average American touches his/her phone 2600 times a day.
After 24 hours of quitting social media, people began to feel FOMO.
You constantly check your phone, this is easy and almost no cost to you. You get surprise notifications at the end, slight shots of Dopamine. You want that, your evolution forces you to learn and love this behavior. Where there is reward, there is you.
When the phone is on, your brain is facing a switch cost effect. jumping from one task to another.
Maybe start deleting an app from today heh? No no not Twitter, I cannot do it please let it stay.
📽️1 Series/ Film or Documentary:
This week’s film is Eternity and a Day.
It is an old suggestion, and was a re-watch for me. Hard to bear if you like action movies or movies that a lot happens in a tiny time-frame. However there are some magical conversations in the movie. Definitely on my list of must-watch before I die.
All passed by so quickly. This suspect pain... my stubbornness to want to learn, to want to know... then the darkness... the silence around me... the silence. All made me believe that before the end of winter with the ethereal silhouettes of the boats, and their sudden breakthroughs in the sky, with the lovers along the promenade, in the declining sun, and the hypocritical promise of the spring, all made me believe that before the end of winter... My only regret, Anna... but is it only one?… is not to have finished anything. I left it all as a draft, shattered words here and there.
You finish what you started, otherwise you cannot let the world know who you are just by speaking.
📜3 Quotes:
“He who jumps into the void owes no explanation to those who stand and watch.”
― Jean-Luc Godard
“A work of art is good if it has sprung from necessity.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke
After tragedies, one has to invent a new world, knit it or embroider, make it up. . . . You have to imagine something that doesn’t exist and dig a cave into the future and demand space. It’s a territorial hope affair. At the time, that digging is utopian but in the future it will become your reality.
—BJÖRK, singer-songwriter
📱1 Useful App/Website/Tool
You have a website content that you would like to reach but hidden by a paywall? 12 ft.io got you covered. At least, most of the time.
Some sites had it disabled, however it still works for some websites. Last time I checked it did not work for NY Times, and Insider. However it worked for Medium and Washington Post.
At least you now know that you have an option to try whenever you see a blocked content. Information must be available for free.