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📘 1 Book Summary:
DAILY RITUALS by Mason Currey
This was a quite light read to be honest. Most of the time the author did not get into the details of the rituals much but it was interesting to imagine how it might feel like to be a Beethoven.
I shared in the last edition that rituals might be more important than habits. You see why this might be the case when you read this book. The great minds were nothing different from you, but they all have some kind of a ritual that they stick to no matter what.
My important take-aways:
Most of them liked coffee very much. There might be something to it.
They did not wait for inspiration. They worked every time they scheduled the work. They did not care if they would like to work or not.
They used walks. A lot of walks. I knew Nietzsche was obsessed about walking but I did not know how much great minds used walking as weapon for creation.
I get up at six in the morning. I compose until eleven, then my day is over. I go out, I walk, tirelessly, for hours. Max Ernst is not far away. [John] Cage also came here. I’m cut off from all other activity. What effect does that have on me? - Morton Feldman
They minimized the time for thinking for choosing something. For example, breakfast or what to wear. They stuck to the same food and same clothes.
Re-reading great minds over and over was a theme. Important minds preferred reading great minds endlessly instead of searching for other reads.
There is no exact division of being night owls or late birds. Everyone had his own schedule. However, they preferred lonely hours mostly. Either they worked too early or too late. Solitude is the best buddy of a creative mind.
They longed for work. Beauvoir was bored when she was not writing. You need to find a job that does not seem like work I guess. They did not seem like working, they adored working.
Beauvoir also had a relationship where she and her lover Sarte could be with others too. This was an interesting ritual to satisfy earthly needs. Maybe they took inspiration for different sources of lovers.
This was interesting to learn “ Beethoeven’s breakfast was coffee, which he prepared himself with great care—he determined that there should be sixty beans per cup, and he often counted them out one by one for a precise dose.” Counting every bean to be exact 60 beans. I love him more know. Coffee must be an art.
Kant was a different case, he never left his hometown. He did not need it.
The history of Kant’s life is difficult to describe. For he neither had a life nor a history. He lived a mechanically ordered, almost abstract, bachelor life in a quiet out-of-the-way lane in Konigsberg, an old city at the northeast border of Germany. I do not believe that the large clock of the Cathedral there completed its task with less passion and less regularity than its fellow citizen Immanuel Kant. Getting up, drinking coffee, writing, giving lectures, eating, taking a walk, everything had its set time, and the neighbors knew precisely that the time was 3:30 P.M. when Kant stepped outside his door with his gray coat and the Spanish stick in his hand.
They used alcohol and cigarettes heavily. Sometimes even amphetamines. I think this stems from the absurdity of existence. Alcohol might have helped to ease the mind.
The biographer Annie Cohen-Solal reports, “His diet over a period of twenty-four hours included two packs of cigarettes and several pipes stuffed with black tobacco, more than a quart of alcohol—wine, beer, vodka, whisky, and so on—two hundred milligrams of amphetamines, fifteen grams of aspirin, several grams of barbiturates, plus coffee, tea, rich meals.” Sartre knew he was wearing himself out, but he was willing to gamble his philosophy against his health.
🐦5 Tweet Threads
You need some quality extensions to exploit the full power of Google.
Here is a good list of book if you are searching for your next one.
The most important lie you tell yourself? “I am late”
Show some gratitude maybe? Your great grandfather lived only about 35-40 years.
This is a good compilation of sentences on fulfilling life.
Everyone Needs Autonomy
Don’t Stop Until You Find Fulfilling Work
📝 3 Articles:
I got some reading this week. This article is describing the forces that fuel friendship.
My highlights:
One study estimates that it takes spending 40 to 60 hours together within the first six weeks of meeting to turn an acquaintance into a casual friend, and about 80 to 100 hours to become more than that. So friendships unsurprisingly tend to form in places where people spend a lot of their time anyway: work, school, church, extracurricular activities.
You have to look for friendship in places you would never expect it.
Rituals are important: Some have organized a book club, a monthly hike, or a regular dinner party. Others have committed to a group chat that runs all day every day, or a Dungeons & Dragons campaign that’s lasted for 30 years. In addition to keeping groups close, these traditions can fuel a friendship and give it a shared culture. The Dungeons & Dragons group has a shorthand with references stretching back decades.
This article is quite a long one but worthy of reading. In order to be successful at work:
You need to take care of yourself first.
Mental health should be your first priority.
Surround yourself with great people.
Researchers have even measured this influence, as reviewed in the book Connected by Christakis and Fowler. One study found that if one of your friends becomes happy, you’re 15% more likely to be happy. If a friend of a friend becomes happy, you’re 10% more likely to be happy
Learn how to learn. See a good summary here about turning problems into opportunities.
In this article the author gives some self improvement experiments he tried along the years. Some good inspirations for you:
Meditate every day for 30 days.
Go thirty days without consuming caffeine or alcohol.
For 30 days, eat according to these four rules: 1) Eat whatever foods you like, but 2) stop when you are about 75% full, 3) eat only in response to the feeling of hunger (not social cues or anything else), and 4) drink nothing but water.
Establish five new habits (exercise, networking, visualization, curating my to-do lists, and preparing for the next day each night) by doing a tiny little bit of them every day.
Write 1000 words a day for 30 days.
Spend 20 minutes a day visualizing having achieved certain goals.
📺 2 Videos:
This channel is my late and also the latest discovery. Every video is informative and hilarious.
There was a comment under this video “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind condensed into 8 minutes”. I totally agree.
What could possibly go wrong now?
Here is a superb summary of Daily Rituals, Ethan deserves more followers.
📽️ 1 SERIES / FILM or DOCUMENTARY:
This week’s suggestion is a series: Person of Interest. I was searching for some great series to watch but I did not quite like the new series. I got bored of some in the first episode. If you have some suggestions please find me.
Person of Interest is one of my favorites. Worth a re-watch.
In the end we're all alone, and no one's coming to save you.
When you find that one person who connects you to the world, you become someone different. Someone better. When that person is taken from you, what do you become then?
Here is a spoiler-ish video from the series, best scene in my opinion.
Now the third subscriber profile will be of course my beloved friend Bilge. She is a firm lawyer, if you need any help please find her here. She can handle any case from divorce to smuggling.
If you would like to add something to the questions, hit reply to this email.
What is your biggest fear in life?
To die without satisfaction. What is satisfaction? I can't be 100 percent satisfied considering our greed, but that's what I'm after. I don't want to die before being a mother, I don't want to die without seeing the places I want to visit, I don't want to die without reading the books I aim for.
What is one thing you never get bored of doing?
Reading, watching movies and traveling.
If you could get a sentence as a tattoo on your arm, what sentence would it be?
“My dear myself!”
What is the thing you regret the most that you didn't do/try?
Not going to Erasmus while I was at university.
Who would you like to have dinner with and talk about life?
Sartre. I started knowing and learning myself thanks to him.
You have one wish, you can do anything, what's the first thing you'll do?
I would like to go before the social contract era by abolishing the state. I'd love to see what happens when we remove all the boundaries, countries and money. Lets create society and civilization from the scratch.
If money wasn't a problem for you, what would you be doing?
Art. All forms of art. Theatre, cinema and literature first.
Who is your favorite superhero and why?
Not have one.
Who is your idol?
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Unbelievable foresight, incomparable handsomeness and a divine courage.
What is something that people are obsessed with but you just don’t get the point of?
Techno music. Like what are you doing right now brothers and sisters?
If you had the chance, what would be the city and time you like to be born and live in?
Roman Empire around MS 330-395.
If you had to listen to 10 songs until you die, which 10 would it be?
Check out the Spotify playlist. Use this link to add your 10 , please no more than 10 :)
If you can recommend only 10 books to your loved ones, which 10 would it be?
What is the one movie you keep re-watching?
Carlito’s Way.
Try Sample for newsletter recommendations. They are great supporter of free newsletter creators and best source for discovering high-quality newsletters.
📜 3 Quotes:
In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me lay an invincible summer.
― ALBERT CAMUS
Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go.
—HERMANN HESSE
We have a strategic plan, it’s called doing things.
— HERB KELLEHER