Ruggets #6:
1 book, 2 articles, 1 video and 2 quotes.
Hello there !
Welcome to another edition of good nuggets from all over the internet. We are going to analyze the book Chatter, will look at 99 unsolicited advice from Kevin Kelly and take a deep dive in the depths of surrealism.
The aim of this kind of post is to inform you about what you might have missed while you were watching cute cat videos on Instagram.
1 Book :
This book is an all-in-one place to learn about our inner voice and how it can create hard challenges for us to handle. There are numerous strategies in the book to fight against the monkey inside our brain.
There are really important strategies cited in the book. Here are 4 of my best highlights :
Use Distanced Self-Talk :
When you are focusing on your problem try to refer yourself like a third person. Instead of saying, why am I depressed I might say Why is Ratip depressed? This strategy tries to extract you from the equation and help you look at the situation with more objective eyes. What can Ratip do ?
Broaden Your Perspective :
When you are overwhelmed by the problem at your hand, try to compare it to the problems you faced before. You handled much worse and got out of the rabbit hole triumphantly. Do not exaggerate the problems you have now.
Engage in Mental Time Travel :
You are sad now because a friend did not invite you to dinner but invited some other common friends ? Please think in broader time intervals and ask yourself ? Will you even remember what this was all about after 2 weeks ?
Always keep in mind, in the short term you are governed by your emotions, in the long term you are governed by how important something or someone is in your bucket list till death.
Experience Some Awe :
Awe is quite popular in psychology nowadays. Awe is simply feeling surprised. Feeling that you are small in the vastness of the universe. In other words, a sense of admiration mixed with some kind of surprise. It can be a waterfall, it can be a magnificent mountain top view, it can be a concert you are listening to in a huge stadium. Awe-inspiring experiences, such as viewing nature or art, can foster a sense of belonging to something greater than oneself.
Attending to a Metallica concert , jumping from a plane with a parachute, witnessing the birth of a baby, looking at Van Gogh's yellow paintings one by one, seeing the world in a video from space, listening to Atatürk's opening speech of the parliament, being breathless at the perfection of nature. Whichever you call an awe-inspiring experience, scientists are very interested in it.
We don't necessarily have to climb the mountain Everest. Movies, music and books can be an endless source of this feeling of awe. Maybe you cook, and you find it very inspiring to create the best taste and smell. You may prefer immersing yourself in nature whenever you have the opportunity, just keep looking for new experiences that interest and excite you.
You can find a very detailed summary of the book below. I certainly encourage you to buy it anyways.
2 Articles:
These articles will always be from my sacred vault. They may be old, but the quality never fades away.
Here are 99 wisdom nuggets from one and only Kevin Kelly :
You are only as young as the last time you changed your mind.
Your passion in life should fit you exactly; but your purpose in life should exceed you. Work for something much larger than yourself.
You can reduce the annoyance of someone’s stupid belief by increasing your understanding of why they believe it.
Here are 17 questions that Tim Ferris says changed his life. Some of them can be really helpful for you if you are on the edge of choosing something important
Which one of these, if done, would render all the rest either easier or completely irrelevant?
What are the worst things that could happen? Could I get back here?
If I could only work 2 hours per week on my business, what would I do?
1 Video
While I was losing my consciousness in the black hole of youtube I came across this video about Surrealism. For those of you who might not know about it, using Wikipedia’s definition, “Surrealism was a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself.”
Salvador Dali, René Magritte, Yves Tanguy, Pierre Roy, Paul Delvaux, and Joan Miró are cited as most influential surrealists. Pablo Picasso and Frida Kahlo also joined the movement in some of their paintings, although the are not explicitly declared as surrealists.
The best example of a surrealistic painting is for me comes from Dali :
The Persistence of Memory
Here is a good introduction video to Surrealism , I am grateful that Youtube is still free:
2 Quotes :
"If you genuinely want something, don't wait for it — teach yourself to be impatient."
― Gurbaksh ChahalSuccess to me is giving full effort knowing that was the best I was capable of. That said, full effort means nothing if day-to-day preparation was not all I had. Success to me is giving everything I have into each and every day, each and every moment; training, recovery, family, friends, giving back, inspiring, loving what I do. Then, come game time, give full effort, knowing I am the best I am capable of becoming.
― Ben Bergeon
Until next time,
Forward, always.
Ratip.
An end note:
I try to create some kind of a book/article notes in Turkish, here is an episode from it. Please let me know about your thoughts. How can I improve it ? What is your thought on the quality of content ? What can I add more ?