I’ve been busy this week working on my first contract gig for a young start-up.
Down the line, I might write a post about it, but for now I can say that it’s taken a lot of my time and attention, in a good way. Sometimes, and I’m not exactly sure why, I can drop myself into “horse-blinders mode”—where I face a challenge with laser-focused attention and seemingly unlimited energy. It may have something to do with tackling a problem that I see as daunting, but achievable. I don’t have any evidence to believe it’s achievable, I just have an inherent faith that I don’t have to force.
Horse-blinders mode (or being “obsessed”) breathes new life into me. It challenges the popular notion that you have more energy in your 20s than your 30s. I don’t believe in that notion. Instead, I think you have a richer requirement for unlocking youthful energy as you get older.1 Your work has to put you on a path that you want to be on — simply working for money isn’t enough.
Anyway, with that excuse, I’m sharing 3 articles I enjoyed reading this week.2 The first one’s about a new way of meditating (it works!), the second on the Wait Calculation, and the final one on becoming more agentic.
What I wish someone had told me about starting a meditation practice by
Here is a terrible set of beginner meditation instructions: “Sit up straight in a lotus pose, whether or not you like doing that. Do whatever you need to do to shut down your mind from wandering or changing. Suppress emotions, try to stop thoughts. Do everything you can to install a meditation object as the center of attention. Make yourself calm by force. Do this until you are an enlightened being, for 30 minutes at a time.”
This is roughly the set of instructions I’ve been following since I was 24. It’s not that they don’t work3 it’s just that it feels like work. It requires discipline and willpower to keep your back straight and your mind quiet for 30 minutes straight, day after day.
Since reading this article, I’ve been practicing the “broad awareness” approach and it noticeably feels easier. It’s hard to describe the feeling but I’ll try through example.
Imagine you’re standing on a beach, looking out at a tiny boat that’s resting just under the horizon. Your forced attention on the boat, for an extended period of time, feels a lot like the meditation practice described by Sasha’s “terrible beginner instructions” above. Broad awareness, however, feels like expanding your gaze to see the boat and the entire horizon. Moreover, you slightly relax your posture and start to let in the sounds around you. You notice how your clothes feel on your skin and the coolness of the breeze passing through your fingers. The cadence of your breath enters your awareness. You begin to almost disappear into your environment. This is what I think “being present” feels like.
The Lazy Tyranny of the Wait Calculation by
If you are planning on writing a novel, or building an AI software solution at your business, or writing an academic paper, or launching a startup should you just… wait? I can think of at least two major projects where I should have waited, if I had known how good AI was going to get.
This article caught my eye because I’ve actually thought through this question for my own work. If we’re at the rapid growth phase of artificial intelligence, shouldn’t I simply wait for my intern-level AI assistant to become a senior-level engineer within a year’s time? Ethan’s article does a great job of digging into this question and guiding you on how to answer it for yourself.
Agency is the skill that built the world around you, an all-purpose life intensifier that lets you make your corner of it more like what you want it to be, whether that’s professional, relational, aesthetic, whatever. Build a better mousetrap. Have an enviable marriage. Start a country. No one is born with it, everyone can learn it, and it’s never too late.
Agency or “high agency” is something I’ve, for a long time, been interested in cultivating. The MacGyver-esque ability to not be held back by current circumstances and limitations is just plain badass. Imagine, for example, that you’re trapped in a cabin with some friends during a snow-pocalypse and all you have is a fridge stocked with basic ingredients and salt and pepper for seasoning. A Gordon Ramsay or Jacques Pepin could iron chef that shit to make an amazing meal. I would like to be such a person.
But more importantly, the more agentic you are, the more life becomes a game. Problems become challenges. Constraints become rules of the game. Life becomes more fun. Cate describes several ways you can learn to be more agentic. Predisposition is not required.
Good Beats
At the 4:20 mark, this song starts it’s quick climb to a religious peak. Gives me chills, every single time.
A 50¢ word (aka words that say a lot with less)
Wayfinder: One who finds a way: either a physical route or a means to achieve something.
Other words/phrases that touch on the same idea: high agency, relentlessly resourceful, the Martian (watch this movie).
For Your Thoughts
I deserve what I want and no one is going to give it to me. I will get it for myself.
hasta la próxima vez mi amigo,
-Rahul
P.S. a reminder you can reply directly to oldmanrahul@substack.com, or you can tweet me @oldmanrahul about this edition. Thanks for reading and supporting my writing :)
Vince McMahon, WWE co-founder, is 78-years old and still crushing it.
Since taking a break from full-time, I’ve noticed that I read a lot more (which is a wonderful side effect of managing my own time).
I’ve actually noticed that my level of frustration over small inconveniences has dulled over time and I think it’s from my meditation practice