Aidan's Infinite Play 2 The Cyclical Nature of Life
Hello Players!
Yesterday was going to be a 10/10. I had planned for a fun day of games at the Homecoming Cornell carnival followed by a jump into Second Dam, a cliff jumping spot. After my morning run I was dismayed to find out that every person I had planned to do both activities with had canceled.
My 10/10 day was gone.
Instead, I went to the library to edit a podcast and do some schoolwork. Aside from a brief call with my mom, I spent most of the day alone. Editing, learning, walking outside and looking at nature.
It was peaceful and serene.
The mundane days still mean something
Of course, I would have rather had the day of social interaction with friends but not every day can be like that. Some days you will simply "go through the routine." The routine of teaching, learning, going to work, or whatever else depending on your occupation.
These "mundane" days still have meaning. They are the bedrock that allow you to have those 10/10 days. If every day was a 10/10 by its very definition you would be having an average day every day.
Life is inherently cyclical
This realization fits into a broader concept I have been thinking about recently.
Life is inherently cyclical.
Let me explain why by looking at the day, week, month, year, and seasons.
The Daily
While every day changes somewhat, the overall tendencies in what I do is the same. I have always been more of a habit than a project person.
In the morning I like to exercise, than do my most important writing or task, and then break my fast with a friend. The afternoons change but generally I write, read, study, or pursue a project.
For dinner, I always try and eat with someone and if I'm not socializing afterward I like to read. Then I do my night routine and go to bed. Most people are more social in the evening.
The Weekly
During the week, especially during the school year, people are doing more work. On the weekends people are more willing to do things.
At college I often see people working like snobs over the week only to completely vedge out and party on the weekends.
The Monthly
On the monthly, there's enough time for people to legitimately change. Major life events can come and go.
The Yearly
On the yearly, people can change drastically. New years resolutions are made and as a student classes come and go.
The Seasonal
Spring, summer, fall, winter. Everything changes based on the season.
As a student or teacher, summer is a time of way more freedom. There's less daylight during the winter so most people are forced to spend more time inside influencing routines as a result.
Learning is cyclical
Learning is also cyclical. So much of the time when I learn a lesson, like the very notion that not every day has to be memorable, I have to be reminded of it time and time again.
Accept the Cyclical Nature
I'm coming to terms with the cyclical nature of life. A part of me will always be annoyed at the fact that not every day can be a 10/10. That some days I should spend alone doing only habitual things.
But another part of me knows it's the cyclical nature that makes life beautiful. As the seasons change, our routines change. This novelty brings energy.
I'll end with a quote from Heraclitus.
"Change is the only constant in life." - Heraclitus
Here's what I would like to share this week.
📸News From The Channel!
I Did 54 Weekly Reviews: Here’s What I Learned: I recount my five biggest lessons I have learned after doing 54 weekly reviews. Reflecting on your journal and reviewing your to do list and calendar items is one of the most valuable things you can do to gain insight into how to live a better life.
🕹️How Building a Second Brain Saved me From Video Game Addiction: as a kid I was addicted to video games. But through using Obsidian and diving into the PKM community, I have learned how to find the same joy I got in video games through notemaking.
Astrid Helfant: Using Google Keep for Teaching and Science: In this podcast episode with my mom, we discuss what notetaking and research were like before the internet, how she uses BASB methodologies in her teaching and life, and how we can take insight from the past to take better notes today.
💡My Best Insights:
📖Book - Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss: Never Split The Difference, by Chris Voss, is a fantastic book that goes over the art of negotiating. One of my favorite concepts that Chris brings up in the book is anchoring. The anchoring bias is peoples tendency to put more weight on the first piece of information they come across in anything. Consciously or more often subconsciously that piece of information influences subsequent decision making. For example, the first food you put on your plate at dinner changes the next foods you are more likely to take. This is why you should always put the most healthy food on first. This has fascinating implications on a whole bunch of other spheres I will definitely talk about in a blog post at some point.
✍️Blog Post - Work Life Balance Is Impossible: Using the word balance to refer to work life balance inherently frames work and life as something that needs to be balanced. But work shouldn't be something that takes away from your life! It should be something that adds to it. The question is not how to balance work and life but how to create a healthy relationship among both work and life.
🎙️Podcast - Focus Toolkit: Tools to Improve Your Focus & Concentration | Episode 88: this episode is packed full of actionable tips on how to focus more readily which I can say from years of experience work. Some of the most insightful are the fact that the maximum a trained human brain can focus on a cognitively demanding task before getting brain fog is 90 minutes. Even trained deep workers can only do around 2-3 90 minute session of hard cognitive work per day, usually split across the day.
📺YouTube Video - Who are your Idea Grandparents? The 5 Decade Rule: Your idea grandparents are the people you get your most valuable ideas and insights from. Interestingly, the best idea grandparents often are born five decades before us as they have had time to give their most meaningful contributions while still living in a culture that is relatively similar to the one we live in. Some of my idea grandparents are Danielle Kahneman, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and David Allen. One of my major goals in life is to be someone's idea grandparents.