Attention is the oil of the 21st century.
Majority of human population turn to the endless scroll of TikTok videos the moment they find themselves doing a boring repetitive task (brushing teeth, waiting for the bus, etc.). With the introduction of internet and social media, we got used to instant gratification and the quick dopamine hits to the point where we can't get out of bed without checking our phones first.
There are no long term studies on the impact of social media on the brain as mainstream social media has been only around for the past 15-20 years. Social media can affect the ability to focus and pay attention in the long-term, by changing the way the brain processes information and rewiring attentional networks, leading to attention deficit, impulsivity, and impulsivity. Studies also suggest that heavy social media users have a higher likelihood of developing symptoms of ADHD. if you use your phone more than 3-4 hours every day, maybe it's time to evaluate some life choices. But how do you get out of this cycle?
Cal Newport suggests getting off social media for a month and seeing if your life changes drastically. Are your friends (or your follower base) reaching out to you asking why you went off the grid? If you don't get an enormous amount of messages, then you are probably better off not going to that said social media platform.
My personal take on this: deleting social media outright is the solution. People are afraid of missing out on what's going on with their friends life, but at the end of the day, if your deeply care about your friends and family, talking to them in person or giving them a call once in a while should be your go-to solution.
Reject TikTok, embrace boredom.
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Majority of human population turn to the endless scroll of TikTok videos the moment they find themselves doing a boring repetitive task (brushing teeth, waiting for the bus, etc.). With the introduction of internet and social media, we got used to instant gratification and the quick dopamine hits to the point where we can't get out of bed without checking our phones first.
There are no long term studies on the impact of social media on the brain as mainstream social media has been only around for the past 15-20 years. Social media can affect the ability to focus and pay attention in the long-term, by changing the way the brain processes information and rewiring attentional networks, leading to attention deficit, impulsivity, and impulsivity. Studies also suggest that heavy social media users have a higher likelihood of developing symptoms of ADHD. if you use your phone more than 3-4 hours every day, maybe it's time to evaluate some life choices. But how do you get out of this cycle?
Cal Newport suggests getting off social media for a month and seeing if your life changes drastically. Are your friends (or your follower base) reaching out to you asking why you went off the grid? If you don't get an enormous amount of messages, then you are probably better off not going to that said social media platform.
My personal take on this: deleting social media outright is the solution. People are afraid of missing out on what's going on with their friends life, but at the end of the day, if your deeply care about your friends and family, talking to them in person or giving them a call once in a while should be your go-to solution.
Reject TikTok, embrace boredom.
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Theory of Conspicuous Consumption
The other day in class, my professor mentioned Louis Vuitton was doing a collab with Yayoi Kusama (famous Japanese artist), and told us he was looking forward to buying one of the bags from the collection. The travel bag they have on display will set you back for at least $1,000. You might be thinking "yeah that makes sense given the brand", but why do we purchase excessively expensive items knowing full well that they are worth less than their quality? The answer is in the Theory of Conspicuous Consumption.
Thorstein Veblen, a famous philosopher from the 19th century coined the term Conspicuous Consumption in his "The Theory of the Leisure Class" book. Conspicuous consumption is the act of displaying ostentatious wealth to gain status and reputation in society. Both an LV bag and a regular bag will carry your items, but the LV bag is a visual representation you can afford and have the means for a lavish lifestyle. Have you ever noticed these so called "luxury brands" have their logos all over their products? That's partly because people purchasing those items want them there as a visible evidence of their wealth. Veblen argued that the middle class admired the lifestyle and consumption patterns of the leisure class and always sought to imitate them in order to improve their own social status.
When you visit San Francisco, you'll realize it's nothing like Boston or Washington DC where people dress aesthetic and drive fancy cars. The lack of Conspicuous Consumption in SF gives it a very laid back culture where people do not care about the materialistic aspects of life and rather focus on innovating. You'll see someone on the street dressed like a hobo, and for all you know, they might be running a startup with $100mln in ARR.
You can argue billionaires dress humble, but grey t-shirts Mark Zuckerberg wears cost $500. Billionaires flex on another level that is not obvious to an average peasant because the peasant can't comprehend more than a gucci bag as a sign of luxury.
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The other day in class, my professor mentioned Louis Vuitton was doing a collab with Yayoi Kusama (famous Japanese artist), and told us he was looking forward to buying one of the bags from the collection. The travel bag they have on display will set you back for at least $1,000. You might be thinking "yeah that makes sense given the brand", but why do we purchase excessively expensive items knowing full well that they are worth less than their quality? The answer is in the Theory of Conspicuous Consumption.
Thorstein Veblen, a famous philosopher from the 19th century coined the term Conspicuous Consumption in his "The Theory of the Leisure Class" book. Conspicuous consumption is the act of displaying ostentatious wealth to gain status and reputation in society. Both an LV bag and a regular bag will carry your items, but the LV bag is a visual representation you can afford and have the means for a lavish lifestyle. Have you ever noticed these so called "luxury brands" have their logos all over their products? That's partly because people purchasing those items want them there as a visible evidence of their wealth. Veblen argued that the middle class admired the lifestyle and consumption patterns of the leisure class and always sought to imitate them in order to improve their own social status.
When you visit San Francisco, you'll realize it's nothing like Boston or Washington DC where people dress aesthetic and drive fancy cars. The lack of Conspicuous Consumption in SF gives it a very laid back culture where people do not care about the materialistic aspects of life and rather focus on innovating. You'll see someone on the street dressed like a hobo, and for all you know, they might be running a startup with $100mln in ARR.
You can argue billionaires dress humble, but grey t-shirts Mark Zuckerberg wears cost $500. Billionaires flex on another level that is not obvious to an average peasant because the peasant can't comprehend more than a gucci bag as a sign of luxury.
Telegram
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When was the last time you had a workout session of any type 30 mins or more?
Final Results
31%
Today
21%
This week
6%
Last week
8%
Last month
34%
Last year
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Boots theory
——
"The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles. But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet."
——
This quote, an excerpt from Terry Pratchett's novel "Men at Arms", is the Captain Samuel Vimes "Boots" theory of socioeconomic unfairness. The theory is a satirical take on the idea that it is more expensive to be poor than to be rich, and it still holds to this day.
Another way of interpreting the story is "false economy." We are exposed to hundreds of ads every day to buy this, buy that, leading to a culture of consumerism. The difficult aspect is not simply acquiring the funds to purchase the better product, but rather deciding if it holds significant value for you.
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——
"The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles. But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet."
——
This quote, an excerpt from Terry Pratchett's novel "Men at Arms", is the Captain Samuel Vimes "Boots" theory of socioeconomic unfairness. The theory is a satirical take on the idea that it is more expensive to be poor than to be rich, and it still holds to this day.
Another way of interpreting the story is "false economy." We are exposed to hundreds of ads every day to buy this, buy that, leading to a culture of consumerism. The difficult aspect is not simply acquiring the funds to purchase the better product, but rather deciding if it holds significant value for you.
Telegram
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On Time Etiquette
I came across an interesting quote the other day.
"The most surprising thing is that you wouldn’t let anyone steal your property, but you consistently let people steal your time, which is infinitely more valuable." - Seneca
By now we have already established that we should stop being a yes-man and treat time as a finite resource. But what about other people's time?
A couple of weeks ago, I scheduled a networking meeting with someone. They didn't show up to the meeting and later texted saying they didn't see my messages. I shrugged it off and rescheduled the meeting for another day. But they failed to show up again. As someone who learned the importance of time the hard way, this comes as disrespectful both professionally and personally. As per Seneca's quote, I let that person steal my time. There is no way, according to the laws of physics, I am getting back that time now.
Looking back on this experience, I want to emphasize that it's important to constantly reflect and respect other people's time.
Next time you are a little late to a meeting, keep in mind you cost them 900 seconds they will never get back.
Telegram
I came across an interesting quote the other day.
"The most surprising thing is that you wouldn’t let anyone steal your property, but you consistently let people steal your time, which is infinitely more valuable." - Seneca
By now we have already established that we should stop being a yes-man and treat time as a finite resource. But what about other people's time?
A couple of weeks ago, I scheduled a networking meeting with someone. They didn't show up to the meeting and later texted saying they didn't see my messages. I shrugged it off and rescheduled the meeting for another day. But they failed to show up again. As someone who learned the importance of time the hard way, this comes as disrespectful both professionally and personally. As per Seneca's quote, I let that person steal my time. There is no way, according to the laws of physics, I am getting back that time now.
Looking back on this experience, I want to emphasize that it's important to constantly reflect and respect other people's time.
Next time you are a little late to a meeting, keep in mind you cost them 900 seconds they will never get back.
Telegram
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Sometimes it's important to take a moment and reflect on your life. Rise of social media made us robots who overconsume digital content on a constant basis that, in turn, put a constraint on our ability to contemplate about things around us.
If you are having lunch right now, put your phone down and think about how you spent the past week.
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If you are having lunch right now, put your phone down and think about how you spent the past week.
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Sleep is an important component of a healthy lifestyle. Never believe someone who says otherwise. People who say they are substituting sleep for work to be more productive are either lying or have a rare medical condition or they actually are and will bear its dire consequences in the future. I will do a more in-depth post about sleep in the near future.
If you want to take back your life, start with your sleep.
- Arianna Huffington
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If you want to take back your life, start with your sleep.
- Arianna Huffington
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On Friendships
As you grow older, the ratio of your time spent with your friends and parents will increase. Thus, it becomes important to take some time and evaluate your friendships as that will build one of the foundations of your future relationships.
I believe college is the most important place to form meaningful relationships early in your life. You never know, you might find your co-founder, significant other, or your best friend in college.
That's why try meeting new people everyday and watch out for people who share the same passion and value with you. You don't have to be in college for this.
When you do find people who are interesting, find ways to help them and don’t ask for anything in return.
But beware of people who always try to take advantage of you and cross them out from your life. They usually don't bring any value to the table and waste your time and energy like parasites.
All that being said, If you encountered a severe difficulty or problem in your day today, who are your friends you would contact? Contact them right now.
Telegram
As you grow older, the ratio of your time spent with your friends and parents will increase. Thus, it becomes important to take some time and evaluate your friendships as that will build one of the foundations of your future relationships.
I believe college is the most important place to form meaningful relationships early in your life. You never know, you might find your co-founder, significant other, or your best friend in college.
That's why try meeting new people everyday and watch out for people who share the same passion and value with you. You don't have to be in college for this.
When you do find people who are interesting, find ways to help them and don’t ask for anything in return.
But beware of people who always try to take advantage of you and cross them out from your life. They usually don't bring any value to the table and waste your time and energy like parasites.
All that being said, If you encountered a severe difficulty or problem in your day today, who are your friends you would contact? Contact them right now.
Telegram
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In a world full of AI generated communication, you stand out by crafting personalized messages.
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Learn how to ask questions from LLMs (i.e. ChatGPT) the right way with prompt engineering: https://www.promptingguide.ai/
www.promptingguide.ai
Prompt Engineering Guide | Prompt Engineering Guide
A Comprehensive Overview of Prompt Engineering
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“Besides, it is a disgrace to grow old through sheer carelessness before seeing what manner of man you may become by developing your bodily strength and beauty to their highest limit. But you cannot see that, if you are careless; for it will not come of its own accord.”
- Socrates
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- Socrates
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