Weekly I/O: When is future, Marketing Cringe, There is no knowledge in books
#80: Addiction and Shortened Time Horizon, Marketing Cringe, No Knowledge in Book, Pain is not Unit of Effort, Two Tragedies
Hi friends,
Greetings from Mountain View!
Here's your weekly dose of I/O. I hope you enjoy it!
Input
Here's a list of what I'm exploring and pondering on this week.
1. When thinking about the future, drug addicts project 9 days into the future while healthy people consider 4.7 years forward. Addictive drugs can shorten our "temporal horizon".
Book: Dopamine Nation
When thinking about the future, how far ahead do people usually plan? In a study, researchers asked groups of heroin addicts and healthy individuals to complete a story that began with the line: "After awakening, Bill began to think about his future. In general, he expected to..." The goal of the study was not to analyze the content of each participant's response but rather to examine the timeframe each individual envisioned for their future.
While the control group projected stories an average of 4.7 years into the future, heroin addicts only looked 9 days forward. This stark contrast shows how addictive drugs can narrow our "temporal horizon".
Conversely, when Dr. Anna Lembke, a psychiatrist specializing in addiction, asked her recovering patients what the deciding moment for them to try to quit drugs was, her patients usually shared insights with a long-term perspective. One patient said, "I suddenly realized I'd been using heroin for a year, and I thought to myself, if I don't stop now, I may be doing this for the rest of my life."
I feel like people with depression or with depression or those reminded of their mortality may also tend to have shortened time horizons and insensitivity to future consequences. If we are uncertain about surviving another day, it may be hard to envision some moments far in the future, and prioritizing immediate rewards over delayed ones becomes more rational.
2. When marketing our work, we must feel a bit cringe. Zero cringe can be suboptimal because it either means we are not being authentic or we are tasteless.
Podcast: Y Combinator CEO: The Key To Writing For Startups & Entrepreneurs | Garry Tan | How I Write Podcast
When we do marketing, how much cringe is the right amount of cringe? I find myself hesitating each time I'm about to share my work on social media because I cringe a bit. This idea from Garry Tan, the CEO of Y Combinator, might shed light on why having some cringe is good.
According to Gary, a certain level of discomfort or 'cringe' is essential in marketing. Zero cringe is probably suboptimal because if we don't feel any cringe, we are probably not being authentic. Being zero cringe could indicate either we are totally tasteless or we are just following the current trends, both of which fail to incorporate our unique essence and can quickly become outdated.
In Gary's words, "being yourself is always a little bit weird, and it doesn't seem numerically possible to have zero cringe and be authentic." This idea also echoes what the illustrator Worry Lines said in this post, "If I'm cringing just a little bit, it's probably about right."
3. There is no knowledge in books, only information. Information only becomes knowledge after we interpret and understand it.
Thought
The thought extends from the Knowledge Pyramid concept. Books themselves do not contain knowledge because information only becomes knowledge after we actively interpret and understand it. Therefore, knowledge is a product of our interaction with information rather than the texts printed on paper representing the author's understanding.
4. Pain is not the unit for effort. If it hurts, maybe we are doing it wrong.
Article: Pain is not the unit of Effort
There seems to be a pervasive belief in society that pain is the measure of effort, as in common quotes like "No pain, no gain" and "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger". However, the concept of pain as a unit of effort can lead to detrimental practices that don't actually contribute to achieving our goals. Sometimes, we might be sacrificing happiness by pursuing efforts that are actually not relevant to our objectives.
The writer suggests two counterbalancing beliefs: "If it hurts, you're probably doing it wrong" and "You're not trying your best if you're not happy", which remind me of When things aren’t working, be smarter, not louder, and It is very simple to be happy, but it is very difficult to be simple.
5. “In this world, there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.” - Oscar Wilde
Quote
As previously noted in This Is Water, the relentless pursuit of external desires can put us on a hedonistic treadmill: wanting something, getting it, adjusting to a new standard, and starting to want more. We never get to achieve true satisfaction unless we engage with something larger than ourselves, something invariant.
Forgetting goals and building a system can be another solution.
Output
Here's what I've published since the last time we met.
1. First Impressions of Berlin
A log of my first impressions I jotted down and some photos I took when visiting Berlin.
Photo of the Week
Fuji Industrial 100, As seen in Paprika.
That's it. Thanks for reading. Please share which input you found the most helpful or intriguing. Just reply to this email with a number—it's quick and easy!
And as always, feel free to send me any interesting ideas you came across recently!
Looking forward to learning from you.
Cheers,
Cheng-Wei