Hey folks,
Coming to you live from Austin, Texas.
Here’s your weekly dose of Arman’s Antics — five things I’ve been pondering or exploring that will provide a good think, chuckle, weep (or a nasty combination of the three).
A warm welcome to the thirteen new subscribers receiving this for the first time (477 total). I don’t take your attention lightly.
Hopefully nobody gets around to reading this, but if you do, please keep it to yourself.
Essay I wrote this week
I’m sure you’ve realized over the past few years that everyone in the world has a podcast now.
And I’ve easily listened to hundreds of hours of them over the past seven years or so.
I’d like to believe that some of it has made me smarter, healthier, and even a bit happier. But there’s one question that’s been lingering on my mind for months:
Book that will cause you to question your money-worshipping
The Man Who Quit Money by Mark Sundeen.
I didn’t expect to like this book.
To be honest, I didn’t even want to read it. It had been sitting in my Amazon cart for months. But something finally made me buy it.
I figured it would be about some bum who had given up on life to go live in a cave because he couldn’t cut it in the real world.
I was partially right (he does spend some time in caves) but it felt like I was reading about a mystic, not a lunatic. He had stumbled upon some deep truths we could all stand to ponder.
Here’s the description:
“In 2000, Daniel Suelo left his life savings-all thirty dollars of it-in a phone booth. He has lived without money-and with a newfound sense of freedom and security-ever since. The Man Who Quit Money is an account of how one man learned to live, sanely and happily, without earning, receiving, or spending a single cent. Suelo doesn't pay taxes, or accept food stamps or welfare. He lives in caves in the Utah canyonlands, forages wild foods and gourmet discards. He no longer even carries an I.D. Yet he manages to amply fulfill not only the basic human needs-for shelter, food, and warmth-but, to an enviable degree, the universal desires for companionship, purpose, and spiritual engagement. In retracing the surprising path and guiding philosophy that led Suelo into this way of life, Sundeen raises provocative and riveting questions about the decisions we all make, by default or by design, about how we live-and how we might live better.”
Youtube interview I’ve watched multiple times
This podcast definitely won’t make you dumber.
But it might make you question all the productivity guru advice on morning routines, time management, and all the rest.
I love finding counterexamples who do the exact opposite of what conventional wisdom preaches. He is proof that there’s never one right way to do anything.
Plus, he’s got a british accent which automatically makes me pay closer attention.
Overnight tragedies and long term miracles
I first heard this idea from Morgan Housel and it made me drop the barbell mid deadlift at the gym.
Why are so many people seduced to pessimism when things are better than they’ve ever been?
One reason is that horrific tragedies usually happen quickly.
Think about it — Pearl Harbor, 9/11, the typhoon that killed thousands in Thailand back in ‘04.
One moment everything was normal, the next moment nothing was the same.
What about most good things like — the steady decrease in heart attack deaths worldwide, the reduction of ozone depleting substances globally, and the reforesting across the US.
These take decades to notice but could be considered long term miracles.
Random thought
If you followed all the advice from experts, you’d be contradicting yourself daily.
That’s it for the 74th edition of Arman’s Antics.
I hope you didn’t make it this far, but if you did, please resist the urge to share this with a dear friend.
Now back to your regularly scheduled nonstop scrolling.
Remember, try to be a little more curious than you normally are.
Cheers,
Arman