Weekly Roundup: October 1st, 2021

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This Week on Better Questions

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A Cold Shower.

I've been waking up every morning with the coldest shower I can manage, and...it's wonderful. Not something I ever thought I'd say.

Pair with last week's email for some kind of meta-series on doing things that make you uncomfortable.

Something On My Radar:

I started a Real Estate Investing newsletter.

This is meant as a lead-generation vehicle for my primary business (which is a marketing agency).

I mention it here because it's an example of some of the benefits of a regular creative practice.

The process I use for curating and writing this newsletter is the exact same process I use for Better Questions.

When I started Better Questions, I didn't know if I would enjoy it or keep up with it. I certainly didn't think I would end up using the systems I developed for my day job.

Creative practices lead you to unexpected places and provide unexpected benefits. This can make them look like a waste of time on the surface...but creative work routinely provides me with some of the best returns on my time.

By the way, if you're interested in building your own creative process, I made a whole course about it that I'm very proud of.

Five Interesting Links For The Weekend:

The Problem of Marital Loneliness

Ostensibly a review of a remake of Ingmar Bergman's "Scenes From a Marriage," this is, in itself, a powerful meditation on the melancholy one finds in a marriage.

"Conversation is only one example of the various arenas in which we routinely fail to connect; broadly, he’s considerate and unromantic, whereas I’m romantic and inconsiderate. Marriage is hard, even when no crises loom, and even when things basically work. What makes it hard are not only the various problems that arise but the lingering absence that is felt most strongly when they don’t. The very closeness of marriage makes every bit of distance palpable. Something is wrong, all the time."

Revolt of the delivery workers

This is being passed around by everyone, and with good reason: it's a wild, troubling ride.

"All summer, food-delivery workers returning home after their shifts have been violently attacked there for their bikes: by gunmen pulling up on motorcycles, by knife-wielding thieves leaping from the recesses, by muggers blocking the path with Citi Bikes and brandishing broken bottles.

'Once you go onto that bridge, it’s another world,' one frequent crosser said. 'You ever see wildlife with the wildebeest trying to cross with the crocodiles? That’s the crocodiles over there. We’re the wildebeests just trying to get by.'"

Dr. Rhonda Patrick's 80/20 Lifestyle Changes

Not totally sure how I feel about Rhonda Patrick, but this simple summary of basic health advice was a nice reminder to focus on the most impactful things you can do.

The Frustration with Productivity Culture

Noticing a number of these "we're fed up with productivity"-type articles as of late. This one is perhaps the best of the lot. The zeitgeist - as much as the "zeitgeist" can be defined as "what people who largely work online think" - seems to have shifted. Pandemic stress abounds.

The Konik Philosophy of Gardening, Digital & Otherwise

This delightful article about gardening - both outside, in the dirt, and inside, on the web - is charming and practical in turns.

"My preferred way to learn gardening or notetaking is to investigate the conventional wisdom, apply it in a low-stress way, see what happens, and iterate. But I’m not a farmer, a park ranger, an academic or a professional project manager. I’m just some lady on the internet who likes to learn stuff and share stories."

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Got a recommendation? Something you think I'd like, or want to share with the community?

Send it to dan@nolessthan.com. You might get featured in a future email!