Happy Monday!
I'm rebranding.
Elevate had a good run, but like all good things...
These jumbled clusters of links, photos, and facts you (sometimes) take 5 minutes to read on Monday mornings will now be distributed under a new designation: Almost a musing
What does it mean? Is the space between “a” and “musing” intentional?
If you have to ask, you’ll never know. If you know, you need only ask
Effective immediately, this will be the name of the newsletter, until I change my mind again and decide to make it something else.
You are under no obligation to be the same person you were 5 minutes ago
Enjoy the inaugural edition!
Quick read
Mundia & Modia: The two worlds in which we live // David Boxenhorn
We humans live in two worlds. One world, I call Mundia, is the world of immutable laws, e.g. gravity, electromagnetism, and supply and demand - it is the world that we see when we look out at the natural landscape. The other world, I call Modia, is the world of social relationships, e.g. love, hate, admiration, envy, loyalty, and gratitude - it is the world that we see when we look out at the social landscape.
I believe that, while all of us live in both worlds, most of us live in one world much more than the other: we are Mundians or Modians, not both. Mundians look out at the world and see the natural landscape; Modians, the social landscape. This fact explains a lot of phenomena that have puzzled me for a long time. At the most basic level it explains this: when faced with a problem, what is the heuristic that we use for solving it? Mundians use a naturalistic model, while Modians use a sociological model. The nature of these two models is very different, often leading to very different answers.
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The problem comes when you use Modian skills to solve a Mundian problem, or vice versa. Everybody knows that Modian skills won't keep your bridges from falling down, but we still choose bridge-builders partly, at least, for Modian reasons. Everybody knows that truth isn't a popularity contest, but we still tend to view a recent scientific consensus as truth, and call dissenters deniers. Conversely, Mundia won't help you get along with your spouse, your co-workers, or make you popular.
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Visual
Fact
80% of the US population is concentrated within 3.6% of the landmass of the contiguous United States
Tune
Quote
"Taking drugs and thinking that you are happy is like taking a loan and thinking you are rich" // Thibaut
Something to ponder
The ultimate shortcut is to stop looking for shortcuts
Personal update
Got to spend some quality time with some quality people
Shoot me an email, say hi, let me know if you were amused. Thanks for reading. Stay safe out there!
Until next week,