11 - Losing friends, Shredded 80-year olds, Start your first business selling hand mittens
Losing friends, Shredded 80-year olds, Saying no, Start your first business selling hand mittens
My recent thoughts in <400 words
Losing friends unnecessarily
- I wonder how many good friends I have lost contact with over the past 10 years. Perhaps 15?
- People change over time in a sort of gradual, definite, personality drift.1 However, many friendships end accidentally, e.g., someone moves to a different place.
- But, now that tech connects us, losing contact unintentionally with a friend is avoidable. So, it seems even sadder if it happens.2
- Relatedly, Cal Newport describes relationships as a buffer. Many things in one's life only work in the average-case (i.e., when everything else is going normally). In contrast, relationships also work in the worst-case situations.
Saying no
- I think that saying no when you feel socially obliged to say yes is underrated skill to have.
- It is easy to get swept away by the current of social norms. You can end up doing things that you don't really want to do, and aren't good for you.
- I enjoyed taking an opportunity to say no with a contracting client this week. The client wanted something that I didn't want, so I said no.
Start your first business selling hand mittens
- I think that many people like the idea of starting a business, but don't know how to start.
- This is unsurprising because of what we are used to. Most education and job paths have a very clear track to follow. Whereas, there is no clear guide to making something that someone wants and selling it to them.
- A good step is to start in a very small way. The main aim should be just to release something.
- For example, I spoke to Onjey this week. His first business was creating and selling a range of hand-made hand mittens.
- Building your first product allows you to build future (successful) products. For your first product, you are successful if you push through the paralysis of choice to just create something.
- I wrote an article about this here: Hand mittens: making your first product
Shredded 80-year olds
- Is it possible to be very strong and fit when 80 years old? If yes, how difficult is it to maintain?
- Gaining muscle becomes harder as you age, bones become weaker, and so on. But there seem to be few strong 80 year olds.3 Is this biological or cultural?
- One possible cultural reason is that going to the gym and exercising might not be common for people born in the 1940s.
- Or, this might be due to difficulties maintaining habits. Since you get injured more easily as you age, perhaps the older person who gets injured becomes wary of more injury, and so stops exercising.
Outro
- My ACL (ligament in the knee) is completely torn. I went to have knee surgery last week. I am going to have exactly the same surgery again this week. I wrote a short description of it here: Bonus Knee Surgery.
- I enjoyed reading this article, 'The Biscuits of Bezos', about how Jeff Bezos ate packs of Pillsbury Biscuits for breakfast for 2 years. It seems logical that getting really good at something (i.e., making some aspect of your life disproportionate) requires an unbalanced life.
- I have been enjoying Kanye's new album. I like this song about how Kanye needs his wife: 'Lord I need you'
- Below is a photo of where I am sitting as I wrote this. I had my last swim for a while (given the surgery).
- I hope that you are having a super week.
Tom
This reminds me of continental drift. Pangea separates in many small steps to be continents.
Thankfully, this doesn't apply to you. One of newsletter's main aim is to connect to the amazing people that I know.
Of course, there are fewer people alive at 80 than at 50. But, I am more interested in the possibility question: can a person be 80 and be very fit?