Welcome to the Mind Fuzz newsletter, a recap of three things that are on my mind this week.
1. What Remains of Childhood
So the live-action remake of Avatar: The Last Airbender came out over a week ago and I still haven’t watched it.
For those of you that don’t know, the original cartoon is my favourite thing in the world. And I don’t use that lightly. No matter how many times I watch it, I know I’ll shed a few tears throughout the series (both of joy and of sadness).
But for some reason, I just can’t bring myself to watch the re-make. It’s almost like I don’t want to lose the memories of the original. I don’t want the characters I love so dearly to have a new face and voice.
I’m all for non-attachment and the impermanence of things, but man, can this one just stay the same please?
As I get older, my childhood just gets further and further away. This is one of the only thing that still reminds me of it.
2. Reading Like a Psycopath
What’s your reading process like? I have six books on the go at the moment. I’ve always thought of it as a bad habit, but that’s just how I read.
It’s almost like having a book ready for every mood. If I was only reading one, and I didn’t feel like reading it, then that would give me an excuse not to bother at all.
And if you think that’s crazy? Listen to this.
I was watching an interview with Naval Ravikant, the guy quoted below, who says he skips to random parts of books and reads them. Like he’ll just read chapter 6 and be done with it.
I feel like there’s definitely something to it. Life is too short to read boring books, and I feel like a lot of us do it just to say we finished it.
I also think there’s a lot of fluff in non-fiction books just to pad out an idea that could be explained in a chapter or two.
3. Diseases of Abundance
“Most diseases today are diseases of abundance, not scarcity,” Naval Ravikant.
So many problems in our lives today are due to abundance. Diabetes and heart disease caused by an abundance of food, greed caused by an abundance of wealth, lack of focus and attention caused by an abundance of cheap dopamine and instant gratification.
If you want to live a fulfilling life in modern times, you need to strip things away from it.
This is hard. We’re told all the time that what we have isn’t enough – but we know deep down we’re only told that so we can buy someone else’s product.
When all our survival needs are met, what is there left to fill? At that point, only ‘wants’ are left. Not needs.
A closing question for you
Is something you’re consuming in abundance having a negative effect on your life? What would happen if you removed it?
