Issue #3
In Our 3rd Issue:
- Some of the best life advice you’ll ever hear from a young Hunter S. Thompson
- Exactly what you need to get started on your next venture
- Beautiful “Machine-Optimized” designs that look like the natural world
- Last week’s best poll responses, and our molten-hot take on why flying is overrated
by Hunter S. Thompson, featured in the Farnam Street Blog
This letter from a 22-year-old Hunter S. Thompson – who would become one of the most brilliant writers of the 20th century – is simply some of the most engaging and elegant life advice we’ve ever read.
His writing is so entertaining that when you finish, you want to go right back to read it again just to re-visit all the wit and wisdom packed into each sentence. Imagine having this much insight at age 22!
Key Quotes:
- “Let’s assume that you think you have a choice of eight paths to follow (all pre-defined paths, of course). And let’s assume that you can’t see any real purpose in any of the eight. THEN— and here is the essence of all I’ve said— you MUST FIND A NINTH PATH.”
- “Beware of looking for goals: look for a way of life. Decide how you want to live and then see what you can do to make a living WITHIN that way of life.”
by Josh Spector
A short article to break down the simple facts about what will happen if you start your next “thing” today. What “thing” is that? It’s different for everyone, but we all have one.
Short and to the point, this might be just what you needed to hear today.
Key Quotes:
- “When ‘someday’ becomes today, we get a rush of accomplishment, possibility, and pride.”
- “Planning, research, and preparation is meaningless unless you actually start.”
This twitter thread by Alexandros Marinos shows fascinating examples of computer-optimized designs in different objects and systems. Scroll through a few and you’ll see, the final products look much different (and a lot more like the natural world) than you’d expect.
Key Quote: “Machines tend to depend on us to define the high-level objectives, but they can explore infinitely more of the solution space than we could hope to. Their results are often much much better than we could ever hope to produce.”
Poll Question of the Week:
But wait! First, last week’s best responses to the question: If I could hand-pick my own super power, it would be ____, because _______.
- “Flying, because it is a combination of fun and utility!”
- “To rewind, because I could rewind life and experience/share memories in live action. Bring pictures to life.. Lost loved ones to life.”
- “FLYING BECAUSE IT WOULD BE AMAZING OBVI”
- “Never need to sleep, it’s a waste of time”
- “Reading minds, because I could understand people on a whole other level.”
- “Teleportation, it’d save you thousands of hours of travel time and inconvenience. You’d be able to see everything on earth that you wanted to within your lifetime.”
- “Never committing a logical fallacy, because I’d then be able to approach every situation as well as person objectively and fairly”
- “Understanding where my wife wants to go for dinner, because otherwise it’s impossible.”
A Note From the Editors:
We got a few other entries about flying, and feel the need to point out a few downsides to this potentially overrated option:
- Dealing with the weather
- Instantly becoming a world-wide celebrity the first time people see you
- Unavoidable painful/messy collisions with birds, bugs, and drones
There are plenty more, but we’ll leave it there. For now, consider us Team Teleport.
This Week's Question:
If I could pick a single personality trait/attribute to turn up to the MAX, it would be:
And that’s a wrap! If you have any comments, suggestions, recommendations, or just general feedback we’d love to hear from you! Email us at brooke@pearlrunner.com and we’ll include our favorite comments in next week’s edition (and maybe in our Instagram feed 🧐). Thanks for reading and have a great week!
