The Weekly Circle #7
Welcome to the seventh episode of The Weekly Circle. A free Circles in Time newsletter released every Sunday.
Hey everybody,
I’m heading into the third week of the Circles in Time programme. So far, the participants have explored their aspirations, selected behaviour-based goals and started to put together systems to achieve those goals.
The range and variety of behaviour-based goals selected by participants are always fascinating to me- especially when I step back and contrast the different kinds of behaviours selected between cohorts. For example, the current cohort is much more focused on work and productivity than the cohorts I worked during the lockdowns, which seemed to prioritise exercise and health.
In the week ahead, I’ll be exposing the participants to the prescriptive behavioural science literature, and identifying tools, tactics and techniques that they can incorporate into their personal systems.
Here are some of the behaviourally-informed tools I will be exploring with the participants:
WORLD VIEWS
Here are the ideas I’ve been circling around this week.
THE WORLD AROUND US
The Illusion of Time
One intersection I’ve been obsessed with over the past few years is that of the physics, psychology and neuroscience of time. The work being done in this area is absolutely fascinating.
On the one side, physicists are showing us that everything we think we know about time couldn’t be further from the truth. It isn’t the stable, universal, linear path from the past to the future, that seems so intuitively obvious to us. It turns out that this experience of time is entirely constructed by our minds. On the other side, psychologists and neuroscientists are starting to understand how this is even possible.
There are three books that I’d recommend reading or listening to if you’re interested in understanding what is going on here. The first is Carlo Rovelli’s ‘Order of Time’, which provides an excellent overview on the nature of time and how it actually works. The second is Dean Buonomano’s book, ‘Your Brain is a Time Machine’. In it, Buonomano provides a detailed explanation of why we experience time the way we do, and how our experience deviates from the physics of time. The third book is ‘Surfing Uncertainty’ by the philosopher, Andy Clark, which provides the case for thinking about the human mind as a predictive processing system. If the theory turns out to be true, it paints a clear and coherent picture of why it feels like we are moving forward through time.
If you’re just looking to dip your toes, Carlo Rovelli gave an excellent talk on the subject at the New Scientist Conference in April this year. If that is too much for you, go and watch Christopher Nolan’s new movie, Tenet.
THE WORLD BETWEEN US
The Hidden Vulnerability of Others
One of my favourite ideas from John Koenig’s ‘Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows’ is Socha, meaning “the hidden vulnerability of others”. As he says so elegantly ~
“There's an optical illusion that's easy to fall for, even if you know the trick. The more distant you are from other people, the more invulnerable they appear.”
We see our own sufferings and those close to us, so vividly. Yet as soon as we turn to more distant others, we conveniently forget that behind the brave face they put on, they're just as infallible as us. This phenomenon gets amplified in a digital world, where our outward appearance can be controlled, crafted and selectively curated with such ease. As Koenig elaborates ~
“You see yourself as you are, with your flaws just as clear as your successes, but you see most other people on their terms, only from the side they present to the world, stoic and confident. And at first glance, they've got everything figured out, with everything set in stone, securely embedded in their community, wrapped up with their loved ones, their lives like a finished work of art.
But it's only just a trick of perspective: everyone else seems to be doing better than you, because you can't see the cracks from so far away. How insecure their footing, how malleable they really are. How many years of effort went into shaping their persona into something acceptable, how many other hands it took to build their lives, which are still only ever a work in progress.
It's the kind of basic human vulnerability that we'd all find familiar, but is still somehow surprising when we notice it in others.”
You can watch a short piece by John Koenig describing his concept of ‘Socha’ here:
THE WORLD WITHIN US
Wearables are Getting Under Your Skin
One company that I have been following closely for the past year or so is a health-tech startup called Levels. Their goal is to make glucose tracking as accessible, convenient and helpful as possible, so you can figure out how to manage your diet and exercise behaviour effectively. They achieve this using a small sensor that sits on your arm and continuously tracks your blood glucose levels over the course of the day.
The sensor feeds your blood glucose data back to a mobile application in real-time. The app visualises your data beautifully, and even suggests ways to manage your glucose levels more effectively! Is this the future?
WISE WORDS
The quotes I’ve been circling around this week
ON CLEAR THINKING
"Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in." ~ Isaac Asimov
“Correlation isn’t causation but neurons that fire together wire together. Thus the confusion." ~ Naval Ravikant
ON THE VALUE OF VULNERABILITY
“To share your weakness is to make yourself vulnerable; to make yourself vulnerable is to show your strength.” ~ Criss Jami
“Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.” ~ Brené Brown
“One of the most important things you can do on this earth is to let people know they are not alone.” ~ Shannon L. Alder
“The strongest love is the love that can demonstrate its fragility.” ~ Paulo Coelho“
“We cultivate love when we allow our most vulnerable and powerful selves to be deeply seen and known.” ~ Brené Brown
ON THE IMPORTANCE OF PATIENCE
“Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there someday.” ~ A.A. Milne
“Trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit.” ~ Moliere
“Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.” ~ Aristotle
“The strongest of all warriors are these two — Time and Patience.” ~ Leo Tolstoy
“Patience is power. Patience is not an absence of action; rather it is "timing". It waits on the right time to act, for the right principles and in the right way.” ~ Fulton J. Sheen
"Life is too short to be in a hurry." ~ Oscar Wilde
COMMUNITY UPDATE
Last week there were two big announcements regarding the Circles in Time Community. The first was a webinar-podcast initiative I’m starting called Sample of One. The second was a larger, longer-term initiative called Project Panacea. I’m very excited to start exploring both these initiatives with community members in September, and the months that follow. On we go :)
SOMETHING TO PART WITH
Take care,
David