The target draws the arrow

& other such things

A variation on last Friday’s theme. I hope you enjoy today’s collection of ideas and people I have found interesting over the past week.

• Two bits of wisdom

• A poem

• Football news

• A boss-man

• An influencer

Two bits of wisdom from Greenlights

Among the many maxims from Matthew McConaughey’s autobiography Greenlights, I relate two to you below. It should be noted that I contemptuously avoided this book despite the recommendation of three people close to me. Only to utterly fall for the Texan over the course of the past month. Just keep livin’ has been a ringin’ in my ears.

1. The target draws the arrow

This is poignant for lots of circumstances in life. Looking for a job, looking for a partner. The idea prompts me to invert the conventional way of thinking of archery (arrow seeks target), and instead imagine the bulls-eye with a gravitational pull, the power to draw towards.

Accustomed as we are to thinking of ourselves in phallic terms, we seek to be the arrow - driving through the air, penetrating the targets of our mind. That was a bit weird.

Anyway, as a job-seeker, you are, I have learnt, close to powerless. The strength in this maxim is a reminder to step back and flip the script. I AM THE TARGET. I will draw toward me the opportunities befitting my state of mind.

It reminds me to not become outcome obsessed and instead focus on the process of living. As you get into that flow, you expand the surface area of serendipity. That is, doing things and connecting with people such that you create the largest likelihood for opportunity to strike.

Another way of thinking about this is the active/passive combination in surfing. Paddling is fundamental to surfing, but it alone won’t do. Positioning and timing are essential because the power of the wave does most of the work. Without the exertion of paddling, however, you’ll never be in it to win it. Boy don’t I know.

It’s all ying & yang, baby. Swipe your little heart out on the apps, but ultimately, that alone won’t do. Just as 1,000 Seek applications doth not a satisfied career make.

Not the best cartoon representation but a welcome throw back to Robin Hood.

2. I’m good at everything I love, but I don’t love everything I’m good at.

Speaking of satisfied careers - this goes out to all of you who find yourself bored or resentful from time to time about the things you do to earn a crust. This was McConaughey’s reflections on the twilight period of his “rom-com era”. Pre-McConaughssaince.

(He coined that term by the way. Legendary.)

It’s got some truth to it, right? The things we love are those we effortlessly apply ourselves to and invariably become competent at. But, likewise, we’ve picked up skills and competencies along the way that have afforded us opportunities, recognition, income. They may not be things that we love, but they have had utility to our life. The genus may have been curiosity, before it was corrupted by contact with the world. Think a young child enjoying the reading of his Alex Rider spy-series, only to find that love twisted into the mortifying application of reading legal documents. Hypothetically speaking.

Okay, man-crush over.

Football news

This is only news if you’ve been under a rock, like me.

Scott McTominay is playing centre midfield for Napoli! Dominating! And winning the fickle hearts of the Neapoletan faithful.

I never thought I’d see a pasty Scottish workhorse play-making for gli azzurri against Milan… and yet - the footage doesn’t lie:

https://x.com/SerieA/status/1851617551433830830

Poem

Seamus Heaney’s poem, Digging.

Between my finger and my thumb   

The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.

I first read this poem around a timber Harkness table, grand and custom made to emulate the conversational teaching practices of Phillips Exeter Academy.¹ It was an old-world scene out of the Dead Poet’s Society.

Heaney’s poem resonated with us then. Few of that higher-level literature class had father’s accustomed to the tools of manual labour. Nonetheless, the meditation on sonship, paternal lineage, the inherited appreciation of hard work and the tension between creative work and real labour are universal. Relevant as ever in the knowledge-worker era. The writer’s struggle to reconcile their chosen tool (the pen) with that of those before them (the shovel).

This poem - from mid twentieth century Ireland, gives shades of John Quincy Adams’ maxim, President from the early days of the American republic:

I have to study politics and war so that my sons can study mathematics, commerce and agriculture, so their sons can study poetry, painting and music.

Boss-man

Mo Gawdat. Entrepreneur, ex-Microsoft Executive, Engineer, Author & “Happiness Expert".

I was listening to Mo’s podcast appearance with Steven Bartlett on Diary of a CEO and was captivated by his bridging of worlds: Eastern (Egyptian upbringing) and Western (entrenched in the Western tech-scene); analytical (mathematician) and empathic. An intellectual powerhouse exhibiting deep connection with his humanity. A combination dangerously rare.

After the passing of his 21 year old son, he set out to write and share his learnings on happiness with the world to overcome grief and capture the essence of his child. Through books and his podcast Slow Mo, he hopes to generate conversations that will reach 1 Billion people. I fucking love it.

He speaks about the Six Grand illusions and the Seven Blindspots, in his book Solve for Happy.

The six grand illusions and seven blind spots are concepts from Mo Gawdat's book Solve for Happy:

• Six grand illusions: Thought, self, knowledge, time, control, and fear

• Seven blind spots: Filters, assumptions, predictions, memories, labels, emotions, and exaggeration

I am interested in how wellbeing is quantified and experiences or states like happiness can be understood through equations.² Skeptical as I am (not being an engineer myself), I think there’s great merit in simplifying for the purpose of understanding.

Mo, for instance, believes all experiences of happiness share a common pattern: the equation ‘lived experience’ minus ‘expectations’ yields a positive sum.

That’s a rough transcription, but I think you get the idea. Flipping it shows that expectations and associated judgment of lived experience are the biggest “threat” to our experience of happiness.

Influencer

Gstaad Guy (instagram): a hilarious satirist and astute observer of the wealthy elite from old-world Europe and new-money ‘Merica. Represented by characters Constance of Switzerland and Colton of Miami. The “author” remains publicly anonymous. He has absolutely nailed his target audience, skewering them and remaining one of them all the same. He has turned himself into a marketing powerhouse as a result; sponsorships, collaborations and engagements from global brands. His new line of expensive jewelry show that people are eating out of his hand.

I share this having only recently been shown it by my wife. Perhaps this is a coping mechanism for her celebrity crush…or mine?

Kudos to him. Influencer dynamics simultaneously mortify me and fascinate me. The mimetic power that they hold, the role of attention in the social media economy, the means of acquiring and holding it. Interesting, very interesting.

He gave me cause to reflect on the interaction of ideas from Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell and Wanting by Luke Burgis, crudely synthesised to something like this:

Mimesis is the rule of social dynamics. Mimesis refers to the phenomenon of individuals mimicking the behaviors, preferences, or opinions of others, often driven by the desire for social validation or inclusion. On social media, influencers play a powerful role in catalysing mimesis, displaying lifestyles or opinions that others seek to emulate (sometimes unconsciously).

Once an influencer reaches a critical mass of engagement, they can stimulate rapid shifts in preferences across a network. The moment when a trend, behavior, or idea becomes self-sustaining within a network, it has reached a “tipping point”. Beyond that point, it may spread widely beyond its initial niche audience and become part of the mainstream. The mimetic influence of the original object or trend idea then continues to gain momentum, sometimes to the point of virality.

Please let me know what you thought, if you have any suggestions or recommendations. Also feel free to share it along to anybody that might be interested in my wondering words…

Peace!

1. Two of our newest subscribers at WW also sat around this very table on that day. MN & NS, welcome gents, thanks for being here!

2. WW is fortunate to have a Wellbeing Expert right here amongst its ranks! Shoutout to MI, I’d love your thoughts on this.