Friday Fun Flier XVIII
Two great quotes, an essential idea, a happy-making book, and a great podcast.
I’m going to try something new for the next couple of weeks. Rather than start each newsletter with a blog post, I’m going to experiment with letting the blog be the blog, and the newsletter be the newsletter. So for the next few weeks, I’ll send out a newsletter on Friday, and what I believe to be my strongest writing on Sunday! The newsletter will just be quotes, ideas, book/podcast recommendations, and a feel-good news story.
Quotes of the week that I’m pondering:
"I would like us to do something unprecedented. To create ourselves without finding it necessary to create an enemy."
-James Baldwin
"That is why I applaud the youthful dramatis, the would-be adventurer, who breaks the pattern, who with mounting excitement writes the farewell note and slips out the window at dead of night to set off afoot for the railroad yards to board a freight bound for California. I believe I know how he feels. More important, I know that he is not running away from something so much as he is running toward something: toward life; toward himself; toward an end that cannot be known.
I wish him well. His chances of finding what he seeks are never good, but they are at least better than the chances of those who stay at home, placidly accepting the patterns they never made, or choose."-John Keats
An Essential Idea:
That James Baldwin quote slapped me in the face yesterday. So much of our culture of self-improvement and self-making revolves around having enemies. It revolves around aligning ourselves against other people, and if we are lucky enough to succeed, sneering at them and calling them lazy.
What would it mean to create yourself without the need for enemies? What would your personal story look like?
A Fantastic Book I’m Reading:
Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert
“Economies thrive when individuals strive, but because individuals will only strive for their own happiness, it is essential that they mistakenly believe that producing and consuming are routes to personal well-being.”
Wooowee! Between last week’s book, The Body Keeps The Score, and this one, I’m overloaded with useful info. I’ll be taking a fiction break next week.
Stumbling On Happiness is one of those books that looks you right in the face and steers you back on the right track. It is not by any means a self-help book, but it does offer practical tips on the psychology of human happiness.
We are terrible at predicting what is going to make us happy. Our vision of the future always includes the heights of happiness or the depths of despair, but when we get there, it feels mostly like the life we have right now.
Why are we so bad at predicting what is going to make us happy or miserable? Daniel gilbert explains in some of the funniest prose I’ve ever read. Will make you laugh and think, the best possible combo.
A Podcast Episode I Restarted As Soon As It Finished:
James Baldwin’s Shadow by Throughline
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The quote that I started this week’s flier with came from this episode. I’d never known about Baldwin before listening, other than the fact that he was an intellectual writer from the 20th century. The wisdom packed into some of his quotes and writings in this episode blew me away. He “got” America in a way that most people never do, understanding that the country is built on a series of contradictions.
It will send you down a delightful rabbit hole.
Aaaaaaaand now, the feel-good story of the week!
Phase 3 trials of MDMA have shown beyond aa shadow of a doubt that the drug is an effective treatment for severe PTSD (MDMA is currently listed as a schedule 1 drug with no medical benefit by the FDA). 67% of patients undergoing MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in the phase three trial no longer qualified for PTSD diagnoses after three sessions.
I’ll say that again. After THREE psychotherapy sessions, 67% of the people in the trial didn’t qualify for PTSD diagnoses.
There are no drugs currently on the market that come anywhere close to that high of a success rate. There’s a lot of momentum behind this treatment now, with high-profile people like Tim Ferriss putting up millions of their own money to fund research.
The full story can be found here.
Thanks for reading everyone! Let me know that you think of this new format in the comments or by replying to this email. I hope you have an awesome week!