Quration 4 (9th Oct, 2020)
Human upgrades, Mr Rogers, and a puzzle!
This is a free weekly newsletter of content curated to inform and inspire.
Consideration
💡 Is it a beautiful day in your neighborhood?
I recently watched Tom Hanks in the 2019 movie It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.
Synopsis: Tom Hanks portrays Mister Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, a timely story of kindness triumphing over cynicism, based on the true story of a real-life friendship between Fred Rogers and journalist Tom Junod. After a jaded magazine writer (Emmy winner Matthew Rhys) is assigned a profile of Fred Rogers, he overcomes his skepticism, learning about empathy, kindness, and decency from America’s most beloved neighbor.
Metacritic gave it 80%. Rotten Tomatoes, a generous 95%. If you love schmaltz, you will love this movie. For me, I loved Mr Rogers, the character. I think of him as the classic exemplar of a kind, inspirational person. The perfect specimen of a different kind of Übermensch.
So, how can we use his example to inspire a world of kindness? How can we be like Mr Rogers? Here’s some lessons we can take from the movie. Yes, I’m taking lessons from Hollywood movies now!
1. When I’m engaging someone, give them my full attention.
Giving someone your full attention is common advice, but that doesn’t make it wrong. When you focus your attention entirely on the person you’re engaging, they feel valued, and you will find it more interesting.
→ Fragmented attention diminishes people and increases boredom.
2. Let people finish speaking, then consider what they are really saying.
Too often, we don’t pay full attention to what is being said. In her book, Time to Think, Nancy Kline describes it as “listening to interrupt.” We wait to tell our story, probably because we are our own favourite story!
We must give our full attention if we hope to dig beneath the words to discover what someone is actually saying. Often, they are not even aware of the message within their words.
→ Full attention penetrates beneath the surface of a conversation.
3. Respond with questions or stories that tie back to my values.
If you simply react to the opinions and statements of another person, you are often walking out onto a branch of your own ignorance. You can’t possible know every facet of their circumstance, so topical advice is likely to be fraught with errors.
Instead, your expertise lies in the values that are important to you and the principles you apply to your own life. They’re topics you’ve given due consideration, and with which you have real-life experience. Giving responses that reflect on those principles is your best bet for adding meaningful value to the conversation.
→ Don’t react to opinion, respond with principles.
I want to be more like Mr Rogers, and I intend to be more mindful of my attention and responses. Meanwhile, if you’re still interested, you can read Tom Junod’s original profile of Fred Rogers here.
Juxtaposition
Discussing his latest documentary, The Social Dilemma, Tristan Harris suggested that “right now we're living in the shattered prism of a shared reality where we’re each trapped in a separate shard. We now live in our own shard of truth.” I thought that was an exceptional observation. If you’re interested to know more about the documentary, my brother wrote an interesting summary here.
We see the loss of a shared reality played out in the media’s coverage of everyday events. Case in point, the banning of QAnon groups on Facebook.
👈 The left is represented here by The New York Times: QAnon Believers Say Being Banned From Facebook Is Proof of the Conspiracy
👉 The opponent, in the red corner, was ZeroHedge: Instagram Bans QAnon Accounts, But Refuses To Remove ISIS Accounts Celebrating 9/11
Observation
⇨ The Slippery Slope of Meat Enhancement
Elon Musk’s latest paradigm-changing company, Neuralink, is building devices that interface with the brain to expand our human abilities.
The first step of his vision is for quadriplegics to gain seamless access to the digital world. Looking forward, he expects that Neuralink will restore sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and enable the lame to walk.
In my latest essay, I pose this question: Is Musk a modern day miracle worker or a reckless upgrade cowboy? Link
Question
Can you crack the code? Need a clue? Comment or email and I’ll send one through.
You can send me your answers by reply email. All attempts appreciated.
I’ll post the answer in next week's newsletter :)
Recreation
♫ Want to relax? Need help getting to sleep? Try Moby's Ambients II. Link
📺 Netflix pick of the week has to go to the nonagenarian nomad - David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet. Link
▶️ If you’re up for something different, try this playlist of Renaissance music I’ve assembled based on Jan Swafford's quintessential Guide to Classical Music. If it’s not for you, at least skip through to the pick of the bunch - Byrd’s Ave Verum Corpus. Link
Procrastination
⏱️ Proof that every hour you spend exercising adds 2.54 hours to your life! Link
⏱️ CEO, Daniel Eck, on Spotify's culture and the effect of being a Swedish organisation. Link
⏱️ Brilliant visual essay on the the unbridled popularity of K-Pop. Link
If you'd like to see more of what I'm exploring, you can follow me on twitter. If you've come across something you think I'd like, hit reply and let me know why it's worth checking out (articles, lectures, podcasts, books, exhibitions… whatever).