There will also be joy.
Helping Friendly Newsletter, 03.12.21
This week: grief and joy, oblique strategies, a world without email, and more…
Recently, there has been a new swirl of media content around grief. It’s a necessary reckoning with the past year of loss, and I welcome every effort to break down understandable but unhelpful taboos around death. Grief is hard, it is very real, and it deserves our presence.
At the same time, I see reminders that there will also be joy. On Monday, at our first school drop-off in a year, I was overcome by small normalcies like children piling off a bus, neighbors waving across the schoolyard, and my kids reuniting with friends. Cue the happy tears. I’ll be a puddle at post-COVID gatherings, and I can’t wait.
Read more from me on the complexity of holding grief and joy together…
Field Notes
One ace up my sleeve for shifting the lens on a sticky problem or creative challenge is the Oblique Strategies deck, created by musician Brian Eno and artist Peter Schmidt. There is an app, and I love the physical cards.
Each card is designed to shake you out of established cognitive patterns by imposing an unexpected question or constraint. My experience in using them is that they seed generative thinking and support the release of ego. According to Eno, “People tend to play in their comfort zone, so the best things are achieved in a state of surprise, actually.” Here is a good one to try:
Apply this thought☝🏼to a problem that has you stuck, and notice what bubbles up. For example, I used it on this newsletter. It was getting too long, so I had to reimagine the opening section. It unlocked for me when I thought, “It feels too easy to handle it like a social media post, but that’s what I want to do.” I decided that I would write a very brief intro and then link to the full essay—a win/win.
You’re just exploring a new angle, not committing to a path—so anything goes. Have some fun with it!
Book Notes
Cal Newport released a new book on the “tyranny of the inbox” last week: A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload. I’m eager to read it. In fact, this is such a widespread issue that I may organize a book discussion.
Help me gauge interest: click this link if a group discussion of these ideas would appeal to you. This only registers interest and does not commit you.
Treasure Chest
I bet you find a gem! ➔ a resilience strategy from the Russian feminist resistance | mother nature’s gender problem | an activist’s checklist for the the Derek Chauvin trial | the best bagels are in Cali? | relative income distortion1 | Amelia Earhart’s cross-Atlantic vehicle | how to eat a book | sit quietly, you happy lucky idiot
Have a great weekend. I’ll see you again soon.
Jenny
P.S. My 1-on-1 rates will increase on April 1. This is a great time to rent my brain if you’ve been thinking about it.
Via Azeem Azhar’s Exponential View.