Another nugget that I gleaned from Bryson’s book, The Body.

Medical innovation contributed to about 20% of the life-saving innovation in the last century. The biggest life-saving change has been improvements to our diet, lifestyle, and hygiene!

Eat better, exercise, wash your hands and chill out. Maybe instead of shaking hands from now on, we should all bump elbows when we say hello.

If there was a pill that had the same benefits as exercise, diet, hygiene it would be the drug of a lifetime. 

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“I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.” – James Baldwin

I keep chewing on this quote. It’s so similar this Yoda wisdom – “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”

Whenever I encounter an angry or hateful person, I go back to this thinking. That pain and fear are the foundation for anger and hate. I ask myself what is making them so sad and fearful. What happened to them or what are they going through right now.

It’s a helpful thought exercise and makes me more compassionate and forgiving when I feel like spitting back at them.

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I’m reading a book by Bill Bryson called The Body: A Guide for Occupants. The book takes the reader on a grand tour of the entire human body. It starts with the head and then methodically moves down the body. It struck me how resilient we are given all the crap we shove into our bodies, all while expecting it to keep operating, and processing what we eat, see, smell, taste, and hear. What a brilliant machine.

The other morning I swam through what I can only describe as a waterborne dust cloud. A couple of days ago, we were hit by a massive dust storm. The next day I could see the clay-like dust on the roads and caked onto the cars. This dust must have also floated down and settled into the ocean, and I was now swimming through a lake of it. It was unsettling and murky. In my head, I thought that these were the kind of conditions where a shark gets confused and takes a bite! The next day the water dust bowl was gone, and it was back to blue.

Just like our bodies, we expect the ocean to process and filter all the junk that flows into it every day. How lucky are we? I hope we acknowledge it and treat our bodies and ocean with respect and care. We only have one.

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Some locations never work out. There’s a location in San Francisco like this. Every year a new shop opens up, and about a year or so later, the shop has been shuttered. A couple of months will go by, then up sprouts a new business. This time instead of a coffee shop, it’s an ice-cream parlor. After the grand opening, the slow melt begins, and we all know how the story ends.

Other locations have high energy, and the shop that’s lucky enough to be there rides that wave all day long. The service is shitty, the waits are long, and the food is meh, but that doesn’t matter because the location has good juju.

Some homes are the same. It’s doesn’t matter how much work you do to the garden or what color you paint the walls, it just looks depressing and worn out. It’s not the house, it’s the location.

Bad juju could be because it’s right on a noisy bus line, or a cold, windy corner or place where people drive to fast and unsafely. It’s hard to reverse the funky juju flow, so instead, pick a winning spot with a great history. Good juju has good momentum.

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It’s refreshing to discover a group of people who informally get together regularly to talk, or exercise, or enjoy a craft.

There are no email subscriptions, no monthly fees or dues, no reactivation specials, no websites, no apps, and no waiting lists. The love of what they are doing brings them together. People turn up at the agreed-upon time and place. Accountability to themselves and others in their community governs their punctuality.  The magic happens once everyone has gathered together, and afterward, they disperse. There’s no headcount or points system. It’s great if they turn up, and there’s no logbook noting their absence. There’s no gamification, points system, or boy scout badges.

Organic groups ebb and flow. There are peaks and troughs of participation. When nobody turns up for a while, the group evolves or goes dormant for a while. Then someone decides to energize it again, and it appears again somewhere else. Sometimes it just dies, and that’s okay too.

You don’t have to monetize or sell everything you do. Life is not one big transactional exercise. The joy of doing and communing together is sometimes enough.

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Have you ever been to a restaurant when the table next to you is on their first date? They are both so polite and nibble at their food instead of scoffing it down. When one of them goes to the toilet, the other one (usually a guy) shovels down the food like it’s his last meal. When his date gets back to the table, then it’s back to over-polite sparrow eating mode for both of them.

People do the same thing with their phones. Someone goes to the bathroom, and the phone is out in a split second, and the bingeing begins. One person is devouring their phone at the table, and the other person is probably doing it on the toilet.

We love our food, and we love our phones. Once our guard is down, we don’t hold back!

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During my morning and evening commute, I see the same old man sitting on the same bench every day. He has a Big Lebowski dude / Mr. Miyagi vibe. In the morning he’s reading the local newspaper, listening to a portable FM radio and smoking a cigarette that he rolled himself. In the evenings he’s normally holding court, talking to someone on their smoke break. People are attracted to him.

Now and then we acknowledge each other as I scurry past on my way in and out of the office. I think he’s from another planet. When the shit hits the fan, imagine something like Big Trouble in Little China, he’s going to transform into a powerful being and his bench will be a gateway to another dimension. Maybe he’s here to save the world.

When we have eye contact, I think he knows that I know that he knows. For now, he’s just hanging out on the bench.

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My walk from the ferry to my office takes about 10 minutes. There’s a plaza halfway up the hill where there’s a lot of pedestrian cross-traffic at rush hour. If there was a drone filming the flow of people, it would look like ants colliding on an anthill.

Sometimes when I hit the plaza, there’s a clear line through the chaos. It’s like a pathway through the madness was preordained! The timing just works, and I don’t even slow down. I take a few side steps, and I’m through at full speed. On other days I’ll hit the plaza, and I hit a brick wall of cross traffic. No gaps appear, and I have to slam on breaks and wait for an opening.

The plaza is a good metaphor for my whole day. Working with other humans means that I have no idea what to expect each day. We are unpredictable animals. Will I just speed through, and will the gaps appear, or will I need to course correct and recalibrate. Once I embrace the uncertainty and surrender to the unknowns of the day, it’s more relaxing and fun.

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An older dad with grown-up kids gave me some advice about parenting that I thought a lot about yesterday. It was about quantity over quality. His advice was to just spend time with your kids. It doesn’t always have to be a special moment. Sometimes the best moments and memories are just driving to school together, walking the dog, hanging out after dinner, or reading a book.

Don’t manufacture or wait for the perfect moment. Just turn up. And turn up often.

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The most valuable thing I’ve accumulated throughout my career are the friends and colleagues I’ve met over the years. Especially those who made me laugh and learn.

Alumni networks have a very long half-life. The relationships will stand the test of time. Skills, information, locations, domain expertise will change, become irrelevant, and evolve.

Being kind, and in service to others will be a currency that never devalues and appreciates over time.

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