This is the Monday Medley, a newsletter that goes out, you guessed it, every Monday. I republish it here for sharing and referencing, but if you'd like to sign up you can do so right here:
Happy Monday!
I'm trying something new today... if you want to listen to this Medley instead of read it, you can find it on my podcast Nat Chat! Here's the link to Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Overcast, Pocket Casts, and you should be able to find it in any other Podcast player (as always, I recommend Airr).
I published a new post on the blog this week on the "75% Rule" for saving for early retirement. Essentially, you should plan to save and reinvest at least 75% of any future income increases unless you want your lifestyle to outpace your progress towards early retirement.
Neil and I released a new Made You Think episode on Scale by Geoffrey West, and the universal laws of growth behind organisms, companies, and cities. This was a really fun one and fit perfectly with previous MYT themes.
And I added my notes on "Sacred Cow" to The Brain. It's a good primer on regenerative agriculture and the health, environmental, and ethical arguments for and against meat consumption. But I'm slightly skeptical of some of their research. I've sent the authors a couple questions on Twitter, but haven't heard back.
Alright, on to the Medley!
😴 This week's Medley is brought to you by Sovereignty! I've tried a ton of different CBD / Hemp products and this is the first one that had a "whoa" effect for me. Their "Dream" product is a combination of CBD, CBN, and a number of different herbs and supplements to help you sleep deeper. I've had noticeably more vivid dreams and deeper sleep when I use it, which I haven't gotten from any other CBD product I've tried without having to ingest $100+ worth. They're also doing a cool guarantee: try it, see what you think, and if you don't love it, they'll refund you the cost AND send you one of your favorite supplements to replace it.
😔 Cosette and I tried watching the new Mulan movie this weekend but were really disappointed and turned it off after about 40 minutes. I asked on Twitter which Disney live action remakes are worth it, and someone shared this great chart of the comparisons between original animated movies and the live action remakes.
👩🎤 You also might remember that I shared a visualization of why the "Karen" meme naming is so accurate back in Medley 217. This other analysis just popped up which suggests that name for a male Karen should be "Terry," instead of David, Gary, or Mark.
🚀 I've been using the methodology in Khe Hy's "Supercharge Your Productivity with Notion" for all the Growth Machine knowledge management for a few months now, and I gotta say it's the best intro & guide to becoming incredible with Notion that I've come across. I use Roam for all my personal stuff, but it's still not great for companies / multiple people, which is where Notion really shines, and Khe's program was super helpful for getting us set up. I think he shuts off signups again tomorrow, but it's still open today if you want to advance your personal or business Notion usage.
🕵️♂️ And if you wanted to see a bit more on how I'm using Roam, and you aren't in the Effortless Output course, check out this interview and walkthrough I did on Keep Productive about what my setup looks like now.
🏹 I've been meaning to get into archery for a while, and finally took the first steps this weekend. My friend Anthony and I got a 4.5 hour crash course in archery gear & basics on Saturday, and I picked up a Hoyt RX-4 as well as a target for my backyard which just barely has 20 yards of space.
☸️ One thing I love about it is how mindful and focused of an experience practicing is. Archery has historically been a big part of meditation and zen buddhism for how deep of focus it requires. According to Alan Watts in The Way of Zen, practices like archery, tea ceremonies, flute playing, brush drawing, fencing, and ju-jistu were historically more utilized than "za-zen," or sitting meditation. He even argues that "Za-zen may have been exaggerated later as a way to get school boys to be quiet."
🙏 Anyway, if you're an experienced archer and have any advice, resources, YouTube channels, or anything else, I'd love to hear them!
📉 Related to everything Neil and I discussed in Scale, I read this paper arguing that U.S. economic growth is slowing down, and could even be over.
I don't believe that it's over, but it does show a good example of how we can run up against the limits of continuing exponential growth without a major paradigm shift.
🤔 One thing the paper does point out that I think is a big concern is how growth for lower income individuals has basically stopped since the 70s, which fits in the "what happened in 1971" question.
🏖 Whenever I read about stagnation like this and think about what the next major paradigm shift will be, it does remind me of some of the hypotheses in The Sovereign Individual. The biggest one being the slow disintegration of nation states in favor of city states and individuals transcending locality. The decline of shared growth in the US could already be a sign of this happening.
🌤 This was an interesting interview of Andy Mant, the founder of BluBlox, about how messing with the UV radiation and light hitting our bodies could be hurting our sleep and energy levels.
📱 I already knew that the blue light in our devices was terrible for our sleep from previous research. Here's a good quotation from Unconventional Medicine by Chris Kresser:
"What happens when someone lies in bed at night with their iPad before going to sleep? The iPad emits Blue Light, which is like the spectrum of sunlight. When blue light hits the body, it sends a “time to wake-up” message. That not only interferes with Sleep but has been shown to deregulate metabolism, promote weight gain, and cause cancer (Chepesiuk 2009). Changes to the circadian rhythm mediated by light exposure can have profound effects on health."
🕶 But another thing Mant mentioned in the interview is how wearing sunglasses might mess with the signals our body needs to protect itself from the sun, which makes us more likely to get sunburned.
🏃♂️ He also mentioned how not wearing sunglasses is something you can train yourself to do, which I sort of unintentionally did over the last year of living in Austin. I never wear them anymore, unless I'm going out on the water or am driving and am worried about glare. I've also stopped wearing sunscreen while increasing my time out in the sun, and really haven't had any issues or bad burns.
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Have a great week,
Nat