A Few Good (Lateral) Thoughts #8
Quick little thoughts at the end of the week
In case you missed anything, here’s an overview of the past lateral week:
Who tells your story? (eyyy, Hamilton reference)
Wisdom vs. knowledge (this week’s favourite)
Welcome to the 8th Friday Special:
A pretty normal week for your favorite (and only) lateral thinking newsletter.
We grew from 1.686 subscribers to 1.808 this week.
This is the 55th newsletter I’m sending. Open rates have been constant, still around 45-55%, so I’m glad to see people are still enjoying these. I’m getting ready for a 14 hour Dubai - NYC flight, so let’s get down to it:
Red flags. This week, the internet meme’d around red flags.
That made me think that one of my most important red flag is people who have too many red flags. It’s perceived as a positive thing in the liberal community (setting boundaries and all that) - but if you’re that inflexible, I’d wager it’s just an intellectual way of saying you’re stuck up.
Unpopular view, I know. But we’re here to look at lateral perspectives.
The bigger picture.
The world would be a better place if we’d always assume we don’t have all the information to judge a scenario.
Instead, people become certain of facts faster than ever. It’s because movies, books, YouTube videos and TikToks have made us think it’s easy to see the formula behind how different things work.
What if you’d first presume everything you read is wrong? Yes, even this.
If you want to figure out the source of your problems - change your environment (at least temporarily) without changing your attitude.
If the problem persists, you’re the problem.
If the problem goes away, the environment or entourage was the issue.
Obviously, you know have to work on a long-term fix, but at least you identified the cause.
That’s all, folks. Have a magical Friday and see you all next week!