interesting! before I clicked I was thinking the eisenhower matrix! But I like this one too. Often the absence of bad things does make us feel grateful.
The want/don’t have box, I’ve discovered for myself, can often be a good one too. It’s the wanting that makes me go out to look for things, try new things, find ways to bring them into my life. Or aspects of those things, if I can’t have the entire thing.
Maybe considering it as the want-but-can’t-have box would make it a sadder face.
This is deeply profound, and I like how Einhorn talks about "evidence of non-occurances," which is something we humans are generally not good at seeing and has big implications beyond our own happiness. For example, when I talk to business leaders, I tell them that learning how to approach complex problems in the workplace (which you discussed last time!) will save them a lot of time, because their current approach produces poor results and requires a lot of rework. But it's hard to imagine what wouldn't have happened with a different approach. Maybe what I'm trying to say is that there IS evidence that short posts can lead to deep thinking, and that makes me happy. :)
Haha...Jen, you did a great job bringing that one full circle! And I think you hit on an important point that Hogarth and Tetlock get at a lot: we may never be great at counterfactual thinking, but we should try to be a bit better. Sometimes I find the work on our cognitive biases to be a bit depressing, but at the same time I like the fact that it means we have a ton of room to improve and maybe even little improvements can make a meaningful difference.
Hey David, I'm late to the party here, what's new! I liked this short post and video, it just seemed very real hearing his voice and sadly ironic as you mentioned, knowing that Einhorn passed away shortly after with an illness that all of us lucky enough to be in good health would place firmly in the 'don't have, don't want' box. Gratitude is a great concept, something I need to try hard to embrace. For me, independence is such a gift, just being able to get out of bed in the morning, get dressed, feed yourself, walk/drive wherever, plan trips/holidays etc. So thanks for helping me to show a little Gratitude! Totally off point but if this comment isn't too late I was wondering if you had some advice on focused work, I'm behind in my job during a busy time and also recently started an introductory course in data analytics so have lots of assignment work going on. I remember laughing at your story about 'going upstairs and coming down 2 years later' when working on Range. Just wondering how you kept focused/motivated when you felt tired or had other stuff going on in the background. Apologies for the random/vague question!
I love another short newsletter! Props to you for being so responsive to feedback and willing to experiment (I know it's a key thing in Range, but it's still not always easy to practice what you preach). One question about this: Do you think there is a different craft to writing a shorter piece? Do you change how you write or research at all? Or does it feel the same but the end result is just shorter?
(By the way, this reminded me of another of my favorite lines about happiness, from Montesquieu: "If one only wished to be happy, this could be easily accomplished; but we wish to be happier than other people, and this is always difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are.")
An unpredictable mix of short, medium, and long form posts works, too! Whatever you’re feeling up to, and whatever time that particular week allows... that’s how I’m writing (for a much smaller audience I’m sure!). That slot machine variable reward psychology works 😉
Love this post. Very zen. I’m haunted by the thoughtful brilliance of 45 yo Hillel in this video, cut down before his supposedly allotted time.
I appreciate that Ryan! When I started this newsletter, someone who really knows his newsletter stuff told me that the most important points are for your audience to know when and what to expect — so regularly frequency, same timing, and clear what your topics are. ...Whoops... I think that was probably good advice for growing a newsletter, but not necessarily aligned for how I want to use the newsletter, so I appreciate your advice.
I agree with the "haunted" feeling. I've seen his name, and authoritative words in so many papers, but I'd never seen his face, or listened to his voice.
I’ve read that too! Since writing on substack is not a viable financial alternative to my day job (yet!), and I’m trying to use it for personal growth and professional burnout prevention, I agree with you that following a formulaic approach to newsletters assumes a desired formulaic outcome. I love your writing, and I think your generosity of spirit, intellect, and engagement with your readers should win the long game!
Combine our blindness to unwanted things/conditions we don’t have with the media blind spot for this on the national and global scale! Valuable post and video.
It’s even an internal blindness. I have a trauma disorder, and on the daily level I need to put all my bad memories behind a wall of fog. I know I experienced all these bad things, but I can’t know particularly what most of the time, or at a level where I can feel it.
This makes sense. What's interesting is that it is supposed to be the biggest box (don't have, don't want) but I honestly can't think of many things that would go in that box that aren't negative outcomes (death, accident, tragedy, etc)? And if I think about positive things in that box they don't seem terribly meaningful to my happiness (I don't have or want a old Jeep). How are others thinking about this?
I also thought first of accident, tragedy, or various family, relationship, or health problems. And I'd definitely be curious to hear how others thought of it. Thanks for sharing!
Everything I don’t want/don’t have is negative to *me*, or my life, or my current state in life, even if other people do want them. Dishwasher, car, spouse, pets, children, marijuana, cigarettes, liver as food...
As an adult it’s easy to pair your life down so that the don’t want/don’t have box is biggest. But for kids, whose lives are much more governed by others? I wonder how the diagrams would compare.
His point is that since we're wired for More, it's really hard to want what we have. But if we practice compassion, attention, and gratitude, we can learn and experience more joy.
It seems that those 3 practices would also help us appreciate not having what we don't want.
Q&As are great. I love the details and am happy for the length, as I feel the interviewees give greater context and explanations.
I drop in and out and don’t always read in one session. I find that I will make the time over the course of a day or even two to complete the post. Substack remembers the bookmarks. Which is great.
Mea culpa! It was on sale, and it just so happened that the sale ended right around when I sent this post out. I have no insight into when those sales happen, nor how long they last, so this just happened to be bad timing. Sorry about that! I put an update note on the post to reflect this.
David, my apologies! Apparently the sale ended very shortly after I sent this post. (I put an update at the bottom noting this.) The sale had been going for a few days, and I don't know when it started (someone alerted me to it), and didn't know when it would end. So I'm afraid this was just bad timing. Mea culpa.
Keep the short one’s comin! Love it!!!
Appreciate the encouragement, Tully!
interesting! before I clicked I was thinking the eisenhower matrix! But I like this one too. Often the absence of bad things does make us feel grateful.
The want/don’t have box, I’ve discovered for myself, can often be a good one too. It’s the wanting that makes me go out to look for things, try new things, find ways to bring them into my life. Or aspects of those things, if I can’t have the entire thing.
Maybe considering it as the want-but-can’t-have box would make it a sadder face.
Emily, that is a fantastic point. I've amended the box in my head;)
This is deeply profound, and I like how Einhorn talks about "evidence of non-occurances," which is something we humans are generally not good at seeing and has big implications beyond our own happiness. For example, when I talk to business leaders, I tell them that learning how to approach complex problems in the workplace (which you discussed last time!) will save them a lot of time, because their current approach produces poor results and requires a lot of rework. But it's hard to imagine what wouldn't have happened with a different approach. Maybe what I'm trying to say is that there IS evidence that short posts can lead to deep thinking, and that makes me happy. :)
Haha...Jen, you did a great job bringing that one full circle! And I think you hit on an important point that Hogarth and Tetlock get at a lot: we may never be great at counterfactual thinking, but we should try to be a bit better. Sometimes I find the work on our cognitive biases to be a bit depressing, but at the same time I like the fact that it means we have a ton of room to improve and maybe even little improvements can make a meaningful difference.
When you're not unhappy, you're happy. :) Our "boring, everyday" lives are very happy for the most part.
That's a nice way to put it, Sean, and I'm going to try to keep that framing in mind.
Hey David, I'm late to the party here, what's new! I liked this short post and video, it just seemed very real hearing his voice and sadly ironic as you mentioned, knowing that Einhorn passed away shortly after with an illness that all of us lucky enough to be in good health would place firmly in the 'don't have, don't want' box. Gratitude is a great concept, something I need to try hard to embrace. For me, independence is such a gift, just being able to get out of bed in the morning, get dressed, feed yourself, walk/drive wherever, plan trips/holidays etc. So thanks for helping me to show a little Gratitude! Totally off point but if this comment isn't too late I was wondering if you had some advice on focused work, I'm behind in my job during a busy time and also recently started an introductory course in data analytics so have lots of assignment work going on. I remember laughing at your story about 'going upstairs and coming down 2 years later' when working on Range. Just wondering how you kept focused/motivated when you felt tired or had other stuff going on in the background. Apologies for the random/vague question!
I love another short newsletter! Props to you for being so responsive to feedback and willing to experiment (I know it's a key thing in Range, but it's still not always easy to practice what you preach). One question about this: Do you think there is a different craft to writing a shorter piece? Do you change how you write or research at all? Or does it feel the same but the end result is just shorter?
(By the way, this reminded me of another of my favorite lines about happiness, from Montesquieu: "If one only wished to be happy, this could be easily accomplished; but we wish to be happier than other people, and this is always difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are.")
An unpredictable mix of short, medium, and long form posts works, too! Whatever you’re feeling up to, and whatever time that particular week allows... that’s how I’m writing (for a much smaller audience I’m sure!). That slot machine variable reward psychology works 😉
Love this post. Very zen. I’m haunted by the thoughtful brilliance of 45 yo Hillel in this video, cut down before his supposedly allotted time.
I appreciate that Ryan! When I started this newsletter, someone who really knows his newsletter stuff told me that the most important points are for your audience to know when and what to expect — so regularly frequency, same timing, and clear what your topics are. ...Whoops... I think that was probably good advice for growing a newsletter, but not necessarily aligned for how I want to use the newsletter, so I appreciate your advice.
I agree with the "haunted" feeling. I've seen his name, and authoritative words in so many papers, but I'd never seen his face, or listened to his voice.
I’ve read that too! Since writing on substack is not a viable financial alternative to my day job (yet!), and I’m trying to use it for personal growth and professional burnout prevention, I agree with you that following a formulaic approach to newsletters assumes a desired formulaic outcome. I love your writing, and I think your generosity of spirit, intellect, and engagement with your readers should win the long game!
Combine our blindness to unwanted things/conditions we don’t have with the media blind spot for this on the national and global scale! Valuable post and video.
Andy, this is a really profound point. Now I kind of wish you'd done this post!
It’s even an internal blindness. I have a trauma disorder, and on the daily level I need to put all my bad memories behind a wall of fog. I know I experienced all these bad things, but I can’t know particularly what most of the time, or at a level where I can feel it.
This makes sense. What's interesting is that it is supposed to be the biggest box (don't have, don't want) but I honestly can't think of many things that would go in that box that aren't negative outcomes (death, accident, tragedy, etc)? And if I think about positive things in that box they don't seem terribly meaningful to my happiness (I don't have or want a old Jeep). How are others thinking about this?
I also thought first of accident, tragedy, or various family, relationship, or health problems. And I'd definitely be curious to hear how others thought of it. Thanks for sharing!
Everything I don’t want/don’t have is negative to *me*, or my life, or my current state in life, even if other people do want them. Dishwasher, car, spouse, pets, children, marijuana, cigarettes, liver as food...
As an adult it’s easy to pair your life down so that the don’t want/don’t have box is biggest. But for kids, whose lives are much more governed by others? I wonder how the diagrams would compare.
Very interesting point. And maybe not even just apt for kids, but for people who general who don't have a large degree of agency in their lives.
I thought about outcomes that others are experiencing that I am not, like war, famine, persecution, dirty water/air, etc.
I've been reading a history of cities, and it has made me very grateful to be able to get clean water any time I want it.
One of my all-time favorite books is "How to Want What You Have: Discovering the Magic and Grandeur of Ordinary Existence" by Timothy Miller.
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/933037
His point is that since we're wired for More, it's really hard to want what we have. But if we practice compassion, attention, and gratitude, we can learn and experience more joy.
It seems that those 3 practices would also help us appreciate not having what we don't want.
Thanks for the article and book reference! It's on my reading list now.
BTW I like the longer in depth articles more. But short ones are interesting and bring up great discussions.
Appreciate that Steve! I think I'll keep up with a mix. Curious if you have an opinion about the length of Q&As, as they tend to be my longest posts.
Q&As are great. I love the details and am happy for the length, as I feel the interviewees give greater context and explanations.
I drop in and out and don’t always read in one session. I find that I will make the time over the course of a day or even two to complete the post. Substack remembers the bookmarks. Which is great.
Just as an FYI...I just checked...Range is $9.99. Still a good deal, but definitely not 2.99.
Mea culpa! It was on sale, and it just so happened that the sale ended right around when I sent this post out. I have no insight into when those sales happen, nor how long they last, so this just happened to be bad timing. Sorry about that! I put an update note on the post to reflect this.
Thanks for the link to the Kindle version of Range, but the price does not show the $2.99. Any thoughts on how to fix/correct this?
David, my apologies! Apparently the sale ended very shortly after I sent this post. (I put an update at the bottom noting this.) The sale had been going for a few days, and I don't know when it started (someone alerted me to it), and didn't know when it would end. So I'm afraid this was just bad timing. Mea culpa.
damn, that matrix has me rethinking everything