📱Apple announced the first iPod 23 years ago. It is the longest-lived Apple product that was ultimately discontinued (2022).
Question #191: Listen to "The Other Side," well done
Harris·Sockel ( Harris Sockel)
The phrase "follow your passion" has been thrown around a lot, which is a joke. It sounds nice, but someone has to pay the bills - if you base it on money, anything will become work.
Dan Pedersen posed some questions that can help you define "passion" more usefully: “What problems do you find it easy to solve? What are you most creative at?”
If you are doing something spicy, it might feel like cheating because it feels easy - or not easy, at least it’s fun, even if it’s hard. In the Harvard Business Review, Dan Cable calls this “following your bubbles.” Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham calls it “following your curiosity.” Either way: what challenges do you keep coming back to that you actually enjoy banging your head against the wall?
Another lens on passion: the Japanese concept of “Ikigai.” We’ve talked about this before, but it’s a truly great idea that makes work feel elusive because it’s the intersection of four things: what you love, what you are good at, what the world needs, and what you can get paid for. “Passion” is just the intersection of the first two (love + ability). Purpose or ikigai encompasses all four.
When you find your true purpose, you will not only be happier. You will also be healthier. A few years ago, science journalistMarta Zaraska wrote in the media: “People with a sense of purpose in life sleep better, have more gray matter in the islands of the brain, lower pro-inflammatory cytokines, and less stress hormone cortisol in saliva.”
So, what is happiness? It’s not just “passion.” Purpose. What you love that people actually need.
From the archives: “The Other Side” is not stupid
In 2016, Sean Blanda said a true statement that no one wanted to hear (especially in an election year): you are not right about everything, and “the other side” is not stupid. Like you, they also came to their conclusions based on a combination of intuition and analysis.
Blanda’s essay has been read by 3.5 million people - it offers some tips for listening to each other in a world of political polarization over the past decade.
One tip: the next time you have a discussion with someone you disagree with, don’t try to “win.” Instead, actively try to “lose.” “Ask them to convince you, be harsh.” Listen. “As any debate club veteran knows, if you can’t articulate your opponent’s argument, you don’t really understand the issue.”
And if you have a link you’re willing to delete in a group chat, ask yourself… would I share this link because it contains information I’ve never considered before? Or am I just sharing it to remind my friends that I’m not on the other side?
Your Daily Practical Wisdom
If you do better, you will be happier, healthier, and perform better at work. Don’t say “yes” to every piece of work you do. (It took me ten years to learn this, and I’m still learning!)
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Edited and produced byScott Lamb & Carly Rose Gillis
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