🌱 How to start “feeling alive”

Mini retreat. Meaning vs use. Job traps.

Author

Mitchell Cohen
February 11, 2024

Greetings from Austin,

Here are your 3 golden nuggets of the week, in 3 minutes or less.

I spend hours distilling information into insights each week and report back only the best. 

Let’s boogie. 

🕺 Feeling Alive

I’ve always admired the Bill Gates style “think weeks” but never actually did them. 

However, talking to my friend Claire inspired me to take a few days off work to open up creative space last November. 

I called this my “Feeling ALIVE” mini retreat. (More on this below). 

Claire had a cushy job at Google, but recently quit to write a fiction novel. 

I LOVE her story. 

I asked how she felt after taking the leap:

“When I finally made the decision to quit Google, I started writing in a way that I hadn't before. I felt alive again.”

Only a few months later, she’s now a best-selling author. (Check out her book The Rising Order). 

On the podcast we discuss: 

  • How people can “feel alive” in their own crafts

  • How to find your people (and audiences)

  • Switching identities & making mistakes

Check out the podcast episode on Apple Podcast or Spotify. 

Note: In the convo, I mentioned ideas on how Claire can connect with more authors and readers. Then, she quickly launched this Substack newsletter right after our chat. So cool to see her take action!

🔍 Meaning vs. Use

Imagine cruising a busy highway without speed limits, traffic signs, or rules. That’s essentially how we cruise the web. 

It’s a BIG problem leading to information overload and analysis paralysis. This is especially treacherous for those with curious minds. 

I call it the “Curiosity Capacity Conundrum”. 

On any given day, I have loads more curiosity (e.g., new browser tabs) than I have the capacity to dive deeper. 

So, to stay in check, I’ve adopted a few tricks. 

Let’s first examine a guaranteed way to get exhausted and never accomplish anything:

Question the meaning of everything and never consider what’s useful. 

Now, let’s flip it. 

Whenever you feel a distraction coming, ask, “How is this USEFUL for my priority right now?” Chances are it’s not. Then drop it and move on. 

This Austrian philosopher quote has helped me close hundreds of browser tabs:

“Don’t ask for the meaning; ask for the use.” 

Ludwig Wittgenstein

🤔 Job You Want to DO (not talk about)

Would you rather have a boring job with a dope title or a boring title with a dope job? 

Sometimes, the line can get blurry. 

Derek Thompson wrote this essay a few years ago in The Atlantic and dropped this insight: 

Many years ago, I was thinking about taking a job at another company with a fancy-sounding title that belied the drudgery of the underlying work. (By the way, beware this inverse relationship, as sometimes the most attractive titles are reserved for the most soul-destroying labor.)

I told my colleague James Fallows, then a writer at The Atlantic, how excited I was to tell people at parties about this new job title that I would soon carry around, like a boutonniere on my lapel. “Don’t do the job you want to tell people you do,” he said. “Do the job you want to do.” Well, damn, I replied. And that was that. I turned down the position about five minutes later.

A great reminder to find the things that light you up. This is the roadmap to feeling alive.

Salud,
Mitchell aka “Uncle Mitch”