New Learnings
Hello Friends!
For this week – a short documentary on captive wildlife tourism, a Ted Talk on the secret to Happiness, and a book to improve your writing. Read ahead!
1. An Eye-opening Documentary on Wildlife Tourism
This 13-minute documentary on captive wildlife tourism in Thailand is a must-watch. I’ll be the first to admit how clueless I have been over the treatment of animals for wildlife tourism before I watched this short documentary.
*Trigger Warning* Some of the heartbreaking imagery includes elephants with bruises and broken limbs to monkeys jumping up and down in their cages under extreme psychological distress due to captivity.
TL:DR(W?):On your next vacation, do your own research before watching an animal show. Sustainable options for animal tourism exist in most tourist destinations and are only a google search away.
2. A Ted Talk that Caught my Attention
In this Ted Talk, Shawn Achor, the CEO of GoodThink Inc, challenges the commonly held notion that happiness comes after one’s achieved their idea of success. While working with unhappy Harvard students and pondering the question “What does a Harvard student possibly have to be unhappy about?” Achor discovered that:
If I know everything about your external world I can only predict 10% of your long-term happiness. 90% of your long-term happiness comes not from your external world but how your brain processes the external world.
What I found super relatable was the very simple manner in which Achor’s states the problem. Here’s the linear progression of what we think occurs while we pursue happiness:
Work Harder —> Achieve Success —> Happiness
However, Achor states that the following is actually more useful:
Raise Positivity in present —> The Happiness Advantage —> Brain performs significantly better (up to 31%)
Key Takeaway: HOW to achieve a present state of positivity? Achor recommends writing down 3 new things you are grateful for each day for 21 days (how long it takes to develop a new habit). This ritual teaches your brain to scan the world for positive rather than negative things.
3. What I Learnt about Writing
While struggling through writing this newsletter, I have realized just how underrated quality writing can be. I am currently reading the book The Sense of Style by Steven Pinker which has been recommended to me many times in the past.
Photo Courtesy: The objective standard
Let me know if you have other book recommendations or resources to improve writing and I can share them with the rest.
In the mean time I’ll leave you with this Mark Twain quote that sums up our daily struggles with writing, whether its text messages or long-form:
The difference between almost the right word and the right word is the difference between a lightning bug and a lightning bolt.
4. Shower Thoughts of the Week
Here are this week’s shower thoughts (via Reddit):
"I need to talk to you" is the one sentence that has the power to make you remember every bad thing you've ever done in your life.
Using the instructions to put together Legos is training for putting together Ikea furniture later in life.
30 seconds doesn’t seem like a long time, until there’s an unskippable ad with a countdown.
That’s all for this week!
Cheers,
Rohail
More of one thing, less of the other? Comment here or reach out on Twitter (@rwk93) - Instagram (ro.khan)