Date: 07.12.2022

We have more access to information than any other point in human history.

There are more than 3 million podcasts and I don't know how many millions of blogs - not to mention YouTube channels, newsletters, etc. 

But this abundance, while on the surface it looks like we're winning the lottery. It's not allowing us to go deep. We go from shore to shore. Only tasting a bit of here and a bit of there. Never fully immersing into a subject. Never diving deep into a particular topic.

I am surely guilty of this. Not only as a reader - jumping from random article to another. But on my website as well. For most of my journey with durmonski.com. I've jumped from writing about productivity to writing about various philosophical questions without a clear roadmap. Without a clear idea of what I want to explore in depth.

For the last couple of months, I've changed things. I've decided to focus mainly on two topics until I cover everything there is to cover about them. These are habits and thinking.

In an attempt to group everything, I've created in relation to habits under one umbrella. I published a dedicated page on my website.

It's called Habits Shelf. You can check it out here. If you are interested in the topic, this page will give you the opportunity to dive deep and understand everything important about our daily routines.

• The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown: The Gifts of Imperfection is short, full of inspiring stories, and definitions of sparkly words book, that will help you accept yourself the way you really are. The research shared by Brené Brown will give you permission to abandon the life you’re supposed to live and embrace the life you really want to live.

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Interesting books I recently added to my reading list (and hopefully will read at some point):

• Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away by Annie Duke: From the author of Thinking in Bets, this piece explores the concept of quitting. How to get good at quitting. How to create "quitting contracts," and prevent yourself from being stuck in relationships or careers that no longer serve you.
• Fear and Trembling by Søren Kierkegaard: This book is considered a philosophical masterpiece by the leading pioneer of existentialism - Sõren Kierkegaard. The text is a detailed analysis of the concept of faith and at what point faith prevails over reason.

Thomas Samuel Kuhn

Born in 1922, Thomas Samuel Kuhn began his career as a physicist before turning to the history of science.

He was interested in how scientists approach their daily work, often thinking about the question of how science develops over time. All of this curiosity led to writing the controversial book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions and the introduction of the term paradigm shift.

Big Idea: Paradigm Shifts

The concept of paradigm shifts is defined as "an important change that happens when the usual way of thinking about or doing something is replaced by a new and different way."

Kuhn explained the development of paradigm shifts in science into 4 stages:

• Normal science: You have your set of theories that you use to approach problems and make decisions. However, when using only what is known, you sooner or later encounter anomalies that cannot be explained by the currently accepted theories and mental models.
• Extraordinary research: When the unknowns found in the previous stage cannot be solved by the current paradigm, you reach a state of crisis - "What should we do now?" To address this crisis, scientists push the boundaries of the current, considered normal science, to form new theories through extraordinary research. You no longer can rely on what is known. You enter a state of exploration to find answers.
• Adoption of a new paradigm: Eventually, the research phase leads to establishing a new paradigm. A new theory that aims to explain and make what was previously an anomaly, something incomprehensible, understandable by the masses. However, this new theory often meets resistance. Not everyone agrees, and not everyone wants to accept the new order.
• Aftermath and revolution: In the long run, when the new idea is adopted by the masses, the new paradigm becomes the dominant one.

Paradigm shifts don't happen only in science. They happen within a wide variety of contexts.

Most recently, something that shifted the way we all operate is the internet. The online world completely changed how we get access to information, communicate, work, and shop.

From my desk:

• Building Habits Strategies To Try (After Failing To Build Habits In The Past): If you forever wished to have good lasting habits in your life, but always found it hard to make habits stick. This strategic guide will show you why we often fail to establish healthy daily routines and what we can change in our approach to develop vigorous habits.

From around the web:

• Half-assing it with everything you've got: "If you want to be highly effective, remember what you're fighting for. And, spoiler alert, you aren't fighting for "write a high-quality paper." That would be a pretty silly thing to fight for."

Tabula Rasa

Tabula rasa is a Latin phrase translated literally as a clean slate. The concept of tabula rasa aims to explain that when we are born, our mind is basically a blank slate. There is no built-in mental content that comes pre-installed. Our experiences make us who we are.

The argument that our minds are empty can be traced back to Ancient Greece. In the writings of Aristotle, we find the idea that the mind "it is nothing until it has thought".

Stoics debated that people begin with no knowledge. Then, when the outside world happens to them. They develop their understanding of the world and develop a self.

Regardless of how we start, philosophers from different stages of life all agree that the human mind is highly flexible and we can - if we want - scrub certain beliefs and replace them with new ones.

Who is your modern hero?

There are so many influencers and famous people in general these days which got me thinking: Do we want to be like them?

Do you have someone who you admire and want to surpass?

Thank you for your time!

Regards,

Ivaylo Durmonski

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