The Deliberate #59: Moving Deliberately into 2023
Themes, experiments, and what has my attention
I’m Sam and this is The Deliberate, a periodic newsletter exploring the intersection of personal development, attention, organization design, and anything else that has been caught by the gravitational pull of my curiosity. I never look at who unsubscribes so if this newsletter isn’t something you want to keep around please unsubscribe and know that my feelings are impossible to hurt (at least in that regard!)
By one measure you could say that an article about New Year intentions that comes out two weeks after the flip to the fresh calendar is “late.” The story I’m going with, though, is that I deliberately chose to let the hubbub and excitement of the new year pass before I put any intentions down on paper.
Nonetheless, I did finally do the work to organize my thoughts about what I hope 2023 might be like. I decided to use the organizing principle of the “theme” because I’m extremely wary of using the wrong tools for the wrong context. The wrong tool in this case being a goal (or series of goals) that is supposed to orient an entire year’s worth of activity.
In my experience, goals or resolutions lose their potency the longer the period of time they are supposed to stay relevant. They aren’t flexible enough to respond to the unknowns of the upcoming year. Themes, on the other hand, are more of an enabling constraint. They give you some guardrails that still allow for a lot of leeway for exploration and evolution.
The one wrinkle to this year’s themes is that I’m going to try very hard to bring a disciplined rhythm of experimentation to them. The themes describe the general arena and the recurring experimentation is how I’ll show up in that arena. I’m hoping to use this newsletter as the primary place I’ll share what I’m doing and learning through those experiments. Ones that feel particularly profound or surprising may be elevated to full article status, but the real good behind-the-scenes stuff will be saved for this.
What Has Had My Attention
Elsewhere On The Internet
YouTuber CGP Grey and Relay FM co-founder Myke Hurley have done the most to introduce the concept of yearly themes to the world and this six-minute video from CGP Grey is a stellar introduction. Their podcast, Cortex, is a great place to hear them talk about their themes in much more detail. Their latest episode is all about their 2023 themes.
Reading
I’m working my way through The Odyssey as the second book in my “Old Books I Should Probably Read” project (I need to come up with a better name for this). The Iliad was my first in this endeavor. I read the Alexander Pope version of the Iliad which was so hard to read (albeit, an incredible piece of work when you think about what he accomplished) I decided to go with a non-verse translation of The Odyssey (I’m reading the Robert Fitzgerald translation).
Other books in flight right now include Ways of Being by James Bridle and Children of Dune by Frank Herbert. If I can slog through this one, I think this will be the last Dune book I read.
Listening
I do most of my music listening via algorithmic playlist nowadays so it’s rare for me to find an album and listen to it over and over. Especially an album of a band I had never heard of before. That’s what the album “Doorways” by Cinnamon Chasers has been for me recently, though. If you like mostly instrumental electronic music, especially to work to, you should definitely give this a spin (Apple Music/Spotify).
Playing
I finished the main storyline of “God of War” (2018). I turned the difficulty setting all the way down roughly halfway through the game because I didn’t have the patience for a few of the boss fights when what I really wanted was to see the conclusion of the story. It’s funny, when I was younger I would’ve relished the challenge of learning how to battle through the game without making it easier on myself. I would’ve done whatever was necessary to grind out better equipment or more experience in order to get through it. Now, as an almost 36 year old who has at best a couple hours a week to make progress on a game? Gimme that easy mode and let me experience the story. This means I’m officially old, right?
I’m always curious to hear about what has grabbed ahold of my readers’ attention and won’t let go. If there’s a piece of media that falls into that category for you please hit reply to this email and let me know what I should be reading/listening to/watching/playing or otherwise interacting with.
Until next time!
As a former Classics student the Fitzgerald translation is definitely the way to go. And how about, "Climbing through the Classics" for the project name? 😁