Reflections on June 2020

Hey patrons,

Half of the year is gone, and geeeeeez, what a year it’s been. I feel like I preface every one of these reflections with some comment about the year, and while that may be a trope, it really is the truth. No matter where you are, you can point to some collective point of reference that we will all understand. Outside of a world war, that has never really happened until now. So wherever you’re at, hope you’re taking care.

Let’s get into the reflection for June 2020.

(1) Nothing beats synchronous communication

Communication comes in two formats: synchronous and asynchronous.

Synchronous is what we’ve used through most of human history. You and I get together, and we chat in real-time. You exchange one thought, I listen. I reply to that thought, while you listen. Then you reply to my reply, and the chain continues.

Asynchronous is time-delayed communication, or when I can send over a thought and not hear your reply until hours or days later. This is email, text messaging, Slack channels, this Patreon post, etc. The internet has made asynchronous communication the way of the land, as our ability to be broadcasters is what made this possible.

It has been said that the pandemic just accelerated the inevitable. The disruption of education and the shift to online shopping are just a few examples of the trends that have been taken into overdrive.

Another overlooked one is the continual rise of asynchronous communication.

Even if people can’t go and hang out with one another, their messages apps are probably booming with activity. Whether it’s updating each other on what they’re doing or just sending off notes for shits and giggles, we all remained connected through this staggered form of communication over the last few months.

I’d guess that for every 20-30 (non-work related) messages you’ve exchanged with someone, you had one phone call with them (and that’s probably on the high end). While we still value real-time communication, the ease in which we can fire off a message to tell someone we’re thinking of them is simply too convenient to ignore.

But once I actually get on the phone to talk to someone, I’m reminded of how much better it is to speak with a loved one in real-time. The ability to go on tangents, to shoot the shit, to not have a rigid, linear chain of messages to follow… these are all things you get with live, synchronous communication. It allows for serendipitous points to be made, for random jokes to be blurted out.

Sure, it may be more effective to send a text message to someone, but there’s something deeply human about hearing their voice and conversing in real-time. I try to keep this in mind if it’s been too long since I picked up the phone and talked to my closest friends and family.

Synchronous communication is what has kept us together for most of human history, and it’s naive to think that in 2020, that is no longer the case.

(2) How to internalize what others are doing

I’ve been thinking of how I’d like to manage the way I view other creators. As I say in this post about self-doubt, sometimes it’s easy to interpret the accomplishment of others as sources of envy rather than beacons of inspiration. Instead of being thankful that you can learn from others, we can be quick to question what we’re doing and try to emulate the other person.

This is especially true in today’s world, where we have instantaneous access to what others are doing in the form of tweets, newsletters, Instagram posts, LinkedIn profiles, etc. The feedback loops get shorter while the transparency into them gets higher. Theoretically, this should be great for us. We can see what works for others and what doesn’t, and incorporate some of those lessons accordingly.

The problem is that people tend to broadcast their successes, while tucking away their failures. And even if a failure is broadcasted, it’s usually to highlight some form of success that came about as a result of that failure.

So what we see is a deluge of great results without understanding the true context of how they came to be. You get the destination without the journey, and since you’re the only one that experiences the ebbs and flows or your own journey, you end up feeling inadequate compared to the rosy picture of the other person’s finish line.

Given this, I think creativity is about:

5%: Seeing what others are doing, and

95%: Just doing your own thing.

That slight 5% is in there because you can use others’ capabilities as guideposts for what is possible. There are some valuable lessons in there that you can apply to how you move about.

But ultimately, almost all of your attention should just be on doing your own thing. In the end, people pay attention to your work because you are you, and not a clone of someone else. If you have a lane you’re crafting for yourself, keep driving down it and cultivate something special there. The more you look around at other lanes, the more you risk spiraling out of control and losing the sense of what made this endeavor so special in the first place.

(3) The future is as bright as we want to make it, and as dark as we want to allow it

In the early days of Homo sapiens, pessimists had an evolutionary advantage over optimists.

Pessimists would incessantly worry about whether or not a lion was there to devour them, or whether or not they had enough food to last them for the next few days. They would go beyond the necessary precautions to keep themselves safe, and that paranoia did indeed help them live longer and reproduce.

Optimists, on the other hand, would venture out hoping for the best, only to see that the lion was indeed there, and that was that. Optimists hoped for a longer existence, while pessimists were the ones that actually got it.

Fast forward to today, and we no longer have to be afraid of lions and an empty food supply. The age of unfathomable abundance is here, but the biological mechanisms that governed our evolutionary progress remain.

If left to our own nature, pessimism would roam unhinged. Unchecked thought bends toward rumination. A lack of reflection leads to worry. These are the states we find ourselves in if we are not intentional with how we use our minds.

When I look at the future, it’s easy to see it as a bleak and scary place. In fact, it’s quite natural to view it that way. If you allow the mind to drift toward its evolutionary tendencies, then pessimism is what awaits.

However, if you make the choice to view the future as a bright and beautiful place, then that’s what it will be. The word “choice” is important here because it implies agency. It’s the usage of our higher cognitive functions to make a decision that overrides our evolutionary machinery.

It is no longer 50,000 BC. Pessimism doesn’t lead to survival, it just leads to misery. Optimism is the vehicle that will take us to a better place, but we must allow it to do so.

Choose a bright future, and that’s what will ultimately arrive.

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That’s it for the reflection. I enjoy writing these and sharing them with you, largely because it feels like an intimate space to do so.

If you ever want to reach out, I encourage you to message me via Patreon to share any thoughts. I enjoy the connection I have with you, so please feel free to drop by and say hello.

Thank you so much for your support.

-Lawrence