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Elemental Sunday: What Could Go Right, Good Products Gone Bad, and Life's Operating System

Published about 1 year ago • 2 min read

What Could Go Right, Good Products Gone Bad, and Life's Operating System

February 5, 2023

Hey friends,

Happy Sunday. I know this sounds cliché, but one of the biggest lessons I've had over the last few months is one of opposites. I had just come off writing a book and re-thinking just about everything in my life. One major revelation I had was that it is sometimes more important to know what one should not think about rather than what one should think about.

I started to question the true value of all these sources of endless information coming my way. The news, the videos being recommended to me, the opinions that everyone surrounding me had about those things.

My thoughts were constantly hijacked to the point of having little to no original thoughts of my own. But I'm a human being, and human beings have a unique power -- the power to guide our thoughts.

For the next few weeks, I would go through my regular routines and ask myself whether what I was doing was helping or harming me. My habits of constantly sitting on social media swiping through videos or reading opinion pieces made me feel numb. This digital junk food had me satisfied and always wanting more.

Especially in times of great uncertainty, this digital junk food was the only thing helping me cope. Living in uncertain times had me reacting to a reaction of the events and not my thoughts originating from those events. I've since cut out much of the noise in my life and find pleasure in not knowing nor staying up to date.

I feel much more centered, aligned with my thoughts, and life is composed. I've been more creative than all the years prior. I have original ideas, pursue those ideas, and send them out into the world without judgement.

What Could Go Right?

My journey of searching for genuine human virtue had led me to see through the trap of the cynicism. For those who were once a cynic can spot a cynic a mile away and have nothing but more empathy for them.

https://jondouglas.dev/what-could-go-right/

Fuck Off Design

Why do we allow certain products to creep into our most finite resource? Good products are designed to get the job done and fuck off. Bad products are designed to leech every second they can while you're constantly asking them to fuck off.

https://jondouglas.dev/fuck-off-design/

Life's Operating System

Everyday is an opportunity to update your life's operating system with a new version. By becoming a little wiser each new day, you do this automatically. Your perspectival knowing gets fine-tuned allowing you to participate more in everyday life.

https://jondouglas.dev/lifes-operating-system/

Have a creative week,

Jon

P.S. Consider how different your experience of the world might be if you engaged in every activity with the attention you might give to landing a plane.

All of these articles can also be found on Substack.

jondouglas.dev

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