Nice vs Kind

The Secret to Being Lucky, How Much Are Your Friends Worth, and this weeks book giveaway.

I am ok with being uncomfortable with you. I hope you don’t mind. Do you have a hard time embracing discomfort?

This week, I am sending a list of things I found inspiring. I hope you enjoy…

My Favorite thing I read last week:

The Secret to Being Lucky by Virginia Heffernan From Wired:

For those seeking self-improvement, and who isn’t, I’m not just freestyling here. Living by a doctrine of luck promotes at least five excellent things that have got to be good for your brain.

1. Active skepticism about “meritocracy.”

2. Recognition of the utter contingency of one’s own advantages. An act, if I may, of “checking your privilege.”

3. Appreciation for the spontaneity, serendipity, and unpredictability of the universe. Nicholas Rescher, the illustrious philosopher at the University of Pittsburgh, calls luck “the brilliant randomness of everyday life.”

4. A way to practice “gratitude” without doing calligraphy in $75 journals. All you have you do is say, every time it hits you that life is OK and could be otherwise, “What luck!”

5. A way to make more luck in your life.

Luck really is the best creed. It makes no truth claims, requires no messiahs or gurus. It’s not religious, partisan, or ideological. It doesn’t just allow for surprise; it’s nothing but surprise. It’s charming. It may even be the secular answer to grace, but it comes with laughs rather than piety.

When you get good at luck, you can even find a spot of luck in a heat wave or your team’s defeat. But don’t be a psychopath. Luck is not about looking on the bright side. It’s much more minor. It’s about just being—and observing that, of all the prospective organisms in the broken but intriguing world, you happened, against the odds, to be one.

My Favorite thing I listened to:

Raj Chetty on People I (Mostly) Admire. The episode is called, “How Much Are the Right Friends Worth?”

Harvard economist Raj Chetty uses tax data to study inequality, kid success, and social mobility. He explains why you should be careful when choosing your grade school teachers — and your friends.

That leads me to one of my most favorite people ever:

John Priola. He was my graduate school mentor and has a book coming out called Natural Light. If you like photography, plants and feel a pull toward the romantically tragic parts of life, you will love his work. Here is a link to his current show.

My favorite obvious fact of this week:

“Who we are and who we become depends, in part, on whom we love.”

- A General Theory of Love, Thomas Lewis

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Friday Interview: Tim Belonax

Tim is a dear friend of mine and also the design director at Pinterest. If I have not told you this, I am telling you now, I am super supportive of self-publishing. I wish someone had told me this long ago. I find that the publications that are self-published are so free to do things that other big places are scared of (you also don’t have to work with other people’s schedules). I like to be free to explore and be weird. Anyway, Tim published The Reward is in the process and we are going to talk about the project and how he got to where he is, and why humans exist.

Comment here if you want a copy of this book (I only have one this week, sorry!)

As always thanks so much for being here with me. I know I have a back log of book giveaways to give out - I just hired someone to help me with sending books out. Stay tuned. If there was a book that you were interested in, commenting is still open some of the books - like Emma Straub, Sohpie Blackall, and Kimberley Wilson, oh oh and Liz Fosslien!!

Thanks for having patience with me. Love, Carissa