UPDATE | The wisdom of Lyonne
How your bugs become your features & other weekend perspectives | Vol 22.5
Dear Move Fast, Think Slow Readers - This world is so noisy and negative you might not be able to see the light and find hope if you don’t stop to listen. That’s a big part of why I started MF/TS. To create a space for you to stop and listen. Yes, this is info coming at your eyeballs/brain but the hope is you might find a quiet space to soak up this info and maybe you might uncover something new about yourself or start to unpack new ideas.
Here’s a recommendation for you when you read Move Fast, Think Slow: If you want to make this newsletter even more impactful for your life have a pen and paper with you while you read it. Write down thoughts, ideas, or questions that come to mind. You can read the data/research below on the importance of physical media when it comes to your brain.
Special request: If you have any friends or family that would be into what we’re putting down in MF/TS then please share out the newsletter.
Here are a few links to make you think:
Business School in one image: Aswath Damodaran’s five life cycles of a company are eye-opening. If you really want to geek out on this check out his course on the topic on YouTube.
Warren Buffett’s Business School: QCompounding did a 14-part summary of Warren’s 3-hour CNBC interview that’s worth the skim.
Buzzfeed News is no more: In light of the announcement that the publication is shuttering it’s news division, John McDermott’s hot takes the lies told on the future of journalism are pretty, pretty, pretty good.
The last thing I’ll leave you with before diving into Vol 22.5 is when it comes to strategy & positioning for the future think long.
“In a world where everyone wants to win today, the real advantage comes from thinking long-term.” - Shane Parrish
Hello Familia - Welcome to vol. 22 of Move Fast, Think Slow. MF/TS is a newsletter about trends in culture and perspectives on life philosophies. Lately, I have been interested in the power of habits and in search of creative wisdom thus far in 2023. But don’t sleep on deep dives on Media Theory & Brand Americana and book reviews on Revolt of the Public - two of the most popular drops of MF/TS. Two deep-dive like editorials on some current trends in culture & media at large.
In 2023, the goal for MF/TS is to mix quick-hitting dispatches with deep-dive editorials. My hope is that the balance of these two forces makes for a dynamic newsletter product.
As this dispatch is landing in your inbox on a Sunday we’re aiming to make this week’s drop light & easy, and yet as always, thoughtful as fuck. 😂 🧘
The hope & purpose of these dispatches is that they might catch you in a quiet space. And that you may read these words which identifies a kind of wisdom worth marinating in and on as you make your way down the road. If this sounds like some hot chili your friends might be into, go ahead and give it a share.
About today’s dispatch & what’s ahead with MF/TS ✅
You know when you come across something and you just can’t stop thinking about it? That’s what happened when this TikTok clip from Neal Brennan’s Blocks featuring Natasha Lyonne popped into my feed. Natasha’s one-minute thought on her creative journey and the wisdom she was imparting to young women has been playing on repeat in my mind. It’s just super interesting.
There’s this idea that’s been nagging at me lately too. The notion of the ideas worth pinning to the board (versus the ones that are not). What are the best ideas, insights, and multi-generational wisdom worth pinning to the board? The board and the pin are metaphors of course. The board and pin illustrate a key piece of information staying up on the wall in order to be looked at and thought through repeatedly.
In our digitally saturated age, no one really has boards or pins anymore. But perhaps we ought to. And I’m not just being a sentimentalist for the physical print media. Research continues to show the more we engage with physical media the more likely we are to retain the info. The same goes for writing on paper versus through digital devices, but I digress.
This is a theme I am going to continue to explore this year in future MF/TS dispatches: What data is worth pinning to the board? A new series on brand marketing, business growth, data & insights, and what the dope feign of data-led optimizations have led to for our creative/corporate cultures and the world at large is coming. But that’s for another time. For now, enjoy Vol. 22!
Natasha Lyonne Dopping Gems 🙏 💎
“It's crazy how the things that are like such a problem in your life become all the things that like the sort of gifts of your life “yeah that all the bugs have become features”, yeah it's just it's such a funny thing that that like more than anything I think that'slike my grandiose dream to like impart to other young girls who are sort of; like seen as weird in a narrow viewpoint is like that reminder that all that you know it's just that stuff you always hear of like all that stuff that makes you an outsider is the stuff that later if you can just withstand the discomfort of it sort of becomes the stuff that suddenly that's the reason you you know you're writing and directing and you know all this you have stuff in a weird way so…I wouldn't wish that discomfort on my kid self but I do feel like weirdly what allowed me to survive was this weird relationship where it was my job to protect her or something and in this very, you know bizarre interchild dialetct…I’m watching out for her because no one else will.”
- Natasha Lyonne
TikTok bubbled this one-minute clip up and I can’t stop thinking about it.
Natasha is talking about herself while also sending a message to young girls out there. And not to steal any thunder from that intention but the wisdom she is dropping rings true no matter the gender. Natasha has a wonderful gift for keeping it 100 while also posturing sage-old-wonderful-wisdom at the same time. #SheIsTheBest #Legend
This clip nags at me because my creative self wonders have I put my weird to bed so that I can pursue fitting in. What is my weird? And do I need to find it to be that much more original and creatively true? I haven’t fully unpacked this yet but I’m pulling at the threads.
P.S. If you haven’t watched POKER FACE, Natasha’s latest hit, you really ought to. It’s very good storytelling & acting.
James Clear with another one ☝️
I mentioned James and his work on Habits in my first dispatch, again here with this smart AF tweet on negative thinking/emoting, and the last dispatch. Holy smokes I think it’s safe to say I stans for James Clear. He’s an expert on habits having written a best-selling book that continues to grow in popularity in this post-pandemic / anxiety-ridden era which is an insight into the culture at large in of itself but I digress. His 3-2-1 this week punched me in the gut:
Worth the questions in the spirit of finding perspective: What are the five habits I repeat the most? They are the average of what exactly? 🤔
If you do anything today, go for a fucking walk 🚶♂️🚶♀️
The legendary actor and writer Andrew McCarthy has a wonderful ode to walking that’s worth the read.
But walking does more than keep the devil from the door. The Welsh poet (and sometime vagabond) W.H. Davies wrote:
Now shall I walk
Or shall I ride?
“Ride,” Pleasure said.
“Walk,” Joy replied.Walking buoys the spirits in a way that feels real and earned. It feels owned. And walking, like a generous partner, meets us more than halfway.
Perhaps this is what that dedicated walker Henry David Thoreau was referring to when he wrote, “I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees.”
So the secret is out there. It’s under the leaves on the trail. It’s right there on the sidewalk. Spring has sprung. Lace up.
Photos of the week
In case you want to dig through the Move Fast, Think Slow crates: