Internet cultural insights from the 70s, MLK Jr., Art wisdom...
And things I'm catching a wave on 🏄♂️ | Vol. 18
Hello Familia - Welcome to the first dispatch of 2023 with vol. 18 of Move Fast, Think Slow. If you missed the last dispatch here it is; we reviewed the “Best of 2022” covering pro-tips in health, TV shows, books, and podcasts for your mentals, your spirituals, and your journeys.
This week MF/TS is sharing some fodder that will feed your noggins. As you all know, here at MF/TS we’re big believers in the idea of constant improvement. For this newsletter in of itself and…well in life too. #CantStopWontStop #BetterAskSomebody #LetsGo
Today’s dispatch covers Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy & wisdom, prophets of the internet’s cultural impact from the 70s (how did they predict the world in 1 minute?), art wisdom, booze consumption data that raises an eyebrow 🤨, a sports feel-good story, and other novel items including the photos & LOL of the week.
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PRAISE BE DR. KING | 🙏✊🇺🇸
The first thing’s first. Shouts out to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He loved America and the idea of it more than most. He had an idea of a more empathetic and less cruel society. And he helped spurn progressive change despite it costing him his life.
He cared about his people and also fellow Americans by and large. Check out Mike Wallace interview from ‘67 with Dr. King himself. I’ve rarely ever heard someone discuss in plain facts the built-in inequality and heartache of the black American community from the perspective of America’s actual history. The full interview is here. The struggle continues. And yet, maybe, as with all Saints we honor, maybe his life can inspire us to stand up for what’s right. To be better humans. To strive for peace, prosperity, and progress.
MARSHALL MCLUHAN AND DAVID BOWIE | INTERNET CULTURAL PROPHETS | 📺 📡
This Marshall McLuhan interview clip from 1977 is EPIC (1:40).
Wow this quote: “We now have the means to keep everyone under surveillance…it has become one of the main occupations of mankind just watching other people and keeping a record of their goings on. Invading privacy but just outright ignoring it. Everyone has become porous….by the way at this moment we are on the air and we do not have physical body….when you don’t have a physical body, you’re a discarnate being and you have a very different relation to the world around you.”
Wow this too: “Everyone tends to merge their identity with others at the speed of light. By the way of the big mark of a lost of identity is nostalgia. So revivals of all hands, in every phase of life today…the revival tells us who we are or were.”
The takeaway: He’s talking about TV, radio, and the telephone but this is absolutely applicable to what the internet and smartphones have also done to humans and culture at large. We know more now that what he says is absolutely true and how this has all played out.
If we’re not physical we’re many identities: Kyla Scanlon’s one-minute recap of this clip acknowledges how this is manifesting today.
P.S. on many identities: Young people have been and will continue to create multiple identities online like they are in creating two different accounts on Instagram. Fake ones and real ones. That’s a wild concept.
The McLuhan interview is reminiscent of David Bowie’s prophetic interview on what the internet will become and do to culture from 1999 (2:09). Worth the watch too.
ART WISDOM | 🎨 🧠
“Artists: Art is the most advanced operating system our species has ever invented to explore consciousness. Consciousness is a compass of the unknown.” - Jerry Saltz
Want to get more creative? Apparently, science is showing that an optimal path to creativity is doing nothing. Yes, I’m being completely serious.
“When you are doing absolutely nothing, the brain engages in what the researchers termed "random episodic silent thought" or REST. And during REST, the brain "uses its most human & complex parts."
BOOZE CONSUMPTION DATA THAT RAISES AN EYEBROW | 🍷🍺
What-the-what: This socioeconomic gradient in alcohol consumption is fascinating.
DISCIPLINE & HABITS | 🏋️♂️ 🧘 🎧 📚
Listen to: Tim Ferris interview with Atomic Habits author James Clear
Listen b/c: if you’re trying to sharpen how you attain goals and get things done; Mr. Clear is someone you are going to want to listen to.
Fast Fact: Clear has sold over 10M copies of his book since dropping in 2018. That’s a lot of people buying this book and spreading the word.
Big ticket insight: The more you do the little things. The more you can get a handle on the bigger ones. It’s more about a system > habits for James Clear and the interview has a lot of good things to nourish on.
Stay listening for: How to develop an online audience and promote a book. Really smart stuff here from James.
I just read | Discipline Equals Freedom by Joko Willink
Straightforward talk: Former Navy Seal drops some of his best stories, leadership training, and codes of a warrior’s life and it’s pretty awesome. It brought me back to a place I’ve not visited in a long time. And that’s just hardcore discipline is how gains are made. It’s not glamourous but it works.
Favorite quote: “First you need to detach. Realize your ego is a trap.”
GOOD VIBES SPORTS MOMENT | 🏈 ❤️
FAVE PHOTOS (& LOLs) | 📸 😂
Stay safe out there.
-Mitch
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