[antifragile 4 🔥] a revelation about philosophy, Dabo Swinney doubles down, Dave Berry on meetings, wealth of information
#45: a weekly 4-item newsletter created to inspire dads to use the challenges of fatherhood as fuel for building an incredible life & an antifragile mind.
Welcome to the 45th edition of the antifragile 4 🔥.
It’s a weekly 4-item newsletter created to inspire dads to use the challenges of fatherhood as fuel for building an incredible life & an antifragile mind. Some weeks will have a theme, others will meander. Expect it every Friday.
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📸 50-Word Dad Life Snapshot: We pulled our son from daycare after switching to one closer to home. He never seemed happy—just a gut feeling.
Now that he's back at his old (significantly farther-away) daycare, the smile we hadn’t seen in months has returned. The gut always knows. Trust it.
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Here is this week’s antifragile 4 🔥:
a revelation about philosophy 🛒
Dabo Swinney 🏈🏈 doubles down
Dave Berry on 📅 on meetings
a wealth of information 🙇🏻♂️ creates a poverty of…
+ AI Image of the Week (is back) 🤖 🎨
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1.) a revelation about philosophy 🛒
I had a revelation about philosophy.
Before this revelation, I thought of philosophy as a museum.
A uppity museum with big initimidating gates.
With lots of “Do Not Touch” signs.
Showcasing the brilliance of those who had “figured it out”.
Of truths beyond reproach.
Like Lululemon, it doesn’t technically bar the uninitiated -
but it made damn sure you feel underdressed.
The ideas in this museum are also cordoned off by room.
The Stoics tucked away in the west wing.
Eastern philosophers in…well, the east.
Jung and his crew upstairs.
Mixing is not allowed.
Pick one and adhere.
And seriously, DON’T TOUCH!
But then the revelation:
Philosophy is not a museum.
It’s a grocery store 🛒
Everyone needs groceries.
Everyone needs food.
Food is not optional.
We need it to live.
Just as we need philosophy to live.
Everyone has a life philosophy.
Even if you’ve never read the Stoics,
or about the Buddha,
or about Carl Jung.
You still have a life philosophy.
Philosophy is, simply, how we decide to interpret the world around us and guide the actions that make up our lives.
And in the grocery store metaphor, anything that tries to shape how you think, live, or act is a work of philosophy. That’s what fills the shelves.
That means that most philosophy in our lives isn’t from the “great” works. It’s from our parents, from our family and friends. Religions and media.
The works of Aristotle, Plato, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius.
The ideas of Jesus, Muhammed, Moses, Buddha and Confucius.
The writings of Jung, Tolstoy, Marx, Nietzche and Kant.
They’re all just items on the shelves (in a comparatively small section), waiting to be sampled. In whatever combination that best nourishes you.
Do you not care about the great works and want to drink whiskey in the woods? Great! Throw that in your cart.
How about a can of humans are innately evil with a dash of the world is out to get me? Not my thing personally, but this ain’t my cart! Throw it in there!
Perhaps you’ll enjoy the Anthony Bourdain section of “your body is not a temple, it's an amusement park.” Enjoy the ride. Take a sample.
How about a heaping of all-powerful god with a dash of Stoicism and Carl Jung on the side? Wonderful! Throw it in the cart with the rest of your philosophy.
Do the teachings of Jesus resonate, but not the whole son of God part? Great! Throw it in the cart. Leave the divine part on the shelf.
Do you find the teachings of the Buddha energizing but aren’t on board with reincarnation? Plus a little Nietzsche nihilism? Delightful! Throw ‘em in there.
Whether we like it or not, we all have our own unique philosophies. The famous ones challenged the common sense of the time - that’s why they’re famous. They were revolutionary.
But that doesn’t make them true. It also doesn’t make them right for you.
Pick what you want. Build a delicious life 🍏 🌮 🧀.
2.) Dabo Swinney 🏈 doubles down
NIL has upended the world of college sports (The Money Game gives a great look into the madness).
Amidst the chaos - in an environment where some athletes go to four schools in four four - Clemson’s Dabo Swinney has doubled down on their program’s culture (subscription).
Here’s an excerpt:
Clemson annually has one of college football’s top graduation rates, and its 99 percent mark tied for the best at the power conference level…
Essentially, Swinney is banking on Clemson’s culture to capitalize on a new market inefficiency. He talks of players and parents looking for a program with the values that Clemson holds…
“As it’s gotten crazy we doubled down on who we are,” Swinney said. “We’re not trying to prove something. We’re not trying to be right. We’re just doing what we believe is right, for our program. And I think that’s what everybody has to do.”
He’s refusing to sacrifice the values of his program at a time when it could pay off big time in the short term to do so.
Regardless of whether it works or not, what an incredible case study in leadership.
To stick to what you think is right, even when the entire world around you goes the other direction.
There’s a life lesson here.
3.) Dave Berry on 📅 on meetings
Meetings are an addictive, highly self-indulgent activity that corporations and other large organizations habitually engage in only because they cannot actually masturbate.
Dave Berry
😂
The assault on unnecessary meetings continues 🔪
4.) a wealth of information 🙇🏻♂️ creates a poverty of…
What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention, and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.
The more information we subject our brains to, the worse our attention.
Less = more (attention).
AI Image of the Week 🤖 🎨
Dad shopping in philosophy grocery store 🛒.
Not sure what Parism is….
Two last things for you this week:
Try to put words to your own life philosophy. What’s in your cart?
Be fire and wish for the wind 🔥
With love,
Chris
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