[antifragile 4 🔥] an underrated super power, free billion dollar idea, resetting a frazzled mind, JMU & what makes a place special

#47: 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 47th 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.

—

😎 Big Life Decision: We’ve decided to move back to Colorado. It was both an easy and a hard decision. Easy in that it’s 100% where we belong. Hard in that all of our family resides in Maryland.

In the end, we decided that raising our boys in a place we love was not an opportunity we could pass up. And we look forward to hosting everyone in Denver 🏡 ⛰️

—

Here is this week’s antifragile 4 🔥:

1. one of life’s most underrated 🦸🏻‍♂️ superpowers

2. a free billion-dollar idea 💰 I hope someone makes

3. a nice way to reset 🧠 a frazzled mind

4. a visit to JMU 🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒 that reminded me of what makes a place special

+ AI Image of the Week 🤖 🎨

—

1.) one of life’s most underrated 🦸🏻‍♂️ superpowers

This post got me thinking…

One of life’s most underrated superpowers is this: Being able to do things when you don’t feel like doing them in the moment.

If I were to pick one variable on which to judge the long-term success of an individual, I think I’d pick this.

To get up early and exercise when your brain is screaming to stay in bed.

To ask that beautiful girl across the room out on a date.

To sit down and explain to your boss why you need a raise.

To have a hard conversation with a friend.

To work until you can’t see straight because you know your team depends on you.

To leave a job or relationship because you know it isn’t right.

It could go by grit or gusto or tenacity. Whatever you want to call it, it’s a superpower and the more we can cultivate it in ourselves and in our children, the more fun and success we’ll find in our lives.

2.) a free billion-dollar 💰 idea I hope someone makes

While flipping through my podcasts this week, I had a multi-billion-dollar idea: personalized, dynamic podcasts.

Here’s what I mean: currently, if I’m interested in what’s happening in the Bitcoin world, I listen to Bitcoin podcasts.

If I’m interested in what’s happening with my lowly Orioles, I’d flip on an Orioles podcast.

Then, if I want the latest on tech and anti-ageing, I’ll flip open one of the slew of those.

But what if you could have everything you’re interested in dynamically generated into an on-demand podcast episode?

Building on top of something like Google’s NotebookLM (which creates full podcast episodes on whatever information you give it 🤯), you could curate the types of information you’re interested in, the system would round up the latest news in those spaces and then generate it into one beautiful podcast episode you pop on as you drive to work.

What it would not include would be headlines from the NYT or WSJ or CNN, unless it was of 10/10 importance or directly related to your life or the lives of people you love.

It’d be the news, but only the news you care about.

There you go - let me know when it’s ready.

3.) a nice way to reset 🧠 a frazzled mind

I tried this and it worked. Took a stroll around a lake near my office, listening to an Alan Watts lecture, and felt the fog that had built up in my mind disperse 😌

4.) a visit to JMU 🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒 that reminded me of what makes a place special

Late last year, our family did a long weekend at a resort near my alma mater, JMU. We were planning to make a short visit and I was very excited.

For proper context, I loved JMU. Arguably, more than anyone has ever loved a school (not even close). It changed my life in so many ways and set me on the incredible path I enjoy today.

This love was a long-distance one, as I hadn’t been back to visit since the year after my graduation (a mere 14 years ago).

Being that it had been so long, I was expecting to be utterly overcome with emotion when we stepped on campus. To be brought to the brink of tears upon revisiting the very place that had been so singular in its impact on my life.

But you know what I felt when I stepped on the Quad? The very Quad where I had my first ever class? That picturesque place where I spent lazy afternoons with my best friends? Where I sat on my last night ever as a student at the school, and cried because it was over??

I felt…nothing.

There was recognition of a familiar place, but no emotion whatsoever. Zero.

I gave it some time, hoping some memory would shake loose the torrent of emotion that was surely dammed somewhere inside my mind.

But it never came.

Even as we walked the same paths I strode every day. Past the dining halls. Even the dorms where we had lived. Where I met some of the most important people in my life.

Nothing.

What the f…

I shared this with Jenna. And, as she is so gifted at doing, she saw right through to the truth of the moment.

“It was the people who made it special,” she said, “It wasn’t the campus or the buildings or anything else. It was the people.”

It was the people.

People are what make things special. Human connection gives us meaning.

In a world where we’re encouraged to strive for money and status and things, what we truly need most is simply to connect with other people. And to connect deeply.

That’s where we find meaning. That is what makes life special.

So find your people. Connect deeply with them. And make wherever you are a special place.

AI Image of the Week 🤖 🎨

my walk around the lake with Alan Watts.

Two last things for you this week:

1. Find your people. Find time to connect.

2. Be fire and wish for the wind 🔥

With love,
Chris

—

Did this edition resonate with you? Sharing is caring. Send to a fellow antifragile dad.