[antifragile 4 🔥] march at home, dumber college students, Adam Grant on arrogance, Eckhart Tolle on the universe

#40: 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 40th 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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Here is this week’s antifragile 4 🔥:

1. March at Home 🏡

2. an article about college students 🎓 being dumber than ever before

3. Adam Grant 🙉 on arrogance

4. Eckhart Tolle 🪐 on the universe

+ AI Image of the Week 🤖 🎨

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1.) March at Home 🏡

Unblest is he who thinks himself unblest.

Seneca

I had shitty March.

Flu. Cancelled trips. Marital sparring. Mental malaise.

Bleh.

Shitty.

…

Then one day this week, a Memory pops up on my iPhone called “March at Home”.

Bored, I flip it open.

It starts with a photo of my boys sitting together on our couch…

…then one of Adley joyfully rolling around in the backyard next to his baseball tee & bat…

…then one of Jude giving one of those soul-warming smiles only 6-month-olds can give…

…then one of me holding them both while jumping around (Adley calls it “The Boys”)…

…then one of the moon (which we search for with Adley almost every night before bed)…

…then one of Jude, on Jenna’s lap, learning how to stand…

…then more of us dancing around in kitchen, Adley playing soccer with his grandfather, Jude cuddling with my sister…

…and then I realized something.

March wasn’t shitty at all.

March was incredible.

March may have been the best month of my life.

I was with my boys. My wife. My family. My friends.

I’m healthy. I’m safe. I have money. I got to run, to walk, to read. To touch the ocean.

And yet I was insisting on telling a different story. A story of victimhood and suffering and misery.

It reminded me that our life experience all comes down to one thing: The story you tell.

To quote the Dawes song: Things happen, it’s all they ever do. And regardless of what things happen, we always retain the ability to choose our interpretation.

Our story.

So here’s the story I’m choosing: March was incredible. One of the best of my life.

And I can’t wait to see what comes next.

2.) an article about college students 🎓 being dumber than ever before

I think about education a lot. Which is why I shared this article with a large number of friends this week.

Here’s the TL;DR:

• Written by a college professor

• It argues college students today are more distracted, less present (literally), less dedicated and dumber than ever before.

• The professor is not sure where to point the finger; they’re just sad

On one hand, this professor has high standards (which is maybe the point). I’ve read a couple of the books he claims would be impossible for his students to read & comprehend…and I had trouble reading and comprehending them myself.

So perhaps I’m a distracted dummy too (wouldn’t be hugely surprising).

But it’s hard to argue that things like smartphones, TikTok and ChatGPT haven’t harmed students’ abilities to focus…and thus, think and learn.

What to do with this?

I’m considering this another data point as my wife and I strategize our kids’ educational life.

Use it as you will.

The average college student today

3.) Adam Grant 🙉 on arrogance

4.) Eckhart Tolle 🪐 on the universe

You are the universe expressing itself as a human for a little while.

Eckhart Tolle

AI Image of the Week 🤖 🎨

the universe expressing itself as a human for a little while…but like Picasso

Two last things for you this week:

1. Think of the story you’re telling yourself. Could you tell it in a way powerful or energizing way?

2. Be fire and wish for the wind 🔥

With love,
Chris

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