Tangible Life
▲ of the Mind [004]
Maybe it’s because I was unusually ill last week (side note: the combo of a wicked sinus infection and toilet-worshiping food poisoning is like dipping a rotten fish stick in a used litter box at buffet portions), but I have the term resiliency on my mind. Not because I feel that I was, or am, particularly resilient, but because I think it’s often misused when what we’re actually incorporating into our lives is the lesser condition of peace of mind.
A lovely human and writer of our time, Cole Schafer, has said he believes if you distill our spending motives down, they all fall into either spending to get “closer to pleasure” or “further from pain.” I’m paraphrasing, but all these dots will connect by the end of this missive, I swear.
Three words that terrify the fucking shit out of me: Subterranean. Termite. Booster.
We’ve been in our current home here in Florida for 5 years now. Week before last a lovely gentleman with a bit of a lazy eye, and a bedside manner to match, stopped by to apply our subterranean termite booster (a “kick in the balls” priced requirement to maintain the pest control damage warranty that came with the home). He stated matter of factly before starting his work with a flat head shovel, “I’m pretty sure you don’t have any… if you did, you’d sure as shit know it.”
As comforting as that was intended to be, I realized that I paid him a sum of money, that I’m fortunate to be able to afford, in order to have peace of mind for another five years. If my house begins to fall in on itself because it has the equivalent of bone cancer, I’m covered. This is not resiliency… this is peace of mind.
We pay ourselves away from pain all the time. While I’m not saying all this to jump on some newsletter soapbox around how you spend your money, here’s my point. I’m going to be spending time… and paying attention to where I’m creating peace of mind when I could or should push myself a bit more to build actual, tangible resilience. Something tells me we’re going to need it.
1️⃣ Something I (d)read…
Apple Inc. executives previewed its upcoming mixed-reality headset to the company’s board last week, indicating that development of the device has reached an advanced stage, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Mark Gurman has always been known for a scoop in the Apple news space. This one is full of details about a product I’m mostly sour on the thought of, if I’m being completely honest. It’s another form of “wall-e here we come” from my perspective. Rather than get the digital pacifier out of our hand where it stays cradled like the metal and glass baby we’d leap for before saving a real one falling into a lion pit at the zoo… we’re just going to go ahead bring it up to eye level before we grow a horn from looking down. Before anyone tells me… yes, I know that study was found to be mostly bullshit.
And… in classic fashion, Jony Ive doesn’t disappoint:
During its development, the device faced pushback from former chief designer Jony Ive, who didn’t believe Apple should release a headset that would take people out of the real world. Ive, who left Apple in 2019, preferred the concept of augmented reality-only glasses, but that product wasn’t going to be ready until much later.
Dieter Rams doesn’t own a computer… maybe Jony won’t own one of these headsets.
2️⃣ Something I watched…
When a young boy vanishes, a small town uncovers a mystery involving secret experiments, terrifying supernatural forces and one strange little girl.
Specifically… episode 1 of season 4 of Stranger Things. No spoilers here… but ALL those characters are resilient as a nuclear bunker. Did I mention subterranean termites lately?
3️⃣ Something I read…
Some coffee mugs are special and have a story and we’re sharing them in this series, starting with this 1970s Sesame Street stunner.
Great read from the one and only Tonx over at Yesplz.
On theme, my coffee mug situation is resilient. My wife was kind enough to gift me not one, but two backup mugs for my birthday back in March. This is special because 1) we don’t do gifts under normal circumstances and 2) my current every day mug for the last 6 or so years running was won as part of a radio station content she entered. It’s a limited edition mug made by Starbucks and I both love the shape and the pattern on it. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Now I have two more of the exact mug just waiting in the wings, should my daily driver one day be shot from the sky and fall to its demise.
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Angles Outside 180 📐
This section is only for the folks that scroll to the bottom of a newsletter the way true fans sit to the end of the credits in a movie hoping for a little more…
- If you’re interested in the full explanation of Cole’s thinking, here’s a blog post.
- If you want to read a newsletter where the words drip like honey off the wet mouth of a bumblebee in heat, check out Sticky Notes by Cole.
- WWDC is coming up fast… I struggle with the dual pull of “hope they offer X as a feature” vs. “ignore it all and simplify”.
- Fun fact… you can just barely see my mug referenced in item 3 to the far right of the header image for this newsletter.