Unwired Ideas from a café in Ljubljana

• You procrastinate for 2 reasons: 1/ because you fear that something might go wrong or that it might go well and the implications/responsibilities that come with it. 2/ Because you don’t care about the thing you have to do and don’t find it meaningful for your life.
• Your habits today predict where you will be in the future. If you don’t do things, don’t expect miracles to happen. Miracles don’t exist.
• Sometimes it’s hard for you to incorporate a habit because you’re looking directly at it and not at what surrounds it. Many times, the environment you have doesn’t help you, and you have to get rid of it to be able to implement it. Other times, you need to unlearn an old habit first to make room for the new one.
• Your body and mind adapt to the things you do habitually. If you want to learn a new language, it’s best to start speaking it as soon as possible and do it daily. If you want to gain muscle, start training and eating in a surplus as soon as possible and do it every week.
• Just as you worry about whether lemonade has sugar or if eating too many eggs a week raises cholesterol, also worry about the content you consume. Algorithms have made us lose our criteria when it comes to choosing what content we consume. What you feed your mind is just as important as what you feed your body.
• “The Negative Way” is the best way to clarify things in times of doubt. You are clearer about what you don’t want than what you do. If you don’t know which path to choose, start with the ones you don’t want to follow.
• Writing is an athletic process. You can only get good by training for many hours, and you always have to warm up before starting. It’s very difficult to write when you’re cold.
• Specialization is for insects. You can and should try new things throughout our lives. This doesn’t mean it’s not good for you to be good at one or two things.
• If someone is not in the position you would like to be in, don’t follow their advice. Their advice comes from their own experience and will likely lead you to a place you don’t want to be if you apply it.
• Self-help in any of its formats causes me anxiety. My theory is that they talk too much about what you could be or what you could do. This constantly opens up multiple paths in your mind, positioning you constantly in the future, something that does not exist and is therefore uncertain. I would like to see more content of this type oriented towards the present: being aware of what you are doing and who you are right now, and starting with a stronger foundation.
• This article makes a distinction between Physician and Librarian in reference to the two types of informational product that may exist. The first aim to protect you from context, and the second aim to point you toward context. I think it applies to people. In this case, we could separate them into Protectors and Activators. The first one aims to get the job done to avoid conflict, and the second one aims to inspire you to act and make mistakes. I would like to say that I am one of the latter, but I tend to be more of the former.

The coffee shop is called Stow