Your Future Self

Wisdom

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Martin Luther Rewired Your Brain by Joseph Henrich

Takeaways

I highly suggest consuming the full piece here (5 min. read time)

“You are likely highly literate. As you learned to read, probably as a child, your brain reorganized itself to better accommodate your efforts, which had both functional and inadvertent consequences for your mind.” — Joseph Henrich

If you’ve ever wondered why/when people decided that everyone should learn to read: “…it was a religious mutation in the Sixteenth Century. After bubbling up periodically in prior centuries, the belief that every person should read and interpret the Bible for themselves began to rapidly diffuse across Europe with the eruption of the Protestant Reformation, marked in 1517 by Martin Luther’s delivery of his famous ninety-five theses.” — Joseph Henrich

“In the wake of the spread of Protestantism, the literacy rates in the newly reforming populations in Britain, Sweden, and the Netherlands surged past more cosmopolitan places like Italy and France. Motivated by eternal salvation, parents and leaders made sure the children learned to read.” — Joseph Henrich

“As early as 1524, Martin Luther not only emphasized the need for parents to ensure their children’s literacy but also placed the responsibility for creating schools on secular governments. This religiously inspired drive for public schools helped make Prussia a model for public education, which was later copied by countries like Britain and the U.S.” — Joseph Henrich

“The story of literacy, Luther, and your left ventral occipital temporal region is but one example in a much larger scientific mosaic that is just now coalescing. Our minds, brains, and indeed our biology are, in myriad ways, substantially shaped by the social norms, values, institutions, beliefs, and languages bequeathed to us from prior generations.” — Joseph Henrich

My two cents: It’s so easy to forget the last quote of the takeaways from this piece. I would have never guessed that the importance of reading was the result of Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. There are so many origin stories that make up our modern world. I’ll continue to try and curate more pieces of content like this one. I think it’s important to know where certain things came from, especially things like the importance of reading!

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Wealth

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NFTs make the internet ownable by Jesse Walden

Takeaways

I highly suggest consuming the full piece here (9 min. read time)

“In media, NFTs—or Non-Fungible Tokens—make it possible for creators to retain ownership of their content, without limiting the propagation of their files across the internet. As a result, NFTs have the potential to invert the ownership model of media—offering creators, their audiences, and developers who build for them, a viable alternative to monetization.” — Jesse Walden

“A simple way to think about NFTs are as files that live on the blockchain. This means they can’t be copy-pasted, edited, deleted, or otherwise manipulated.” — Jesse Walden

“NFTs enable collectors to reap most of the benefits of owning a physical work of art, with the added bonus that their collection can be freely shared across the internet without limitation—and thus accrue more value with wider distribution.” — Jesse Walden

“People collect NFTs for a number of reasons. It could be the thrill of discovering a promising new artist or artwork, the allure of a piece’s potential cultural value, the social status of owning something unique and canonical, or the prospect of turning a profit by reselling the work down the line.” — Jesse Walden

“NFT markets are reflexive. Just like cryptocurrencies and traditional art, the more people who think an asset might have value—even for subjective reasons—the more real value it can typically fetch in the market.” — Jesse Walden

My two cents: As Jesse mentions in his essay, NFTs are better aligned to support developers, consumers, and creators than any other framework. You might be wondering why I’ve started curating valuable content around NFTs recently. The reason is because not only are they becoming more mainstream but also something you should be keeping an eye on to (potentially) diversify your portfolio. As always, this is not investment advice. Just keep an eye on it!

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Health

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Inertia, Mortality, & Friendship by Michael Dempsey

Takeaways

I highly suggest consuming the full piece here (10 min. read time)

“By the time you’re 29, all the memes ring true that there are all sorts of people in your age living various types of lives. You have the friends with kids living in the suburbs far away from any of the “core” cities in your life, all the way to the sorta friends you knew who are still doing too many drugs and are out past 3am 3-4x per week.” — Michael Dempsey

“…people are not nearly as intentional as they should be with their lives and how they make decisions. The decisions people make in the short-term and understanding long-term implications, and everything in between increasingly just happen. And we let them.” — Michael Dempsey

“The difference between activation energy and inertia is that you can want to do something, but be having a hard time getting started – that’s activation energy. Whereas inertia suggests you’ll keep doing what you’ve been doing, and largely turn your mind off. Breaking out of inertia takes serious energy and tends to make people uncomfortable. They usually only do it if something else makes them more uncomfortable (or, very rarely, when they get incredibly inspired).” – The Cognitive Costs of Doing Things

“Time is a finite resource and the currency you exchange for mortality.” — Michael Dempsey

“I want my friends to try to make me the best version of myself and vice versa. Pushing when you have no incentive and being there regardless of the outcome is a clearer way to do that then just idly standing by IMO.” — Michael Dempsey

My two cents: This was another sobering piece on growing up, life, friendship, mortality, and inertia. I debated putting this piece in the Wisdom section (which it probably would have fit in), but friendship and mortality (death) are two tags already in the Health section. I don’t believe anything to be more true than Michael’s quote on time…*gulp*…

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Your Future Self

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Martin Luther Rewired Your Brain by Joseph Henrich

NFTs make the internet ownable by Jesse Walden

Inertia, Mortality, & Friendship by Michael Dempsey