Good morning, and welcome to Mindful Mondays.
This week, I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to stay human in our current technological age. This line of thinking was initially prompted by a couple of essays I read about the tension one feels, as a writer or artist, between focusing on a “niche” and exploring new territory.
Chris Wong, an editor at Write of Passage, explores this theme through a wonderful metaphor in his essay The Dance of the Bees. And Rob Hardy wrote a thoughtful piece about why he gave up on niche strategy in favor of being more fully himself online in The Perils of Niching Down.
This tension is one that I’ve been playing with in my writing, as well. How much should I focus my content on the kind of basic mindfulness and personal growth advice that I know gets clicks, versus exploring my more esoteric interests? How much of my personal weird can I let bleed through—especially as a licensed therapist, trained in grad school to keep my personal life private from my clients?
I don’t have a definitive answer to these questions, but I’m leaning toward a balance of providing genuine value to my readers and clients with being myself in my writing.
Article of Interest
The Struggle To Be Human: While AI is getting closer to replicating human abilities, we humans are stooping to the level of machines by chasing algorithms and throwing away our capacity for genuine creativity. So argues Ian Leslie in this thought-provoking essay.
Podcast of the Week
Professor John Vervaeke — On Cultivating Wisdom, Finding Flow States, the Power and Perils of Intuition, The Four Ways of Knowing, Learning to Fall in Love with Reality, and More (#657). How can you make the most of this temporary experience of being a human? In the latest episode of the Tim Ferriss Show, Vervaeke—a psychology professor at the University of Toronto—shares a lifetime’s worth of insights on everything from cognitive science to T’ai Chi to Plato. Listening to this episode made me miss the richness of intellectual discourse that I found in the best classes I took in college. But the good news is that you don’t have to enroll at U of T to learn from Vervaeke—just give this episode a listen.
Quote of the Week
“How can we avoid becoming structures, abstract entities with all the messiness of humanity scooped out? By taking seriously that which we cannot measure, and that which piques our interest but does not fit our models; by not being too confident in the models we have; by learning to appreciate ambiguity, intuition and mystery; by making room, now and again, for superstition and mad ideas. Above all, by refusing, in whatever game we’re playing, to make thoughtless and predictable moves just because they’re the moves we’ve been taught or conditioned to believe are the correct ones. We should strive to be difficult to model.” —Ian Leslie
Just For Fun
Watch this even if you have no interest in basketball:
That’s all for this week. As always, I appreciate your feedback on Mindful Mondays. What was your favorite thing I shared this week? What would you like to read more about? Let me know by replying to this email, commenting on Substack, or hitting me up on Twitter.
Thank you for reading,
Chris Cordry, LMFT
PS: Want to clarify your values, set meaningful goals, and learn to work with the thoughts and feelings that get in your way? Reply to this email to ask me about 1:1 coaching.
PPS: If you’re not already subscribed to Mindful Mondays, enter your email below to get my latest writing delivered straight to your inbox:
If you enjoyed reading this week’s edition, why not share it with a friend? Personal recommendations are still the best way for me to grow my readership and share the benefits of mindfulness with the world.