Fighting entropy (Ricky Weekly #58)
This is where I share 3 things every week with my friends and anyone else interested.
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A picture from my life:
Caught the sunset from Twin Peaks yesterday.
A thing on my mind:
Before Flow Club, I used to take my time in the morning. I’d typically do a 45 min workout, shower, make coffee, breakfast, and slowly make my way to my computer. Since hitting our stride with Flow Club, so much is happening that I haven’t been able to sleep well. I wake up anxious and check my phone/Slack right away. I’ve started skipping/shortening my workouts and rushing through coffee/breakfast so I can get to the computer to do something about my anxiety. I feel like I’ve lost my “center” and I need to find a way to get it back.
When David talks about running, it’s clear that running brings him back center. Not that he doesn’t stress about running (stress is not a bad thing), but just getting his runs in seems to bring him some reliable reprieve. At least that’s what it seems like to me from the outside. I don’t know if I’ve ever had an activity that centers me reliably like that. The closest thing pre-Pandemic was probably competitive basketball, which I did once or twice a week. During the pandemic, I developed a morning workout habit, but I enjoy that much, much less than basketball. I do other things, like writing, journaling and meditation, but I feel like the centering activity I’m looking for has to be somewhat physical in order to replenish the body and soul. Do you have a reliable activity to bring yourself center?
Here’s a bonus thought. I was talking to a friend about community building, since that’s what we’re doing at Flow Club, and he said, “building a community is like fighting entropy.” I thought that was astute because you can think about how to reduce entropy. One way is to introduce order in structure. At Flow Club, we have a very simple structure at our sessions that everyone can buy into because they can see how it can make them more productive. It’s the difference between asking a friend to hang out and do “whatever” vs asking them to go out for a meal, go for a hike, or some activity that offers just enough structure to help unleash the social energy. You know how they say creativity comes from constraint? There’s probably some version of that for how community comes from structure.
A piece of content I recommend:
The Story of Natalie Chou - Pac-12 Networks YouTube
My Asian hoophead friends have been talking about Johnny Anh Juzang, the half-Vietnamese basketball player who took UCLA to the Final Four and lost to an insane buzzer beater last night. But what they don’t know is that on the woman’s team, there’s another Asian-American hooper named Natalie Chou blazing her own trail to be the first Asian-American in the WNBA. Her story is unlike the stereotypical Asian-American story and definitely worth checking out.
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As always, you can find out what I’m thinking in more real-time on Twitter and my essays are on my website. My primary focus (and where I focus) is on Flow Club.