chasing answers newsletter #49

Happy Easter, An introvert's bible, Better decision making, Twitter vs. Substack

“Despite the forecast, live like it’s spring.” - Lilly Pulitzer

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Happy Sunday!

Last year for my Easter newsletter, I wrote about how I was initially going to write an essay on the history of Easter but then decided against it due to lack of time. I claimed I would do it this year instead.

Not happening.

I don’t even have an excuse. I’m just not doing it. I needed a light week, so I’m highlighting a few things I’ve read/listened to recently that are worthy of a mention. Then I'm spending the rest of the weekend with my family.

To those of you who celebrate, Happy Easter! Hopefully, you all get to spend some time with family this weekend as well.

And don’t forget to open those Peeps and stuff them away in the back of a drawer somewhere, so you can return to them in a month or so when they are just right.

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An Introvert’s Bible

Sometimes I feel guilty that I could go days without human interaction and be not only OK but also incredibly happy. At different points in my life, I have absolutely believed something was wrong with me. Well, besides the obvious.

My wife is in a constant state of semi-frustration because I never talk about anything unless she pulls it out of me.

I’ve been working hard on this, and writing has helped, but it's still natural for me to live in my head more than in the world around me.

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain made me feel better about this.

It turns out it’s relatively normal. 

At least one-third and up to half of all people are introverts. And while the number of people that reach as far on the introverted scale as I do is probably much smaller, they are out there.

And a lot of people who appear extroverted are introverts in disguise. Many so-called extroverts have different levels of introverted tendencies.

And the good news is, being an introvert doesn't mean I hate people or that I'm boring. It's just how I'm wired.  

If you are an introvert or think you might be, I highly recommend Quiet. It can help you determine if you are, in fact, an introvert. And if you are, it will help you feel better about it.

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Better Decision Making

I’m terrible at making decisions. I’m an overthinker, a procrastinator, and a ruminator. I always want all the facts. I try to tell myself that by not making a decision, I’m really making the wrong decision, but it doesn’t help.

Contours of Courageous Parenting: Tilting Towards Better Decisions by Karena de Souza lays out a framework for making better decisions and demonstrates how you can use that framework to help teach your children to make better decisions. 

The framework is set against the backdrop of a family trip around the world. Karena, her husband, and three children took a nine-month sabbatical to travel the world before sabbaticals were cool. 

The way they used the decision-making framework to decide when and if to take a trip around the world is fascinating, but what’s more interesting is how they instilled this process in their children by putting them in positions where they had to and were able to make decisions for themselves. 

There is one quote in the book that is especially worth mentioning.

“The biggest decision facing us today isn’t: “Have I made a good decision for my child?” but “Have I given my children the tools to make better decisions for themselves?”

I have been struggling with what I need to teach my daughter that will be most useful to her twenty years from now in a world that I can’t even imagine today. I have been too busy focusing on individual skills and talents. 

Karena answered my question with that quote. As long as I can teach my daughter how to make good decisions, the rest will take care of itself. Regardless of what the world is like twenty years from now.

In addition to the book, I highly recommend checking out

Karena

's newsletter,

Tilt the Future - answering when serendipity knocks

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Best of Twitter

Substack @SubstackInc

We started Substack because we wanted the internet to be better for writers and readers. Today, we're taking a big step towards a better internet. Introducing Notes, a new way for writing, ideas, and discussion to travel through the Substack network. on.substack.com/p/introducing-…

When Substack unveiled its Notes feature earlier this week, my first thought was, “Holy shit, this will compete with Twitter," and my second thought was, "Hopefully, this means those of us who are on Twitter just to promote our writing, won't need to be there any longer."

Apparently, Elon Musk had the same thoughts.

On Friday, he started a pissing match with Substack by preventing tweets with links containing "substack" from being liked, commented on, or retweeted.

This, of course, started a firestorm on Twitter. And it looks like Elon may be backing down a bit. I'm writing this early Saturday morning, and it appears that you can, once again, interact with tweets containing "substack" links. However, if you click one of those links, you will get the message below.

Childish but expected.

If I haven’t made it clear, I’m rooting hard for Substack.

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I hope you all have a great week!

As always, I would love to hear from you.

• If you read something here that resonates with you, leave a comment.

• If you would like to discuss something further, shoot me an email.

• If there was something you absolutely hated, @ me on Twitter.

And if there is something you think I should be writing about, please let me know.

If you want to see more of my work, visit chasinganswers.co.

Thank you for reading, and if you liked what you read, please share.

randy