2-Truth Tuesday: Success Is Like An Ice Cube, The Minority Rules, Siberian Happiness, And More
Truth #1: The Minority Rules
The majority rules. Or so we are told. The thing is, it's just not true.
A small minority, even one to two individuals, have the power to submit the majority to there preferences and punch wayyy outside of there weight class.
I first encountered this idea in the book Skin In The Game, but have been noticing it in my own life. Here are some examples:
The cold plunge at my apartments: The vast majority appreciate pain and suffering in a 45° plunge. One or two individuals cry, "too cold". And thus: the cold plunge is now a warm plunge.
Transgenderism: .1 to .6% of the population is transgender. But in certain places, all bathrooms become multi-gender.
Potlucks and dinner parties: 2 guests out of twenty don't eat red meat. The entire potluck is now eating chicken.
Juice and Kosher: .3% of the population is Kosher. Yet the majority of store bought juices will have the U for Kosher.
Merry Christmas: All it takes is a 3% minority, and "Merry Christmas" becomes "Happy Holidays"
Here's the rule for this truth: The minority will never X, but the majority can do it both ways.
I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing, but be aware of it.
Truth #2: Success Is Like An Ice Cube
Here's what I'm reminding myself this week (credit to my buddy Andrew). The leading indicator of a successful person is the ability to act without anything happening. I love this example from Atomic Habits.
Take an ice cube. Most people act and don't see results. The temperature of the cube is warming up, but you just don't see it. So they give up at 29°, 30°, or 31°. Not realizing that everything will change at 32°.
Just hang in there.
Book I'm reading: Alexis The Greek by Nikos Kazantzalis
Two characters. A philosopher, highly educated, working on a manuscript of The Buddha. He lives in the world of lofty ideas.
Alexis Zorba. A working man. Uneducated, but intensely curious. In complete submission to the present moment. Continually amazed by the miraculousness of life and opens his life to a new world every morning.
Here's a Zorbaism:
"Tell me what you do with the meal you eat, and I'll tell you who you are. Some convert it into lard and dung, some into work and good spirits, some apparently, so I've heard, into God. So people are of three types. I am neither one of the worse nor one of the best. I stand in the middle, Boss. Not bad, eh!"
Documentary I'm Watching: Happy People by Werner Harzog
Siberia. The taiga. 1.5x the size of the United States.
No law. No phones. No politics. No internet.
Four trappers living off the land in the heart of winter. Completely self-sufficient. Happy people.
I linked the trailer. The full version can be found for free on youtube.
Poem I'm pondering:
And a woman spoke, saying, Tell us of Pain.
And he said: Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.
And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy;
And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.
And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.
Much of your pain is self-chosen.
It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.
Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquility:
For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen,
And the cup he brings, though it burn your lips, has been fashioned of the clay which the Potter has moistened with His own sacred tears.
-Kahlil Gibran, "On Pain", The Prophet
What resonated with you this week? Let me know!
Thank y'all for reading and have a wonderful week,
Cormac
