Weekly Question & Framework: July 12, 2024

Hello and welcome to the Curiosity Chronicle Weekly Question and Framework. In three minutes or less, I will give you one question and one framework to get you thinking going into the weekend. Without further ado, let's dive right into it. A question to take that leap of faith what would you do if you had zero fear of judgment? There are two big mistakes in life. One Worrying about what other people think about you, and two Believing that other people think about you in the first place. The spotlight effect says that we overestimate the degree to which other people are noticing or observing our actions or behaviors. Basically, we think everyone is focused on us, when in reality everyone is just focused on themselves. The lesson? Stop worrying about what other people are thinking about you, because they probably aren't thinking about you at all. So what would you do if you had zero fear of judgment? What risk would you take? What new pursuit would you go after? What side hustle would you work on? What hobby would you start? The truth. You aren't afraid of failure. You're afraid of what other people will think of you if you fail. Well, here's your harsh reminder. No one is thinking about you, so go do the damn thing. An idea I can't stop thinking Truth Tellers I recently came across a quote that stopped me in my the degree to which a person can grow is directly proportional to the amount of truth he can accept about himself without running away. Leland Val Van de Waal an observation from history is that the inability to accept the truth and is the cause of the downfall of many great men and women. There are two issues at play. One Internal truth blindness, the person's own inability to see the truth, usually a result of a buildup of historical success that blinds them to the diminishing probability of Future success and 2 lack of external truth tellers. The absence of trusted advisors who are able to tell the person the truth, usually a result of systematic removal of people who questioned or pushed back on the person. Internal truth blindness is difficult to combat. It is the issue at the heart of the Icarus Paradox. Icarus crafts wings and takes off in flight, but becomes emboldened by his success and flies too close to the sun, which melts the wings and sends him falling to his death. While we may trend towards this blindness internally, we can combat its ill effects by cherishing the truth tellers in our external world. As you become more successful, most of the people around you will become afraid to tell you the truth. They will pat you on the back and tell you what they think you want to hear. Find the truth tellers in your life. The rare few who are willing to give you honest perspectives from a place of love create an environment where they know they are safe to do so. If you cultivate your truth tellers, you'll always find a way to grow. That's all for today's piece. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you learned something, and I hope you'll share it with others. As always, until next time, stay curious, friends.