2x Sleeping, Friendship > Marriage? & Blue Personalities
CC#33 - CEO on a sailboat,barbell strategy & the future of women's sports
Hey there and welcome to ✨ CuratedCuriosity - a bi-weekly newsletter delivering inspiration from all over the internet to the notoriously curious.
Things I Enjoyed Reading.
🛌 The forgotten medieval habit of 'two sleeps'
During the middle-ages many people woke up for~2 hours during the night - splitting it into first and second sleep. While the authors don’t make any statements about whether this might be more productive or healthy, it was a relevation to me that societal sleep patterns are not sth set in stone.
The night-time wakefulness usually lasted from around 23:00 to about 01:00, depending on what time they went to bed. It was not generally caused by noise or other disturbances in the night – and neither was it initiated by any kind of alarm (…) Instead, the waking happened entirely naturally, just as it does in the morning.
The period of wakefulness that followed was known as "the watch" – and it was a surprisingly useful window in which to get things done. "[The records] describe how people did just about anything and everything after they awakened from their first sleep," says Ekirch. Under the weak glow of the Moon, stars, and oil lamps (…) people would tend to ordinary tasks, such as adding wood to the fire, taking remedies, or going to urinate (often into the fire itself).
🧡 What If Friendship, Not Marriage, Was at the Center of Life?
What constitutes a ‘normal’ life trajectory is changing - people are getting married later in life, commit to long-term relationships less often, etc. Nonetheless, it seems there is little societal approval for people who dare to question the conventional, implicit ‘importance’ ranking of relationships.
Kami West had been dating her current boyfriend for a few weeks when she told him that he was outranked by her best friend. West knew her boyfriend had caught snatches of her daily calls with Kate Tillotson, which she often placed on speaker mode. But she figured that he, like the men she’d dated before, didn’t quite grasp the nature of their friendship. West explained to him, “I need you to know that she’s not going anywhere. She is my No. 1.” Tillotson was there before him, and, West told him, “she will be there after you. And if you think at any point that this isn’t going to be my No. 1, you’re wrong.” (…) West and Tillotson know what convention dictates. “Our boyfriends, our significant others, and our husbands are supposed to be No. 1,” West told me. “Our worlds are backward.”
⛵️ Constraints, Longevity and Avoiding Competition with John O’Nolan from Ghost [Podcast]
Interesting interview with the founder of Ghost - a newsletter publishing platform set up as a non-profit - who lives on a sailing boat and has pledged to never grow his organisation beyond 50/60 employees.
But then, the logical question that follows is, ok, what are the goals of the company once you have fifty or sixty people and you still have ambition? How do you fulfill whatever goals you have that kind of don’t fit into the model of that size of company? And the answer is, you have to change your ambition, or you have to change the model with which you approach your goals.
Food for Thought.
🏋️ What if you went all ‘extreme’ with some things in your life? This blogpost lists examples of the so-called “barbell-strategy’ - ‘an investment concept that suggests that the best way to strike a balance between reward and risk is to invest in the two extremes of high-risk and no-risk assets while avoiding middle-of-the-road choices”. While some of these strategies might seem a bit crazy, reading this post really got me thinking…
Instead of drinking one cup of coffee every morning (thus making light caffeination your new normal and loosing any long term productivity gains), avoid caffeine during the week and drink as many espressos as you want on Saturdays and Sundays as you work on your exciting weekend project.
💙 Are some personalities just better? The below graph shows correlations from multiple psychology studies, linking personality traits and certain personal characteristics. This should definitely not be interpreted as causal links (e.g. extraversion causes life satisfaction) - but its nonetheless an interesting observation and I can strongly recommend the accompanying article!
🩱A transgender woman dominating this year’s college sports swimming (more on her story here) has sparked a debate about women’s sport and ‘sports categories’ in general. Interesting thread - touching on topics from emancipation to a separate basketball league for athletes under 6ft 🧵
Random Stuff.
🤗 Because I guess most of us need some love & good news ATM.
⚡️ “Half an hour a week of activities such as gardening, sit-ups or yoga could help reduce the risk of dying from any cause by a fifth” - Not sure if this will also decrease the probability of me getting hit by a lightning…?
⛪️ Vatican has launched an online platform to help Catholics fight climate change
Personal Update.
Went skiing back in Austria and got to support at the kickoff of the AustrianStartups Entrepreneurial Leadership Program - was great to be back and meet so many inspiring folks!
Positively surprised by the amount of sunshine we are having in Denmark currently. Also really excited about digging into the data for some new research projects.