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Be an explorer
Friday, 13 October 2006
I often get emails from readers asking me some variant of: "How do you manage to write about so many interesting topics?" Well, first of all, thanks for the compliment. This kind of thing is said to me in the non-Paul's Tips part of my life too. People say "How come you know about so many interesting movies/ music / technology / books / restaurants / foods etc?".
The answer is simple. I'm an explorer. Others like me will tell you exactly the same thing.
Most people don't like stepping outside their comfortable little world. They know what kinds of movies, music, ideas, and food they like. They had an amazing experience with a certain thing in these categories once, and then they keep trying to recapture it. The problem with that strategy is that we humans get bored quickly.
There comes a point early in our experience of any one thing that can seem like ecstasy - the first time you eat pizza, when you first really appreciate your favorite song, that great scene in a beloved movie. After that, the feelings start to fade.
But some people can't let go. Like a drug addict chasing that first amazing hit, they just keep doing the same thing over and over again. Hoping that one day the ecstasy will return. Their consumption becomes habitual rather than pleasurable.
I take a different approach to my consumption of pleasure. Instead of settling on a few good things early on, I prefer to cast my net much wider. I'm always on the look out for something new and different to stimulate me. Not just new versions of the same old thing like most people, but something genuinely new.
There's one problem with this strategy and that is that 80% of what's out there isn't very good. Most music produced is terrible, most movies are boring, most technology is more hype than cool, and most restaurants are average. But if you're prepared to scavenge through the dross, you'll find some real overlooked gems.
Hidden among the 80% of blah is some stuff that's so unbelievable it blows your mind. And usually you don't have to look that far to find it. With practice, you can find at least one cool new thing a day, one amazing thing a week, and one spectacular thing a month.
Rather than eating the same old stuff, reading from the same sources, and consuming the same old cultural products - expand your horizons a bit. Don't just go for variations of stuff you already know you like. Instead, seek out something genuinely new and enrich your life.
 | Possessions often end up costing more than you think | | Let me tell you about one of the happiest parts of my life. It was just after I'd finished university. I worked for long enough to save up some money for a big trip overseas. I put a few clothes and other bits and pieces in a backpack and set off, travelling around Europe and down to the Middle-East. | | Learn how to give up one pleasurable thing for another | | We humans are funny creatures. We seem to be part animal on one side, and part angel on the other. When I go to the zoo and I observe the creatures there, I'm often struck by how similar their behaviours and motivations are to our own. They act on lust, hunger, power, love and anger, just as we do. | | Perfect contentment leads to stagnation | | Have a look at how so many of us live our lives. We get up in the morning, go out all day and work, work, work. Whether in a rich country or a poor one, a good neighbourhood or bad, you can be sure that most of the people around you will be working most of the time. |  | Is it better to read fiction or non-fiction? | | One of the most popular articles I’ve written on this site so far has been Five excellent mind habits to develop. It’s been generally well received, but I have come in for some criticism for my belief that it’s a better mind habit to read non-fiction than fiction. |  | A lot of bad behavior is just negotiation in disguise | | Go to almost any shopping center, anywhere in the world, and here's something you're likely to see - a child throwing a temper tantrum. | | Work hard to give yourself lots of options and opportunities | | Always finish what you start, is an adage that many people try to follow. And it's a good one in a lot of ways. But it probably focusses too much on the importance of the entire process towards achieving a goal. Generally, it's the earlier part that's most important, in my view. | | Be adaptable in a changing world | | When I look and listen to the people around me, I get the impression that many of them are terribly afraid of change. You can see it in the way they cling desperately to a job they hate, keep friends who are obviously bad for them, and stay in abusive relationships. | | What you can learn about life from playing Monopoly | | The Parker Brothers' game of Monopoly is one of the most popular board games in the world. The 1999 Guinness Book of Records said that over 500 million people have played it at least once. | | The world is made up of systems | | Everywhere you look in the universe, you see systems. There's solar systems, atomic systems and energy systems. On Earth, we have evolution, the climate, and food chains. And humans have superimposed on top of these natural systems such things as legal systems, political systems and financial systems. |  | If you're not falling over sometimes, you're not trying hard enough | | When I was a kid, my family used to go skiing a lot. We lived only a few hours drive from the ski-fields, and my parents belonged to a club that had a lodge there. My brother and I used to love going out onto the slopes and racing each other to the bottom. |
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