The Book Basement Bulletin #4
On this issue: The happiness dilemma, changing your mindset, and other adventures
Introduction
Hello! I hope you’re having a lovely morning. Last week was the launch of The Book Basement podcast, it was amazing. I hope you enjoy the material I’ll be producing on the show, it has been such a fun project.
Three Things I Wanted To Share
This week I finished reading Mindset by Carol Dweck. The author breaks down the two different kinds of mindsets the world is littered with. There’s A) the growth mindset, and, B) the fixed mindset. Ask yourself: Do I think that a person’s attributes cannot change (intelligence, IQ, problem-solving, etc.), or, do I believe everyone is capable of exponential change if they apply themselves? The answer to these questions will give you an idea of what type of mindset you’re a part of. If you said yes to “attributes cannot be changed”, you might have a fixed mindset. If you said yes to “everyone is capable of exponential growth”, then you might have a growth mindset. I think my biggest takeaway from this book was that you could severely limit your potential to learn from situations based on the way you approach them. Mindset does a great job at illustrating some better ways to approach conflict and troubling situations. If you’re a parent, teacher, student, or coach of any kind, read this book, there is something that you’ll learn regardless of your views on talent.
Also, this week, I listened to the Deep Dive podcast’s episode with Mo Gawdat. Mo is a writer and former Google employee who has taken on the task to make 1 billion people happy. In this podcast episode, he shared what he learned from losing his 21-year-old son Ali, how he managed to push through and restart his life after such a tragic event, and the lessons he learned along the way. There are quite a few “controversial” ideas shared by Gawdat, but, in the end, it’s still an amazing episode with endless amounts of invaluable insight that could help you throughout the rest of your life. My biggest takeaway from this episode was to be more grateful for what I have, and that no matter the situation, there are always tons of people who are in a situation worse than mine.
I suggest that you read Malcolm Gladwell’s article for The New Yorker, The Ketchup Conundrum. I read it in the book What The Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell, and it is such a well-thought-out piece. Gladwell starts by asking why there’s only one kind of ketchup, while there are numerous kinds of mustard. What at first seems like a silly, fun idea turns into a breakdown of the ketchup industry, a look behind the reason mustard branched out into many other types, and the market research that goes behind every single one of these choices. The conclusion isn’t what you would think from an article built on such a seemingly trivial foundation, but it will stay in your head for a while. Gladwell is great at taking topics such as this one and turning them into a journey, or as he likes to call it, an adventure into the minds and lives of those involved in the story. Check it out. It’s not a short article by any means, but it’s a great one.
Quote of the Week
“The event is exactly the same, but it is my choice to look at it as a wonderful event, or a negative event.”
Mo Gawdat
This is an excerpt from the podcast episode I talked about earlier in this issue. The quote reminded me of a quote by the Stoic philosopher Epictetus. “Every event has two handles, one by which it can be carried, and one by which it cannot”. When presented with a challenging situation, look at it as an opportunity to learn. You may not be able to choose what situation you’re given but, as Gawdat and Epictetus both believe, you can choose how you take it and what you’ll take from it. Say you fail your driving test. You can look at it as “I’m so dumb, I’ll never learn to drive” or you can interpret it as “I should work harder next time, I clearly didn’t in this situation”. One of those ties the failure to your identity and sticks a permanent label on you, the other is an opportunity to grow from your mistakes and apply yourself in the future, all whilst learning. Look at events as wonderful events, pick the right handle.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed this newsletter! If you did and feel like someone else could derive value from it please share it. Below you can find all the podcast episodes posted last week. Feel free to listen to them if you haven’t already!
Building a Consistent Reading Habit with Proven, and Tested Methods
How Japanese Centenarians Found Happiness During Their Long Lives
Thank you for reading, I hope you found something useful! Remember you can follow the podcast on Instagram (@bookbasementpod) where I post daily, original book content that you won’t find anywhere else. Have a wonderful start to your week. :)