Vulnerability and Beauty
This issue is about vulnerability, beauty, and art.
In this issue we’re creating awareness for our compulsive behavior, discovering what actually lies at the core of many personal and business success stories, and learning about poetry and the creative mind. And finally, in a new article we’re exploring the question of meaning and what life is all about.
✨ Sparks
🧬 Science & Research: Analysis Shows Which Vices Americans Are Trying to Quit in 2023
Google search data analysis across the United States by the Gallus Detox Centers that points to the top three behavior patterns or habits people are trying to quit—presumably because they have discovered their negative side effects. Quite surprising is the relatively low rank of “social media” and relatively high rank of “biting nails”.
Alcohol, tobacco, and pornography are the top three vices Americans are trying to quit, according to Google data.
One single search term rose above all others: “How to quit smoking.” The phrases tied for second place included “how to stop drinking,” “how to stop biting nails,” and “how to stop watching porn.”
Amanda Stevens, B.S.
📝 Article: Tails, You Win
The long tail is a business strategy that allows companies to realize significant profits by selling low volumes of hard-to-find items to many customers, instead of only selling large volumes of a reduced number of popular items. Long tail goods have remained in the market over long periods of time and are still sold through off-market channels. These goods have low distribution and production costs, yet are readily available for sale.
Long tails drive everything. They dominate business, investing, sports, politics, products, careers, everything. Rule of thumb: Anything that is huge, profitable, famous, or influential is the result of a tail event. Another rule of thumb: Most of our attention goes to things that are huge, profitable, famous, or influential. And when most of what you pay attention to is the result of a tail, you underestimate how rare and powerful they really are.
Warren Buffett once said he’s owned 400 to 500 stocks during his life and made most of his money on 10 of them. Charlie Munger followed up: “If you remove just a few of Berkshire’s top investments, its long-term track record is pretty average.”
[...] no matter what you’re doing, you should be comfortable with a lot of stuff not working. It’s normal. This is true for companies, which need to learn how to fail well. It’s true for investors, who need to understand both the normal tail mechanics of diversification and the importance of time horizon, since long-term returns accrue in bunches. And it’s important to realize that jobs and even entire careers might take a few attempts before you find a winning groove.
Morgan Housel
🎬 YouTube Video: Leonard Cohen talks about the poetic mind
In this CBC recording from 1966 Leonard Cohen, writer of the famous song Hallelujah—which became one of the most haunting, mutable and oft-performed songs in American musical history—, elaborates on poetry in relation to other disciplines like architecture.
I asked him [a friend of Cohen in politics] what the purpose of his government will be and he said ‘well it will be to protect the people from government, you know, because they’re just fine as they are, just let them alone, and my government will keep everything away.’
“A friend of mine designed a mural for a coffee shop in Montreal with a special glue on it and this glue dried every winter and the mural fell to pieces and he would have to be engaged every winter to repair the mural. And he said ‘you know, cars are designed with a built-in obsolescence, why not murals?’”
“What about poetry?”
“Well, I think that history and time pretty well builds obsolescence into poetry unless it’s really the great stuff and you never know whether you’re really hitting that.”
This world is full of conflicts and full of things that cannot be reconciled. But there are moments when we can reconcile and embrace the whole mess, and that’s what I mean by ‘Hallelujah.’
—Leonard Cohen
🆕 New Content
📝 Article: The Essence Of Life
In the flurry of everyday routines we often forget what life is all about. Remind yourself every now and then to not lose touch with the bigger picture.
Ferdinand Kutschker
💡 This Week's Wisdom
How attractive you are is based on your lack of neediness. Your non-neediness is based on how vulnerable you're able to make yourself. And how vulnerable you’re able to make yourself is based on how honest you are to yourself and others.
From Models by MARK MANSON.
Captured and resurfaced using the phenomenal Kindle reader.
Did you enjoy this issue? If you draw value from Sunday Sparks please consider contributing to this publication’s financial freedom.
Flows straight into content, not coffee.
