A Global Experiment
Things I’m Thinking About
1) Life is about contrast.
Two months ago if you told me that I would not be allowed to go outside without written permission, I admit, I would have had a very hard time believing you. Okay, I would have thought you were a crazy conspiracy theorist.
Well, a lot has happened in that time.
Now I sit and imagine how amazing it is going to be to freely walk outside again, and touch people and meet someone for coffee or go to a park! These are humbling thoughts. We’re creatures of contrast. We use contrast to evaluate and develop judgements about the world around us.
Consider any adjective in the English language. How do you measure anything without benchmarks or metrics? How do you classify ‘quick’ or ‘evil’ or ‘weird’?
It’s all relative. So was the quality of life we were all enjoying.
The reason I’m able to feel such anticipation and excitement about simple ideas like walking freely outside is because of the contrast I am witnessing in my life.
Contrast appears to have a strong relationship with gratitude.
2) The rules are changing. We’re in the process of permanently adapting the ways we work and interact, accelerating the presence of the digital landscape in our lives.
I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to replace physical interactions completely. I honestly hope we don’t! Coffee shops and bars will obviously return. On a personal level, I continue to largely prefer to meet and spend time with people in person whenever possible. While I enjoy calling my friends, I like physically spending time with them even more.
With that said, mobility & flexibility are qualities of rapidly increasing value.
3) We’re living a moment in history. The fundamental changes taking place around the world right now open up a world of possibilities on the how we want to move forward as a species. I’m speaking in the present tense. What kind of world do you want to live in, exactly? There may be no better time to make it a reality than right now, while everyone’s futures seem as malleable as soft clay.
MORE RESOURCES
→ A video I just published with the intention of exploring our ideas around Boredom.
→ Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s fantastic TedTalk on attention.
→ An article that made me think a lot about the change to come.
→ An empty Paris is perhaps one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen.
As I seek to further improve all of my work, research is playing a bigger and bigger role. I will be citing my sources in the description of my video whenever possible. Here’s what it’s going to look like.
Thanks for reading!
Nathaniel Drew
