5: Kamiwaza; Luck Surface Area and the 1984 Sikh Genocide; Mental Models
Hi friends,
What a week it’s been. Keeping up with the COVID-19 related updates, news, and rumors have been exhausting. Writing this newsletter has been a break for me and hopefully, it can be a refuge for you too.
A question I get often is how is this term going?
Before I get into that, a quick digression: Earlier this year I wrote about Kamiwaza, a Japanese word with no direct translation in English. It roughly means, “something that only god can do.” Watching Jiro make sushi, Pavarotti hit that last note in Nessun Dorma, and even watching Kawhi Leonard highlights. All of that is Kamiwaza. In other words, it’s like seeing god go to work.
I think we are all inclined to be creative, we all enjoy it, why? I believe there’s a spiritual aspect to the creative process. Through creating we are performing an act of god. We become creators ourselves, bringing an idea to life, with every word, every note, every brush stroke. This act of creation is a miracle and this is precisely the feeling of Kamiwaza.
I realize that this word, Kamiwaza, described how I felt when I was running one of Canada’s largest student-run conferences. That was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I gave it everything I got but it never felt like work. To have a vision of an event and to see that vision become tangible was a feeling like no other.
That was two years ago, and ever since that event ended, I felt a bit lost. To have a taste of that feeling, and not to experience it again was weird for me.
This semester I’ve discovered that feeling again and I have the vocabulary to describe it. Through writing, I experience the divine. And what an incredible feeling that is.
Stuff I enjoyed this week
Luck Surface Area And How It Can Increase Your Chances Of Success
Jack Udell | Blog Post (1min)
Luck Surface Area = The Action You Take Around Your Passion x The Number of People You Communicate Your Passion To
If luck really is just a chance occurrence, the concept of Luck Surface Area is a way of increasing it. In summary, the action you take requires technical skill. And the number of people you communicate your passion to requires marketing acumen.
So in short, build something, then tell everyone.
A Dozen Things I’ve Learned from Charlie Munger about Mental Models and Worldly Wisdom
Tren Griffin | Blog Post (13min)
Charlie Munger popularized mental models and credits them for his success throughout his legendary career. Tren Griffin, a successful investor and author in his own right, summarizes his learnings from Munger. This piece inspired me to create this week’s series on Mental Models.
wendiyan.com
Wendi Yan | Personal Website
I love visiting people’s personal websites, it’s like an open invitation to explore their minds. Wendi is a sophomore at Princeton currently doing a gap year. Browsing her website is like visiting an art gallery. Here’s an excerpt from her about page:
Wendi does research and makes works that concern the edges of the self -- where the feeling of the ego dissolves. She is interested in the idea and the feeling of self, how people engage with them, and the various resulting emotional states. She is in particular a fan of the emotional experiences of awe and absurdity.
Change the Narrative, Change Your Destiny: How James Baldwin Read His Way Out of Harlem and into Literary Greatness
Brain Pickings | Article (5min)
Real change becomes possible only when we change the cultural narrative
James Baldwin grew up as a black man in a difficult social period, pre-civil rights America. The cultural narrative during this period acted as a mental barrier in the minds of young black Americans. Baldwin broke through this barrier by reading. This piece is the inspiration for my next essay.
rooh. before. during. and after the 1984 sikh genocide
Rupi Kaur | Photo Essay
I’m from a suburb of Toronto called Brampton. Brampton has one of the largest Sikh populations outside of India. Many of my friends when I was growing up are Sikh. And I saw first hand that the turban was a target for ridicule. Shamefully, I was a bystander and sometimes I’d participate in the teasing. Now I see the turban as a symbol of pride, courage, and bravery. A crown of some sorts. I can’t help but to admire the sikh community. Though small in number their impact is felt through business, politics and pop culture.
I chanced upon this collection when I was building Rupi Kaur’s website, and it helped me emphasize and understand the struggle that the Sikh community has gone through.
Daily Blogs
Inspired by Tren Griffin’s article on Charlie Munger and Mental Models, this week I wrote about mental models I use in my life from different fields.
Featured: Mental Models
One of the most important concepts I learned in 2019 was mental models. I first heard of them through Brandon Chu’s, The Black Box of Product Management. But the concept goes beyond just Product Management.
I believe what separates good PMs from great ones is their ability to make decisions. Product Managers make a ton of decisions every day. The great ones make the right decision, quickly, and with low information. Comparing the upside vs the downside of the right vs the wrong decision is non-trivial, and this compounds over time.
Now, imagine this with your personal life. We make many decisions every day, big and small. Thus, better decision making can help anyone. Better decision making means higher quality results. And higher quality results mean a better life.
Mental models inform your decisions. They are an information sieve; separating the signal from the noise. There’s a lot of noise in our world, and having a lattice-work of mental models from a variety of fields, will serve to inform your decision making in all sorts of situations.
In the meantime, what are your favorite mental models?
Thanks for reading! I’d appreciate if you can comment on what you liked, what you didn’t like, and what you would like to see.
Until next week,
James