🪓 Lifehacked To Bits

Friday, September 30, 2022

It’s the eighth day of fall, and the eighth quarterly issue of This Mortal Portal. I didn’t write a summer newsletter; I was still in turmoil after my friend Dave's death, and I didn't have the energy to write something real. So I skipped it rather than forcing it. Now I’m back, with:

A microessay/rant about lifehacks
Vic's Picks are back!
For the Record

Plus a 90's GIF and a cartoon.

-V

Lifehacked To Bits

Escaping the tyranny of a thousand tiny changes

I’ve fallen out of love with lifehacks. You know, the tiny little changes that promise to “change everything”? Lifehacks are the premise of countless 99¢ apps, cheap knickknacks, and that corner of the internet that performance coach Brad Stulberg disparagingly calls “bro science.”

There’s a part of me that’s drawn to lifehacks. They tap into a deep human desire for shortcuts to success. They promise us that the pot of gold is just around the corner, that the One Ring will guarantee victory, that bliss and godlike power are only a bite of fruit away.

I’ve spent plenty of time and money on lifehacky software and widgets and books over the years. Some do, in fact, solve small problems. And they have their place. But I’ve stopped believing the grand promises. Instead, I’m focusing on the big stuff.

In most domains of life, it seems there are one or two big/difficult actions that, if done consistently, render the little stuff mostly irrelevant. For example:

Instead of elaborate schemes to limit my screen time, I swapped my iPhone for a flip phone.
Instead of complicated calorie-counting or other fancy diets, I standardized my breakfasts and lunches (for the most part) and have my food fun at dinner (within reason).
Instead of relying on diverse distractions to avoid or deny the emotional layer of my life, I started writing every morning and meeting with a therapist to get better at naming and dealing with my feelings.

I could write a bloggy article about any of these, framing it as a lifehack, but the truth is, they haven’t made my life easier. They’ve made it harder. “Hack” implies a shortcut, a cheat code, a machete path through the underbrush. These changes are more life-path than life-hack: a habitus, a way of living, what the medieval monks called “a rule of life.” Not little tweaks, but big shifts. Difficult and worthwhile. Hard and good.

My friend Matt Brown thinks of it in Pareto Principle terms: “Eighty twenty!” he’s always saying to me. “What’s the 20% that produces 80% of the results? Focus on that!” The idea is not to only exert 20% of your total possible effort. It’s to go all in, 100%, on the big difficult thing that, if you nail it, makes the little things easier or irrelevant.

I know I’m not the only one making big changes. The past 2 ½ years have prompted many people to reexamine their rhythms of life.

I’m curious - how have you changed yours?

(Seriously, I'd love to hear. You can just hit chime in on the comment thread below.)

Vic’s Picks

Here’s a slice of what I’ve been eatin' this summer:

Music

Nation of Heat | Revisited by Joe Pug. This Maryland-born crooner has totally reimagined what was already my favorite album of his. Version 1.0 felt like early Dylan or Prine; this remake feels like he’s come into his own. He even writes a good newsletter.

Video

How to Find Balance in the Age of Indulgence

Dr. Anna Lembke is professor of psychiatry and head of addiction medicine at Stanford. Here she summarizes (with entertaining animations by the Youtube channel After Skool) the themes of her book Dopamine Nation. It’s the best book I’ve read on addictive patterns - humane, accessible, and fundamentally hopeful.

Article

Why The Past Ten Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid

I’m not gonna try to explain this one by Jonathan Haidt. You just have to read it.

Food

The Jawn Cheesesteak Pizza by Underground Pizza Co

Ever had Detroit-style deep dish? It’s at least an inch thick. This edition by UPC has shaved rib eye, fried onions, house made cheeze sauce, parm, and chives… and now I’m hungry.

Books

Brave Ollie Possum by Ethan Nicolle

Continuing the theme of Italian food, this rollicking read-aloud stars a boy named Ollie who lives with his parents atop their ristorante in the woods of Wisconsin. Ollie (the boy) is scared of everything. Then he turns into a possum. Mayhem and redemption ensue, as well as a 14-cheese lasagna.

The Long Haul: A Trucker's Tales of Life on the Road

Most truckers wouldn’t bother to write a memoir, but Finn Murphy isn’t most truckers. He considers himself a bit of an outsider to trucker world, so this one has a bit of a bitter edge to it. But it’s a great yarn nonetheless.

A Year At Maple Hill Farm by the Provensons

Have I ever recommended a picture book here? The turning of the seasons has this one back in bedtime rotation. It’s a loving-but-unsentimental look at the life of a New England family farm (with special attention to the animals).

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkemann

Most productivity books don’t talk much about death. But Burkemann takes Steven Covey’s maxim “begin with the end in mind” to its memento mori conclusion. Borrowing heavily from Buddhism and the Greek stoics, he wants you to abandon all hope (literally, that’s the point of the final chapter).

Burkemann would prefer you to adopt his cheery brand of nihilism, but you don't need to share his philosophical commitments to embrace your human limitations. In fact, it might make more satisfying sense in a trinitarian frame, where we're dependent creatures created by love, for love. You're Only Human is a recent take on finitude from that perspective, and Death By Living is a punchy memoir from a similar angle. Now I’m reading another book called How To Inhabit Time. Perhaps this should be the topic of a future Portal essay… it all comes back to mortality somehow.

There are 8 books in this issue - a record. I’ve now created a list on Bookshop.org for all the books I’ve ever blurbed in this newsletter. And it's an affiliate list, so you can support local bookshops and my biblioholism! 📚

Place

The Tule Tree, also known as the Montezuma Cypress (regularly makes lists like this)

I visited it with my dad and brother Jon in Oaxaca in 2006. As we stood under its majestic boughs, I ate a free sample of flavored ice from a street vendor and was stricken with a horrid stomach bug. Nothing diminishes the memory of that tree, though.

An Autumnal Comic

From the Adventures of The Holy Ghost tumblr by John Hendrix (alas, tumblr now makes you log in to view anything…)

For The Record

What I made or helped make this summer

Digital

I’m proud of my client Bark Social, whose team continues to expand their footprint… this spring they opened in Baltimore, with Philly and other out of state locations coming soon… The Washingtonian did a great writeup of the “dog bar” concept.

Physical

I didn’t make these kittens. I just helped my daughters help keep them alive for the first couple months. File this under “Things I never thought I’d be doing, but I’m a girl dad and it’s kind of awesome.” And yes, they’ve all found homes.

Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear what you thought.

Post tenebras lux,

Vic

#Longer