Week #34 of 2025 has arrived... I'm a know-it-all. I mean, really, week after week, I come here and tell you my stories and opinions, but this arm experience has shaken me just a little bit, and I'm just so thankful for this moment, and I hope you are too.

Time to walk over to your 4K Weeks poster and fill in another square.  Done?

My last name is actually the last name of the family that adopted my great-great-grandfather on the platform of the immigration center because he was too young to get into the country alone, having traveled solo on a boat from Europe.

Isn't that the greatest? Isn't that what America is?

ON WEEK #34 OF 2020...

South Korean pop band BTS released their single "Dynamite," which was the first YouTube video to gain over 100 million views within 24 hours.

The band was 370.86 weeks or 7.11 years old.

WHAT I CONSUMED THIS WEEK

Read this. This is, of course, a repeat, and I'm sorry, but I'll probably leave it in here for a long time. That's how pivotal I think this book is. Attention... Attention is the most important natural resource in the world right now. And it's important to protect yours and value how other people are using theirs. This book is a result of the Nine Dots Prize. Because of that, this link takes you to the actual PDF of the book. It’s spectacularly relevant reading. A change is coming. The only question is which direction

Song Exploder.  My wife loves music more than anybody I know, and she's been listening to this podcast for a while, but she finally got me with the episode about Fall Out Boy's hit single. I've listened to a few, and it is absolutely spectacular. If you love music, there's no reason you're not listening to this podcast.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification." - Martin Fischer

I think one of the hardest things about being a grown-up human is how much of "wisdom" is actually just thinking deeply about issues that don't have a right or wrong answer.

That's one of the things that frustrates me so much about voices in the modern world.

Nobody seems to be required to have any intellectual integrity. It's like it's suddenly in vogue to have a whole bunch opinions masquerading as beliefs that don't reconcile with anything... 

I'm a fan of the kind of wisdom seeking that welcomes being questioned and uses it as an opportunity to get to the core of what actually is true.

WHAT I AM THINKING ABOUT THIS WEEK

Human progress... and my arm.

Obviously, I'm still pretty focused on my broken arm. And a couple of times lately I've been wondering how many years ago would this have been either a career-ending or seriously life-altering injury?

I did a little research, and it turns out it wasn't that long ago. Here's a timeline of the prognosis for my type (closed comminuted fracture of both the radius and ulna)

• 1865 – Pre-antisepsis & pre-anesthesia: high infection risk, amputation common
  Healing Time: Highly unlikely – many cases ended in amputation or severe disability.
• 1895 – Pre-X-ray: poor alignment, frequent deformity
  Healing Time: 6–18 months if healed at all; high rates of deformity and loss of function.
• 1942 – Pre-antibiotics: deep infections common, poor grip strength
  Healing Time: 9–18 months; high risk of infection and multiple surgeries.
• 1965 – Pre-AO/ASIF standards: high nonunion, major motion loss
  Healing Time: 8–14 months; frequent permanent motion loss.
• 1975 – Pre-modern rehab: long immobilization, lasting weakness
  Healing Time: 6–12 months; often some lasting weakness or stiffness.
• 1985 – Early mobilization starts: less stiffness, bulky hardware
  Healing Time: 6–10 months; improved motion but bulky hardware slowed return.
• 1995 – Anatomical plates: better alignment, minimal rotation loss
  Healing Time: 5–9 months; much better alignment and range of motion outcomes.
• 2005 – Locking plates: strong fixation, early rehab possible
  Healing Time: 4–8 months; early mobilization became safe and common.
• 2015 – Minimally invasive plating: faster, less tissue damage
  Healing Time: 4–7 months; less tissue damage sped recovery.
• 2023 – Rehab + tech: near full recovery in ~4 months
  Healing Time: 3–5 months; near full strength and motion for most patients.

It's easy in the big moments, when you are incredibly grateful for modern technological or medical advances, to remember that things haven't always been "this way".

If I had broken my arm this way, right about the time I was born, there'd be a good chance that I would never have been able to use my arm the same way again. Even up until the 1990s, the healing time would've been three times as long with a significant chance of reduced mobility.

As it stands, I should be almost back to normal in three months, having not ever worn a cast. It's insane.

Most of the time we all walk around feeling like this way, "today's way" is just how humans have always existed. I think it has to do how short our lives actually are, and the fact that we all think we are the hero of the story.

Don't kid yourself that this is the way we always were or will be..

Everything can and will be different. Look around you... it is absolutely possible that in 10 years every single thing about your daily life will be different.

Do you even remember what work was like before the Internet? I was in high school, and it's hard to remember.

Do you even remember when you couldn't get any fruits and vegetables you wanted 12 months of the year? I have no memory of this, despite it being my entire childhood.

Don't kid yourself that "this" is how things have always been or how things will always be.

There's a change coming. And whether or not utopia or dystopia reigns has a lot to do with who is helping lead the charge into the future.

(I don't think there's any way we can get to Utopia if so few continue to have so much and so many continue to have so little.)

Until next week!

Spencer,

Owner of 4KWeeks

P.S. Click on this reward if you feel like letting me know you read the whole newsletter: The Human Predicament