Week #7, 2025
Week #7 of 2025 has arrived. The world is changing. But then again, it always is. What doesn't change? The seasons, the sunrise, the truth that the world is a place of abundance, if you would only start to see it.
Time to walk over to your 4K Weeks poster and fill in another square. Done?
Last week on the podcast I mentioned that I was curious who listens... I said I would consider 10 emails that said "I'm listening" a success. We received 6. So, this week on the podcast I joked that it was the last week of the podcast. Likely there was at least one person who, in the pregnant pause, thought, "Dang, I should have sent an email.
It's so easy to sit in the back row and passively take what is being offered.
The current media landscape demands that people who care show up for the things they care about. If something is valuable to you, actively support it. Kevin Kelly's idea of 1000 true fans only works if those true fans support the work.
In the age of Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, etc., it's easy to forget that the work isn't free. (Ad rev is a crappy deal for us, and for content creators... but a GREAT deal for Google and Meta!)
Gillian Welch railed at this way back in 2001...
90% of streams on Spotify go to the top 1% artists... surely our culture isn't that homogeneous, it's just that the system is set up to feedback loop the wins to the winners.
We have to support the content that matters to us. Luckily, in a world of almost no support, just a little really matters.
ON WEEK #7 OF 1972...
Luciano Pavarotti received a record 17 curtain calls following his performance in La fille du régiment at New York's Metropolitan Opera
He was 1,896.71 weeks or 36.37 years old.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"Do more than dream: work" - William Arthur Ward
I mean, it's so simple. Make mistakes of ambition, not mistakes of sloth. If you are going somewhere and doing something, that is something.
Have you ever been jump-scared while confidently heading in a direction? It's easier to brush off the terror if you are already moving confidently in a direction.
Dream... then get moving and have enough confidence in yourself to put in the work
WHAT I AM CONSUMING THIS WEEK
This video that neatly summarizes the 4th Turning Theory of historical cycles in the US.
This great short podcast from Ezra Klein.
This beautiful article about death by Neko Case,
Instagram Nugget
WHAT I AM THINKING ABOUT THIS WEEK
All this chaos and why?
I don't know how to write a "Rah, Rah, you can do it, integrity matters!" email this week.
Everyone I that I know personally, truly just wants to "...sit under their own vine and fig tree, {where} no one shall make them afraid." (it's from the bible.)
It's a strange idea to "fight for peace"... all these policies and politicizing... It's easy to get caught up in rearranging the deck chairs, but 99.9997% of people truly just want to create a safe place for their families to grow and prosper.
This isn't a political newsletter and yet, life is political ("relating to the government of the public affairs of a country.")
It's easy to ignore that in times of peace and tranquility. It gets harder to ignore in times of chaos and uncertainty, especially the further down the socioeconomic ladder you find yourself.
And, since much of this newsletter is focused on living a good life with integrity, courage, justice, prudence, magnanimity, etc., it is likely no secret how I feel about the current state of affairs and the major players.
I don't want to be one more outraged chicken head, filling up your attention with "GOBBLE, GOBBLE, BAWK!" and I don't want know what to say about all this without being accused of TDS or some other "woke mind virus".
However, it would be disingenuous to ignore the chaos, kleptocracy, and other despicable behavior.
I am a capitalist at heart and have made great use of working hard to build something and being able to reap the rewards of that effort . . .yet I think this is really a struggle between the have-nots and the have-yachts.
Right now there is a lot of focus on all of the regular people that we should be outraged by and all of the wasted US tax dollars giving food and medicine to "thems" in other countries.
And yet, even as a fairly well-off white man, I have a lot more in common with a migrant fruit picker that I do with a billionaire. That seems like hyperbole, but it is actually just an illustration of the state of income inequality in the US. (this video is 12 years old... its worse now.)
The budget for USAID in 2023 was $40 Billion dollars, 10% of the $404 Billion dollar net worth of the richest man in the world, who has shut it down. (I'm not particularly interested in USAID... may be we should spend that $40 billion in the US ending homelessness, or poverty or something else...spoiler alert... they won't.)
Nobody owes me anything. Nobody owes you anything. But we are our brother's keeper. (And just a reminder... of camels and needles...)
Until next week!
Spencer, Owner of 4K Weeks
P.S. I'm serious about the 33 Day Foundation. It works, and in the nascent 4K Weeks Community, I am happy to help you define your goals and stay accountable.
P.P.S. Here is your reward for reading this whole email: It's so simple, maybe you need a refresher course!
DAD JOKE O' THE WEEK
Why can't a nose be 12 inches long?
Because then it would be a foot.
Shoutout to Ron W. for contributing this week's joke! The best ones are really the ones that make you facepalm.
Think you can do better? We're waiting for your Dad Joke entry!
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