Week 8, 2024
Week 8 of 2024 has arrived.
Time to walk over to your 4K Weeks poster and fill in another square. Done?
I am not usually despondent. I am a problem solver at heart. I usually only need a second to flip from anger/disappointment/surprise, etc, over to "We can fix this..."
So It broke my heart a bit on Valentine's Day when I reacted to the shooting at the Super Bowl victory parade with an unsurprised, unengaged, despondent sadness. Everyone in Kansas City knows someone who was affected. It's the biggest small town.
Gun companies have spent the last 2 decades gloriously profiting while cranking out as many firearms as possible, driving the price down to essentially nothing, with immunity from liability that no other industry enjoys.
A gun in your home? 50% more likely that someone in the home will die by suicide, 100% more likely to die by homicide. Just as likely to be killed in your home by an assailant as non-gun owners.
Good guy with a gun? There were over 800 police officers at the parade.
Fewer guns is better.
Why don't you need insurance if you own a gun? Why don't you need to prove that you are competent? Why shouldn't it be registered?
I'm done, but it's insane to me.
Back to the regularly scheduled programming:
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Thanks for being here and reading! These blogs help me "Sharpen The Saw" and hopefully help you to sharpen yours!
Remarkable Weeks
This Week's Quote
Week 8 of 1954, Jonas Salk, who discovered the Polio vaccine, laid the foundation for its first mass inoculation which took place at Arsenal Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Uninterested in personal gain, Salk opted not to patent the vaccine. It's estimated that he would have made over $7 billion if he had patented it. So basically we each owe him $1. What a dude. He was 2,051.86 weeks old. (39.35 yrs).
Week 8 of 1962, John Glenn, a decorated World War II fighter pilot, became the first American to orbit the Earth aboard Friendship 7, completing three orbits in less than 5 hours. All that time, and he didn't even get to meet Brigid. He was 2,118.14 weeks old. (40.62 yrs)
Week 8 of 2018, Marit Bjørgen, a Norwegian cross-country skier, secures her status as the most successful winter athlete of all time, clinching her 15th medal, including gold in the 30k cross country event. She is a five-time Olympian! Interesting side note... CC Skiers typically have the highest V02 Maxes. She was 1,979.29 weeks old. (37.95 yrs)
What You Are Doing
A New Experimental Section: This might be a flash in the pan... consider this an invitation for you to send me a picture of your unique take on how to use the 4K Weeks Poster, and what you are working towards. You can email me a pic, or post and tag me on IG... @the4kweeks
No poster this week... Send me yours.
But I was wondering... are you in any type of "Mastermind Group?" Email me and tell me: Spencer@4kweeks.com
This Week's Quote
"The answer to your quandary is right there, in front of you. It's just that it involves more work, more risk, or more trade-offs than you were hoping for." -Seth Godin
This is for me this week. I know that often I think I am faced with a difficult problem that needs a complex solution, when really what is happening is that I am: afraid of the work, afraid of the commitment, afraid of the change, afraid of one million things... none of which have anything to do with solving the problem. The solution is easy, I'm just scared of committing to it.
Ask yourself this of some sticky issue you are facing: Is it really this complicated, or are you just somehow scared of the solution?
The fact that there is no guarantee that it will work (or work the way you want) doesn't mean it isn't the right solution.
What I am Consuming This Week
The Brick I am putting this in here again because of how valuable it has become to me. My phone habits have been totally rewritten. I now just leave it bricked nearly all of the time. It is a solution to one of my gnarliest problems. Screentime is down 50%+, and the remainder is all good stuff... podcasts, phone calls, etc. You get 10% off if you like. Use the Code: 4KWEEKS when you checkout. (Transparency: 4K Weeks gets a commission if you buy one.)
Die With Zero, by Bill Perkins This book has been recommended to me by a few people lately, most notably Newsletter subscriber Michael R. I was already on board with a lot of what this book has to say, but I plowed through it in a weekend because it was so compelling. Basically... be intentional, life is short.
Read Write Own, by Chris Dixon I am mentioning this again because I just finished it, and it is so thoughtful. It is hard to remember how different the internet was in the 2000s. If you care about the future of "freedom" of the most amazing tech in the history of humanity, you will read this book. Blockchains are computers.
Revisionist History, "Guns, Pt.1-6" I am putting this back in here, because of the shooting in KC last week, and because we all think we know some things that aren't actually true. The gun situation in the US is the biggest way we have failed our children.
My Wildest Prediction with Tom Goodwin, "Guest Rahul Vohra, CEO of Superhuman" This jives with Read Write Own... email is a protocol network... one of the best, but needs tools to sort the wheat from the chaff.
The Tim Ferriss Show, "#720 Soman Chainani" The best nugget here was (paraphrased) "If your kids start to show initiative in some area... making their bed, exercising, etc. SAY NOTHING. They are trying to differentiate themselves and you complimenting them makes it your thing, not theirs."
Insta Nuggets:
- OMG, the future. If you have ever built a house, or worked in construction, you know how valuable this is.
- Jeff Goldblum is weird... this is good. The text is below.
- I'm aware of the irony, but not the solution.
What I am Thinking About This Week
How transient and ephemeral it all is.
Life is motion. We see all the motion around us from a fixed point of view. Except we aren't fixed, we are changing all the time. It's just easy not to notice how our self is changing on a day-to-day basis.
I miss my dad. Not in an aching, sobby way. Just in the occasional hitch in my breath when I am listening to music, doing the dishes, and realizing I can't have lunch with him ever again. I don't know where he is, but I know that all the energy he was has moved on. His death has made me think a lot about the Buckminster Fuller quote "The single frame picture of a caterpillar does not foretell its transformation into a butterfly. "We know nothing of what is to come.
I miss my babies. My kids are in that moment where I notice how much they are growing up on a daily basis. And it's delightful. They are awesome, and I am lucky to witness their growth, but it would be nice to have a day to visit with them earlier in their timeline. Also, I have heard that 90% of your time with your kids is 0-18... but I hadn't
Have a great week!
Thanks for being a part of the journey with us! Please tell me if you liked/disliked the blog this week. Ask my wife... those are the only emails I like to get!
Dad Joke O' The Week
Why are there no knock knock jokes about the USA?
Because Freedom Rings!
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