Week #9 of 2025 has arrived. And with it more subzero temperatures and snow, and subzero temperatures and snow, and snow, and subzero temperatures.

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

ON WEEK #9 OF 1974...

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Risk more than others think is safe. Care more than others think is wise. Dream more than others think is practical. Expect more than others think is possible." - Claude T. Bissell

WHAT I AM CONSUMING THIS WEEK

The End of Reality: How Four Billionaires are Selling a Fantasy Future of the Metaverse, Mars, and Crypto A good friend recommended this book to me. I am about two chapters in. I don't know how I feel about it yet... but I have, for six months or so, been thinking about removing myself and this company from the social media ecosphere... I'm still bullish on Crypto though...!

The Practice of the Presence of God, by Brother Lawrence I was sitting in Mexico, next to the mother of a good friend. We were having dinner with a large group, and she and I got into a conversation about "being our brother's keeper" (I have been thinking about that for a while). I had engaged her, because I knew her to be a devout Christian. She mentioned this book and then sent it to me after the trip. (It is such a wonder, sending someone a book as a gift.) It is very short, and I am going to read it again, but the first read through had me thinking that there was too much "trust god" and not enough "be cool!". That's one of my main beefs with organized religion... Most followers don't treat it as a "practice" with hard questions and responsibilities, but as a cloak to shield them from the hard questions and uncomfortable truths. But, also, there might be a similarity in what Brother Lawrence is getting at and how my life coach tells me to "get out of my head, quiet my mind," and see what truths are singing right below my awareness.

Tim Ferris #792: Seth Godin on playing the Right Game, and Strategy as a Superpower

Man... Seth Godin always seems to be speaking right to me.

Tim Ferris #792: Brandon Sanderson on Building a Fiction Empire, Creating $40 Million Kickstarter Campaigns, The Art of World Building, and the Science of Magic Systems.

I squealed when I saw this episode. Sanderson is the author of The Stormlight Archive, which is the four-book series that I am currently neck deep in. It is so good, and so is this podcast! Send it to anyone trying to write.

No Mercy/No Malice: Elon Musk, Welfare Queen.

I am not as smart as many, and often have a hard time articulating in clear, measured, rational language, some of the "truthy feelings" that I have. I don't understand the violent war on the poor that has been waged by politicians and some rich folks for the last 45 or so years. Why do we give so much additional rope in the form of tax breaks, subsidies, good will, benefit of the doubt, etc., to people who have already succeeded, and then pile on it with reverential adulation for their continued success, while smearing all of the unfortunate poor as lazy, scheming villains who deserve nothing but our scorn and "stiffer laws to make sure people on welfare buy the right groceries with their food stamps!"?? I don't get it... Galloway makes a good comparison here in his typical passionate, coarse, intellectual way.

Instagram Nuggets

• If you only click one, make it this one.  There are some opinions masquerading as facts, but on the whole, a good synopsys.

• Your choices

• Fertile Grounds for Facism

• Brain Maps

• Learned Helplessness

WHAT I AM THINKING ABOUT THIS WEEK

Does "knowing" more stuff make us better?

We know so much more than the Romans or the Ancient Greeks about how this world works.

• We know how disease is transmitted.

• We know how the brain reacts with blood flow to a joke.

• We have sent a probe to beyond the edge of our galaxy.

• We have seen an atom.

• We push information in the form of electrons in cables under the sea at the speed of light to buy and sell pieces of fictions that we all take for granted as real, even though corporations are just ideas we agree to believe in.

We "know" so much more about this world than the ancients.

I don't think we can help but feel puffed up and important because we have all of this "knowledge."

And yet, the only things that matter are the same now as they were 2000 years ago.

We will experience joy.

We will know pain.

We will know love.

We will know loss.

We will strive.

We will die.

It will be sad.

The world will move on.

All the jockeying for position and power and influence. It's just so gross, and boring, and predictable, and childish in the worst way (like a tantrum at a restaurant because you can't have a second dessert, and you are used to getting whatever you want).

Epictetus said, "Remember that you must behave as at a banquet. Is anything brought round to you? Put out your hand, and take a moderate share. Does it pass you? Do not stop it. Is it not come yet? Do not yearn in desire towards it, but wait till it reaches you. So with regard to children, wife, office, riches; and you will some time or other be worthy to feast with the gods. And if you do not so much as take the things which are set before you, but are able to even to forego them, then you will not only be worthy to feast with the gods, but to rule with them also."

I read this as: It's fine to take a share of what life offers to you. But don't chase it, in fact be happy to abstain from it. That is the path to contentment and wisdom.

If you can embody this spirit for an instant, you will cease felling like a tiny boat tossed around in a vicious ocean storm. You will begin to feel as the island peeking out above the waves, with a foundation that reaches to the depths. Yes, part of you will still be at the mercy of the storm. However, now it can't hurt you because you are of the world, not merely in it.

If this meaning isn't yet clear to you, listen to me speak these words on the podcast with earnestness, and see of the emotion in my voice helps...Here's the deal again... I'll send a Year Goal poster to the first 5 people to rate and write a review on Apple Podcast or Spotify and then send me a screenshot of the review. 

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: This is the best version of this song.