Issue #49: On Managing ADHD, Corelation & Causation, Political Belifs, etc.
Week 49: 09th June 2025 - 15th June 2025
Here are a few interesting articles I read this week…
[Article: On Managing ADHD]
Whether formally diagnosed or self-inflicted, in today’s times, all of us have this at some level. This article is a great deep dive into how to manage it, and it also has some practical tools on improving focus in general.
Here are a couple of my favorite concepts:
Anxious Procrastination
This one is harder. The good thing is you know, cognitively, what you have to do. The hard part is getting over the aversion.In the short term, the way to fix this is to do it scared. Accept the anxiety. Asking for help also works, sometimes you just need someone in the room with you when you hit send on the email. You can also use techniques like CBT to rationally challenge the source of the anxiety and maybe overcome it.
In the long term: write down the things you procrastinate one due to anxiety, and find the common through-line, or the common ancestor. By identifying the emotional root cause, you can work on fixing it.
Replace Interrupts with Polling
Turn off notifications, check comms as an explicit task.
“Interrupts” means notifications, which arrive at unpredictable and often inconvenient times. “Polling” means manually checking the source of the notifications for things to action.
(I have been doing this for years. The only notifications I get are from selected contacts. All other apps and chats are muted forever.)
[Article: Co-relation != Causation]
This is such an easy trap to fall into, and I think it affects so much of our lives. The book by Daniel Kahneman called Thinking, Fast and Slow dives deep into this and till date remains my favorite non-fiction book.
This article is a good read on the topic on both fronts, why we are proine to this and more importantly, how to avoid it.
Here’s a quote from the article, which does a pretty good job of explaining the root cause:
“In any high-stress, fast-paced field like medicine, superstitions run rampant when you feel a loss of control. This is especially true of emergency environments because you never know what will walk in. You need some way to explain the unpredictability of your environment.” — Dr. David Mandell.
[Article: Why This Article Won’t Change Your Mind]
A refreshing read on seeking out diverse and thoughtful ideas when forming political opinions. A good question to ask yourself is, ‘When was the last time I actively sought out opinions from the other side of political issues?’
”Thinking well about politics isn’t about “independent” thinking in the sense of thinking on your own. Instead, to think well is to choose our friends wisely, in terms of both diversity and thoughtfulness, so we can learn from and with them. To think well about politics also means to be active in the world – trying new ways of living, having a wide variety of experiences.”
[Images]
\Found my (stylistically) favorite snack!
[Random]
On Struggle
A happy life is not a life without struggle, it's a life with meaningful struggle.
- Mark MansonOn training the discomfort muscle
“Doing hard things” is a habit that must be practiced… or, like any habit, it will be lost.
- Mark MansonOn Idea vs Execution
If you're not working hard, ideas don’t matter. The best idea is worthless without execution.If you're already working hard, ideas are crucial. Most effort is wasted on mediocre ideas.
- James Clear
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I hope you enjoyed this newsletter. Let me know if you have any feedback.
Next week पुन्हा भेटू!