☕ saturday mornings - October 15, 2022
controlling attention, answering life & the danger of ads
Happy Saturday all!
I hope you’re having a great start to your weekend.
What I’ve been up to:
I've spent most of the week in Seville, one of the hottest cities in Southern Spain. I've gotten quite the history lesson, visiting a Roman military camp, where several emperors were born, an ancient royal palace, and one of the most impressive cathedrals in Europe.
Yesterday, I hiked the Sierra del Norte. It's a 16km desert trail outside of Seville, snaking through fields of sheep, over mounds of red rock, and past rushing waterfalls.
After a lot of work, I've finally published my new website! At TommyDixon.ca you can see my best writing, long-form essays, adventures around the world, favourite links on the Internet, and more.
Here's a recap of the coolest things I've explored this week.
Thanks for being here 🙂
✍️ Quote I’m pondering:
David Foster Wallace, American novelist, on the importance of controlling your attention:
“Twenty years after my own graduation, I have come gradually to understand that the liberal arts cliché about "teaching you how to think" is actually shorthand for a much deeper, more serious idea: Learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think.
It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed.”
📚 Book passage I loved:
The question can no longer be “What can I expect from life?” but can now only be “What does life expect of me?” What task in life is waiting for me?
... It is not we who are permitted to ask about the meaning of life—it is life that asks the questions, directs questions at us—we are the ones who are questioned!
We are the ones who must answer, must give answers to the constant, hourly question of life, to the essential “life questions.”
Living itself means nothing other than being questioned; our whole act of being is nothing more than responding to—of being responsible toward—life.
― Yes to Life: In Spite of Everything by Viktor Frankl
Life asks us every day, moment by moment, who we want to be. We answer through our actions.
In short, we decide who we are by how we respond to life.
💡 Idea from me: Selling our World to Advertisers
I've explored a lot of European cities this year. 19 to be exact.
Walking the streets, one thing has stood out: massive billboards plastered across old, beautiful buildings.
Governments have rented out the faces of historic buildings to advertisers.
Madrid's downtown area looked more like Times Square than a European city with over 1000 years of history.
And this isn't only happening in our cities.
In the National Hockey League (NHL), ads have been slowly creeping into the game.
In 2020, teams were able to put ads on their helmets. Within four weeks, all 31 teams announced helmet ad deals.
Then, the NHL board of governors approved jersey advertising beginning in 2022. All NHL teams now have ads on their helmets and jerseys.
This trend doesn’t only appear in uniforms. Starting in 2018, teams were permitted to sell advertising in four new locations, the corners of the ice, doubling advertising on the playing surface.
In European leagues, teams have been allowed to place advertisements anywhere. The result is an explosion of shapes and colors all over the ice and on uniforms.
Why is this happening? The short answer is money.
Governments and sports leagues alike, tempted by the allure of money, have been selling more and more real estate to advertisers.
The scariest part is that it's gradual. A slow, steady change that is almost imperceptible.
The result? We're trading money for beauty, excess for simplicity.
Our world prioritizes profit and evidence is all around us.
❓ Question for You:
What lesson is life trying to teach me right now?
I've found this question to be a helpful reframe when a frustrating obstacle or complication presents itself. Especially when it's out of my control.
As a mentor of mine says, "Mistakes are inevitable, but learning is optional".
📸 Photo of the week:
The Royal Alcázar of Seville, an ancient residential palace built for the Christian king Peter of Castile.
If you have any feedback or just want to be friends, feel free to reach out.
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Have a fantastic weekend.
Much love to you and yours,
Tommy
Great newsletter! Thanks for creating it.