The Weekly Rapport #28: Stoicism, Chernobyl, and Allbirds

Hi All,

Here is your weekly guide of things I’m reading, doing, and experimenting with. Enjoy.

What I’m Reading

The Obstacle is the Way – Ryan Holiday

From Amazon: Its many fans include a former governor and movie star (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a hip hop icon (LL Cool J), an Irish tennis pro (James McGee), an NBC sportscaster (Michele Tafoya), and the coaches and players of winning teams like the New England Patriots, Seattle Seahawks, Chicago Cubs, and University of Texas men’s basketball team.

The book draws its inspiration from stoicism, the ancient Greek philosophy of enduring pain or adversity with perseverance and resilience. Stoics focus on the things they can control, let go of everything else, and turn every new obstacle into an opportunity to get better, stronger, tougher. As Marcus Aurelius put it nearly 2000 years ago: “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”

I understand Stoicism about as well as anyone can without reading Marcus Aurelius or Seneca but I needed a cheap book on Kindle to read for a 2 hour train ride, so I bought Ryan Holiday’s The Obstacle is the Way, since it had amazing reviews (and it was $1.99 on Kindle). It’s a quick read and a nice little reminder that nothing is as hard as you think it is. All it takes is a little shift in attitude and the way you approach things.

What I’m Watching

Chernobyl – HBO

If this isn’t the perfect propoganda for human-inflicted catasrophes in the modern age I don’t know what is. The HBO series Chernobyl is obviously about the real-life events of humans flying too close to the sun with nuclear fission in 1986 Soviet Russia causing an explosition that released radioactive energy over an entire continent causing hundreds of thousands to die and evacuate.

It’s hard not to see the symmetry between the terrors and reactions of Chernobyl with the current climate crisis. Scientists begging for politicians and decision makers to take the threat seriously, and the government virtually ignoring the experts. Kind of hilarious to watch politicians think they know more about radioactive energy than fucking NUCLEAR PHYSICISTS RIGHT?? Yet that’s exactly what’s going on now. It’s gotten better, but you get the point.

Anyway, sweet show. Check it out.

Product I’m Eating Crow Over

Allbirds

Alright I’ll admit, I always hated Allbirds and shit on them for the longest time. I tend to do that to myself reguarly. I take a hard stance against something and then finally learn to look at it objectively and soften my stance, usually in an embarrassing manner. I think I just hate when everyone hops on the bandwagon of something trendy & cool and starts telling me I HAVE to do something. Like watching Game of Thrones. I’m sure it’s a FANTASTIC show. In fact I know it is. But I take the contrarian stance just to spite you trying to force it on me. Fuck you, that’s why. I don’t know why I do this. I probably would have been the guy that said The Beatles suck when they came over in the 60’s. Then like a year later I’d be like “Shit, Love Me Do actually slaps.”

In this case it was Allbirds. I’ve heard enough positive reviews to realize how good they are. They’re super comfy, you can wash them, and they are the perfect travel/transition shoe for the office, weekends, working out, or going grocery shopping.

Yeah, I might look like a fucking loser, but I at least got a cool color (baby blue). You can’t tell me the original grey Allbirds that 90% of people in Manhattan wear aren’t ugly as shit though…

This Movie Looks Awesome