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The Observe and Rapport Newsletter
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A weekly guide of my favorite books, articles, products, and lifestyle habits.
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February 24th, 2023 | by Kyle Brennan
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From the outside, it might look like everyone is coordinating to push some ideology or movement.
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From the inside, everyone is terrified of losing their job if they don’t adhere to the new ideological stance.
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2) How Our Solar System Really Works šŖ
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3) The Importance of Sleep š“
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Limiting sleep to 5 hours a night for a week decreases (men) testosterone by a staggering amount “ages you 10-15 years”. Reduces sperm quality and quantity
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For women, increased chance of irregular menstrual cycles, the chance of sub-fertility, and significantly more likely to suffer a first-trimester miscarriage
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What I'm Reading
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Never have I wanted so badly to put a book down its emotional weight, but also to pick it back up again to learn more. A Little Life is one of the most emotional stories I've ever read. It took me nearly six weeks to read because not only because it was 800 pages long, but it was also endlessly tragic. It's brilliant writing, its broken characters, and its bleak, unforgiving story dug into my heart, into the very pores of my skin.
You will hear that this is a book about four friends. It's not. They're a nice framing device, but this is a book about one person and the people who are connected to him. His life is made up of extremes. I found myself weeping over and over again because of the love and compassion and kindness that the characters in the book displayed. But this book has some of the most harrowing and horrifying scenes I've read anywhere. It is not really spoiling anything to say this involves terrible things happening to a child. Everyone knows from the very beginning that something bad happened to Jude when he was young. It's just so much worse than you could imagine. (If you have trouble reading about child abuse, it's probably best you not read this book. While it's essential to the story, it is not glossed over or referenced vaguely and what is described is truly terrible to contemplate.)
You may find yourself having a physical reaction, your stomach may flip, your skin may go cold, and you may gasp for breath. And that is a lot of what the experience of reading this book is like.
I stayed up for hours to finish this book and then couldn't sleep because I couldn't let it go. I was overcome by the book and by the loss of finishing it.
This is a book about love and what it means and what it can do and it is the humanity of its characters and their love for each other that will stick with me.
Rating: 5 / 5 āļøāļøāļøāļøāļø
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My memory sucks. I’d heard this book mentioned multiple times for its cutting edge research into the time-tested tricks of remembering things.
Simply put, the mind is able to remember images, or spatial memories, like the layout of a house much better than it remembers facts, words or numbers. Once you have a firm understanding of this, all you have to do to remember something like your To-Do List is to convert it into a series of engrossing visual images and mental arrange them with an imagined space.
Suddenly those forgettable times become unforgettable.
Rating: 2.1 / 5 āļøāļø
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Popular IG Post
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What I'm Watching
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It's unbelievable what these folks at Netflix are doing with their sports docu-series. Back in the day, HBO was the king of behind-the-scenes shows in pro sports locker rooms like Hard Knocks and 24/7. But now Netflix has taken the crown with their Formula 1 series, Drive to Survive, the pro tennis circuit, Break Point, and now with one following the tumultuous 2022 season of the PGA tour in Full Swing.
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I'm a huge fan of golf, as most men become once they reach a certain age. While I once found it boring as a teenager, I'm now fully enthralled by the entertainment, the drama, the precision, and the personalities of the PGA Tour. I absolutely love it and I want more of it. With bloggers like the Foreplay guys, Bob Does Sports, and multiple others making it more accessible, down-to-earth, and less stuffy, I'm hopeful that the golf world will learn to change its ways from the exclusionary tucked-it-shirt-at-all-times attitude toward a more welcoming culture of wacky personalities and eccentric ideas that will turn the game on its head and introduce players who never would have thought to pick up a club.
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What I'm Listening To
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I'm of the strong opinion that 90's hip hop is one of the greatest eras of music ever. I've recently gone down a glorious Method Man / Wu-Tang Clan rabbit hole and I'm not leaving any time soon. RZA's beats are otherworldly.
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Quote of the Week
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Above all else, focus on acquiring knowledge & skills. Knowledge & skills are like gold—a currency you will transform into something more valuable than you can imagine. - Robert Greene
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What's on My Reading List?
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Kyle's Published Work
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33 Life Lessons on My 33rdĀ Birthday
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Thirty-three was a big one. Mostly because I became a dad. Our daughter was born on New Yearās Eveāāāa fitting arrival for a kid destined to reset everything. Itās been a beautiful, if slightly sleep-deprived blur ever since. Iāve only been āDadā for less than ten months, but if Iām being honest, Iāve been preparing for the role for over …
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Depth Over Downloads: Why Spending Time with Books Still Matters
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Everyone wants faster information. But no one asks if faster information leads to better understanding ā or a better life. In the age of AI and tweet-sized wisdom, weāve confusedĀ informationĀ withĀ transformation. But thereās a massive difference between knowing what a book says and beingĀ changedĀ by it. The Delusion of Instant Learning In a recentĀ interview, political journalist Ezra Klein admitted he once believed …
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The Jack Reacher Approach to Never Being Caught Off Guard
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Thereās no difference between a pessimist who says, āOh, itās hopeless, so donāt bother doing anything,ā and an optimist who says, āDonāt bother doing anything, itās going to turn out fine anyway.ā Either way, nothing happens.ā ā āYvon Chouinard, Founder of Patagonia I donāt read much fiction, but Iāve always been hooked on Lee ChildāsĀ Jack Reacher. Heās not your typical …
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