What I’m Reading: The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis

This was meant to be the first book by Lewis I was going to read. But, I felt that diving right into his more recent work was jumping the gun. So I put it off until I made my way through a few others and felt really familiar with his work. But of course, every book was a new striking voice, and this one is no different. Here Lewis dives into the life and collaboration of Israeli psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky who changed the way we think about, well… thinking. Together they studied bias and decision making revealing how feeble our minds can actually be. While the psychology is interesting (I recommend reading Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow), the story behind their friendship is even better. I can’t recommend this one enough.

What I’m Reminding Myself: It’s Not That Important

This last week I went on a cruise with some friends. And, by choice, I went (almost) entirely without cell service or internet. While it was nice to get away from social media, It was even nicer to get away from the stress of work and projects. But, of course, my inner anxiety would catch up with me. I found myself worrying about gear rental emails and the paperwork I needed to do. I dreaded what was waiting for me in my inbox. While it was full, nothing I was worried about had come for me. In fact, everything was fine. We often like to use the phrase “it’s not rocket science” about easy things. But it’s at times like this; it’s also a good reminder that it’s not nearly as important. And most jobs and projects aren’t. We stress a lot about things that in the grand scheme are laughably unimportant. So why get worked up? Sure, something might go wrong, or you might miss an email. Is it going to be stressful? Only if we let it. The truth is it is as big a deal as we let it be. So let’s keep some perspective and remember that it’s all going to be okay.

A Quote I’m Thinking About

People are not so complicated. Relationships between people are complicated

Amos Tversky