I’m back after another medium hiatus. For those of you who are new to The Pursuit, it contains excerpts from and analysis of: 1) the best media I’ve read/watched/heard 2) conversations I’ve partaken in, and 3) breakthroughs I’ve had.

Increasingly, each newsletter has a unifying theme. This week, that theme is the ways in which I suck.

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“the ways in which u suck”

I saw a tweet (below) that said (changing spellings for readability): “By your late 20s, you should have a pretty clear understanding of the ways in which you suck… Once you come to terms with the fact that another Pomodoro system is never going to get you to stop procrastinating important shit, you can make sure you find ways to handle it.”

I think this is sage advice, and it is well argued, so I won’t spend too many words on it, other than to give an example of it working: In a previous letter about money and content diets, I talked about how I work around my brain’s quirks to keep a consistent stream of new information.

These tricks came from realizing some of the ways I suck.¹ I suck at staying in the moment when I workout, so that is the best time to listen to podcasts, which provide my ideal balance of distraction from and focus on a workout. I suck at falling asleep, so I try to read fiction in bed to avoid nonfiction that will get my brain thinking about work. These have both significantly improved my productivity over time.

the ways in which u are awesome

More importantly, I think there is an equal and opposite piece of advice here: By your late 20s, you should also have a pretty clear understanding of the ways in which you are awesome. Why? Because it’s easier to regain muscle you once had than start from scratch, even if you were fit long ago. If you don’t constantly see what you are capable of, in domains old and new, you will atrophy.

I think this is why I and so many of my friends had existential crises about our lack of hobbies: We can feel ourselves capping our future potential in real time. To me, this is the primary reason to go to college. I got to push myself in lots of random areas and see where I was excellent vs. awful vs. just okay. Then, I made appropriate decisions on what I should do for work, what I should do for fun, and what I should take seriously in my free time.

For example, I am much more confident as a writer now because of a creative writing class I took my last semester of undergrad. Having my professor—a writer I greatly admire who is objectively excellent at creative nonfiction writing—tell me some of my pieces were excellent has instilled confidence in my writing that is impossible to buy or gain now. I’m a good writer, but only great in certain formats. I’m also a very slow reader. Ergo, I am not a professional writer, but I write this newsletter and occasionally publish long form essays on my website.

I think it is important to realize which opportunities you currently have to push yourself that are unique due to your job, geography, or age. These should be priorities. But making time to push yourself in other areas should be a high priority, too.

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Sparring partners

Relatedly, the best podcast I’ve listened to recently features Lulu Cheng Meservey, former VP of Comms for Activision Blizzard and Substack who also ran communications for Anduril in its early days. She is a huge proponent of the “go direct” communications strategy (she may have coined the term) and frames the above as “sparring.”

I’ll write more about finding sparring partners and fiercely practicing intellectual honesty in a later letter.

Conversations (1)

Texts from Mom

My parents are traveling right now. They seem to be having a great time. They left the Western Hemisphere for the first time when I was in 7th grade, for their 25th anniversary. Since they don’t like flying, they don’t travel often. Once or twice a year at the absolute most.

They are good travelers. They are friendly—decidedly American in how they will strike up a conversation with anyone—and make an effort to speak and dress appropriately. My mom has a knack for languages, and she has enjoyed dusting off high school French and Spanish to order food and chitchat with locals.

When they travel, I try not to text or call my parents. They are not particularly glued to their phones, but communicating with my bother and me is by far the biggest dopamine hit they get from those little screens. I don’t want to distract them.

—

On the night of my 24th birthday, I hiked up 낙산공원 (Naksan Park) in Korea. By elevation, Naksan Mountain is not very tall (125 meters of elevation, ~410 feet), but it is hilly & the roads leading up to the park are, at points, very steep.²

The view remains the most stunning I have ever seen. It’s a true 360° panoramic view of Seoul, a Neon City that is itself a testament to human spirit.

At the top of the mountain, it struck me that no one else in my family has seen or will ever see this view. Given my grandparents’ age and my parents’ various lower-body ailments, they would never walk up these same steps at this hour.

Last year, I wrote that my heuristic for finding meaningful professional work is, “The whole point is to have a reunion later.“ If professional relationships are about finding a tribe for future celebration, I think personal relationships are about finding people with whom we want to share the best the world has to offer, whom we will think of in our moments of isolated triumph or when confronted with overwhelming, ephemeral beauty. The people we write, take pictures, and tell stories for. The ones who help us make sense of the world.

Until next time,
Sam

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1  A more real-time example: I suck at poker whenever I am tired enough that I can’t recite my two hole cards after one look. I try to cash out shortly after I realize I am not “picking up” as much information with one glance.

2  Naksan translates to “Camel Mountain” (낙타/Nakta = camel, 산/San = mountain)