i was never one of the popular kids at school.
but i also wasn’t one of the nerds.
my childhood and teen years were spent somewhere in the middle, where i could fit in just enough with everybody to be well-liked, but not enough to be ‘one of them.’
i hated it.
but now, i’m grateful for it.
so i wanted to write down 3 things that i wish a younger, more insecure version of myself could’ve learned sooner.
you don’t need a ‘thing’
who comes to mind when i say things like horse girl, minecraft boy, dumb jock, popular girl, or ‘the fat one?’
as a kid, labels like that really matter. in fact, just by thinking about them, you probably know their place in the playground food chain:
jocks and popular girls are at the top, horse girls and minecraft boys are at rock bottom, and ‘the fat one’ is buddies with a few popular kids in the same way that a boxer is buddies with his punching bag.
the thing is, everybody kinda loses in that system.
the kids at the top are the ones who peak in high school, the kids at the bottom are treated like shit for the first ~18 years of their life, and the kids in the middle end up starting newsletters named after a dick joke.
the bad news is that a lot of adults still play these bullshit status games.
the good news is that you don’t have to play those games anymore.
in fact, you can pick and choose whatever game you want to play; so you can just come up with a game that suits your strengths.
‘i’m too nerdy to be cool and too cool to be a nerd’
can be reframed as
‘i get along with everybody.’
see how much better that is?
you don’t need to have a ‘thing’ to be someone; you can just be you, and that’s more than enough.
don’t cherry pick parts of peoples’ lives to envy; it’s all or nothing
it’s easy to envy someone who has something you wish you had, because all you see is one tiny piece of a really big puzzle.
the truth is, if you saw what it took for them to have that thing, you probably wouldn’t be willing to do it yourself.
in other words, if you wouldn’t be willing to trade everything you’ve got for everything they have - good and bad - it’s not worth feeling envy.
“everyone is jealous of what you've got. no one is jealous of how you got it.”
- Jimmy Carr
life is too short to not love yourself
‘love yourself’ is the corniest and most broad self-help advice that everybody and their mum gives out - but there’s a good reason for that.
here’s a quick way to prove it:
would you rather:
have everything you could ever dream of, but hate yourself so much that you can’t even enjoy those things
or
have just enough to get by, but you love yourself and appreciate every second of your life
?
unless you’re trying to be a smart-ass, “WeLL aCtUaLLy…” type of person, the answer is obvious.
something i learned by accident is that whether you hate yourself or love yourself, you are who you are anyways - so you might as well choose the latter.
yes, it’s a choice.
you still have the same strengths, weaknesses, quirks, flaws, tendencies, and pretty much everything that makes you, you.
the only difference is how you choose to perceive those things.
to be clear, there are a lot of things you can change about yourself. in those cases, i lean towards Alex Hormozi’s definition of self-love, which is ‘holding yourself to a higher standard than anybody else will.’
but for the few things you can’t change - your past, your genetics (for now), your parents, etc. - the worst thing you can do is twist them into some sort of imaginary voice that makes you your own biggest enemy.
i know that’s way easier said then done, but to me, the first and most important step to getting there is just being aware of it.
so now you’re aware of it, i guess.
some things i learned
a meta-analysis (really strong study) found that AI is likely helping student learning more than hindering it
please don’t take it as gospel, but just look at what they had to say: “Results indicate that ChatGPT has a large positive impact on improving learning performance (g = 0.867) and a moderately positive impact on enhancing learning perception (g = 0.456) and fostering higher-order thinking (g = 0.457).” here’s the link if you want to pick it apart yourself!
apparently ADHD reduces life expectancy by around 10 years
the main cause? looks like impulsivity-linked behaviours like accidents and suicide. check out this Huberman Lab podcast episode for more info.the word “hello” was almost never used until telephones became a thing
and when Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, he wanted people to answer with “ahoy” instead! lowkey might have to bring it back idk
cool stuff i found
a hidden feature on your iPhone’s calculator
i had no idea that your calculator app has had a built-in currency converter for almost a year now! you can access it with the bottom left button (tutorial here if you’re a little slow). this would’ve been great to know before my trip to Greece last summer!21 observations from people watching
this article is written in a very flowery, poetic style (by my standards), but i still found it pretty interesting. my favourite one:
“When I meet someone, I usually get a sense of whether they are generally happy, having a sad day, or generally sad, having a happy day. The emotional history of their life is often etched in the muscle tension in their face and their posture.”a map that shows how lucky you are if you have the simple luxury of drinkable tap water
thanks for tuning in for another week of mornIng wood!
this is already the 10th edition, and i’m loving it so far. momentum is building, and it’s at a point now where i have my own decently-sized archive of cool ideas, lessons, and things that i thought were worth saving.
hopefully you enjoy them too (:
til next time!
~ liam
PS - finally finishing school this week! i was able to sort things out and find a way to graduate on time. uni wasn’t terrible or anything, but i’m so ready to put this chapter behind me and go all in with the things i care about. full time creation!!!