tim ferriss and ryan holiday == ###### tags: `covid19` `crisis` - [time=Sat, Apr 11, 2020 7:57 PM] {%youtube 7Iknv6rt9uk%} ## Dead or alive time (minute ~36) useful framing * how can you make this next 3-6 months something you look back upon as a sacred time? something you really treasure, not just survive * how can you make the next three to six months some of the most enjoyable or productive time of your life? Nelson Mandela: I wasn't surviving I was preparing "how you can survive" is sort of like extreme frugality I'm going to use a word here that might bother people but if you were to ask *"how could I most profit and benefit from the next three to six months"*. what is this an opportunity to do that I would never otherwise do say we're out of this in a year, to some extent to look back and say wow I'm so glad we had that time in a sense because it allowed me ABC as opposed to I didn't realize that was going to be so valuable in so many ways and I was blind to it at the time yeah the the dichotomy I use that Robert Greene gave me, an alive time or dead time, what would it be it's really hard to overstate how badly we've screwed this up in terms of supply chain chain management and so on. but nonetheless like it or not the global economy is dependent on the US enlargement. not that it's too big to fail, every empire comes to its close, but at this point in time it is almost in everyone's best interest the US not collapse. Russia has gas to sell China has products to export and so on and so forth ## Making sense of this period I want to just make an observation: you basically have the trifecta of books for understanding and handling this entire chapter in our history right behind your head. - The Black Swan - the 48 laws of power - mastery so the black swan, perhaps just as much so fooled by randomness by NN taleb, specifically help to explain what we are contending with and why it is so difficult for humans to grasp what is happening and properly prepare for it then if you want to understand how seemingly confusingly and irrationally different leaders are behaving and how polarity is affecting our response to this in the United States and elsewhere, not just here, you look at Brazil it's the same story then the 48 laws of power do a great job of explaining that then if you take mastery and the 48 laws of power combined those can act as a possible road map for the abilities you want to develop in this sacred pause that is being provided to you, not inflicted upon you, necessarily. I understand there are some very serious costs but that's just a way that you could plausibly or try to frame it if you want to feel enabled, not disabled ## "how can you help" there are two different levels of answers the first would be my my most common recommendation and that is =="don't try to save the world help the people around you"==. if you are fortunate enough to be in a stable financial position even if you are suffering financial hardship that you have time think of how you could reach out to people and offer your support. that support could be a weekly zoom or Skype chat with a handful of friends who are all sharing difficulties. it could be reaching out to your barber or your local coffee shop owner or fill-in-the-blank someone to offer to help in some fashion. because you know they're also suffering from financial hardship. that could be paying them some amount of money if you have the financial means, a gift card, and then cash it's like buy 6 months of haircuts in advance, right it could be something like that. it could also be simply reaching out to them and asking how can I help. and more often than not because I've done this with say the dog walker who I've used who's just fantastic and I want them to survive this the say house cleaners who helped with my home I've reached out with these offers and asked how can I help would you like me to pay in advance, would you like to simply let me continue paying? most of them have declined but ==the act of asking== *how can I help* and then possibly offering if you have the means or the space is ==tremendously reassuring== in times of uncertainty. the gift doesn't have to be capital the support doesn't need to be money. it could just be group cohesion and people feeling that they have a safety net of sorts in your offer. ==acting locally== in that sense makes it tremendously compelling if you try as I have done for the last few weeks to ==figure out how to save the world== or early on just how to stem the tide for the United States to buy time there were certain things that I could do say as it related to SXSW and so on but I am in a very unusual position and I have a large platform yeah for others to feel compelled to do something like that is I think very ==unproductive== because it's going to be like shouting into gale force winds it's it's gonna be very ==frustrating and I don't think terribly healthy== for people to try. so: act locally number one. *I omitted the advice number two* ---- ## Comments - *and there's that idea of the concept of fairness being disabling / fostering victim mentality stuff* - *that point about trying to save the world being very frustrating HITS HOME..... I hit that inflection point after 2 weeks (13th - 28th)*