Welcome to Weekly Wonderings, a newsletter exploring the journey towards Digital **Self-Actualization**: > *realizing our meaningful potential through the synthesis of digital tools, life management systems, and humanistic philosophies* Here's a quick galactic overview of this edition: - [[#New video - why I quit school and my job to pursue my passions 🤩]] - [[#Join me for my first livestream! 🔴]] - [[#Our two modes of thinking and its applications 🤔]] ## In My Life ✨ ### New video - why I quit school and my job to pursue my passions 🤩 As part of the revival of my second channel, I made a video sharing my reasons for dropping out of my computer science degree and quitting my internship at a Global 500 company to embark on [[The pathless path]]. You can watch the video [here](https://youtu.be/E5RNywMXrao?si=frIzqA_iruSx35Vn): https://youtu.be/E5RNywMXrao?si=frIzqA_iruSx35Vn ### Join me for my first livestream! 🔴 Now that I'm settled into my new place, I'll be starting coworking streams! Feel free to come join me as I self-learn, create, or work on new projects as I continue working on this new brand identity :) So far the plan is to alternate between focused 50 minute work sessions, accompanied with 10 minute breaks open for chatting. After the coworking sessions, I'll do something else like just chatting to get to know you more, or just playing games (recently I've been grinding out Valve's new Deadlock game 😅) My first ever one will be on Saturday, September 7th, 4 PM CST! In other time zones, that is 2 PM PT and 5 PM ET. If you need extra accountability when working on your personal projects or want to chat, then feel free to stop by and say hi :) These streams will happen on YouTube on [my main channel](https://youtube.com/@itsjohnmavrick), and also on [Twitch](https://twitch.tv/ransurf)! ### Next video progress 🚩 My script for my upcoming video is almost finished, just need to do final revisions and continue collaborating with my new video editor Dan to bring it to life :) I was not expecting it to end up as 3000 words 😭 Once it's handed off for revisions, I'll probably get back to the one in progress about trying out Ali Abdaal's life productivity system. ## My new shining stars 🌟 _A place to share the new stars and constellations inside my digital galaxy_ ### Inputs #### Our two modes of thinking and its applications 🤔 I finally finished reading [[Thinking, Fast and Slow]], an iconic book on the two main [[Thinking Styles|modes of thinking]] our brain operates in: [[System 1]] and [[System 2]]. I had always heard about these two modes of thinking in conversation or in resources related to cognition, so it was nice having a deep dive exploration to these topics! It was kind of hard following some mathematical examples when listening via audiobook, but I still found great insight in the takeaways and conclusions of the experiments. Beyond the way we think, it's helped me understand some universal truths about being less susceptible to marketing, persuasion, and ADHD, which you can see from my input highlights and annotations above! For my book summary and notes from the topic, you can visit [[Thinking, Fast and Slow Application]]. In the notes there is a bit of a tie-in with Obsidian and second brains, but my biggest insights came from its specific applications for ADHD. #### YouTube has a pyramid scheme problem 😅 [[Capitalist Creator#YouTube has a pyramid scheme problem]] I really enjoyed this video articulating the "pyramid-scheme" side of YouTube, thoroughly comparing some of the practices creators do with the official descriptions on what a pyramid scheme is. It was a nice reminder to reflect on my past existential dilemma on how to not be a [[Capitalist Creator]], to realize I'm much more satisfied with the online footprints I'll be leaving with some of these new channel directions. ### Notes I was spending some time rationalizing the magician visual aesthetic of my character model, which led me down some rabbit holes 😅 I got to explore [[The nuances for magic user labels]], but what was most surprising was realizing how similar Jung's [[Magician Archetype]] was to the curiosity-driven and idealist nature of my personal brand. This got me thinking — as much as it's nice to have some scientific foundation for my space metaphors, would it be more powerful to lean into fiction instead? ## My Free Resources Thank you for being a part of this journey :) If you want to level up your productivity or personal knowledge management, you can check out the following free resources: 🧠 [Organize your life and knowledge by building your second brain](https://free.johnmavrick.com/code-method) 📃 [Get my FREE 4-part Obsidian beginner course with 20+ templates](https://free.johnmavrick.com/obsidian-templates) 🕸️ [Set up a powerful zettelkasten in Obsidian for learning](https://free.johnmavrick.com/zettelkasten) 👩‍🏫 [3 Days to Lecture Note Taking Mastery](https://course.aidanhelfant.com/3daystolecturenotetakingmastery?ref=JohnMavrickYT): 🤖 [Get my FREE Ultimate Guide to using AI for PKM with 15+ prompts](https://free.johnmavrick.com/ai-pkm)