Confused About Consensus, How To Harness The Voice In Your Head, Legendary Eclipse Pics & Scooby Snacks
“I read a newsletter recently, and every post starts with the author quoting themself. Every single post. Quoting themself.”
- Christopher Lochhead
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Thanks for reading 🙏
The Different Newsletter.
Musings for entrepreneurs, marketing leaders, and creators with a different mind.
(Sponsored by Bad Tuna Industries)
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Confused About Consensus
There is ever-growing “thinking” that “achieving consensus” is what you want.
Well.
Be very careful. Success in business, marketing, VC, and startups is about being non-consensus.... and right.
(One more time to let it settle in your brain)
Success in business, marketing, VC, and startups is about being non-consensus.... and right.
Consensus can also lead to very bad decisions... the lowest common denominator the group could agree to.
(This SAP ad is almost certainly a sin committed by a committee that “achieved consensus”. It’s weird, confusing and meaningless. A sign of a Marketing team out-of touch with customers and their own sales team. This ad will likely drive zero revenue.)
Today Some people are very confused. They think the purpose of a business is to get a group of nice people together, and play nice-nice.
Instead of consensus, seek the highest quality (different) thinking.
Instead of consensus, embrace the reality that business is not, and should not be, a democracy.
There must be a decider.
(Even on a very small team. Category Pirates is three people, Katrina Kirsch, Eddie Yoon and me. Katrina is the decider.)
And we all must learn, one of the greatest skills (no one ever teaches).
How to:
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How To Harness The Voice In Your Head
We all have a little voice in our heads.
(You probably just heard it say, “what little voice?” 😎)
It reflects the whole gamut of human emotion—judgment, excitement, boredom, love, hate, anger, and all the feelings in between. But it rarely shuts up. In fact, one study found that our inner voice speaks at a rate equivalent to speaking 4,000 words per minute out loud.
Your inner voice sometimes encourages you to do legendary stuff.
But more often than not, it's a negative voice that brings you down.
You can channel your self-talk to make your life different.
According to the award-winning psychologist, Dr. Ethan Kross, it's possible to change the conversations you have with yourself to improve your life.
All it takes is a few science-based tools and techniques that Kross shares in his best-selling book, CHATTER: The Voice in Our Head, Why it Matters and How to Harness It.
He defines the inner voice as the ability to silently use language to reflect on our lives. And he believes this power distinguishes us from every other animal species.
Here are a few things Dr. Ethan taught me on the Follow Your Different podcast.
“Metacognition is a term that I use a lot. And it basically refers to thinking about thinking.”– Dr. Ethan Kross
Dr. Kross has a unique point of view: the inner voice’s negativity loop is one of the main challenges of the human race.
Most category designers and scientists use Languaging to name, frame, and claim external challenges (climate change, authoritarianism, poverty, racism), but Dr. Kross uses it to explain our internal challenges.
He powerfully communicates his POV by redefining what the word “chatter” means. It's not talking incessantly and fast—it's your babbling inner voice that can hold you back.
While the majority of researchers stick to technical neurobiology jargon, Dr. Kross uses Languaging to make his messaging more approachable to a non-technical audience.
Dr. Kross also uses subtraction—one of the four major equations of Languaging—to turn his research findings into a story.
He developed the “Chatter Tools,” techniques people can use to quiet (or reduce) mental chatter. These techniques include:
Using distant self-talk (to imagine what you would advise a friend in your situation, for example)
Zooming out (to compare your situation with someone else’s)
Rising to the challenge (to reframe the situation as a challenge you can handle)
Writing expressively (to narrate your situation and make sense of what’s going on)
Performing a ritual (a sequence of behaviors to give you a sense of order and control)
Building a chatter board (to talk to people you trust for advice and support)
Minimizing passive social media usage (to take a break from mindless scrolling)
Creating order in your environment (to organize your home/office to create a sense of control)
Making room for the great outdoors (to spend time in nature to replenish your brain’s attention reserves)
Seeking out awe-inspiring activities (to transcend your concerns with something that causes you awe)
Through Languaging, Dr. Kross educates his audience on a new way to manage their emotions.
But, can you really control your thoughts and feelings?
According to Dr. Kross, that's not a very good question.
His reasoning is that there are a lot of nuances when talking about our inner worlds.
For instance, we have no control over the random thoughts that may pop up in our heads or the feelings we automatically experience. “Recognizing that is really empowering for me,” said Dr. Kross. "I don't beat myself up over the fact that sometimes I may think something that I'm ashamed of or is not particularly civilized.”
However, he said you can hold yourself accountable for what you do with those thoughts.
Once a random thought is activated, you can decide:
How you engage with them
Whether you elaborate on them
Whether you allow them to push you in a negative direction
How to reframe them
Dr. Ethan shows us once again.
Thinking about thinking is the most important kind of thinking.
(This was stolen from Category Pirates)
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A Few Things To Think On.
✔️AI Everything.
When the Internet-of-Things emerged, I use to play a game with people called, “can you name something that will not be connected to the Internet”.
It was always fun. And as time went by, the list of things you could name got shorter. And shorter.
Today, let’s play “can you name something that will not be connected to AI?”
I’d love your thoughts in the comments 👇🏻
✔️The median age in the US is 39.
Making them 16 on 9/11.
Maybe that's why many Americans do not connect the dot's between the ISIS attack in Russia, hamas’ atrocity in Israel, the open US border, and the very real possibility of another jihadist attack in the US.
Retired Gen. Frank McKenzie is ringing the bell.
Wonder if anyone can hear it?
✔️The New Magic Number for Retirement Is $1.46 Million.
Here’s What It Tells Us.
“It would take $1.46 million to retire comfortably, according to a recent survey of 4,588 adults released Tuesday by financial-services company Northwestern Mutual. That is up from $1.27 million a year ago. And over $1 million more than the average survey participant’s nest egg.”
✔️Don’t Fall for hamas’ Numbers Game
Lloyd Austin’s recent gullibility about hamas casualty figures lays bare the terrorist group’s goal: to use lies and propaganda to turn the world against Israel.
✔️AI’s Growth Fuels Nuclear Power’s Revival
“The accelerating growth of artificial intelligence (AI) has resulted in higher electricity consumption. Fortunately, the resurgence of nuclear power generation today appears to be well-timed.
The AI infrastructure, comprising hardware, software, and networking elements, has introduced a fresh demand for power, consuming increasing amounts of electricity in areas with previously low or negligible demand.
In this context, nuclear power, with its renewed appeal due to low carbon emissions and round-the-clock reliability, appears ideally positioned to meet the skyrocketing power demands driven by AI.”
✔️The Best Total Solar Eclipse Photos
Check ‘em all out here on Wired.com.
Isn’t it cool how the eclipse was such a massive shared experience!
I was having lunch with a dear friend yesterday as it started. People we’re out on the streets. Wearing their glasses.Talking. Sharing their glasses with strangers.
Being amazed.
We live in a world that can be (very) cynical.
Millions of people sharing an awe experience, is legendary.
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Shalom my Pirate friend,
👊🏴☠️🙏
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Copyright Category Pirates, LLC
#NeverAgainIsNow 🇮🇱
#SaveGazaFromHamas
The “legal” warnings.
(and the Scooby Snacks 🐶)
All newsletters contain nuts 🐿
This product is a solution to a problem that most people don’t have.
This Different newsletter contains content known to The State of California that causes radically different futures, new category designs, legendary careers, and upset readers.
The 10 weirdest things that happened during the total solar eclipse 🤔
Humpback whale 'scoops up and spits out lobster fisherman'
This Year’s No Pants Subway Ride Is Looking Like A No-Go
There are (random) strategically placed spelling, grammar and formatting mistakes in this newsletter.
If you think the Federal Government is conspiring with Taylor Swift to make Americas shake it off, have a cruel summer, and cry on their guitars, then consider these strategic mistakes part of a secret code that unlocks Federal Government servers in Bumsquat Youdaho to the files that prove the The Statue of Limitations was created by Aliens.
If you’re not a Taylor Swift in cahoots with the government person, the errors herein exist because Lochhead is lazy… and wants to write in an unfettered, real(ish) time way and an editor would slow the roll.
Plus he’s too lazy, not that smart and he drinks too much to download Grammarly. Because that would require filling in forms, his mothers maiden name and countless other hee-haw creating irritants.
The stuff in this (experimental) newsletter that sounds nuts, ill-conceived &/or poorly written… Lochhead did that on my own.
(Probably after an IPA, a bourbon & a toke)
That said,
Most of the ideas, research, frameworks (and even big chunks of the writing) are as a direct result of (or completely lifted from) my partnership with Eddie Yoon & Katrina Kirsch (akaCategory Pirates 🏴☠️)
Subscribing to Category Pirates 🏴☠️will make you more piratey ☠️
If you're not enjoying this (experimental) newsletter, you’re (safely) in the majority.
Did you know: There is a radical (weird) shortage of accountants.
(It looks like the only way out of this “accounting crisis” is AI)
Please.
Pretty please.
With whiskey on top.
Subscribe here to keep getting Different.
“Hard times create strong men.
Strong men create good times.
Good times create weak men.
And, weak men create hard times.”
The creator of this Different Newsletter:
-can’t find his car
-does not possess a GED
-is friendly with Mary Jane
-was thrown out of school at 18
-has been fired more times than he can count
-possess multiple learning differences superpowers
Tom Waits was right.
Whiskey Myers are legendary live.
The Different shall inherit the earth.
There are a sum total of zero cover bands in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Australian xCop Martial artist punches 7-foot kangaroo that was drowning his dog
Is this newsletter still going?
This getting even more unprofessional than normal.
Wasn’t this supposed to be serious?
McKinsey would never do a newsletter like this.
Neither would Gartner.
Does anyone really read this shit?
No.
Then why are we still reading it?
Exactly, what are we smooth brained morons?
We should not read this newsletter any more.
Ya, that’s right.
Reading this newsletter is 8 minutes we’ll never get back.
Hey!
Who’s “we”.
SHIT.
This fucking newsletter is making me talk to myself again.
How can a newlestter highjack your internal voice?
Ya, how does he do that?
I don’t know?
HEY!
Stop making me talk to myself.
Can a newsletter make you crazy?
Not sure, but if a newsletter can make you crazy, it’s this one.
Hey, thanks for hanging out for the extra (silly) scooby snacks at the end...
….let's hang out again soon
😎🏴☠️🙏
Published by Category Pirates.
Sponsored By Bad Tuna Industries.
Makers of Bad Tuna Cheese™
No good joke survives a committee of 8