The Wonder of Other Humans

Capturing wonder and amazement admiring the work of other humans doing incredible things.

Growing up I was never a beam of confidence, neither would I consider myself as naturally intelligent, but those who know me in person, may assume that I am at least confident. The latter is perhaps something I also still question, as what defines intelligence anyways?

One trait I do know of myself though, is if I really want something—and I mean really really want something. I’ll do what I can to earn my place with where I want to go and will work hard to get myself to where I want to be, but I have to really want it. Otherwise, I admittedly tend to get distracted—mostly by fear, overthinking, and other priorities or passions.

Reading as a habit is one of them.

I became an avid reader in my early to mid twenties. I started at 0 books a year, to now reading four to five books at a time. I read a few things here and there as a child, did the deed of completing what was assigned in school, and especially through my philosophy degree, but beyond that I was never much of a book worm.

I, admittedly, used to spend many hours hooked on American reality TV, cooking shows, and celebrity gossip. Nearly a decade into my mission of reading more—nourishing content— I now find it difficult to aimlessly sit through a day of TV, neither do I spend those immobile hours watching any of the types of shows I used to watch or pay attention to celebrities I do not know. These days I am much more intentional about how I spend my precious minutes.

I had a pivotal yet brief friendship with a girl named Natalie, in my early 20s, (no bad blood, we lost touch when she moved away to another country), who had recommended the book: “The Emotional Life of Your Brain: How It’s Unique Patterns Affect The Way You Think, Feel, and Live—and How You Can Change Them”, by Richard J. Davidson and Sharon Begely, which opened the flood gates of unleashing a curiosity in me I didn’t know I had.

To this day, this ferocious fascination has yet to be satisfied.

It’s as if I am making up for lost time, but the more I learn—of the science, theories, and knowledge, that human ingenuity has uncovered— the more my attention is fixated on devouring more. They say there’s a dopamine reward to learning new information, I am definitely experiencing that first hand.

To tell you that I am mesmerized each time I read a book, find information on the latest discoveries in science or technology, listen to the insights of thought leaders, is an understatement. Even flipping through the latest edition of WIRED magazine, has my mind in awe at the ingenuity of human intelligence.

This is why I write this newsletter, to capture the wonder and amazement of admiring the work of humans doing incredible things.

With that I leave you with some of this year’s favorites:

Also of course my daily series in October, Breaking the Scroll: 91 Days Off Social Media & Rediscovering Life IRL, which was a fun experiment—and I am still off Instagram until the New Year.

Above is a highlight reel of some of my favorites from the year. It’s also been fun to see how my writing has evolved over the year.

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I am off until 2025, have a lovely year’s end, until we’ll soon meet again.

Thank you for spending some of your day with me!