3 MINUTE MONDAY Hi friend, I’ve been thinking about the shame of simple pleasures. “I have not yet grown wise enough to deeply enjoy simple things.” — Visakan Veerasamy We are all terrible accountants of our own joy. Most of us only accept deposits when the transaction is sufficiently large: the day we get married, the night we play the main stage at Glastonbury, the moment the business sells for $100 million. Anything less, and the entry doesn’t even make the ledger. We treat small pleasures...
13 days ago • 4 min read
3 MINUTE MONDAY Hi friend, My North America live tour is getting close to selling out - LA, Vancouver, Toronto and Nashville are all gone. New York City, Austin, Boston, Denver, Salt Lake City & Chicago - limited tickets left. Come and see me live. I’ve been reflecting on a lot of Morgan Housel’s work ahead of recording with him later this year. I came across a list of difficult questions to ask yourself from him. Using these as journal prompts is one hell of a way to humble yourself… Which...
20 days ago • 3 min read
3 MINUTE MONDAY Hi friend, There are few feelings worse in this life than being right but early. You correctly predict a future catastrophe, trend, opportunity for growth or important area of focus, only to be castigated for how short-sighted, xenophobic, judgemental, out of touch, Left Wing, Right Wing or alarmist you are. The Cassandra Complex is when someone accurately predicts a negative future event or truth, but no one believes them, and they’re often dismissed, ignored, or even...
27 days ago • 5 min read
3 MINUTE MONDAY Hi friend, Get my brand new Vol. 2 Reading List with 100 more books to read before you die for free. Download Reading List Vol. 2 now. Is pop culture teaching women to choose emotionally unavailable men? Maybe. “What's the weirdest propaganda you feel like movies have tried to push on you in your lifetime? For me, I grew up with tons and tons of movies that kept saying that the worst thing a man could be is a grownup. You'd see a lot of love triangle romances where the guy...
about 1 month ago • 8 min read
3 MINUTE MONDAY Hi friend, See me live this year in NYC, Boston, Denver, Austin, Salt Lake City & Chicago. I’ve had a lot of conversations about masculinity on Modern Wisdom. Publicly trying to work out why men are struggling is largely a thankless task. This is The Zero-Sum View Of Empathy. There is an assumption that any attention paid toward men takes it away from women, or some other minority group who is more-deserving. After all, haven’t men had it good for long enough? Maybe they...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
3 MINUTE MONDAY Hi friend, In case you missed it - I released a Vol. 2 of my Reading List with 100 more books to read before you die. Download it for free now. When I first started Modern Wisdom I was obsessed with why life felt like it was going so quickly and how to slow it down. Time to revisit the topic. Why do some days feel like years and some years feel like days? As we get older, life feels like it's moving faster and faster. We look back on a year and can't really remember where it...
about 2 months ago • 6 min read
3 MINUTE MONDAY Hi friend, Come see me live in NYC, Boston, Denver, Austin, Salt Lake City & Chicago - https://chriswilliamson.live Here are some rules about overthinking: You can’t think your way out of a feeling problem. Overthinking is underfeeling. Trying to think your way into feeling emotions is like trying to drink your way sober. Trying to think your way out of overthinking is like trying to sniff your way out of a cocaine addiction. “Overthinking invents more problems than it...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
3 MINUTE MONDAY Hi friend, The Modern Wisdom Reading List Vol. 2. It’s happening. I finally finished it. This one took me so much time to put together, I really hope you like it. Goes live to the public this Wednesday 2nd July. You guys will get access before anyone else though, just check your email inbox this Tuesday 💜 Anyway, here’s 6 rules about productivity: 1. Your life does not need to be easier. It needs to be simpler. Your system is designed to handle stress and challenge but not...
2 months ago • 2 min read
3 MINUTE MONDAY Hi friend, Brand new Neutonic Focus Blend flavour just dropped. Limited Edition Watermelon Mint stick packs. Get them before they're sold out. Anyway, onto what I’ve been thinking about this week… “It is a supremely cruel thing to have your mind conjure a desire which it is functionally unable to realise.” — Max Barry This describes a special category of problem that I think about quite often. Person A has the talent to become successful but doesn’t have the resilience to...
2 months ago • 4 min read