Hi,

Welcome to the Procrastilearning Newsletter, where your time is well spent even though you should probably be doing something else.

3 things worth procrastilearning over

1. Geniuses are made, not born

We sometimes like to think that genetics is what gives us the smarts. But a famous experiment by two parents on their three daughters seems to prove otherwise.

Having decided that anybody could become a genius, László and Klara Polgár trained all three of their daughters to become chess grandmasters. The girls also spoke 4 languages before they were 10. The story is fascinating, since it also took place in a communist-controlled patriarchal Hungary which threw the family plenty of hurdles to cross on their journey to chess stardom.

There’s a National Geographic documentary on YouTube that tells their story if you’re curious.

2. Whole villages just make social media clips now

Seeing as you can theoretically monetise a social media presence with enough hard work, why not get everybody you know involved? Especially if the pay is good. That's the basic idea that has fuelled random little villages in the middle of nowhere making Internet content. There's a good article about it on the BBC.

Are these people making a "better life" for themselves? I'm sure it beats abject poverty, so yes.

Also, here's a video demonstrating how many phones you need if you're going to sell clothes live over the Internet in China - you do want to be on every platform, right? Yep, life is getting weirder all the time.

3. People now go on retreats just to get away from technology

It used to be that people who wanted a break from society became monks or nuns. Later, in the 20th century, Vipassana 10-day silent meditation retreats became popular (mostly because they were and still are free). But maybe that's too spiritual-seeming for some, maybe a bit difficult?

Instead, now people fork out thousands to just be in a place where you're not allowed to use your phone. These so-called digital detoxes can be found all over the world (a bit like Vipassana) and are the hip new way to travel for rich people with phone addictions. Here are some examples:

• Silent Break (Portugal)

• Unplugged Rest (UK)

• DigitalDetox.com (USA)

• Eden (Australia)

Just make sure you don't actually travel to an influencer village by mistake...

2 quotes to keep in mind

1 simple tip to prepare for the future of work

Learn to ask better questions.

So it seems many familiar jobs are going to go the way of the dodo (although the World Economic Forum is trying to be positive about it). If you need to do something work-related, AI will start magicking it up for you - right now, they just do it on your computer, but the robots are on their way too. So what do you do about it? Especially if you don’t think you’re going to suddenly pivot into the tech industry.

Since the future is unclear, the most important thing is to learn how to be clearer on questions that need asking. What should these tools be doing? What problems should they be solving?

The better you are at asking, the clearer you are on what needs doing, the clearer you are on what you want, the better you will be able to take advantage of the next few decades of outlandish change.

So follow your curiosity, learn a little about a lot, and watch AI fill in the gaps 🧘‍♂️

That's all for today. Many thanks for reading. Here’s a photo of an orangutan trying on sunglasses.

Adam

Adam Zulawski
Procrastilearning on Beehiiv / More stuff

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