Week 3: Toronto, WW2, Pathless Path, and Running

Welcome to Week 3 of my weekly newsletter, where I share interesting ideas I’ve come across for the week. This is different than my Substack blog, which will primarily serve long-form essays, infrequently posted.

Personal Updates

No new podcast episode this week (a lot coming in August though 👀), but I’ve spent the past few days in Toronto, Canada. So many reflections, so many thoughts.

I’ll most likely write an essay detailing it all, but here’s a picture of one of my favorite spots in the city:

Despite having initial impressions of Toronto being another “basic” American city, it certainly blew me away, especially toward the end of the 4 days.

The greenery + parks dotted throughout the city was something I would’ve never expected. A very different vibe to Vancouver, but almost as equally as charming (though Vancouver is still > Toronto imo).

I’m also currently at the peak of marathon training, with a few weeks left to go. Ran 20 miles straight last week and felt like an absolute machine.

Learnings

1: How World War 2 Began

If you want to know more about politics, YouTuber Ryan Chapman is your go-to guy. He spent 10 months making this 2 hour video about WWII, directly citing some of the great books on this topic.

I literally spent 3-4 hours watching it through, taking copious notes, and no high school or college class comes close to the amount of stuff I learned from one sitting. Here are some of my learnings:

• Post WWI, Woodrow Wilson wanted to create a world where powers - great or small - would be protected from foreign aggression. Security for all = international collaboration.

• Yet The Paris Peace Conference was a peace of victors > peace of equals. The defeated Central powers weren't invited to the conference.

• Germans believed their potential as nation wasn't reflective of their power and status.

• Wilson's new world order = required trust amongst countries. That trust wasn't extended to Germany → needed to be disarmed.

• Wilson constructed the League of Nations, yet the U.S never took part of it due to bipartisan domestic politics back home.

• The era following the Paris Peace Conference was an era of a hollowing middle and a spread of extremism on both sides: extreme left communism & extreme right fascism.

• Much of fascist politics derive from an extreme form nationalism. Whatever the fascist believed was best for their country, they simply do. Sums up Italy fascism during Mussolini’s reign.

• Hitler rose to power initially to overthrow the curses of The Treaty of Versailles, to show the world the might of Germany.

• The Great Depression was the catalyst for the extreme rise in Nazism, as the Germans saw their old Weimmar government incapable of handling economic destabilization.

• The League of Nations ultimately died because actions by the Axis powers disproved the strength of collectivism (e.g: Italy taking over Ethoipia, Japan taking over Manchuria, Germany moving into Rhineland, etc.)

One of my favorite things about studying history is the interweaving of events that trigger seemingly unrelated events.

For example, one of the biggest reasons China opted for communism was because of its disillusionment with Western values after an unfair distribution of war winnings from the Paris Peace Conference.

2: The Pathless Path

One of my favorite books of all time. This past week, I did a reread and took sight of insights I missed out on the first time. Beware: this book will completely reverse your life by 180.º

• “The problem is that our culture has engaged in a Faustian bargain, in which we trade our genius and artistry for apparent stability.” – Seth Godin.

• The trap of prestigious career paths = instead of thinking about what you want to do with your life, you default to the options most admired by your peers.

• Life's existential fears are traded for certainty.

• Many people around the world might be waiting for what you have to share. Many see courage in creation + sharing.

• Each of us carries an artist inside for whom it is imperative that we find the work we want to keep doing.

• If the culture doesn't work, don't buy it. Create your own.

• "It is better for reputation to fail conventionally than to succeed unconventionally.” - John Maynard Keynes

The major premise of the book isn’t specifically to tell you to quit your job or denounce everything in life.

It’s about taking an honest, deep approach of your own life and breaking down the hidden scripts that have been running your life.

3: Founders #357 Haruki Murakami

While I was doing my 20-mile run, I discovered this absolute banger of a podcast episode by Founders (highly recommend checking it out, one of the GOAT podcasts out there).

Didn’t take notes cause I was running haha, but here’s what I recalled from it:

• Murakami fell in love with running because that was who he was. Stop doing things that isn’t you.

• Stop advising people to start running. Either you run or you don’t. There’s no in between.

• Murakami oriented his life around 2 things: writing + running. Every other work was secondary.

• Everyday, Murakami would run a 10k. A non-negotiable habit that laid the foundation for his life.

This podcast episode was taken from his book, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. Highly recommend reading it, especially for people who love obsession (and running).

Conclusion

Changing it up and leaving you with a mantra/aphorism/quote to wrap up each weekly update. Here’s this week’s:

Stay #,

Jeston