Emily's New Four Things
Fashioning a new weekly newsletter of my learnings I want to share
I’m back in email form! Hopefully, more consistently too. My words for this year 2021 are Knowledge, Depth, and Patience. I learned this from my friend Tracy—she uses words to set her intention for the year and to realign herself. I check in with myself and do the same to realign my priorities with my own words.
As inspired by Titan Research’s investments newsletter, I’ll be focusing on 4 things per newsletter that will be weaved with the theme of my learnings and life.
It’ll show up in these 4 ways:
A piece of tech news, life learning, an actionable item, and a new word to learn.
Why? Because the number 4 has been a number of stability in my life. It has been a constant in my life that has offered support and stability. There are 4 people in my family. I had 4 turtles growing up. I lived in various homes with the number 4 and I have always hated being in groups of 3 instead of 4. Quirky, I know. In Chinese, it’s taboo because it sounds like death (死), but because I’m Taiwanese American, I think I get some leeway.
1) Splinternet is a thing. It is a phenomenon and characteristic of the Internet as splintering and dividing due to various factors, such as technology, commerce, politics, nationalism, religion, and divergent national interests. Take for example, India said, “Adios TikTok” and then banned it. Countries are discussing how to create different pieces of legislation to control and regulate social media companies.
2) I learned a lot from the book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. The most important one was to “exercise the power of choice.” You do have a choice to say yes or no. Control your choices, or other people will do it for you. I dabble in so many things, like podcasting, YouTube, writing, pro bono projects, and one off coffee chats with new people. I had to control and get back my time. I began to exercise the power of choice and say “no” more. I now evaluate every situation on…will this get me closer to where I want to be? Time is finite and I’ve been giving it away too easily.
If you’re interested, please read more at my Medium article.
3) Tell someone you appreciate them. For something they did recently, for something they helped you with, or for something they said. The world needs us to be less critical, and more appreciative. Whoever it is that you’re telling, say it without expectations and just thank them sincerely. And then just appreciate the smile on their face.
4) brouhaha (noun) - a noisy and overexcited reaction or response to something
The comedian cracked her last joke and the comedy club erupted in a brouhaha.
Anyways, hope you’re having a lovely week! If you’re interested in my life in Singapore, please consider checking out my YouTube channel (yes, I have one).
Cheers,
Em