Hi nerds -

I salute you from Panama City, although you may have seen my avatar hanging out around the Metaverse this week enjoying virtual Burning Man.​

Even if you don’t have a VR headset like I do, you can still hop on Burning Man’s infinite playa and join the festival’s happy hours, creative writing groups, or fly through Burning Man’s previous festivals.

The experience is a mind-blowing representation of what I predict a lot of festivals will look like in the future.

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3 brain farts

⚡️ Problems vs Opportunities: Words matter because they frame how we think and therefore how we act.

A life hack I’ve been implementing lately is replacing the word “problem” with “opportunity”.

• A “problem” is innately a complaint. It’s something that is dreadful, annoying, or inescapably frustrating.
• An “opportunity” is innately hope. It suggests there’s space for action and a chance to build a better world.

Replacing “problem” with “opportunity” changes the entire conversation because it opens the doors for ambition. And ambition leads to world-changing action.

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👖 On not being naked: Fast fashion is a hard problem to solve because we all need clothes.

This week, my rockstar sister organized a Closet Swap among friends and outlined some highlights:

• Industry’s size: 1 in 6 people in the world work in a fashion-related job.
• Employee’s lifestyle: 93% of brands aren’t paying their workers a living wage.
• Gender: 80% of workers are female.
• Climate change:
  • The industry is responsible for ~8-10% ​of global greenhouse gas emissions.​
  • ​1/3 of all ocean’s micro-plastics come from clothes. These often end up inside fish or within the salt we eat.
  • ​1 out of 5 fast fashion garments end up in a landfill within a year of purchase.
  • It takes over 1800 gallons of water to produce a pair of jeans.

Buying a $5.99 t-shirt seems like a bargain, until you realize what that means for people’s lives and the future of the planet.

What can we do? Buy better quality so items last longer. Check out materials so we know they’re eco-friendly. Buy from thrift shops and sell/donate your old clothes to second-hand stores. Don’t succumb to trends often, so you don’t dispose of clothes as much.

I know. Easier said than done. But unless we’re willing to go full naked, the best we can do is try.

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🦄 Extrinsic < Intrinsic Motivators: Project-based learning is a great way to move students from extrinsic motivators to intrinsic ones.​

• Extrinsic motivators, like giving out candy whenever students get good grades, are easy to use, but only keep students engaged in the short-term.
• Intrinsic motivators, like embedding a love for learning, work better in the longer-term to ensure students’ success, but are significantly harder to implement.

Project-based learning is great to build intrinsic motivators because it pushes students to have skin in the game. Vested in the project they’re building, students start questioning strategies, playing with ideas, and coming up with interesting solutions to often complex situations.

They’re more likely to feel proud about their creations because they’re risking something - be it reputation, money, grades, or their own time and energy. Combined with community, engaging with peers accelerates learning and builds a sense of belonging that only further reinforces the intrinsic motivator.

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2 intellectual goodies

"Most problems you have with others are actually problems you have with yourself."

~ Orange Book​

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"You’re not running out of time, you’re running out of energy working on the wrong stuff."

~ Sahil Lavingia​

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1 funky audio

There was a time in my life where I only listened to sets on SoundCloud. When I listened to this set a few days ago, I remembered why.

There’s no place for nu-disco like SoundCloud.

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Thanks for reading.

As always, feel free to connect by hitting reply and sharing a juicy thought 💡.

We all help the curious community grow 🧠.

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Best,

Jules 🤸🏻‍♂️