3 Things To Ponder
Saving ancient seeds, meaning of words, margin of safety --Karen
Philosopher and writer Friedrich Nietzsche on enjoying the process:
"The end of a melody is not its goal."
Untranslatable words
I like reading through these untranslatable words that capture a thought or emotion that fits so perfectly with life’s experiences but where there is nothing close to it in the English language.
Jaysus – Indonesian
An unfunny joke that’s told so badly that you actually laugh.
Tartle – Scottish
The hesitation before introducing someone when you’ve forgotten their name.
Prozvonit – Czech
Ringing somebody’s phone once so that they call you back.
Mokita – Kivila
A painful fact that everybody knows but does not mention to avoid causing more pain or embarrassment.
Verschlimmbessern – German
Accidentally making things worse when trying to mend or improve it.
Tsundoku – Japanese
Buying a book and leaving it unread, usually surrounded by a lot of other unread books.
Possible heuristic for deciding what to do this year: what do you wish you’d done last year?
- Paul Graham
Mental Models are a way of thinking about the world. You can apply different mental models to different problems. They are used a lot in decision making. Margin of Safety is about those areas of life where you want redundancy because they are critical. If you are going out of town and leaving your kids or pets behind, you will probably have several ways for your kids/pets to get help in case of an emergency, For example, you may provide your own phone number but also the phone number of the doctor, maybe leaving a credit card for emergencies. Letting friends or family know they may be needed.
In business it can be a database system that holds critical information. You will have backup systems in place, you will perform regular backups. You may have duplicate systems in different places to lessen risk.
V3 | Systems | Margin of Safety
Margin of safety is a secret weapon. It’s the buffer, the extra capacity, the redundancy that you build into a system to handle unexpected stress. It’s the difference between a bridge that can barely handle the expected load, and one that can hold ten times that load without breaking a sweat.
You can apply a margin of safety to any area of life with risk. The key is always asking yourself: What if I’m wrong? What if things don’t go as planned?
But here's the rub: margin of safety isn't free. It means spending more upfront. In the short term, you'll look overly cautious and leave immediate profits on the table. But in the long run, this apparent over caution lets you survive when others break - and thrive when others merely survive.
Margin of safety is the unsung hero of long-term success. It’s not flashy. It’s not exciting, but it’s the foundation on which everything else is built. Master it, and you’ll be well on your way to navigating the uncertainties of life with confidence and stability.
— Source: The Great Mental Models v3: Systems and Mathematics
The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it.
- John Ruskin
Seed Broadcast
Seed Broadcast is about saving seeds, growing food, farming for food pantries, encouraging and organizing community gardens, maintaining water and soil health, four season gardening, protecting biodiversity and sharing a wealth of seedy know-how, while ensuring food and well being for everyone in our communities.
Goodbye President Carter. Have a good weekend.
