⏱️ You don't want comfort

I. Last week I had the stomach bug. It was the worst stomach bug I’ve had in my entire life.

I was in bed from Tuesday night until Thursday morning (with frequent trips to the bathroom).

But lying in bed that long made it really hard to sleep because it caused my back to hurt. There was no position I could lie in that wasn’t uncomfortable.

Having a nice bed to sleep in is a good thing. But if you spend too much time in it, it becomes a bad thing.

Ships that stay in port and airplanes that never fly deteriorate much faster than ones that are actually put to use.

We are designed for movement, work, and to pursue hard things.

This is why married people with children are the happiest people (on average), despite the world saying personal freedom and doing what you want with no constraints is the highest ideal. It is good to have things in our lives that take work.

Pursuing a life of endless comfort will eventually make you uncomfortable.

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II. Living life with fewer regrets means having the courage in the moment to do what you wish you had done after the fact.

It’s easy to say, “I would have done X if I could do it all over again,” because you can’t actually go back and do it. It’s easy to be courageous about what you should have done after the fact.

However, the next best option is to do the courageous thing today. That’s how you know you’ve grown.

I. Jeanette Winterson on doing big things:

“I have noticed that doing the sensible thing is only a good idea when the decision is quite small. For the life-changing things, you must risk it.”

II. Thomas Szasz on what it takes to learn:

“Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one's self-esteem. That is why young children, before they are aware of their own self-importance, learn so easily; and why older persons, especially if vain or important, cannot learn at all.”

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

A story about the World’s Columbian Exposition, a huge fair which took place in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s voyage and the “discovery” of America.

The book primarily focuses on the immense effort required to construct the fair (which lasted six months in 1893) and the fair itself. It follows Daniel Burnham (the lead architect and director of works for the exposition) and H. H. Holmes (a pseudonym Herman Webster Mudgett gave for himself), who became a prolific murderer during the fair.

The book is 390 pages long before the author’s notes and bibliography. However, with a smaller-than-usual font compared to most modern books, it reads longer than the page count suggests.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and am always fascinated by the ability of historical writers to piece together events from so long ago. At times, the book veers into details that don’t feel entirely relevant to the main narrative, but it mostly stays on track.

The final 100 pages were the best part, where many books begin to lose momentum; this one became even more engaging. While it occasionally wanders, it's ultimately an interesting and rewarding read if you stick with it.

8/10

P.S. It’s coming back at some point…