This morning, I opened up my Calm app to attempt to resurrect my meditation habit. I have had an intermittent meditation practice for years, and despite the fact that it really seems to work for me, I have never developed a rock steady daily habit. (From a tools perspective, I find that when I'm in a good routine, I either use nothing and just do breathing, or use a simple app like Insight Timer, but when I've lost the groove I find it helpful to use tools like Calm or Simple Habit to get back into it.)
Anyway, for me, the big benefit of meditation is helping to get perspective on the constant stream of ruminating concerns flowing through my mind -- some of which are useful and necessary, but some of which are not. And the basic practice of focusing on what's happening here and now (breath, sensations, sounds) is incredibly powerful as a way to regain clarity.
Thinking about this this morning made me realize why I enjoy certain activities so much -- activities that have a natural focus to them and basically force you to detach from your running thoughts and focus on the present: listening to music, being at a baseball game, doing carpentry or other house projects, skiing, hiking, coding. Those are the ones that really do it for me, but of course you see it with gardening, drawing, reading, etc etc.
I'd like to think that this kind of focus-building isn't about ignoring the world, but rather about getting your mind to a place where you can actually be more effective in doing the things you need to do to have an impact (whether that's on your career, family, politics, community, etc).
It's funny and a little backwards (though not ironic) that finding ways to focus down and think less can actually help you do more, but I think it can and does.
Several years ago, I started volunteering at Defy Ventures, a program that helps formerly incarcerated individuals start their own businesses.
Through Defy, I met an entrepreneur named Coss Marte, who beginning to build a personal fitness business called Coss Athletics. At first, it consisted of 1:1 and group sessions with Coss in parks, and has grown steadily since then. Now called ConBody, it features both a studio on the Lower East Side and a growing online business. Importantly, ConBody exclusively employs other formerly incarcerated individuals as trainers, and in addition to being a successful and growing business, the team members have a 0% recidivism rate.
(As an aside, I can personally testify that the ConBody workout is legit. I literally threw up halfway through my first class. Though it's debatable whether that says something about the workout or my baseline fitness going in.)
One of my favorite ideas from the last 10 years is "The Slow Hunch" which my friend Steven Johnson popularized in his book Where Good Ideas Come From. Here is a good summary of the book, and the idea of The Slow Hunch is this:
"World-changing ideas generally evolve over time as slow hunches rather than sudden breakthroughs"
Great thinkers and inventors such as Darwin and Tim Berners-Lee used The Slow Hunch to process big ideas over long periods of time. A kernel of an idea takes root, but doesn't mature right away -- but rather, needs to bump around with other ideas and experiences over time until something profound clicks. In some ways, USV is like an ongoing Slow Hunch -- Andy likes to describe USV as "a conversation that's been going on for 15 years".
Back when I first read Where Good Ideas Come From, this idea of The Slow Hunch really stuck with me. It's been there with me for nearly 10 years and I keep coming back to it.
This morning, I opened up my Calm app to attempt to resurrect my meditation habit. I have had an intermittent meditation practice for years, and despite the fact that it really seems to work for me, I have never developed a rock steady daily habit. (From a tools perspective, I find that when I'm in a good routine, I either use nothing and just do breathing, or use a simple app like Insight Timer, but when I've lost the groove I find it helpful to use tools like Calm or Simple Habit to get back into it.)
Anyway, for me, the big benefit of meditation is helping to get perspective on the constant stream of ruminating concerns flowing through my mind -- some of which are useful and necessary, but some of which are not. And the basic practice of focusing on what's happening here and now (breath, sensations, sounds) is incredibly powerful as a way to regain clarity.
Thinking about this this morning made me realize why I enjoy certain activities so much -- activities that have a natural focus to them and basically force you to detach from your running thoughts and focus on the present: listening to music, being at a baseball game, doing carpentry or other house projects, skiing, hiking, coding. Those are the ones that really do it for me, but of course you see it with gardening, drawing, reading, etc etc.
I'd like to think that this kind of focus-building isn't about ignoring the world, but rather about getting your mind to a place where you can actually be more effective in doing the things you need to do to have an impact (whether that's on your career, family, politics, community, etc).
It's funny and a little backwards (though not ironic) that finding ways to focus down and think less can actually help you do more, but I think it can and does.
Several years ago, I started volunteering at Defy Ventures, a program that helps formerly incarcerated individuals start their own businesses.
Through Defy, I met an entrepreneur named Coss Marte, who beginning to build a personal fitness business called Coss Athletics. At first, it consisted of 1:1 and group sessions with Coss in parks, and has grown steadily since then. Now called ConBody, it features both a studio on the Lower East Side and a growing online business. Importantly, ConBody exclusively employs other formerly incarcerated individuals as trainers, and in addition to being a successful and growing business, the team members have a 0% recidivism rate.
(As an aside, I can personally testify that the ConBody workout is legit. I literally threw up halfway through my first class. Though it's debatable whether that says something about the workout or my baseline fitness going in.)
One of my favorite ideas from the last 10 years is "The Slow Hunch" which my friend Steven Johnson popularized in his book Where Good Ideas Come From. Here is a good summary of the book, and the idea of The Slow Hunch is this:
"World-changing ideas generally evolve over time as slow hunches rather than sudden breakthroughs"
Great thinkers and inventors such as Darwin and Tim Berners-Lee used The Slow Hunch to process big ideas over long periods of time. A kernel of an idea takes root, but doesn't mature right away -- but rather, needs to bump around with other ideas and experiences over time until something profound clicks. In some ways, USV is like an ongoing Slow Hunch -- Andy likes to describe USV as "a conversation that's been going on for 15 years".
Back when I first read Where Good Ideas Come From, this idea of The Slow Hunch really stuck with me. It's been there with me for nearly 10 years and I keep coming back to it.
The Slow Hunch by Nick Grossman
Investing @ USV. Student of cities and the internet.
The Slow Hunch by Nick Grossman
Investing @ USV. Student of cities and the internet.
Second Chance Studios
. Second Chance Studios is a nonprofit video and audio production company that exclusively employs formerly incarcerated individuals in New York City. It will also serve as a job training and placement program focused on digital skills in audio and video production.
Second Chance is currently fundraising for its launch on Kickstarter and as of now is about $36k towards its $50k goal. You can back it on Kickstarter here and learn more from the video below. I'm proud to be a backer and am excited to see the project launch.
Today, I'm officially renaming this blog The Slow Hunch.
This blog renaming coincides with a bunch of work we've been doing at USV on this general topic. Albert wrote the potential for and importance of tools for networked knowledge here. And "Access to Knowledge" is a pillar of our Thesis 3.0.
For The Slow Hunch to work, information not only needs to be captured, but also revisited and reprocessed over time. In WGICF, Steven talks about the Commonplace Book as a tool used by Darwin and others for this purpose. Like a notebook and scrapbook kept over time, but with the key feature being re-reading as standard practice to help connect ideas over time.
For the most recent USV book club, we read Steven's newest book, Enemy of All Mankind, and Steven joined us for our group discussion. During that conversation, we revisited the idea of the Slow Hunch, and in particular, how he thinks about the process of building ideas over time. He describes it in terms of turning ideas into "magnets" that can live for a long time, and "catch" other ideas, building up into snowballs over time.
For all the information we consume and produce on a daily basis, we are still lacking simple tools to assemble and package it in ways that produce real knowledge. To give idea fragments the potential to become slow hunches. It's a huge need and also a huge opportunity.
I first wrote about the need for this kind of thing back in 2010 (Wanted: An Open Commonplace Book). What I pointed out then, and what is still true now, is that our current information universe is fragmented (google docs, email, notion, evernote, browsing history, social media, etc), and what's really needed is a tool that can help package this all up in a way that's useful.
Today, tools like RoamResearch and Walling are pioneering connecting old information with new information (a network "graph"). And tools like Memex are indexing your browsing history. (as an aside: all of these require an enormous amount of trust, as networked personal knowledge is both valuable and dangerous)
To me the most promising idea here is user experience and user interface innovations that make it easy, intuitive and fun to link old information to new information, and to revisit it over time in a way that makes sense. Unlocking this at scale will have massive implications not only for personal productivity (and happiness), but for networked knowledge much more broadly (research, news, corporate innovation).
With that, hitting publish on the next chapter of The Slow Hunch here on this blog.
Second Chance Studios
. Second Chance Studios is a nonprofit video and audio production company that exclusively employs formerly incarcerated individuals in New York City. It will also serve as a job training and placement program focused on digital skills in audio and video production.
Second Chance is currently fundraising for its launch on Kickstarter and as of now is about $36k towards its $50k goal. You can back it on Kickstarter here and learn more from the video below. I'm proud to be a backer and am excited to see the project launch.
Today, I'm officially renaming this blog The Slow Hunch.
This blog renaming coincides with a bunch of work we've been doing at USV on this general topic. Albert wrote the potential for and importance of tools for networked knowledge here. And "Access to Knowledge" is a pillar of our Thesis 3.0.
For The Slow Hunch to work, information not only needs to be captured, but also revisited and reprocessed over time. In WGICF, Steven talks about the Commonplace Book as a tool used by Darwin and others for this purpose. Like a notebook and scrapbook kept over time, but with the key feature being re-reading as standard practice to help connect ideas over time.
For the most recent USV book club, we read Steven's newest book, Enemy of All Mankind, and Steven joined us for our group discussion. During that conversation, we revisited the idea of the Slow Hunch, and in particular, how he thinks about the process of building ideas over time. He describes it in terms of turning ideas into "magnets" that can live for a long time, and "catch" other ideas, building up into snowballs over time.
For all the information we consume and produce on a daily basis, we are still lacking simple tools to assemble and package it in ways that produce real knowledge. To give idea fragments the potential to become slow hunches. It's a huge need and also a huge opportunity.
I first wrote about the need for this kind of thing back in 2010 (Wanted: An Open Commonplace Book). What I pointed out then, and what is still true now, is that our current information universe is fragmented (google docs, email, notion, evernote, browsing history, social media, etc), and what's really needed is a tool that can help package this all up in a way that's useful.
Today, tools like RoamResearch and Walling are pioneering connecting old information with new information (a network "graph"). And tools like Memex are indexing your browsing history. (as an aside: all of these require an enormous amount of trust, as networked personal knowledge is both valuable and dangerous)
To me the most promising idea here is user experience and user interface innovations that make it easy, intuitive and fun to link old information to new information, and to revisit it over time in a way that makes sense. Unlocking this at scale will have massive implications not only for personal productivity (and happiness), but for networked knowledge much more broadly (research, news, corporate innovation).
With that, hitting publish on the next chapter of The Slow Hunch here on this blog.
