The art of living
NOTE: Tola’s note is a journal about some activities I engaged in during the week. Let's dive in!
Code.
This week and last week has been a hell of learning for me. On one end I was keeping up with my 100 devs Tuesday and Thursday classes, on the other, I was attending Dray’s Saturday and Sunday classes. Both classes have assignments and practice exercises like code wars so É choke. This back to back learning reminds me of the days I was preparing for my GCE. I’d attend school during normal hours then rush down to Tutorials for a new round of battering. This is why I’ve been thinking about Altschool.
I get the slack notifications but I have not been active. I just couldn't find time to go through the course materials with my commitments(other stuff aside code) so I concluded that attending those classes would negatively affect me. So I asked myself, why did I apply to Altschool in the first place? It was the promise that if I excelled at the program, I would get a shot at an internship placement then land a job as a software developer.
Well, what if I finish these learning tracks within the next three months(Dray’s classes finish May, 100devs finishes July) I've started, then I would write out a proper branding/marketing plan to market my skills, can I pull it off? I think I can.
Moving on, I don’t have new projects to show except that I worked on the responsiveness of the e-commerce and charity projects. so that you can view them on your phone.
Books.
In my last newsletter, one of my friends complained that I didn't go geeky on stillness is key. I read the newsletter again and I felt it. Stillness is key in the past, but I can do better in future pieces.
I've been reading like a fish these past few days . I finished Art of War by Sun Tzu, the extended version of Psychology of money by Morgan Housel, and right now, I'm on the power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. Now the details.
Art of war.
Art of war is a series of lessons on how welfare/wars were fought around 5bc. We may not be actively fighting medieval wars anymore, but the place of discipline, stratagem (planning), and courage is still needed in our society. One of my favorite points in the book which I'd paraphrase is,
" When facing a stronger opponent, you need to be excellent at defending yourself. In the face of a weaker opponent, and other factors(terrain, Morale, etc )are in your favor, you play offense i.e. you attack" I believe one profession that inherently understands this principle is boxing.
I'm a big boxing and UFC fan, and when you study some of the greatest fighters, they are masters at defending themselves, and only strike when they have a high probability of causing damage. You can watch interviews of people speaking about Mike Tyson and Floyd Mayweather. They are physically small fighters compared to their opponents but they were champions and part of the all time greats. The art of hitting only when the probability is high, can be linked to the term Ryan Holiday described as Wu Wei in Stillness is Key. In this context, Wu Wei can be described as the art of defending yourself and taking a shot when the odds are tilted in your favor.
A fighter in the UFC that beautifully demonstrates a high level of defense is Israel Adesanya. I love Israel Adesanya. I love him so much that he was my wallpaper from 2020-2021, and made my research to know we share two names in common. Israel and Owolabi, and I might as well apply for a change of name to add Adesanya to my name. Now away from the fan love, one thing about Israel Adesanya is how Physically built opponents underestimate him because he is skinny.
Israel Adesanya.
Israel knows he’s disadvantaged in the game of physical strength, but one thing Israel never slacks at is defending himself. The core of Adesanya's fight is his defense. He developed a great strike with his long legs to gain points and keep his distance from his opponents and also developed a great way to avoid grappling(Opponents can hardly put his back to the canvas).
These defense skills eliminate the main advantage big opponents in the same weight class have over him. Israel's skills aren’t as simplistic as this, but these are the main takeaways from watching his fights in the UFC. Today, he's undefeated in the middle-weight division (21-0) and he’s the current champion in that division.
Now, how does all this talk of boxing and Fighting apply to life? If we are in a boxing match with life. And the only way to win is to avoid ruin for as long as we can (you might say life is one big tragedy since we are going to die, but follow me here, I'm assuming you want to live as long as possible). Life throws its punches-
sickness, Sapa (being broke), feeling sad, death of loved ones, and every other thing that can go wrong. How do we defend ourselves against these?
1. Sickness-eat healthy, maintain a healthy lifestyle, exercise.
2.Sapa-acquiring skills that pay the bills, saving, and investing in financial education, curbing overspending.
3. Feeling sad-avoid bad energies, do something you are proud of.
4. Death of loved ones? This is difficult but investing in resources that help us cope with grief(best I can think of right now, it's better than doing nothing).
Now that we've been defending against life's blows, when do we strike? Over-defending ourselves from all the bad things in life would only make us overly anxious about everything that can go wrong, so sometimes we need to strike. I believe we strike by:
1. Chasing our goals with all our heart .
2. Falling deeply in love with someone even when there's a risk of things not going as planned.
3. Finding positives around us despite all that's gloomy, etc.
Oh well, that's a lot up there. Combat sport was the only way I could satisfactorily describe what I learned from Art of War, I hope you enjoyed it.
Psychology of Money.
I'll quickly touch on this book because I believe everyone should read it. One profound concept I got from this book is how much we overestimate luck and underestimate risk.
Risk is always present in everything we do. For example, if there's an 80:20 chance that a project would be successful, there's a chance that everyone around you would try that project and they would be successful but the moment you try, it fails. Does it mean that the 80:20 statistics is wrong because it failed on you?
No it doesn’t, it means you fell into the 20% risk that it would not be successful. How do you win against this risk? You win by trying multiple times so that the 80% chance of success falls in your favor. What the psychology of money teaches is, we must have prepared a reserve to protect us for the period when things are going bad so that we would still be around when the 80% chance of success comes around and be rewarded for all the losses we've incurred in the past.
Linking the Art of War with the Psychology of money.
The underlying principle behind both books is "Defend and prepare till when you have a chance to take a shot". It looks so simple but few of us are capable of following it well. We are either on both extremes. Defending a lot, taking less shots at life and life becomes really ordinary, or we are going wild, throwing our weight around without regard for tomorrow.
Living requires a balance. I seek to achieve this balance in my life. Know when to defend, know when to strike.
Thoughts.
I cut this piece because the piece is already too long. I’m still figuring out the ideal length of this newletter, I’ll share next time.
Todo.
Contribute to an Edutech project.
Finish Nexford projects
Complete 100 devs classes and attempt code wars.
I'm really envious of you 😟😢
I've lost my reading habit so much and it drives me crazy.
Anyways, nice article as always
Wow
Nice analogy