Everyone's a different chemistry set

#88 - Scotland and London stole my Sundays

Hi there,

It hit me today that we’re 2/3rds into 2023. I’d say Round 1 was pretty good, Round 2 has seemed very busy and like I’ve been running in many directions. Round 3 is an important and significant one with most of my university application journey - here’s to making it go well.

For which Step 1 will be consistency and dedication… I know, I’ve fallen into an idea I’ve written about of a negative spiral, missing 3 weeks and then feeling that I might as well wait for another. In my defence, I’ve not been at my desk for the past 3 Sunday evenings. However, although I wasn’t in the best of moods when I sat down just now, I’m going to power through, believing that we’ll end up with something I’m proud of and hoping you’ll join me till we get to the gold.

Highlight of the week: of the past 3 weeks, going to a beach after 4 years, immersing myself in the water (there is something very liberating about taking your top off) and enjoying a ‘homemade’ icecream (2 scoops 😋).

---

For my Sixth Form, I had the choice to move to a nearby independent school. Despite being grateful for getting a place, we declined for many reasons. Looking back, one of the reasons I’m glad I stayed where I was is the diversity of the people at my grammar school.

Being a state school, it naturally invites people of all backgrounds, not precluded by many factors, and actively aims to admit from a wide range of socioeconomic situations. The Sixth Form is heightened in differences with the introduction of girls and also admitting students from local comprehensive schools. Compared to the generally wealthy and perhaps one-dimensional nature of those at a private school, the people I rub shoulders with every day have a whole host of experiences, beliefs and perspectives on the world.

And why is this important? It’s a good question. I’ve tried to work out a few reasons:

1. It enriches your view of the world and the way you think - through seeing people approach the same challenges you deal with in different ways, through how their mind has been shaped by their life, you’re exposed to different modes of thinking. Interacting with people with a broad range of interests also means that you learn little bits on all sorts of topics, ideas, concepts, ideologies and systems and in the process, rewiring your brain (what the neuroscientists might call neuroplasticity)

   A great example may be political sway. People tend to fall into a tribal mindset, succumbing to confirmation bias by agreeing with people who share their beliefs and start behaving dismissively to ‘the other lot'¹ This is exacerbated by social media algorithms that bunch you together with people who’s content you ‘like’, which ends up being beliefs you agree with: a perpetual cycle.

2. It can improve your horizon setting - I’ve been humbled by seeing the more difficult scenarios some of my peers are in whilst also amazed at others’ lifestyles and gifts in life. You can harness lessons from both of these, feeling gratitude and setting aspirations.

3. You can help you find a better approach to a/your situation - by sharing your thoughts, feelings, reasons and perspective with someone with a different mindset to you, you’re inviting a different point of view that may actually be ‘better’, where we’re defining ‘better’ as more productive and allowing you to make more progress or be more content.

You can think of this as interacting with people at different wavelengths in a certain set of parameters - drive/ambition, risk-averseness, intuition vs logic etc. I find that learning to modulate your wavelength to match someone else's is a great skill to have, allowing you to connect deeper with a varied set of people and empathise them, on their level - in neither a derogatory nor a lofty way. It also helps you to get out of your head a little bit. Naturally, you will end up ‘gelling’ (links to people having ‘chemistry’ with one another') more with people who are on the same frequency range but we should be proactive in jumping between the different ‘channels’.

On an episode of the Tim Ferriss Show I recently listened to, Michael Maubossin listed 3 different types of diversity that are important, as described by Scott E Page in his book ‘The Difference’.

1. Social category diversity - people who look different; easy to quantify

2. Cognitive diversity - based on the “toolbox” of perspectives, heuristics (our instincts), interpretations and predictive models that we all use.

3. Values diversity - what their purpose is and values someone has

This is why diversity in government, boards and other decision-making panels is so important - it ensures as many perspectives are displayed and considered. This cognitive diversity is the one I think I value the most, because it’s perhaps the most unique and also the one that can have the greatest impact in terms of changing your glasses on a process or outcome.

As a point to perhaps round off, whilst the student officer team I lead at school is close to 40 people large, I’m glad that I have all kinds of people on my team because they bring with them varying skillsets but also ideas, perspectives and visions.

Companies think about their diversity and inclusion but maybe you should diversify your interactions as well. Think about who you spend the most time with and how similar/different they are.

---

There we go, a post at last. Thank you to those who said they’ve been missing my writing, I appreciate the encouragement 😊

Book of the week 📖

After finishing The Obstacle Is The Way, I raced through (as I usually do with fiction) The Appeal by Janice Hallett; a great murder mystery, the story seems to be injected with new spice just as you think you’re close to solving the puzzle.

Podcast of the week🎙️

WIRED Gadget Lab: I Love You, I Hate You, Don’t Call Me

Despite being a rerun, I really enjoyed listening to it again. May not be your cup of tea(or match your wavelength 😉) but have a listen.

Article of the week📰

If You Try To Do Everything, You Won’t Do Anything

This article made me reflect on my own strategy as school captain; how can you apply it in your life?

Quote of the week💬

The beautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take it away from you. - BB King

Thanks for coming back and staying till the end. I’ll see you on Sunday #publicaccountability

Adi

1. This is hugely prevalent in America with Republicans vs Democrats