5x1: better chats, a charming game, and how to do without doing

Hey there. Welcome to 5x1 – 5 quick things to improve your day.

A quote about what we get wrong about starting convos

It’s the festive season and that means chats. Chats with family, convos with friends, banter with randoms. That can be exhausting. More than that, it can feel impossible.

In his book How To Know a Person, David Brooks argued that part of our difficulty with starting conversation comes from our totally underestimating how keen people are to talk:

We don’t start conversations because we’re bad at predicting how much we’ll enjoy them. We underestimate how much others want to talk; we underestimate how much we will learn; we underestimate how quickly other people will want to go deep and get personal. If you give people a little nudge, they will share their life stories with enthusiasm.

Keep that in mind when you’re staring down the barrel of yet another meal with people you barely know. Just throw a question out there – people will pick it up.

A quiet video of an oil painter quickly making three gorgeous landscapes

Sometimes, it’s just nice to watch someone who’s extremely talented quickly – and without fuss – make something. Stuart Davies is an artist who does exactly that in this video.

A board game that’ll make you mad at quilts

Patchwork is a simple, delightful board game for 2 players. You each get a small quilt board and take turns picking pieces to fill your board.

It’s quick to learn, the theme is delightful, and it gets satisfyingly competitive. There’s just enough complexity to hold your attention and get the ol’ noggin turning.

A poem about achieving without effort

If you’re ever unsure how to get something done, take some inspo from this poem – Consider Beginnings – and try to “do without doing”.

Consider Beginnings

Do without doing.
Act without action.
Savour the flavourless.
Treat the small as large,
the few as many.

Meet injury
with the power of goodness.

Study the hard while it’s easy.
Do big things while they’re small.
The hardest jobs in the world start out easy,
the great affairs of the world start small.

So the wise soul,
by never dealing with great things,
gets great things done.

Now, since taking things too lightly makes them worthless,
and taking things too easy makes them hard,
the wise soul,
by treating the easy as hard,
doesn’t find anything hard.

This poem is number 63 in the Tao Te Ching – the central text of Taoism (a philosophical and religious tradition from China). It was translated by the author Ursula K. Le Guin.

A podcast episode that’ll help make Buddhism feel practical

Vinny Ferraro found Buddhism after years of addiction, violence and incarceration. Now, he leads workshops in schools, detention centres, and prisons.

Basically, he uses Buddhist teachings to help people get their shit together. He talked about how in an interview on the 10% Happier podcast. Well worth a listen.

(He also has an all-time great accent, in this Australian’s opinion.)

You can also watch the interview on YouTube.

Seen anything cool? Hit reply and send it over.

Coming up: an essay about getting your mind right first thing in the morning.

🌊
cz xxo