Sam Floy Newsletter (March 2021)

samfloy~6 March 2021 /Newsletter/Personal

I feel that the past few weeks have revealed my inner caveman. The simple fact that it’s darker later and (somewhat) warmer has lifted my mood immeasurably, opening the possibility of an evening walk(!!) as a post-work-non-sofa activity.

Lockdown restrictions have somewhat eased, though are limited to going shopping and doing “outdoor culture”. Zoos are back, but not yet restaurants/ museums etc.

The news channels in Denmark are awash with a trip the Danish PM took to Israel to form a vaccine development plan with Benjamin Netanyahu and the Austrian PM (she’s receiving some heat for it).

Quiz question: can you rank the three countries by population?

Answer below. Before then, this month’s newsletter…


πŸ€” Thinking

Things I’ve been thinking about last month

“Therapy”
This month my girlfriend and I did some couples therapy sessions with a therapist.

There’s nothing particularly wrong with our relationship, but we thought it would be good idea to “fix the roof whilst the sun is still shining” (or at least check for leaks). Now seemed as good a time as any.

One thing we struggled with was what to call it. We were technically seeing a therapist, but it was less about resolving a specific ailment, and more the opportunity to speak to an expert about any little things we need to address before they compound into big things.

Anyway, the concept of seeing a therapist seems to receiving less stigma than in previous times where one (I hear) kept quiet about seeing a shrink. I wonder if, as the function of speaking to a professional about your mental/ relationship wellbeing expands (side note: it’s big in Argentina) a new word will be necessary…

If you’re interested, it was dead simple to organise. We basically looked through this database, reached out to the ones we liked and did a few Zoom calls.

Giving up on books
Less in a general sense and more specifically deciding to stop reading a book.

As a general stance, I’m very much in favour of giving on books that don’t seem interesting/ exciting any more. I appreciate this is an unsolicited soapbox moment, but I feel like the idea of perseverance being a virtue is something people (myself included) hold on to for too long and overshadows other qualities (e.g. changing ones mind when the facts change).

It seems like when you’re a child perseverance a good lesson to learn to e.g. to see the fruits of seeing something through to completion. But so often as adults people seem to hold on this idea of struggling through something rubbish is somehow virtuous.

Personally, I find books/ concepts like “Grit” pretty frustrating and they seem to be glamourising the notion that people should stick at doing lots of shitty things because working through the struggles “is what successful people do”.

It might be true, but a lot of struggles (like keeping to a commitment to read a mediocre book) seem pretty pointless, to me at least, in the grand scheme of things when you could be doing something much more enjoyable.

There are so many gripping books out there, so (if it’s a pleasure activity) why not just move on to the next if it’s not taking your fancy..?

One strategy of this is to read the first 100 pages (or 100 pages minus your age) before deciding whether to read the rest of the book. 

Maybe I’m overthinking all of this… I’d be interested to hear any thoughts!

🎧 Listening

A selection of podcasts etc. I’ve enjoyed recently. You can subscribe to my podcast recommendations here.

πŸ“– Reading

πŸ“Ό Watching

πŸ™ƒ For fun