Hello and welcome to today’s newsletter. Every once in a while I have no idea what to write in this section of the newsletter, so I usually just end up telling you that I don’t know what to write here. Today is one of those days.
The song that’s on my mind this week is Ugoccie and Phyno’s Breakfast. Because… well I’m Igbo and I’m trying to actively consume more Igbo media + I like Phyno a lot + Ugoccie’s voice has an interesting quality to it that I can’t quite put into words right now. Thank you Spotify algorithm, it’s been a while since I actually got a recommendation I’d go on to love.
Alright, here is what I want to share with you this week.
Two Henrik Essays In One Week?
Since I discovered Henrik Karlsson I’ve been struggling to put him neatly in a category. Henrik is a writer, but what kind of writer? He writes essays, yes. But essays about what? Friendships? Life in general? Mental models?
I don’t know, honestly. What I do know is that Henrik is a thoughtful guy, and every time he writes something new, I’m happy to engage and find out more about the weird and wonderful mind of Henrik. This week I got to read two Henrik essays, both fantastic.
The first one is about putting people in mental categories that make it difficult for our relationship with those people to evolve. Have you ever heard someone say that for the longest time they considered the person they eventually married as just a friend? And then one day something happened and they were forced to consider that person in a different light, and things changed. That kind of status transformation is what this essay is about — somewhat. Read it here.
The second essay is about relaxing constraints. Constraints are great, I find them very helpful, I once wrote an essay praising constraints. However, Henrik notes in this essay that sometimes in order to make progress you need to relax certain constraints, especially mental ones related to how you see the world. There is a sense in which I think this entire essay is arguing for making your life decisions from first principles, but I’ll leave that conclusion up to you to judge. Read Henrik’s essay on relaxing constraints here.
Tenet
I am convinced that I will live long enough to see Tenet become a cult classic.
In 2020 when Tenet first came out, it was panned in most of the circles I roll in, as well as online.And yet when I got around to watching it, I was immediately absorbed. Watching Tenet was an experience like few others I’ve ever had, and I’ve seen all the other mind-bending Christopher Nolan movies (and quite a few of the non Christopher Nolan movies).
I’ve rewatched Tenet more times than any other movie now, and it remains fascinating on each watch. And, perhaps most importantly, people are beginning to come around. I’ve noticed public perception about Tenet shifting in my corner of the internet. On Twitter, on YouTube, people are beginning to whisper. Maybe we were wrong about this movie? Maybe something happened in 2020 that made us unable to appreciate this masterpiece? Maybe it’s time to give it another chance and absorb the genius of the movie?
My answer to all these questions: yes, yes, and yes.
Thank you for reading today, and I will see you next week.
Thats it!!!
I'm watching Tenet again 😩.