Wisereads Vol. 63 — Dr. Ali Binazir's 5 Hidden Love Questions, 18 life learnings from Maria Popova, and more

Last week, we shared the entirety of Bram Stoker's Dracula, a classic of gothic literature. This week, we're sharing a preview of The 5 Hidden Love Questions, Dr. Ali Binazir and Dr. Victor Frank's guide to getting more out of modern dating.

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After nearly two decades of writing reflective essays, Maria Popova shares the lessons she's learned each year, including: "Allow yourself the uncomfortable luxury of changing your mind. Cultivate that capacity for 'negative capability,'" and "Choose joy. Choose it like a child chooses the shoe to put on the right foot, the crayon to paint a sky. Choose it at first consciously, effortfully, pressing against the weight of a world heavy with reasons for sorrow, restless with need for action."

Bill Watterson, the artist behind the beloved Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, reflects on his early days drawing ads in a convenience store basement during his commencement speech to Kenyon College students. "At school, new ideas are thrust at you every day. Out in the world, you'll have to find the inner motivation to search for new ideas on your own. With any luck at all, you'll never need to take an idea and squeeze a punchline out of it, but as bright, creative people, you'll be called upon to generate ideas and solutions all your lives. Letting your mind play is the best way to solve problems."

Y Combinator founder Paul Graham considers a specific cultural impact of AI: he predicts that as AI proliferates, fewer people will care to write. "Is that so bad? Isn't it common for skills to disappear when technology makes them obsolete? There aren't many blacksmiths left, and it doesn't seem to be a problem. Yes, it's bad. The reason is something I mentioned earlier: writing is thinking. In fact there's a kind of thinking that can only be done by writing."

To truly grasp the power of embracing difficulty as a sign of learning—a growth mindset—return to the source in this timeless video from Carol Dweck herself, author of Mindset. "When we praise kids for the process they engage in, for their hard work, their strategies, their focus, their perseverance—they learn challenge-seeking. They learn that resilience. Praising talent, praising intelligence, makes them vulnerable."

Pascio unpacks Notion founder Ivan Zhao's keynote speech, where he unveiled new features like custom emojis and an email client, teased upcoming projects (offline mode is coming!), and reiterated Notion's product philosophy. "The solution lies in our favorite tool, Lego,' he says. 'Our insight is that most software is made from the same common building blocks: Text, Database, Views. Why don’t we deconstruct it back to that, and make it like Lego?'"

McKinsey's extensive report explores how certain "arenas"—industries like AI, cybersecurity, and pharmaceuticals—are poised to transform the global economy. "Arenas are a unique category of industries defined by two characteristics: high growth and dynamism. They capture an outsize share of the economy’s growth, and the market shares of players within them change to an outsize degree. We have identified 18 potential arenas of the future that could reshape the global economy, generating $29 trillion to $48 trillion in revenues by 2040."

To build a lasting romantic relationship, it's important to know yourself before intertwining your life with another. In The 5 Hidden Love Questions, Dr. Ali Binazir and Dr. Victor Frank equip readers with profound questions like, "Am I enough?" and "What do I really want?" to do just that. Combining insights from philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, and practical advice, they seek to guide readers toward self-discovery and a more fulfilling dating life.

"Who are you? When I ask this question in a seminar setting, people give the answers you would expect: sister, brother, Kate, mother, employee, boss, Jeff, doctor, lawyer, baker, human, man, woman, nonbinary, citizen, Christian, Muslim, sports fan, and so on. They mostly answer in terms of labels and categories. The rest of the world seems to be defining us that way, and most of us go along with it.

But is that really who you are? Like, deep down inside? What if the truth of who you are is something completely different—something much more magnificent, majestic, and mysterious?"

We're thrilled that Ali and Victor are sharing all of Chapter 5 with Wisereads readers. If you enjoy the preview, you can purchase a full copy of The 5 Hidden Love Questions to support their work here.

Anonymous blogger Dynomight uses statistics and science to explore substantive issues and existential angst. From Against dystopian views of high-speed audiobook listening: "People don’t have existential peace because they’ve figured out the meaning of life. They have existential peace because that’s their nature or because they’ve developed happy lives and healthy thought patterns that don’t lead to them spending their time moping around. Feeling like you understand the meaning of life is downstream of existential peace, not upstream."