Introducing "Makes Ya Think"

To answer your first question: no, I’m not going through a mid-life crisis*.

To answer your second: why start a newsletter? I’ve always been fascinated with and curious about the human mind – understanding why and how people think, act and behave the way they do.

This newsletter, Makes Ya Think, will pose questions about human behavior, and hopefully, provide insights that challenge your beliefs, offer a unique perspective and if nothing else...make you think.

Ok, enough with that. Here's what I've been thinking about lately:

* if I were actually going through a mid-life crisis, I’d be either starting a podcast or living alone with a cat (if that’s ever the case, please check in on me)

In a world with so many options, shouldn't we try to experience it all?

In a recent article I published, I argued that no, depth is where the gold is buried. And more specifically, that you can only achieve a certain level of joy and meaning in life when you commit to something: to one place, one person, one craft, one career.

I was surprised, yet happy that this article resonated with so many of you (I feel like this is what people say when no one reads their content...but I swear people reached out).

If you haven't read the article yet, I'd encourage you to take five minutes to do so. I'm proud of how it turned out. I won't go in-depth on the topic here, but you can read it by clicking the link below.

What am I going to commit to? Well, other than listening to 17 Chelsea Cutler songs per day, this newsletter. It will be sent weekly, (deep breath) yes weekly, we can do this!

Despite warnings, why don't some people evacuate during hurricanes?

Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans when I was 12.

Upon hearing about its inevitable landfall, I envisioned how my family might navigate through a similar catastrophe: we'd pack up the car with our most valuable belongings, drive north to safety and find temporary housing with family in St. Louis.

Surely, we could settle in with Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Jan until things subsided. Grandma and Grandpa would offer us a place to stay as well.

So after Hurricane Katrina hit, I struggled to figure out one thing: why in the world, despite multiple warnings and even a mandatory evacuation order, did some residents stay?

Even former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Michael Brown, said the death toll would be attributed to "a lot of people that did not heed the advance warnings." People chose not to evacuate and that was a big mistake, he proclaimed.

Let's back up for a second. There's something at play that Brown and 12 year-old me fell victim to - correspondence bias: the assumption that those who stayed chose to stay and purposely ignored evacuation orders.

People tend to assume that a person's desires correspond directly to his or her actions. This isn't always the case. Why? Context matters.

You see, compared to those who left, those who stayed in New Orleans were disproportionately poor, had a smaller social network and were much less likely to own a car.

So yea, picturing my family leaving town in advance of an oncoming hurricane was easy. But if you had no car to get you out, no out-of-town friends or family to stay with and no money to spend on a hotel...what choice did you really have?

Now, let me be clear, certainly some people did choose to stay. The point isn't that all people are victims of circumstance or that actions never reveal what people want.

The point is that when it's hard to see the broader context of a situation, it's easy to assume that people's actions reveal more about their preferences than they really do.

Maybe instead of more warnings or convincing to leave, there's something else the people that stayed desperately needed:

A bus.

Makes ya think, doesn't it?

Tweet I'm Thinking About

Have you ever caught yourself mimicking the tone and style of a client over email or text? Or better yet, anyone you're trying to impress? I certainly have. And no, I didn't create this newsletter to promote my Twitter account. I use Twitter primarily as an outlet to share things I've noticed in everyday life and (attempt to) present them in a funny way - so I figured why not share some of these observations.

I've long been a huge Twitter fan and hater of Instagram. Though admittedly, I've gotten sucked up into the Instagram like-machine lately (it's wild to me how my content reaches so many more people there than on Twitter, even though I barely use it).

That gets me thinking: why is Instagram more popular than Twitter? (ok maybe bad timing with the whole Elon takeover to ask this, but oh well).

My theory? Because it's much easier to post and consume a picture than an idea. After all, humans are inherently lazy (maybe more on that another time).

Quote I'm (Constantly) Thinking About

This is my all-time favorite quote. So much so that I considered saving it for a future (and probably better) newsletter edition, but I couldn't pass this opportunity up.

This quote encompasses all that I want this newsletter to be about (I think). How can two people experience the very same thing and interpret it completely differently? Because we all view things through our own unique lens of experiences, beliefs, knowledge, attitudes and intentions (and probably a few other things not mentioned).

Parting Thoughts

I'll admit, publishing thoughts on the internet for anyone to see is scary. What will people think? What if I'm wrong? Did I think everything through? Will people make fun of me? (ok, I already know the answer to that is yes). Will I realize I put a comma in the wrong spot and spend way too much time thinking about how I could have missed that?

I'm not claiming to be right about anything. In fact, several of my thoughts will likely turn out to be wrong. I'm just hoping to be slightly less wrong than I was yesterday.

Ok, one last question: does the name suck? Seriously, let me know. I really struggled with a name.

Finally, the song "Last Call" by Will Linley gets released this Friday. I think it might change my life. Take a listen. No pressure, but...

Think about it (had to, sorry).

Cheers (signing off like your cool/hip college professor),

Kevin

Oh hey, looks like you made it to the end of the newsletter (I'm impressed). I'm guessing you either read everything and really enjoyed it (not likely), did the "quick scroll" on your phone to see how long it was (more likely) or your mom made you read this and you felt bad not making it all the way to the end (hi to my siblings). All jokes aside, if you liked the content, click the button above to subscribe to the email list!