Five Points newsletter (#35)

Using Putin's tools against him; What went wrong at the Hotel California; Rotary stupidphone; You need 7 types of rest; and Your Money or Your Life;

Five Points newsletter (#35)

Welcome to the 35th edition of my newsletter! It's the main vacation season here in Europe, so some lighter and shorter content this time. For the beach, because I know you can't stay away from that smartphone.

Last year, I did a so-called Monk Week, which was basically me hidden in a Dalmatian cottage completely disconnected, without any social media or even browsing the internet. Reading, writing, pondering, wondering.
Monk Week is a poor man's version of the famous BillG's Think Week. I finished a good portion of my book that week last year. BillG did worse once — he came up with the Internet Explorer!

This time, I'm taking only two days completely offline, whereby I'm also doing a 24-hour fast combined with a digital and spiritual detox. Some folks have asked me Why, to which I reply: Why not?!

Title photo: Makarska riviera. Biokovo mountain on one, the Adriatic Sea on the other side, and me running on the Dalmatian Route 66 aka Jadranska magistrala. Still on my list to drive it in its entirety from Slovenia to Montenegro. Or maybe a 1000K ultra-running project? 🏃

This week's #FivePoints:

The irony is delicious, of Mr. Putin seeing his own tools of corruption and surveillance turned against him by the underpaid police and intelligence officials who put the secrets up for sale. “Whatever Putin does keeps backfiring,” said Maria Pevchikh, who runs the investigative unit at Mr. Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation.
  • 🏩 Property management systems company wrote up this hilarious piece about What Went Wrong at the Hotel California.
    Content marketing at its best.
  • ☎ Here's a digital detox idea for you: Rotary un-smartphone. Get one for one of those annoying friends that keep complaining about Apple and Google ruling the world.  
Why a rotary cell phone? Because in a finicky touchscreen world of hyperconnected devices we have no real control over, there should be an alternative. ... As a telephone, in many ways it's more functional than a smartphone.
“In the western world, we live in a story of money,” Robin says. “On a personal level, this usually means that more is better. Whatever you have, a little bit more is better.” Our society is built around this narrative, which is pushed on us from all sides. (Even minimalism turns out to be about having more: “I have more less.”)
...
Financial independence is about being independent from consumer culture, ...

See you next week.
Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.
Peter K.

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