Curiosity Chronicle

Sahil Bloom

Delivering curiosity-inducing content every single week. This is the audio version of my newsletter. Sign up at the bottom of the page!

  1. 1 day ago

    It Was Just a Game of Catch

    Last weekend, my family and I made our annual pilgrimage to a small community in northwest Connecticut. When I was 18 months old, my parents had rented a house there for the summer, seeking an escape from the New York City heat. The next year, we went back. The following, we went again. Soon, the tiny enclave became like a second home. I met my two best friends there. I caught my first fish there. I had my first crush there. But perhaps most importantly, I played my first game of catch there. As I remember it, I was probably about five years old. My dad had a softball and a couple of old baseball gloves. And there, in the tall, overgrown grass, we threw the ball back and forth. We played catch damn near every single day when I was a kid. But then, as I got older, my baseball career ended. And with it, our game of catch. Time goes unnoticed, until it's the only thing you notice. In this piece, I shared what happened last Sunday when I unlocked one of the old cabinets, pulled out two gloves, and asked my dad if he wanted to have a catch... It was just a game of catch. But it was so much more... ••• This episode brought to you by: DeleteMe - DeleteMe makes it quick, easy, and safe to remove your personal data online. Origin Financial - Your personal AI Financial Advisor. Track your spending, investments, and net worth—all in one place.Innerbody Labs - A Higher Standard. After reviewing thousands of health products, we built formulas we wished existed.Lemon - The Al agent that turns your voice instructions into finished tasks.

  2. 28 Aug

    The Focusing Illusion: A Science-Backed Life Trap

    Imagine two different people on the same mid-January day. One lives in California. He walks outside in shorts and a t-shirt. The warm sun beams down on his face. He puts on his sunglasses, unlocks his car, and turns the AC on full blast. One lives in New York. He walks outside in a heavy jacket. He grimaces as the cold wind hits his uncovered face. He opens the trunk of his car, takes out a brush, and starts cleaning the snow and ice off his windshield. Which one do you assume is happier? You just picked one in your mind. And I probably would have picked the same. Right up until I lived both. Yes, the truth is, the two people are both me, just one year apart. And our assumptions about their relative happiness reveal an important cognitive trap everyone needs to understand. It's called the focusing illusion. A cognitive bias where people overemphasize the importance of a specific, visible factor when estimating the overall happiness of an individual or group. In this piece, I explored why what you can see is almost never what matters, and shared a simple question I like to call my Tuesday Test... ••• This episode brought to you by: DeleteMe - DeleteMe makes it quick, easy, and safe to remove your personal data online. Origin Financial - Your personal AI Financial Advisor. Track your spending, investments, and net worth—all in one place.Innerbody Labs - A Higher Standard. After reviewing thousands of health products, we built formulas we wished existed.Lemon - The Al agent that turns your voice instructions into finished tasks.

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Delivering curiosity-inducing content every single week. This is the audio version of my newsletter. Sign up at the bottom of the page!

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