5 Ways Transactional Thinking Is Robbing You Blind -- and How to Stop It NOW

Hint: It's NOT about your lattes, avocado toast or state of being broke

In this issue: Transactional Thinking For the… LOSS

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Transaction Summary… You’ve Lost

Birds do it. Bees do it.

No, not procreate.

I mean make transactional decisions.

But what the hell, dear human, why do YOU have to act like a bird or insect?!

Isn’t that why G-d gave you a freaking?neocortex?

You’ve surely heard of the?marshmallow test?by this point.

Maybe you even ate all the damn marshmallows (then swore off of them for life).

Look, maybe you’re the world’s strongest human, dead set against all temptations and short-term thinking.

But the odds are pretty darn high that you’re NOT.

At least it’s quite likely you’ll “slip” when you’re lacking sleep, feeling horny, hungry, thirsty, drawn to your phone, under the influence of some substance.

Whatevs, we’re all human. The guilt can be Catholic or Jewish or some other variety, it hardly matters.

Maybe you’re super pious, a Luddite, a Nazarite, Amish or just a latter day saint.

Even then, it’s next to impossible to only think about the Big Picture, the 30,000-ft. view, the world-historical, legacy-defining perspective.

Unless you’ve got “f—k you” money, live happily in a cave on whatever you scrounge or are otherwise not bound by daily reality (bills, childcare, work for a living), you have no choice but to think in transactions.

But I don’t just mean financial transactions. Not just budgets, profit-and-loss, savings and checking, Quickbooks and TurboTax.

I mean, thinking about work and people, pleasure and pain — and even vacation (?!?!) — as a transaction.

X to alleviate Y. A to replace B. D to quench E. K to be more efficient than L.

Look, it’s not surprising.

Life moves way too damn fast.

Change is the only constant.

Daily life has never been more complex.

Stress is through the roof.

Prices are through the roof.

Inflation is high.

There’s war and global warming, a recession on the doorstep.

Ok, we get it.

The trouble is, most of really?don’t?get how this transactional, tactical short-sighted thinking has become a self-fulfilling prophecy, with 4-second attention spans, insanely short news cycles and blazing fast internet and mobile data speeds driving us bat-shit anxious and inattentive.

If burnout and the Great Resignation still surprise you, maybe you’ve ought to look into the real state of things.

So what is this transactionalism doing to most (all) of us?

1. It’s blinding us to what unites us, while exacerbating what separates us. Cue the conspiracy theories of how the Russian KGB undermines the West to destroy itself from the inside , come true.
2. It’s making us more easily manipulated. I mean, all I have to do to get your support or get you pissed off is just go through a favorable or an unfair transaction with you.
3. It’s taking away our hope and making us depressed. If all I can see is war, inflation, terrorism and school shootings on TV and online, I might actually think the world is shit and getting worse. But there is still just as much beauty and wonder in this world, and media is not the only way to experience the world.
4. It’s making us more dependent on technology?and less dependent on our own sense of right and wrong, truth and lies, whereas we have never needed good judgment more than now.
5. We are falsely confident about eternal technological progress and not confident about our own abilities to handle complex reality. This goes beyond laziness and tech savvy.
6. “The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.”
7. ―Charles Bukowski

So, what can we do about this unfortunate progression of events?

Sure, we can pray and we can exercise our judgment as often as possible.

Maybe we can become Luddites or naturalist tree huggers living solely off the land.

But more realistically, well, we can become our own… commanders-in-chief ;)

In short, learn about how our unique bodies and brains work, master their function, and combine this with a mastery of dealing with other people, plus finding a way to speak to G-d /the Universe.

PHEW,?that was easy!?LOL.

Just putting this out there… (out on 3/31):

Go for it!

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One more thought for today…

It's over.

The good times are done.

Markets are crashing.

Interest rates are up.

Costs are shooting through the roof.

Inflated valuations are coming down to earth.

Garbage startups are starting to disappear.

Substance is floating to the top.

Opportunity is opening up now.

Broken clocks are right again.

Giants are building in private.

Iterating and learning.

It's only starting.

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Now read that backwards. I'll wait...

You'll see that backwards progression again in a few years.

LIFE LESSON: Follow your own compass, not the economic cycle. You will be handsomely rewarded, I promise.

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Yuri Kruman

+1 (347) 415-0265 (Whatsapp)