five finds: save this for Monday, and the next few years

Welcome to a special edition of five finds.

In 2017, around this time of the year, the reigning sentiment outside the US was that of curiosity and intrigue. "Let's see what happens when Trump becomes the president." And now, a lot has happened. In 2025, this US presidential inauguration is decidedly global.

The clients I have in Japan are hoping that the Eye of Sauron won't fall on them. The partners I have in Sweden were already worried about NATO, now they have Greenland to add to its worries. Boomer whatsapp groups in India are riddled with advice that people shouldn't make any significant financial investments in the near future. The inauguration next week has raised hopes among many in Somaliland that their breakaway territory will finally be recognized as an independent state. This time around, intrigue has given way to rampant anxiety.

The run-up to the inauguration is just the trailer, the whole movie will be an absolute onslaught on your attention. It's never been more important to stay aware, yet it has never been this exhausting to stay plugged-in. It's a rewiring of the world like we've never seen before.

"The rise and return of Trump has been framed by some as a rolling series of rejec­tions, by him and his sup­port­ers, of ideas, insti­tu­tions, beha­viours and inter­pret­a­tions that long seemed invul­ner­able." - Leo Lewis, FT

A few things have happened since 2017 that make this true:

1. The world was always deeply interconnected. The pandemic, trade-wars, and supply-chain strains have collectively exposed how fraught this interconnectedness can be.
2. Elon aside, tech is now more multiplexed into politics and culture than ever before. From what's happening with TikTok to what Meta is unspooling, what should just be about a company changing their own policies is now a planet-spanning chain of events involving governments.
3. The media business is a content business now. Trump 1.0 was a boon to the media - CNN hit some of their highest ever ratings during that era. The content business is now an algorithm business. From substack to reels to xiaohongshu - - the algorithm wants to squeeze every ounce of your attention.

"The algorithm has weaponized the war to steal our attention." - Brian Morrissey

In 2025, irrespective of what country you live in or what industry you're in - you need a plan to protect your attention. Because what you pay attention to, will grow. It will either grow out of you or worse, grow within you. If a lot of what you consume, and hence pay valuable attention to, is what you hate about the world, it will grow into a sepsis of resentment. If you consume things are are so divorced from your lived reality, you'll not have the information to make good decisions about shifting that reality. We need to find the goldilocks zone between neurosis and escapism.

Use today's finds as things you can do to find this balance for you. You need a bulwark against this incoming assault on your attention.

1. ATTEND TO CULTURE This is the year to actively engage in pop-culture - books, movies, albums, TV, manga. We need more fiction in our lives. We need more art. We need more stories told by contemporary masters in their fields. Listen to music as an activity in and of itself. Watch movies on the big TV without your phone in hand. This list from Vulture is a fantastic place to start.
2. BE LOCAL National and international politics are all-consuming black-holes of our attention. Civic engagement in local politics, however, is suffering - globally. Who is your mayor? Who is the district collector? Go even smaller - what's your local school board like? Have you found the local donation bin? When was the last time you paid a visit to the local library? All of these ask: what is in your locus of control? And have you exercised that control?
3. GO PHYSICAL I love physical media: books, magazines, and yes, newspapers. I've written at length about why we all need a literal "morning broadsheet" at our doorstep. If you get your news from feeds social media, you've subjected to the whims of the algorithm - and the algorithm has no interest in your mental wellbeing. 24-hr news channels are no better. When everything is "BREAKING NEWS", nothing is. Outside of emergency scenarios, there is little need for either of these. Newspapers are incredibly efficient at keeping you aware, but making sure the loose threads have all been resolved over a period of 24 hrs. Life will feel tedious and the world onerous if you mainline news into your veins. Papers have a beginning and an end - then you go about your merry way for the next 24 hrs. A few years ago I traded the Twitter app for the Financial Times physical newspaper and have been extremely happy with the decision.
4. LOOK FOR THE DETAILS "Paying conscious attention, then, is our primary instrument of loving the world." You don't have to live in the Cotswolds to feel kinship with nature. Have you noticed what weeds grow near your apartment? Are the pigeons in your town weird? What about the crows? Stop and look. In the month we spent in India, I followed a precise curiosity about how the Black Kite has now become the king of birds in most cities there. I paid attention to skies every minute we were outside. Noticing them circle, swoop and glide.
5. FIND EACH OTHER I've reached out to more people in the last year than I have in the last decade. For a chat, a quick call, a coffee or just some texts. Part of it was the resolve to open up to the world as lot more as I made snowbird a reality. The more people I talked to, the more I realized how utterly lonely all of us have become. You have a personal finance plan - great! A fitness and food plan - bravo! You also need a community health plan. This needs to be up there. What are you going to do to keep your social health? The outgoing US surgeon general says as much in his farewell message: "without community, it was hard to feel whole."