How I’m surviving the next four years
SNAFU is an acronym for Situation Normal: All Fucked Up. The phrase was born out of the chaos of World War II, but it is just as relevant today.
Snafu has become my shorthand for a world that’s always been broken, but is now undeniably so. Things that once seemed stable – governments, economies, industries – are changing too quickly for us to keep pace. Technology is advancing faster than any of us can adapt, which reshapes our job, relationships, and culture before we can adapt.
Rules my grandfather espoused – work hard, get a good education, keep your head down and things will work out okay – aren’t just outdated. They’re actively wrong.
For the last decade, I’ve curated a conference about the “future of work”. The premise is that the the speed of change is accelerating. That while work in the 20th century was about the illusion of stability, in the 21st century we are watching that illusion disappear.
Political and social unrest are on the rise. Economies are volatile. Climate change and AI have added new layers to that unpredictability. We’re living in an era where the old rules don’t apply, new rules haven’t been written yet, and chaos is the default setting.
Resilience is the only safety net left
When things start to break down, most people – and most companies – look for stability. We all want something or someone to tell us that things will be okay. Stable jobs, trusted institutions, and a plan we can rely on.
Unfortunately, those are an illusion.
The people and organizations who will thrive aren’t the ones who cling to a false sense of stability. They adapt. Resilience isn’t about toughness, but about flexibility. It’s the ability to absorb shocks and keep moving forward.
Resilience is the only real safety net left because we can’t rely on institutions, stable career paths, or a predictable future. We can thrive only by learning to pivot, adapt, and get back up when we fall down.
The key to resilience is learning how to learn
For most of human history, learning specific skills was enough to survive or build a career. We became blacksmiths, factory workers, software engineers, and then did that work for the next few decades.
That’s not how the world works anymore.
The shelf life of knowledge is short. Industries are being reshaped in weeks, not in decades. What you know today may be obsolete tomorrow.
The skill that matters most isn’t what you know—it’s how quickly you can acquire skills and apply that knowledge. How quickly you can change your mind. The skill we most need to survive and get ahead in the world today is meta-learning, or learning how to learn.
Success is about mastering the process of skill acquisition itself. If resilience is the goal, then meta-learning is the most effective way to achieve it.
How I’m surviving the next four years
I have no idea what’s going to happen in the next four years. Nobody does. But things are going to slow down. Here’s how I’m preparing for the next four years.
Physical resilience: Our bodies are the first thing that break down under stress. When I was in a car crash a few years ago, my visible bruises healed in a week, but it took my body nine months to really recover. The way I train for physical resilience is doing little things, every day, that are physically difficult.
I move every day, train to increase strength and endurance, and spend a couple minutes more in a 200 degree sauna than is easy. I’m not chasing peak fitness. I’m chasing a body that can handle stress.
Emotional resilience: Life is unpredictable. Just in the last month, one friend had a mental breakdown and another died. Grief, uncertainty, and failure are inevitable. We can’t control them. But we can train how we respond. I practice emotional resilience by cultivating tiny habits that increase mental fortitude.
One of the best tools I know for emotional resilience is, amusingly, the physical challenge of cold plunging. Through cold exposure, I’m better able to handle the stresses of other, less intense, circumstances. Just getting into the cold plunge (or turning the shower tap to cold) is a victory. Do more things that scare you.
Mental resilience: The key to mental resilience is brain plasticity and avoiding fixed ways of thinking. Do this by limiting your intake of harmful content and by practicing new skills.
The world is full of outrage porn. The business model of the news and social media is to keep you coming back for more. You don’t have to detach from the world in order to limit the amount of content – especially outrageous or toxic content – you imbibe.
Additionally, practice things that stretch you, mentally. I like to sing. I recently started practicing the piano. I’m attempting to learn Darija (Moroccan Arabic). In short, never stop learning.
The world is not going to slow down. The chaos isn’t going away. If anything, things are only going to get more unpredictable!
The only real strategy left is to become the kind of person who can navigate uncertainty with intelligence, speed, and a sense of humor about the absurdity of it all.
Snafu is about that process—learning fast, adapting faster, and finding resilience in a world that refuses to make sense.
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3 things I’ve loved this week
Quote I’m thinking about:
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” ―Upton Sinclair
I’ve had this book on my shelf for years, but never gotten around to reading it. I recently started listening to it and reading it, simultaneously, in the sauna.
I see why The 48 Laws of Power is outlawed in most prisons. There’s a lot going on in the world today that is relevant to Robert’s laws!
TV show I’m watching: The Expanse
My girlfriend has been raving about The Expanse, both the books and TV show, for months now. I try to limit my television consumption – especially of shows with many seasons – but I watched the first season of The Expanse, and it is captivating.
As with Interstellar, which I recommended previously, The Expanse's depictions of space are awe inspiring and scary.
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Until next week,
Robin
