Rabbit holes, and why they matter
Three weeks ago, my girlfriend and I were looking at rentals just south of San Francisco. Over the course of a long afternoon, we looked at seven different properties.
The next evening, she messaged me a new Zillow listing – this time for a property for sale.
I walked over and wrote her a note: “Fuck it, let’s buy!”
What followed were weeks of going deep down a new rabbit hole. I spoke to hundreds of people, interviewed friends and family about real estate, and we put in four offers on a house.
The world is too loud
In a world rife with distraction, falling down a new rabbit hole isn’t always escapism. Sometimes it’s how we survive.
The allure of breaking news, the infinite scroll of a social feed... Amidst the chaos of modern life, the ability to go deep – to immerse yourself completely in something new – isn’t just useful. It can be a source of sanity.
The sanity of obsession
When the world is chaotic, most of us turn to distraction – even when those distractions leave us feeling worse.
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, I watched some of the Netflix Documentary Tiger King. While it was a welcome distraction, I came away feeling buzzed and empty.
By contrast, a true rabbit hole – one with structure, challenge, and stakes – isn’t escapism.
My world view changed when I walked into a gymnastics gym at 17 years old and began to learn gymnastics. That rabbit hole has consumed me ever since. Similarly, when I studied ballet obsessively for a year, founded Responsive Conference to study the future of work, or started Zander Media to practice storytelling.
Deep learning is a way to regain control over your attention and expand your world view.
Learning is often conflated with speed, with getting more done in less time. I have studied speed reading, memory palace memorization, and other learning “hacks,” but what interests me more is depth, breadth, and languor.
But my goal with real estate wasn’t just speed. It was depth. Amidst the chaos of the world, it was restorative to spend a few hundred hours researching with ChatGPT, calling dozens of realtors and brokers, interviewing friends, and immersing myself in a new discipline.
Finding your rabbit hole...
Here are three questions I’ve been finding it useful to consider when embarking on a new learning journey.
Why this?
My girlfriend and I were ready to buy our first home. There was a specific house that we were interested in. And, as a friend said to us, “You have to live somewhere.”
Why are you studying this domain right now? That will guide your rabbit hole learning journey.
Why now?
With real estate, we had a very clear rationale.
There were several options available to us – including renting for a year, a short term rental, or finding a house very near term that we wanted to buy.
Why are you interested in doing this journey, and why now?
What’s your deadline?
I’m a proponent of external deadlines. Without deadlines, I will put off until next month something that I could equally accomplish this afternoon.
But when I have a deadline – a person I’m accountable to, a place that I want to live – I'm capable of more than I’d previously have thought possible.
Why rabbit holes matter
The world is chaotic. There’s more distraction and noise on the front page of any news outlet or social media platform than any of us should be consuming.
Deep learning forces us to focus on depth – on something that actually matters. And in a world that’s only getting noisier, that kind of focus is how we stay sane.
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3 things I’ve loved this week
Podcast I thoroughly enjoyed:
Tyler Cowen on How I Write
I’ve followed Tyler Cowen since reading his book Average is Over more than a decade ago. He’s a professor at George Mason University, an economist, an avid reader and consumer of culture, and always ahead of the curve.
Long before ChatGPT, Tyler wrote about AI and chess, concluding that humans and AIs working together would always win out over either by themselves.
I was curious to hear Tyler’s thoughts about AI and writing – and this episode delivers. I’m newly inspired to try many more LLMs and spend ever more time playing with LLMs every day.
Technique I use daily:
The Tracker-and-Pacer Method of Speed Reading
I was first introduced to this method of speed reading by my psychology professor in college, Daniel Reisberg.
The method is simple: use a pen or pencil to trace the words as you read them. Because we can follow a moving object more quickly and consistently than just moving our eyes, we’re able to scan across text more quickly, while still reading the words themselves.
** This link and description is generated through an inquiry to Perplexity.ai, an AI research tool.
Book I’m listening to at night:
Lock In by John Scalzi
Narrated by Will Wheaton, Lock In is the first in a series about a fictional disease that leaves one percent of the human population “locked in,” fully awake and aware, but unable to move or respond to stimuli.
This story examines how humanity might respond, and follows the story of two FBI agents investigating a murder.
Alongside others of John Scalzi’s books, including Fuzzy Nation and Agent to the Stars, this book is worth the listen.
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Until next week,
Robin
