454. Rich Reflections 85: New York Observations, Curiosity & the Head vs. the Heart

Rich records from a small park in New York’s West Village, beginning with five minutes of breathing before exploring gratitude, curiosity, technology, routines, and the tension between reason and feeling. While distributing books through Little Free Libraries and photographing advertisements for his Ads in New York project, Rich reflects on the unexpected things we collect, the rules we continually break, and whether every new app or technological convenience actually improves our lives. The session closes by examining morning and nighttime routines, the value of following curiosity, and what we have to look forward to in the week ahead. From unexpected books to dive-bar conversations and a Harry Styles concert at Madison Square Garden, it’s a reflection on staying open to the information, experiences, and possibilities happening around us. Questions from this session: 1. What are we grateful for? 2. What does our environment smell like right now? What smells from our past bring back memories? 3. What books are we energized to read? What is currently on our to-be-read list? 4. What personal rule or philosophy do we know is reasonable, but continually ignore or break? And relatedly, are we leaning more toward our head or our heart right now? 5. What is a recent app we downloaded, and why did we download it? What problem is it solving, what are we hoping to gain, and is it worth the additional data, information, and friction it introduces? 6. What is something in our recent use of technology that worked really well? What is something that didn’t work well? 7. What does our morning routine look like right now? Is it effective? Do we enjoy it? What would we change? 8. What does our nighttime routine look like? How well have we been executing it? 9. What are we curious about this week? 10. What are we energized for in the next week?