I grew up in Kuala Lumpur. I’ve since had the chance to live in London, New York, Paris and Berlin. I’ve been in San Francisco since 2015.
While SF is the smallest city in the list, being here I’ve ironically discovered the wonder of being away from the city. I spent time in Mendocino this week. It’s amazing to get away from the day-to-day. It’s like moving out of the trenches to see the battlefield.
We transition from school to college to work, often learning skills throughout (at least, ideally). What I’ve also since discovered is the importance of learning to unlearn.
We develop mental models to simplify how things work in reality, except often we retain those models even when they don’t work so well any more. Either the reason we adopted them, or our priorities, or the underlying world itself have changed; yet the models remain. Sometimes they become our sacred cows.
What’s helpful to set the ground in revisiting those mental models is creating more space. How to create space? Different things work for different people. Meditation. Journaling. Family. Friends. Nature.
I’m grateful to have made this latest discovery. Especially at times when the world feels like it’s at an inflection point, it’s reassuring to be surrounded by timelessness.