This Can Be Your Secret Weapon

Good morning, each week we blow the dust off that old school game cartridge so you can enjoy endless hours conquering your current dad level.   

🎮This week's dust-free game cartridge is about self-care: This Can Be Your Secret Weapon  🎮

Does this thought sound familiar? 

I NEED to start reading.

Maybe you order a new WW2 history book on amazon. 

You get 50 pages in and feel totally engrossed.

You are learning everything you ever wanted to know about the allied invasion of Normandy.

But… you stop reading (and feel guilty about it).

Why? Why Do You Feel Guilty?

You feel guilty because you believe reading has a certain special power for learning that you are missing out on. 

Good news. We don’t believe that is true.  

Audiobooks: A New Form Of The Oldest Technology

Look, OBVIOUSLY it is awesome to sit down and read a book.

But, did you ever consider that it’s not the only way to do deep learning? 

Let’s take a step back. 

A big step back.

In the Phaedrus, Plato warns about the DANGERS of the new-fangled invention of reading, saying:

"For this invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory.”

For Plato, books were going to have a negative impact on the art of listening and oral communication. 

I quote Plato here to make only one simple point: the written word is not the ONLY way to learn important things. 

The printing press was the tech that allowed us non-elites to read books. 

But. 

Guess why your Grandpa didn’t listen to audiobooks?

He couldn’t! 

Simply put, Audiobooks are a new technology, and one we should utilize to be able to learn wherever we want!

How Audiobooks Can Make Reading Practical

I don’t need to tell you that dads are busy creatures.

With that, it’s often impossible to take an hour of each day to sit down, scotch in hand, and ponder a great tome. 

Here is where audiobooks come in.

What if you could read while doing the dishes?

While on a walk?

While on a run?

You can with audiobooks!

Now, you might be thinking:

But that’s not the best way to learn. You aren’t fully focused, etc…

Yup. That’s true.

But our goal with this newsletter is improvement, not perfection. 

and guess what?

If you are reading ZERO books per month, and audiobooks bring that number up to ONE per month?

That is a 100% perfect increase in your book readin’ numbers. 

And more, listening to an audiobook while doing mindless tasks is both fun, and sustainable.

And sustainable changes = changes that stick around to change YOU!

Your Homework

Find an audiobook of something that sounds super interesting to you.

Audiobook Ideas: The history of a topic you want to know more about. The Autobiography of a person you deeply admire. A parenting book you’ve heard great things about.

Download it onto your phone. Make it as easy as possible for yourself to press play.

Listen to it when you are doing something mindless. Fall asleep to it. 

Don’t make this hard! 

Make consuming this book fun and easy. This is not a task like the dishes, but another source of entertainment. 

Given time, your audiobook habit could be the source of passive knowledge acquisition. 

Keep it simple, stupid! Go listen! 

You might learn something. 

This Week's Interesting Read:

My takeaway from this article.  Kids' mental health is an epidemic.  Caused by over distraction, both digital things and toys, and unavailable parents.  We can fix this by being available, modeling being present (put phones and screens away when it is family time), encouraging free play and by focusing on quality of time together in the analogue (outdoor hikes, puzzles, conversations, stories, building blocks).  

Other Dynasty Dad Topics:

Coaching: Support Your Child's Brain Growth 

Connection: Why You Need To Invent Your Own Family Rituals

P.S. A required pre-step to endless hours of Nintendo fun.