covid-19 | Adam Fuller

Bringing it all back home

Insights from The Portal Episode 31, with Eric Weinstein and Ryan Holiday

Today we’re going to talk about abundance, agency, the victim narrative, family and some other takeaways from a great conversation between Eric Weinstein and Ryan Holiday on The Portal podcast.

It’s a smart, friendly and wide-ranging interview, and I highly recommend listening to the whole thing, which you can find here: The Portal Episode 31: Ryan Holiday – Conspiracy, Manipulation & other Pastimes

Note: Weinstein gives context around the discussion — which was recorded earlier this year before the quarantine mandates rolled out — at the 12-minute mark, and the uninterrupted interview with Holiday starts at 17:10.

In this post I highlight a handful of particularly profound excerpts from the interview, which I edited lightly for clarity. I also connect the dots to show how they’re especially relevant to our current COVID-19 climate.

Colorado COVID-19 communications

A case study in crisis communications and effective leadership from Governor Jared Polis

At a press conference earlier this week, on March 30, 2020, Governor Jared Polis gave a great presentation and update on the COVID-19 situation in Colorado.

I was impressed by the honesty, empathy and strategic messaging. It was a breath of fresh air compared to what I typically hear from politicians.

Gov. Polis’s presentation serves as an example of authentic leadership and effective crisis communications. It also shows how you can — and should — speak conversationally, with a personality, and at the same time maintain appropriate tone and professionalism.

In this post I’m going to break the presentation down into its broad components, comment on strategic communications tactics, and highlight the key messages that jumped out at me. I include excerpts below that I edited lightly for clarity, and I added emphasis to sections that particularly relate to my points.

Antifragile and COVID-19

Book recommendation, insights and inspiration to get stronger during the crisis

I spent most of the past two weeks devouring the book, “Antifragile: things that gain from disorder” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. I highly recommend you pick up a copy for yourself and dive in too, sooner rather than later.

I cracked this book open after my Winter Expedition in Iceland and spent most of the past two weeks poring over its pages as I adjusted to COVID-19 changes and hunkered down to figure out my next steps in the new world we’re living in.

Antifragile is a dense and inspiring read that’s particularly powerful and relevant in this time of great disorder and uncertainty.

In this article, on top of passing along a book recommendation, I’m going to list out some of my takeaways and excerpts from the book that I think are particularly useful as we all work through this COVID-19 crisis.

Collapse in the cold

The wrong way to do the Wim Hof Method, and how it relates to COVID-19

This is not a particularly fun article to write, and we’re not living in fun times right now.

I acted like an idiot yesterday and made a big mistake that put myself and my family in a compromised situation.

Thankfully everyone is OK, and there’s relatively minor structural damage.

Still, I feel terrible and I wanted to share it with you here to:

1) Emphasize the safe practice of WHM,

2) Help me get this episode off my chest, learn from it, and move on, and

3) Offer a lesson to keep in mind as we trudge through the COVID-19 nightmare.

COVID-19 changes

Hi, everyone — I hope you are staying safe, healthy and relatively calm during these crazy times.

As you might have imagined, the global spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and recent rise in infections of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) — particularly in the United States and Europe — has thrown a massive wrench into my travel plans.