On change, communities, and Netflix vs Super Story

Stay close enough to have access, but far enough to maintain independent thought.

Hi guys,

Hope you are well. I’m okay, Alhamdulillah.

I have been something of a recluse for the last 72 hours, preferring reading in the dark and mid-day sleeping to some of the more important things I know I should be getting a move on. I am also about to enter a 6-week sprint phase that will likely involve plenty of running upandan, some uncertainty, little rest, and more in-person social interaction than I have endured in months.

Ah well, khayr in sha Allah.

With this in mind, I am biased to spending less time writing today’s newsletter.

Okay?

Okay.

Vamosss.

To change or not to change

If you know me well, you know that I am a planner by default. I think about (and make plans towards) many things far out in advance. To some people, it comes off as unnecessary.

‘Why spend time thinking about x planning for xyz when you don’t even know what will happen tomorrow?’

Well, I just can’t help it. Even when I know for sure a plan will change in a few months, I generally still want to have one today. It just makes me feel more at ease.

A discussion with a friend recently made me think about this. V is in their early twenties and has been in (what appears to be) a whole and happy relationship. But in a recent conversation V had, a mentor gave the impression that V should not be in any rush whatsoever to commit to someone.

Why?

‘Because people change. The type of partner I was looking for in my early twenties is not the same person I was looking for in my late twenties. And even that is different from who I am looking for now.’

At the surface level, it made sense. But peering just a little deeper, I struggled to rationalize it.

You see, people do change. For example, my career aspirations in 2015 were different from my aspirations in 2017 which were different from my aspirations in 2019 which are different from my aspirations today.

** side note: I recently got the opportunity to review my notes from 2019. I was shocked to see that both my short and long term career interests had changed. Even some of my pastimes had changed. While my values are very much the same, my approach to life has evolved more than I realized.

But that does not make a case for not committing to any of those aspirations in the short-term. Paraps it is along path A that you stumble upon B, and upon path B you might realize C is a better route to your destination. And maybe a roadblock on C will eventually lead you to D.

And all of this is fine.

Back to V’s story.

I have neither the expertise nor interest to have an opinion on at what stage a young person should begin to think about ‘setting down’. But if I had the conversation with V’s mentor instead, I would have asked one question.

Seeing as you are going to undergo several changes yourself between now and your forties, your forties and your fifties, and your fifties and your sixties, is it then fair to say that you should never commit to anyone as the type of partner you need at all those stages is different?

The power of observation + intellectual curiosity

Perhaps encouraged by my withdrawal into pseudo-recluse life of recent, I have increasingly gotten the opportunity to observe. I have come to realize that the sweet spot for any member of a community is to hang around the fringes…close enough to have access, but far enough to maintain independent thought.

And when you combine a keen eye for observing things with intellectual curiosity, you consistently find pockets of untapped opportunity.

Oya let’s take an example.

If you think about how we used to watch TV shows growing up, it was highly regimented. Maybe a 30-minute Tom & Jerry episode was released every Saturday morning. Or a new 1-hour Super Story was available on Thursdays at 8pm.

Naija TV was elite back in the day…Image from Naijatunes

If we had been a part of the TV industry and were trying to make a new product, it would only have been natural to take a similar path. Our biggest decisions would probably have been the title of our show, the channel to air primarily on, and how long our weekly episodes should be.

But let’s take a step back.

When the Netflix team were putting together their platform, they decided to observe the natural ways humans consume content. And they realized something interesting. Book lovers do not read 50 pages per day. They might read 5 pages on one day, forget about a book for 3 months, and then read 200 pages at a stretch.

And music lovers do not listen to songs for 35 minutes on every Wednesday. They mix and match, diving fully into an album over and over or choosing a particular song they find interesting.

And so the Netflix team decided that TV content consumption should not be regimented. We take it for granted today that we can wait for a new season of La Casa de Papel to come out and binge it over a weekend. But just a few years ago, the idea of mass releasing TV shows for consumers to decide when to watch was absurd.

This is the type of untapped opportunity you find when you combine intellectual curiosity with an eye for observing from the fringes.

‘Stay close enough to have access, but far enough to maintain independent thought.’

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This is the space where I remind you to subscribe and share.

Merci beaucoup,

Hameed

** Jara content:

“We fear it, yet most of us fear more than anything that it might take someone other than ourselves. For the greatest fear of death is always that it will pass us by. And leave us there alone.” - Fredrik Backman

Have a great week. 💫