Juan David's Newsletter - December 19, 2021

Mimetic Environments (aka everywhere)

Hey there,

School is over. Now, I’m more zealous than EVER. The next morning after getting home, I couldn’t sleep and woke up at 4 AM to work on my annual review for 90 minutes, and on a coding project for the rest of the day.

Intensity is simply the side-effect of being in touch with your essence. I get closer to my essence when I wake up in the early morning to work, learn, and play.

As I told you, I’m working on this year’s annual review, and while I’m not quite as happy as a sandboy. It’s still important to be gratefully patient. Intensity + a sense of urgency can be similar to being anxious. Being gratefully patient flips it from hectic disappointment to serene reflection.

Yesterday, I had this realization.

A group of childhood friends came to visit Chicago so I met up with them. We left Venezuela around the same time. My family came to Chicago. Theirs to Orlando.

We grew up in the same town, went to the same schools, and even our parents went to the same school. You can’t get more similar than that.

Although we didn’t leave Venezuela that long ago and immigrated to the same country, our worldviews, perspectives, and aspirations changed in a fundamental way.

Here is what I think happened.

I moved to Naperville (a Chicago Suburb) with a decent immigrant community from Asia such as India and China. They moved to Orlando with also a decent immigrant community from many places but mostly Venezuelan.

In Naperville, everyone wants to get into Harvard. In Orlando, college is expensive, and not realistic.

People are mimetic. Your environment changes you and you are not independently-minded as you think you are.

In my first high school, all the Asian kids did a bunch of clubs and took only AP and honors classes. They (or the parents) are all trying to be smart and ambitious.

Environments rub against you like cats.

I’m not saying environment fully determines you but it determines you more than you think. I was cunning and ambitious but when you see other people doing more, a “cat” comes and rubs against you to move forward.

In Orlando, my friends’ community has been immigrants from Venezuela. Like all of us, we fled Venezuela to survive. But when you immigrate, you’re merely freaking surviving to get a job, enough money for rent and food, and learning the language.

Their environment were other hard-working people who are trying to make it. My environment were people who had “made it.”

We are all mimetic. The question is who we are mimicking.

I started “copying” Asian overachievers in high school to “copying” people who were building the future in Silicon Valley.

Perhaps, copying isn’t a good word because copying is intentional, mimicking is a bit more accurate.

In my area, most people (like 99.9%) go to college after high school. What did I do? I went to college.

Whereas my friends in Orlando, not everyone goes to college. Some to universities, some to community colleges, and some go straight to work.

Going to college doesn’t mean horseshit. But in the past, people have used it to measure things like upward mobility.

When we moved to the U.S., we almost moved to Florida. But I do wonder, if we had moved to Florida, would I have learned English in six months, read 200 books, worked in startups during the summer, written a book, gone to college, etc?

The answer is probably no. Because my atmosphere optimised for different things. At least, I optimized for different things.

Again, the things I’ve done mean absolutely nothing. I’ve done nothing.

Life is interesting and even moving to a different state can decide whether you do something like attending college.

It's always easy to make up a story and say how hard-working I am, or say I read the “right” books.

The reality is that life is always more random than it seems, and you never know what variables change the outcome the most.

You can try to realize how your environment is affecting your views and how you're being mimetic. Being aware is enough and will help you avoid falling into this trap.

We should always aspire to copy no one and think for ourselves. Or at least, copy those who don't copy (aka the anti-mimetic).

While this year wasn't the most productive and achieving year, it's important to be gratefully patient.

Gratefully patient about where I am. Gratefully patient to realize I can move forward. Gratefully patient to remember there's time for everything.

In the last few weeks of this year, I'll continue to be gratefully patient by spending time with family, work on curious projects, and do nothing.

Happy holidays everyone and Merry Christmas!!!

Until next week,

Juan David Campolargo

P.S. Santa, if you're reading this. I've been a good kid this year and would like to ask you for wisdom, health, and patience. I know, it's a bit difficult but come on, you can do it.