interesthings - #1

In this interesthings: the rise of Jumbo-Visma, life without time, knitted sweaters, and more...

January 05, 2023

Happy New Year! I hope that 2023 will be an awesome year 🚀

As you can see the newsletter has had a name change. ‘Things for People’ changed to interesthings. I came up with in while riding my bike, when my best ideas pop up. Besides the name change, it is the first newsletter of 2023 so the #1 felt right 😉.

Cycling - The rise of Jumbo-Visma 🚵

Jumbo-Visma is a WorldTour cycling team, which means that they are able to ride the biggest tours and classics of the year such as the Tour de France and Paris-Roubaix. They are considered to be the biggest cycling team in the past years. In a recent article, Richard Plugge, the director of Jumbo-Visma tells about his personal effort that went into making Jumbo-Visma the biggest cycling team on the planet.

In 2012 he personally bought the team after the cycling world was filled with scandals and sponsors fled the sport. It is interesting to read his personal story on the development of the team and how it won the biggest race in cycling, the Tour de France.

Read the full article here.

Thoughts - Life without time ⏰

Last year I read the book ‘Four Thousand Weeks’ by Oliver Burkeman. Four Thousand Weeks is a book about the finite of time and the way that productivity tools impact our behaviour towards time. Also, Four Thousand Weeks is the average amount of weeks that a human is alive on this planet (80 years). One particularly interesting aspect of the book is the discussion of the creation of the clock and its impact on the way we perceive and value time.

Before the invention of the clock, people's daily routines were based on natural circadian rhythms, humans started their day at sunrise and went to bed when they felt tired. The only people that needed to know how late it was were monks. Monks had to wake up at a specific time in order to complete their strict daily routine. Every night, another monk would be awake to figure out the time by using a water clock, their own body-clock or astronomy.

Undoubtedly, the invention of the clock changed the world. The clock also gave employers a way to more precisely value their employers against their work. Employers could request that their employees work at specific times, and the hours spent working could be measured and valued in currency. This eventually led to the 9-to-5 system that we now use. In this system, an employer has the right over 8 hours of your day in return for money.

In the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a shift in our own perception of the 9-to-5 system and our value of time. More people realised that time is valuable and endless. Only working for the rest of your life restricts you from being with the people and activities that you value. In the past years, people are taking back control of their own time.

An example of this is the rise of the subreddit /r/antiwork. This growing ‘sub’ on Reddit inspired people to quit their demeaning jobs and start valuing their time. People share the stories of their employers asking them unreasonable things as seen below.

r/antiwork - Who’s the boss now?

Time is your most valuable asset. We have only 4000 weeks on this earth to make it worth. So make the most of it. Ask yourself, am I doing the work that I love? Am I spending my time with the people and activities that I value?

It’s your time and life. Make the most of it.

- Mark

Things ✌️

A song I love 🎧

Inji, an upcoming artist, is about to release a new song called ‘The One’ on the 18th of January. That song is absolutely going to blow up the hit charts .

Inji broke through last year with her song ‘Gaslight’. Listen to ‘Gaslight’ on Spotify or Apple Music.

Before we end

Thanks for reading this week's newsletter. I really appreciate it. If you enjoyed it, please consider sharing it with your friends. See you next time 🚀.

- Mark