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- #113: Disco of discontent
#113: Disco of discontent
Shem Opolot
March 21, 2025
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Who am I? I’m Shem Opolot, a health professional turned content creator, passionate about helping people be their best selves in life and work.
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Hi! I'm Shem Opolot, and this is The Friday Fix, my weekly newsletter. If you've received it, you’re either subscribed or someone forwarded it to you. If you fit into the latter (yes, I’m the kind of person who uses words like “latter”) camp and want to subscribe, then click on the shiny button below:
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HAPPY FRIDAY 🎉 I thought this was obvious until I saw an outrageous anti-Thursday tweet last week. The tweet rattled me so much that I raised this issue of utmost importance as a sort of icebreaker in a meeting this week, and again, I was shocked by what I heard. Here’s the correct my ranking of the days of the week. If you have anything different, you’re wrong.
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Thursday
Wednesday
Tuesday
Monday
LIFE.
Disco of discontent
Do you remember the first time you did something “upper class”? Your first flight; your first stay in a fancy hotel; the first time you drove a nice car. Remember how exhilarating that was? Nothing could ruin that experience. No delay on the tarmac. No windowless room. Nothing.
Then, and I’m making some assumptions here, do you remember when that activity became commonplace for you? You got tired of eating at the same fancy restaurant; you got tired of that same flight you had to take more often; you got tired of that same once-perfect partner.
Take flying, for instance; once flying becomes pedestrian for you, there’s no shortage of things to complain about: the limited leg room that turns you into a lawn chair; the fact that they still ask you to remove your shoes when going through security; going through security.
And on the plane, those in first class fret at every inconvenience. “I can’t believe they served my champagne like that. No ice to chill it. No theater before the pour. Dreadful service, really.”
Meanwhile, the people in the back of the plane live lavishly. Some even dare to remove their shoes. Please don’t remove your shoes on the plane. Some even fall asleep on their neighbor’s shoulder. Please don’t fall asleep on your neighbor’s shoulder unless you’re a hot babe. Only a hot babe can get away with that.
Back benchers living lavishly. | Source: Twitter
But the most miserable people in this static queue in the sky are the ones in the middle. The ones who couldn’t quite make it to first class, but made enough to avoid languishing in the back. Those ones fret about everything. For them, the seat will never be comfortable. For them, the curtain that separates them from business class is excessive.
“Shya—I can’t even use their bathroom? Shya!”
But they also hate the crying babies in the back. They hate the limited movie selection on the screens while those in the back still can’t believe there’s a TV on the seat in front of them.
You see, opulence and discontent go together real bad (h/t Nassim Nicholas Taleb). The more things you can buy, the stricter your taste becomes. And the stricter your taste becomes, the more disappointment expands to fill your newly inflated sense of self, like gas filling up a room.
Discontent has driven the wealthiest of us to dream of colonizing Mars. And maybe, just maybe, they’ll figure it out, and turn Mars into humanity’s red-clayed Airbnb among the stars. But also, I bet you that soon enough, our Martian descendants will revolt against the red clay and take a shine to Venus or Jupiter.
Unfortunately, this affliction, this affluenza, has no cure. Not while capitalism draws breath, at least. But I’ve offered you palliative care—awareness. You’re almost always being shafted, but even when you’re powerless to stop it, it’s better to know who/what is shafting you.
THINGS.
A quote.
While speaking to my friend on the one-year anniversary of his mum’s death, he said this:
The sadness is the cost of having been loved so much.
A picture.
We were running late, but Zi insisted on showing me the caterpillar he had seen while playing several hours prior. He was so happy to find it in the same spot he had left it. He was so happy to show it to me. I was so happy I stopped to “smell the roses.”
See if you can find the caterpillar.
WORK.
Process ➡️ diagram
Napkin AI is magic!
You ever seen diagrams like these?
Source: Napkin website
Usually, you’d have to build something like this from scratch in Canva or PowerPoint, etc., to include it in a document or presentation. However, with Napkin, you simply paste your process or thoughts, and it’ll create images to illustrate your thoughts. It’ll even give you several options to choose from, and you can edit the images and text.
And… it’s FREE (for now)! Run, don’t walk.
Here’s what I built in seconds for a class presentation last week:
Beautiful, I tell ya. Beautiful!
FUN.
The Friday Fix playlist
Shem’s picks
✅ Can you make this? Can you share it with me?
✅ The tiny world inside rain puddles
✅ Why do you have an accent in a foreign accent?
✅ If you’re proper awake, watch this
✅ Interesting things you can type into Google
Have a great weekend,
— Shem
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