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The Newsletter | Edition 119
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Illustrations by Adraint Bereal
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Name: Rory Kolkman
Role: Senior Strategist
Current Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Hometown: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Hi, I’m Rory. Whether it is macroeconomics, philosophy, history, geopolitics, or emerging tech, I’m always sifting my sources for the latest and greatest on how the world works and what is driving change. Small talk is rarely on the menu.
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What “progress” means to me:
A self-imposed state of evolution
I’ll explain through an example: Darwin suggests giraffes’ necks became long by necessity, as only those with longer necks would survive more difficult grazing conditions (taller trees) and be able to procreate similar long-necked offspring. He considered this forced change, through evolution.
However, humanity’s elevated state of consciousness has blessed us with the ability to create our own circumstances for change, by choosing to overcome challenges or fabricating our own. Essentially, we have created “taller trees”—we manufacture change, through progress.
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Recent video series that expanded my worldview:
In a world where the West and East seem more at odds than ever, I find myself curious about the countries, people, and cultures we seem to be corralled to disagree with by our leaders and media. I fundamentally believe that, globally, we are not spending enough time trying to understand one another. We don’t focus on the great things we can accomplish together, but instead focus on our disagreements.
In this light, Tony from China Update—despite the necessary evil of clickbait headlines that he regularly apologizes for—provides a beautifully unbiased, data-driven perspective on China and its economy. His work is a true eye-opener to one of the largest, yet most insular, economies in the world.
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Cool fact I learned in the past week:
It has been the last color to appear in many languages, including Greek, Chinese, Japanese, and Hebrew. In the ancient Greek text, The Odyssey, Homer describes the sea as “wine-dark.” According to linguists, typically every culture begins with words for dark and light. The next color described is red, then yellow and green, and finally blue. This is because the color blue is the rarest naturally occurring color across multiple contexts. In fact, the Ancient Egyptians are the only ancient civilization to have quickly acquired a word for blue, due to a dye that they manufactured for their clothing.
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Tactic I use when I need to make progress:
I write my desired end-state down and reverse engineer the steps to get there.
Our attention is demanded by so many things, that often we forget what direction we are going in, or why. Taking the time to ask myself what I actually want from this life, making sure I write it down and figure out what I need to do to make it a reality, has worked wonders for me.
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Quote I live by [at the moment]:
“In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.” - Abraham Lincoln
Despite all the talk of progress, recently I have also been coming to terms with how fleeting it can all be. Confronted by the passing of both colleagues and family in recent times, I find myself mulling over the things they pursued, what they believed in, and the lives they ultimately led. What did it all mean to them and for those they leave behind? I don’t have a clear answer, but this quote sums up where I’ve landed so far, because I think it beautifully illustrates that progress without deeper meaning really isn’t progress at all.
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Current favorite music artist:
He produces a variety of electronic music, but the common thread is this upbeat energy that feels like the perfect backing track to summer. Check out Beggin’, In the Yuma, or More Baby—they’re all bangers to throw on at the gym or at a summer party.
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Favorite daily content digest:
While their core business is an analytics platform for day-traders (which is cool, too), their Instagram hosts important tidbits on the U.S. economy, politics, and large corporations. Oh, and they call out politicians for insider trading on the regular, which is always a good chuckle. Check it out!
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Progress Report is dedicated to providing inspiration for action. In this special takeover newsletter series, we highlight our team members and the ways in which they achieve progress in the day-to-day.
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SYLVAIN is a strategy and design consultancy that provokes progress for companies, people and society at large.
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