Welcome to Encore Living. I’m Dr. Thor.
Each weekday, I share a story, an idea, or a fresh perspective designed to get you thinking about your life and what’s possible for you.
Because sometimes, seeing something differently can change everything.
This is Encore Living.
Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good wherever you are. I'm Dr. Thor. Welcome to the show.
Today I want to talk about the Sunday newspaper. Maybe that's a topic you haven't considered in a long time. I know I hadn't.
But recently, I've had the experience of getting the Sunday New York Times and reading through it. Not all the way through it, but it's taken me back and taught me something about how I get information in my life that I thought was worth sharing.
My experience with the Sunday newspaper goes way back.
I think probably the first job I ever had was as a paperboy for The Washington Post, back when I lived in Washington, D.C.
And on Sundays, that paper was a monster. It was huge!
You probably remember seeing images of paperboys with that sort of bag you'd put over your shoulder and then fill with newspapers.
During the week, I could fit a ton of newspapers in there. But on Sunday, it was jammed with all the inserts, magazines, and advertising supplements.
And if you're of a certain age, you remember all that. Especially this time of year, in the fall, with all the back-to-school shopping. And then at Christmas, there'd be all the catalogs and everything.
Those were huge newspapers!
And I did not like delivering them, especially in the winter. A lot of times, I'd have to put a certain number in my bag, walk around and deliver them, then go back and get the rest.
It was a big deal.
For years, I subscribed to the newspaper regularly. I think I probably stopped somewhere in the early 2000s.
Like most people, I started getting my news online.
You go to a website. I could certainly go to The New York Times website and see the stories.
But what I found interesting about the experience of reading the actual physical newspaper was that it exposed me to new things I might not have considered before.
Because when you're online, you're generally going to click on the things where the headline immediately gets your attention.
But when you're holding a newspaper and turning the pages, you see an article, you see the headline, and you have to decide: Is this interesting to me or not?
And what I decided during this little experiment was that I would start reading some of those articles because I wanted to challenge myself to learn new things.
To see things where I might not necessarily have been interested in the topic before.
Especially when you get to the arts section.
There are articles about dance, art, and literature. Things that might not have jumped out at me online.
And certainly, on social media, they wouldn't necessarily be things the algorithm would show me.
Because the algorithm is like, "Thor likes this, this, and this. We'll show him more of that!"
So actually reading the newspaper made me feel that I was much more in control of what I decided I wanted to see and read.
Sometimes I'd read an article and still go, "You know, I don't think this is for me."
But I was glad to know about it. I felt like I knew a little bit more about something.
And I'm reasonably certain that if I'd just been reading online, I probably wouldn't have read that article.
Because I would have had to click on it, and somehow the friction of doing that felt greater.
But because I was holding the newspaper in my hands, it was right there.
And maybe there's also this sense of completion.
When you're holding a section of an actual newspaper, there's a beginning and an end.
When you get to the end of that section, you can say, "I finished this!"
It was funny. When I first started doing this, I had a little red pen. And whenever I read an article, I'd check it off.
That way, if I picked up the newspaper again later in the week, I'd remember, "Oh yeah, I already read that."
So I liked that sense of completion.
But I think, more importantly, it was the idea that I was getting to decide what content I wanted to see.
And that went beyond just having the algorithm on social media show me what it thought I wanted to see.
So my thought for today is to ask:
What happens in our lives when we step outside the systems that are designed to show us what we already want to see?
We've all heard this advice before. Go outside your normal area. Visit a different place. Drive a new route.
Because you might see things you weren't expecting.
So here's an opportunity for you to consider.
Maybe find one place this week, or this coming weekend, where you essentially turn off the algorithm.
Turn off that autopilot way you sometimes live your life.
And try something new.
Maybe go to a bookstore and browse a bookshelf you wouldn't normally look at.
Or pick up a magazine at Barnes & Noble that you wouldn't ordinarily read. Glance through it and ask yourself, "Is there something different for me here?"
Because if you give yourself the chance to encounter something you didn't even know you were interested in, maybe you'll discover some new interests.
