Unfiltered Millennial

The first year of this blog is finished. While it is weird to be saying that, I am proud of myself that this is something I have stuck to (though not perfectly) for a year. I want to dedicate more of my time and thoughts to this. My goal is to create a space where I can share my insights from my perspective in humanity. But to also give resources and information that helped me learn and become the thinker I am today.

So welcome to 2025 and what this blog will become in the new year. I am giving it a new structure. This will help me continue writing about the things that interest me. It will also give you a glimpse into some of the writers and thinkers who influence me. 

So this year I am going to try and put in some schedule structure. I hope you enjoy the change of pace. It will allow me to set some solid deadlines for myself. This is obviously a fluid process. I want this to be a labor of love, not an obligation. So I won’t guarantee this is how I will end 2025. But it is definitely how I will start.

So what is this new structure you ask? I figured I would focus on what I am reading. I will also share my thoughts on others who have influenced my thinking over time.

So here is how these topics will be handled:

Each Monday (and/or Wednesday) of the week, I will write some thoughts on topics related to a specific thinker/writer. I will share what I have learned from them and where I may disagree or digress from them. I am thinking that there will be months for each person. But that is the part that might change. It depends if I have more or less to say than I originally thought.

On Fridays, I will wrap up with a quick hits of some of the things I read or listened to over the past week. I will provide you with some thoughts on each of them. When appropriate I will try to point back to what I wrote about on Monday or Wednesday. (Got to get those link clicks.)

How do others impact us?

The only time we as human beings aren’t influenced almost doesn’t exist. We are influenced even as newborns. What we see, hear and smell all influences us? We are constantly receiving stimuli external to us and processing on how to react or modify our actions to engage with said stimuli.

If you don’t accept the premise that others influence you, this blog is not for you. We are all influenced if we like to admit it or not. Who or what influences us is a very important question. For the purposes of this blog, I will be pointing to writers and thinkers that have influenced me. Some of the classic influences of mine are Aristotle, Plato and Immanuel Kant. But I am also being influenced today by thinkers like Scott Galloway.

Analyzing those that influence us is important. It allows us to formulate our own opinions. We base these opinions on the values and beliefs we bring into interacting with the influencing content.

I won’t always agree with everything they say. However, you may see me consider their thoughts on a specific issue. I do this before deciding what I believe and what we should do about it. But just because I disagree with them doesn’t mean their opinions don’t matter. If it isn’t for the loyal opposition, the majority starts to degrade. My opinion can become less valid because we don’t refine our views as situations evolve.

Why does this all matter?

Over the past decade or so, America has become more polarized. People are pulling themselves into the echo chambers of social media. What happens there? You only get viewpoints that you agree with wholly. But by doing that you soon reach a point where you can’t even fathom the existence of differing viewpoints.

This leads to the degradation because it is no longer about coming to the appropriate solution. It is about getting to the “correct” solution in your own personal viewpoint in a negative way. 

The difference between negative and positive in this way is viewing reality as a zero sum game. In a negative way, we do exactly that. It is about winning the argument and. In a positive way, you will seek the truth. You will gain a better understanding of the situation. This will help determine what the results should be. It is not zero sum.

Our viewpoints become stronger through genuine interactions with others. We make decisions or adjustments to our beliefs based on what we understand. In almost all cases, you won’t change a core belief (one’s right to affordable health care as an example). However, you may change how you get closer to achieving that core belief by listening to the oppositions view point.

An example of the above is the most recent election. Many are wondering if the Democratic party is out of step with country values. Another sizable group believes the power elite in the Democratic party have ignored the desire to shift leftward.

Both sides of this argument are partially right and partially wrong in my opinion. It is not that the policies of the Harris campaign or the Democratic party were necessarily bad policies. It was a lack of engaging with opposing viewpoints in a genuine manner. Instead, a mockery was made of the opposition. Real problems came off as ignored as not real.

When you don’t engage, you lose legitimacy. That is not because your ideas or beliefs are bad, but because you are seen as out-of-touch with reality. That is what leads to why acknowledging our influences matters.

That is why throughout 2025 I will be engaging with other writers that have influenced me and maybe even some new writers. I look ahead to learning new things. I will share the thought processes I have used to stake out some positions. These positions define me as a person in this 21st century society. I hope you enjoy this journey just as much as I will.