Tom Hanks' "Art of the Hang"

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In a world where 80% of our waking hours are spent consuming information, 12% of people say they have zero close friends, and the average person spends 70% less time with their friends than they did 10 years ago, this week’s article covers an EQ strategy that’s accumulating strength every day:

→ The Art of the Hang

As Tom Hanks describes it, the Art of the Hang is about learning to embrace the “attractiveness of 95% of people” and “to navigate the other 5% of jerks and evil people.”

“And ain’t that better than being alone in a room when you don’t have a thought in your head?” Hanks adds.

What follows are three notes to help you understand and apply Tom Hanks’ “Art of the Hang.”

1. The Roseto Effect: Hanging Lengthens Your Life (Even if You Practice Other Unhealthy Habits)

In the 1960s, researchers noticed something interesting about a little Italian American town called Roseto, Pennsylvania. It had a shockingly low rate of heart-related disease and death (about half that of neighboring towns).

And this was despite the fact that townspeople “smoked unfiltered stogies, drank wine regularly, and consumed meatballs and sausages fried in lard.” Many of them also worked in the nearby slate quarries, which exposed them to harmful gases and dust.

The study examined a number of possible reasons, from diet to environment, and ultimately concluded that the differentiating factor was the town’s social environment. In short, the benefits of a booming social life outweighed the negatives of unhealthy habits.

2. “Loitering” as a Strategy of the Hang

“Hanging” is a mentality. If you order coffee with a couple of friends, and you’re all talking and laughing, you’ll eventually reach a point where, pending additional purchase, your conversation has crossed the line to loitering. I have nothing really to say about this except that in order to master the art of hanging, you may have to get a bit more comfortable toeing (or even crossing) that line.

You can’t fully enjoy your hang if you worry too much about time or about your next purchase. Purposelessness is the purpose. This mindset sets the tone.

3. Marcus Aurelius on How to Hang When You Don’t Want to

As an introvert who does not often want to hang (at least initially), I often have to change my mindset. I tell myself the following: “Hanging, in its various forms, is a part of what it means to be human.”

For most of our time on Earth, “not hanging” didn’t exist as an option. Now, it’s become too easy to avoid people. To order in. To “interact” on social media. To send a text instead of making a call.

When I feel my anti-hang vibes increasing, I like to channel this quote from Marcus Aurelius: “At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself, “I have to go to work — as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for — the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?”

He goes on to compare this sense of duty to that of the bees contributing to the hive, ants to the colony, and so on.

Simply put, hanging is an essential part of our job as humans. It should be a reason we get out of bed in the morning.

P.S. If you think this strategy sounds too simple or obvious, just look back at the stats in the first line of this post….Just because something is simple doesn’t mean it’s being put into practice.

“Not hanging” is the “cigarettes” of the 21st century.

Sources:

1/ “People Are The New Brands” by Ed Elson

2/ “The Roseto effect: a 50-year comparison of mortality rates.