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July 5 - July 11, 2022
I view it simply: It is the collection of my life’s recipes.
There are many books full of interviews. This is different, because I don’t view myself as an interviewer. I view myself as an experimenter.
Take, for instance, a question that serial billionaire Peter Thiel likes to ask himself and others: “If you have a 10-year plan of how to get [somewhere], you should ask: Why can’t you do this in 6 months?”
You are forced to shed artificial constraints, like shedding a skin, to realize that you had the ability to renegotiate your reality all along. It just takes practice.
More than 80% of the interviewees have some form of daily mindfulness or meditation practice
Rave reviews of the books Sapiens, Poor Charlie’s Almanack, Influence, and Man’s Search for Meaning, among others
Nearly everyone has done some form of “spec” work (completing projects on their own time and dime, then submitting them to prospective buyers)
Success, however you define it, is achievable if you collect the right field-tested beliefs and habits. Someone else has done your version
Mason Currey, author of Daily Rituals, which profiles the rituals of 161 creatives like Franz Kafka and Pablo Picasso.
Take, for example, a one-liner like “What’s on the other side of fear? Nothing.” from Jamie Foxx.
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse is recommended by many guests in this book.
“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” —Lao Tzu
“Kids don’t do what you say. They do what they see.
Suffering Is Optional by Cheri Huber
and being afraid of being wrong or making a mistake or fumbling is just not how you do something of impact.
He also wrote The Happy Body, which contains the morning mobility work that both Naval Ravikant (page 546, who introduced us) and I do on a near-daily basis.
#2—Meditate (10 to 20 minutes)
use two types of journaling and alternate between them: Morning Pages and The 5-Minute Journal (5MJ).
5 minutes in the morning of answering a few prompts, and then 5 minutes in the evening doing the same.
To be answered in the morning: I am grateful for . . . 1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________ What would make today great? 1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________ Daily affirmations. I am . . . 1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________
be filled in at night: 3 amazing things that happened today . . . 1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________ (This is similar to Peter Diamandis’s “three wins” practice; see page 373.) How could I have made today better? 1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________
It is a “meta-skill” that improves everything else. You’re starting your day by practicing focus when it doesn’t matter (sitting on a couch for 10 minutes) so that you can focus better later when it does matter (negotiation, conversation with a loved one, max deadlift, mind-melding with a Vulcan, etc.).
The Dalai Lama was once asked how long it took for noticeably life-changing effects, to which he replied succinctly: “Around 50 hours.” That really ain’t much, and it might
The single decision is one of the most powerful tools in the toolbox.
“If you find yourself in a fair fight, you didn’t plan your mission properly.” —Colonel David Hackworth
Seem to Be a Verb by Buckminster Fuller.
else? Your inbox is a to-do list to which anyone in the world can add an action item.
“Experience often deeply embeds the assumptions that need to be questioned in the first place.
“He says the key to success is, ‘Be so good they can’t ignore you.’” TF: Marc has another guiding tenet: “Smart people should make things.” He says: “If you just have those two principles—that’s a pretty good way to orient.”
wasn’t there to compete. I was there to win.”
When deal-making, ask yourself: Can I trade a short-term, incremental gain for a potential longer-term, game-changing upside? Is there an element here that might be far more valuable in 5 to 10 years
author of Anything You Want, a collection of short life lessons that I’ve read at least a dozen times.
Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger, by Peter Bevelin.
It’s not what you know, it’s what you do consistently.
‘Busy,’ to me, seems to imply ‘out of control.’
Lack of time is lack of priorities. If I’m “busy,” it is because I’ve made choices that put me in that position, so I’ve forbidden myself to reply to “How are you?” with “Busy.” I have no right to complain. Instead, if I’m too busy, it’s a cue to reexamine my systems and rules.
I believe you shouldn’t start a business unless people are asking you to.
I believe that music and people don’t mix; that music should be appreciated alone without seeing or knowing who the musicians are and without other people around.
‘We are whatever we pretend to be.’”
Wake up at least 1 hour before you have to be at a computer screen.
Write down the 3 to 5 things—and no more—that are making you the most anxious or uncomfortable.
Most important usually equals most uncomfortable, with some chance of rejection or conflict.
“What, if done, will make all of the rest easier or irrelevant?”
Block out at 2 to 3 hours to focus on ONE of them for today.
On the other hand, I can usually handle one must-do item and block out my lesser behaviors for 2 to 3 hours a day.
In fact, you just need one rule: What you do is more important than how you do everything else, and doing something well does not make it important.
Being busy is a form of laziness—lazy thinking and indiscriminate action. Being busy is most often used as a guise for avoiding the few critically important but uncomfortable actions.
We’re both big fans of Peter Drucker and his book The Effective Executive, as well as Alain de Botton’s (page 486) How Proust Can Change Your Life.
‘Okay, if we do X today, what does that result in tomorrow, a year from now, ten years from now?’
Matt recommended I read “The Tail End” by Tim Urban on the Wait But Why blog—if you only read one article this month, make it that one.
