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October 30 - December 30, 2024
Picking the direction you’re heading in for every decision is far, far more important than how much force you apply. Just pick the right direction to start walking in, and start walking. [1]
Basically, if someone is using a lot of fancy words and a lot of big concepts, they probably don’t know what they’re talking about. I think the smartest people can explain things to a child.
They understand the basics at a very, very fundamental level.
moment of suffering is “the moment when you see things exactly the way they are.”
To see the truth, you have to get your ego out of the way because your ego doesn’t want to face the truth.
The more desire I have for something to work out a certain way, the less likely I am to see the truth.
Especially in business, if something isn’t going well, I try to acknowledge it publicly and I try to acknowledge it publicly in front of my co-founders and friends and co-workers. Then, I’m not hiding it from anybody else.
It’s actually really important to have empty space. If you don’t have a day or two every week in your calendar where you’re not always in meetings, and you’re not always busy, then you’re not going to be able to think.
It’s only after you’re bored you have the great ideas. It’s never going to be when you’re stressed, or busy, running around or rushed. Make the time. [7]
“Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are.”
If you have a criticism of someone, then don’t criticize the person—criticize the general approach or criticize the class of activities.
Then people’s egos and identities, which we all have, don’t work against you. They work for you. [4]
Farnam Street
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Charlie Munger
Read his mental models
One theory is civilization exists to answer the question of who gets to mate.
Rather, I try to eliminate what’s not going to work.
It’s about avoiding incorrect judgments. [4]
It’s a very simple concept. Julius Caesar famously said, “If you want it done, then go. And if not, then send.”
The smaller the company, the more everyone feels like a principal.
it’s more important to understand the principles of calculus—where you’re measuring the change in small discrete or small continuous events.
If you cannot decide, the answer is no.
I don’t know about you, but I have very poor attention. I skim. I speed read. I jump around. I could not tell you specific passages or quotes from books. At some deep level, you absorb them, and they become threads in the tapestry of your psyche. They kind of weave in there.
I probably read one to two hours a day. That puts me in the top .00001 percent. I think that alone accounts for any material success I’ve had in my life and any intelligence I might have. Real people don’t read an hour a day. Real people, I think, read a minute a day or less. Making it an actual habit is the most important thing.
Generally, I’ll skim. I’ll fast forward. I’ll try and find a part to catch my attention. Most books have one point to make. (Obviously, this is nonfiction. I’m not talking about fiction.) They have one point to make, they make it, and then they give you example after example after example after example, and they apply it to explain everything in the world. Once I feel like I’ve gotten the gist, I feel very comfortable putting the book down.
I would focus as much as I could on having solid foundations.
Another way to do this is to read originals and read classics. If you’re interested in evolution, read Charles Darwin. Don’t begin with Richard Dawkins (even though I think he’s great).
Today, I believe happiness is really a default state. Happiness is there when you remove the sense of something missing in your life.
Happiness is the state when nothing is missing. When nothing is missing, your mind shuts down and stops running into the past or future to regret something or to plan something.
every positive thought essentially holds within it a negative thought.
absence of desire for external things.
Happiness to me is mainly not suffering, not desiring, not thinking too much about the future or the past, really embracing the present moment and the reality of what is, and the way it is. [4]
I read philosophy.
I just don’t believe in anything from my past. Anything. No memories. No regrets. No people. No trips. Nothing. A lot of our unhappiness comes from comparing things from the past to the present. [4]
The Power of Now
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If you can’t see yourself working with someone for life, don’t work with them for a day.
The obvious one is meditation—insight meditation. Working toward a specific purpose on it, which is to try and understand how my mind works. [7]
What is not a good option is to sit around wishing you would change it but not changing it, wishing you could leave it but not leaving it and not accepting it. That struggle or aversion is responsible for most of our misery.
The important thing is to do something every day. It doesn’t matter what it is.
If you make the easy choices right now, your overall life will be a lot harder. [4]
I highly recommend listening to the Tim Ferriss’s podcast with Wim Hof.
Listen this podcast
Your body saying it’s cold is different than your mind saying it’s cold. Acknowledge your body saying it’s cold.
The one I found works best for me is called Choiceless Awareness, or Nonjudgmental Awareness.
Over time, you will resolve a lot of these deep-seated unresolved things you have in your mind. Once they’re resolved, there will come a day when you sit down to meditate, and you’ll hit a mental “inbox zero.”
I would recommend if you really want to try meditation, try sixty days of one hour a day, first thing in the morning.
The Attraction for Drugs Is Spiritual.
Read this.
The ability to singularly focus is related to the ability to lose yourself and be present, happy, and (ironically) more effective. [4]
how to control our moods?
Learn this.
Having the skill of persuasion is important because if you can influence your fellow human beings, you can get a lot done.
I hate wasting time. I’m very famous for being rude at parties, events, dinners, where the moment I figure out it’s a waste of my time, I leave immediately.
People who live far below their means enjoy a freedom that people busy upgrading their lifestyles can’t fathom. [11]
