Here’s your weekly dose of timeless ideas to sharpen your mind, make smarter decisions, and live better.
Quotes
I.
Anyone can find the dirt in someone. Be the one that finds the gold.
― Gaur Gopal Das
II.
My definition of wisdom is knowing the long-term consequences of your actions.
― Naval Ravikant
III.
If you can’t successfully do something, don’t think you can tell others how it should be done.
― Ray Dalio
Ideas
I.
As long as you think that the cause of your problem is “out there”—as long as you think that anyone or anything is responsible for your suffering—the situation is hopeless. It means that you are forever in the role of victim, that you’re suffering in paradise.
Byron Katie in Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life
II.
Indefinite attitudes to the future explain what’s most dysfunctional in our world today. Process trumps substance: when people lack concrete plans to carry out, they use formal rules to assemble a portfolio of various options. This describes Americans today. In middle school, we’re encouraged to start hoarding “extracurricular activities.” In high school, ambitious students compete even harder to appear omnicompetent. By the time a student gets to college, he’s spent a decade curating a bewilderingly diverse résumé to prepare for a completely unknowable future. Come what may, he’s ready—for nothing in particular.
Peter Thiel in Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
III.
It’s lonely at the top. Ninety-nine percent of people in the world are convinced they are incapable of achieving great things, so they aim for the mediocre. The level of competition is thus fiercest for ‘realistic’ goals, paradoxically making them the most time and energy-consuming.
Timothy Ferriss in The 4-Hour Workweek
Articles Worth Reading
I.
3 simple ways to become less anxious and more decisive
Annie Duke | Fast Company
We all suffer to some degree from analysis paralysis when things are normal. Add in the uncertainty of a global pandemic, and you’re probably experiencing a lot more decision gridlock. By using the Happiness Test, the Only-Option Test, and Quit-to-itiveness, you can better figure out which decisions deserve all that extra time and which ones you can speed up. Less decision paralysis means less anxiety and we could all use a little less of that these days.
II.
‘A career change saved my life’: the people who built better lives after burnout
Emine Saner | The Guardian
Burnout is the name given to the host of symptoms caused by an overwhelming, stressful environment – including fatigue, muscle aches, headaches and stomach issues, as well as psychological effects such as listlessness and loss of motivation. Numerous surveys have found burnout has increased among workers in the past year, as work-life boundaries have become blurred by people working from home and anxiety over job security has increased. And, for those in jobs directly dealing with the Covid crisis, exhaustion has long since set in.
III.
Matthew Schneier | The Cut
The pandemic forced us to simplify our lives and look inward. Now it’s time to have fun again. That should be easy, right?