What I’m Reading

* Thinking For Oneself: “Wisdom is earned, not given. When other people give us the answer, it belongs to them and not us.”

* How Smart People Make Better Decisions: “Every decision has a consequence, and that consequence has another consequence you are probably not aware of.”

* Time Anxiety: “We limit ourselves by always calculating the best potential outcome through our personal perception of possible. Beating time anxiety means shifting our focus from outcomes to output so we can spend our energy on things we can actually control.”

* What Visual Illusions Can Teach Us About Our Polarized World: “We’re not seeing reality. Our vision runs 100 milliseconds behind the real world.”

* The Difference Between Amateurs and Professionals: “The answer is complicated and likely multifaceted. Most of us are just amateurs.”

* When The Magic Happens: “We know that creativity and discovery surge when people are forced to find, rather than just want, new solutions.”

* How to Live Without Regret (5 min. video): “8x Olympic medalist Apolo Ohno discusses internal battles and focusing on the process instead of the outcome.”

* Structured Distraction: How To Make The Most Of Breaks: “Knowing that being distracted is a natural state for our brain, how can we bring some structure to this natural rhythm?”

* How To Restore High-Level Thinking: “The right mental breaks can replenish brain energy, increase productivity and improve your performance.”

* Learn Faster and Remember More: “The greatest enemy of learning is what you think you know. Overcoming our egos can be one of the big challenges of learning.”

* You Can Get There From Here: “Time functions as a kind of true alchemy — it can dissolve any experience, no matter how permanent it seems as it’s happening, and replace it with another. It can turn lead into gold.”

* Mike Wallace Interview featuring Rod Serling: “The creator of The Twilight Zone television series talks about censorship, keeping artistic integrity when working with commerce and corporate sponsors, and a range of other topics that true artists will appreciate”

* The Ugly Scramble: “There is no topic in business and investing that gets more attention than risk. But risk has little to do with what’s going to happen next and a lot to do with how much you can endure, and how calmly you can react to, whatever happens next.”

* Finding A Mindfulness Practice That Works For You: “Mindfulness practice is more than just sitting still or slowing down our actions.  Knowing your reasons for engaging with a mindfulness practice will steer you towards something that works for you.”

* The Power Of Thinking Inside The Box: “Thinking inside the box necessitates a shift in mindset: one that states that all the building blocks for innovation are right there in front of you, and that the solution only requires the reorganization of existing elements.”

* How To Think: “No skill is more valuable and harder to come by than the ability to critically think through problems.”

* The Myth of Grit and Determination: “Behavioral goals are difficult because they tend to revolve around conflicting desires.”

* Appearances vs Experiences: What Really Makes Us Happy: “In the search for happiness, we often confuse how something looks with how it’s likely to make us feel.”

* How Smart People Make Better Decisions: “Thinking about your thinking — most decisions require a deeper level of exploration.”

* Willpower And Self-Control: “Self-control and discipline operate the same. Just because you may get briefly distracted by the urge to stay in bed or binge on Netflix instead of getting in your workout doesn’t mean you actually have to do it. “

* Don’t Try – Intend: “Why try when you can intend? Well, tries are much cheaper than intentions, and they do accomplish things — just not usually the task itself.”

* Improve Your Memory And Maintain a Healthy Brain: “Life-long learning is a journey, not a destination — there’s never a shortage of new things to learn.”

* It’s OK to Be Good and Not Great: “Trust comes from vulnerability.’ Recent experimental data suggests that this is because deep down inside, most everyone dislikes having to pretend they’ve got all their shit together. When you let your guard down and get real, others feel relieved and gain the confidence to do the same.”

* Focus On Your Legacy Now – There Is No Later: “If you were to ‘depart’ tomorrow, when your peers and loved ones gather to discuss what is your lasting contribution, what you are to be remembered for, what will they say?”
*

* On Loneliness: “We must be aware and see the difference between loneliness and aloneness. Loneliness is the result of influence and oneself being so malleable, easily shaped. Aloneness is complete freedom from the known.”

* Decision Making Lessons From Great Tennis Players: “A wise decision requires reflection, and reflection requires a pause.”

* 50 Lessons Learned Writing 50 Newsletters: “Whether you currently run a newsletter or are thinking of starting one, I hope you find these thoughts helpful.”

* Changing Perspective: “Who you are versus what you’ve done.”

* Regrets: “There is a chance the world might be a slightly, ever so slightly, different place today had I said yes.”

* One Way to Stay Centered in a Divided World: “Because existing beliefs feel so much better than ideas we don’t yet believe, we all drift naturally toward the comforts of the echo chamber.”

* Lots Of Things Happening At Once: “Stories are more powerful than statistics because they’re memorable and easy to contextualize.”

* Mindsets: Optimism vs. Complacency vs. Pessimism: “A real optimist wakes up every morning knowing lots of stuff is broken, and more stuff is about to break. Big stuff. Important stuff. Stuff that will make his life miserable. He’s an optimist because he knows all this stuff does not preclude eventual growth and improvement.”

* Self-Doubt Is Good: “Self-doubt is an indicator. It’s the proof of a hidden positive. It’s the flip side of our dream.”

* Breaking Bad Habits (Video)

* Why You Feel At Home In A Crisis: “During the worst times of our lives, we can end up experiencing the best mental health and relationships with others.”

* Which I Am I?: “I’m not lonely because I’m with this other “me,” who is me and not-me at the same time and whom I have spent my entire life trying to find, to prove myself worthy of, and to labor in collaboration with.”

* The Creative Element of Conflict (Podcast): “Even on a hostage rescue team I carried a book of sonnets everywhere I went. The guys who make it into Special Operations are a cerebral set.

* The Law Of Reciprocity: Closing The Loop On Generosity (Video): “Your goal should be to close the loop of generosity whenever it’s opened.”

* Same As It Ever Was: “People spend too much time on the last 24 hours and not enough time on the last 6,000 years.”