What I’m Reading

* What’s A Mental Model?: “Mental models allow you to view the world through more tried, tested, and unbiased lenses, and help find solutions to problems that might be out of your personal sphere of experience.”

* In Defense of Nostalgia: “I humbly submit that when you’re seeking a revival, a renewal, a real renaissance, looking back is the best way to move forward.”

* No Moment Can Be Saved For Later: “In an era where we’re never without a camera, we may be losing the ability to simply appreciate, in real-time, remarkable experiences in an uncomplicated way.”

* The Surprising Benefits of Journaling One Sentence Every Day: “Most people know that journaling is helpful, but they never get around to making it a priority.”

* Resistance and Self Loathing: “Though it seems ultra-personal, the voice of self-loathing is in fact universal. It is impersonal. Now to the good news about self-loathing…”

* Why We Can’t Sit Quietly In A Room Alone: “Eventually, by cultivating receptivity rather than defensiveness, a kind of tranquility can emerge.”

* The Power of Questions: “The quality of the answers we get are directly correlated with the quality of the questions we ask. Here’s how to improve your questions.”

* Why Complexity Sells: “Things you don’t understand create a mystique around people who do.”

* Care Deeply, Not Passionately: “Inevitably, caring deeply requires you to consider what your role is actually going to be.”

* On Blame: “Blame eases the psychological panic the brain experiences when these giant holes get blown in our storylines. But what’s the cost?”

* What’s Your THING?: Incredible Tweet thread by Carl Richards

* The Best Way To Consume Information: “When information is cheap, attention becomes expensive.”

* The Only Dependable Source of Happiness: “Invest all your efforts in cultivating the best and most durable source of happiness—a strong, unshakable character—given that it naturally aligns with the best of your goals and intentions.”

* What I Learned From Losing $200 Million: “Success in “normal”circumstances says little about your chances in crisis, since in crisis the rules change.”

* You Better Love This: “Something stupid you can stick with will probably outperform something smart that you’ll burn out on.”

* The Four Tools of Discipline: “There are four tools of discipline: delaying of gratification, acceptance of responsibility, dedication to truth, and balancing.”

* Cutting Through Indecision & Overthinking: “Taking any action is likely to be better than inaction and indecision, but we can get so caught up in trying to find the perfect decision that we make no decision.”

* How To Know If You’re A Morning Person: “The life of a person who wakes up really, really early.”

* Creating the Best Version of You: “People struggle to define their real selves, but they don’t have to.”

* Why Everyone Should Write: “Turning gut feelings into tools means understanding their origin, limits, and how they interact with other ideas. Which requires turning them into words.”

* Learning How to Think: “Poor initial decisions are one of the reasons we’re so busy. With poor thinking, a large chunk of your time is spent correcting mistakes. Good thinking, on the other hand, produces better initial decisions and frees up time and energy.”

* Solitude and Leadership (post includes audio version): “‘Your own reality—for yourself, not for others.’ Thinking for yourself means finding yourself, finding your own reality.”

* Transformative Experience: A Primer: “A transformative experience changes who you are – it alters your values and preferences, creating a fundamental disconnect between your pre-transformation and post-transformation selves.”

* Grief and Loss: “It’s hard to acknowledge that something that felt like a curse could also be a blessing. It took me a while to make peace with this.”

* How To See Things As They Are: “We have a habit of looking at what surrounds us through a self-referential lens. We don’t just see a thing, we see the way that thing fits, or doesn’t fit, into our lives.”

* We’ve Reached Peak Wellness and Most of It Is Nonsense: “According to decades of research, wellness is a lifestyle or state of being that goes beyond merely the absence of disease and into the realm of maximizing human potential.”

* Why You Should Try Micromastery: “A micromastery isn’t about spending 10,000 hours becoming an expert at something. Because the skills tackled in a micromastery are often simple and always repeatable, it almost always guarantees a payoff.”

* Brutal Deconstruction of Self Will Drive Improvement and Success: “I’m not suggesting becoming something that you are not, but rather understanding completely who you are. It took a while, but I realized that while every toolbox needs a hammer, every problem ain’t a nail.”

* How Our Reaction To Failure Influences Future Performance: “Next time you encounter a good or bad performance, step back and realize the importance of the next step you take.”

* Universal Laws Of The World: “If something is true in one field it’s probably true in others. Restricting your attention to your own field blinds you to how many important things people from other fields have figured out that are relevant to your own.”

* The Man Who Can Remember Every Day Of His Life: “Some say ‘forgive and forget’, but since forgetting is a luxury I don’t have, I need to learn to genuinely forgive,” he says. “Not just others, but myself as well.”

* Let’s Talk Like We Used To: “Long live the blog. Long live straightforwardly sharing what’s in our hearts.”

* How To Find A Mentor (Twitter thread): “I’ve been thinking about how lucky I am to have so many amazing mentors; everyone seems to know that mentors are important, but struggle with the process; so let’s talk about: mentors/mentorship.”

* The Powerful Predictor Behind Successful Relationships: “As meaningless as they seemed on the surface, at a deeper level, exchanges were highly nuanced, emotional signals, what Gottman called ‘bids.’ And it turns out that how we respond to bids is the key to successful relationships.”

* The Problem Of Mindfulness: “Mindfulness has become something of a one-size-fits-all response for a host of modern ills – something ideologically innocent that fits easily into anyone’s life, regardless of background, beliefs or values.”

* How To Let Go: “Letting things go is a skill we can learn, but it’s easily confused with making things go, which is usually impossible.”

* The Psychology Of Prediction: “Prediction is hard. Either you know that or you’re in denial about it. A lot of the reason it’s hard is because the visible stuff that happens in the world is a small fraction of the hidden stuff that goes on inside people’s heads. The former is easy to overanalyze; the latter is easy to ignore.”

* The Natural Cure for Burnout Is Profound and Utter Awe: “We can’t help but view our circumstances against a broader backdrop. Awe forces us, even if only for a few brief moments, to expand our awareness.”

* How To Be Happy: “Some highlights: – Be where you are, not in past or future – Surround yourself wisely (people and things) -Live below your means – Don’t compare – Exercise – Spend time in nature – Sleep – Cut out bullsh*t – Help others – Know it’s ok to be sad too.” (Brad Stulberg)

* On Adult ADD: “I believe experience is the only way to truly know what works. You can read or philosophize forever, but what are you going to try?”

* Your Brain Can Only Take So Much Focus: “Unfocus allows us to update information in the brain, giving us access to deeper parts of ourselves and enhancing our agility, creativity and decision-making too.”