What I’m Reading

* Why Bad Things Happen to Good Decisions: “We want to deserve success. The problem is the world doesn’t always comply with our wishes. Following a good process can lead to a bad outcome because of uncertainty.”

* The Peculiar Blindness of Experts: “Credentialed authorities are comically bad at predicting the future. But reliable forecasting is possible.”

* People Don’t Actually Know Themselves Very Well: “People know themselves best on the traits that are tough to observe and easy to admit.”

* The Dangers Of Comparing Yourself To Others: “You can be anything but you can’t be everything. When we compare ourselves to others, we’re often comparing their best features against our average ones.”

* How To Ask For And Receive Emotional Support: “Even when things seem fine, check on people. Even when you’re scared to get the real answers, check on people. Even if you feel like you’re bothering someone, check on people. And sometimes, you’re going to be the person who needs checking in on. So check in on yourself too.”

* Positive Takeaways From Boredom: “Along the way, we forget that boredom has many important things to teach us. It is, at its best, a confused, inarticulate, but genuine signal from a deep part of our minds that something is very wrong.”

* Book Summary: The Laws of Human Nature

* Obsessing Over Productivity: “Sometimes—whether literally or metaphorically—it’s worth making the effort to get there the hard way. Make a habit of challenging your most comfortable habits.”

* Five Lessons From History: “The most important lessons from history are the takeaways that are so broad they can apply to other fields, other eras, and other people. Hard times make people do and think things they’d never imagine when things are calm.”

* Build Purpose to Prepare for the Unknown: “Two of the big misconceptions about purpose are that (1) you have to ‘find your purpose’ and (2) there is only one purpose that is meant for you. In fact, purpose is something you get to construct for yourself.”

* 5 Ways to Validate Yourself: “The goal isn’t to stop reaching out to others. It’s to be there for yourself.”

* Making The Most Out Of What You Read (6 minute podcast): “Nobody cares how many books we’ve read this week, this month, or this year. What truly matters is what we’re doing with the information we’re consuming.”

* How to Open Doors For Other People: “If empathy is recognizing another’s perspective, consideration for the other needs to be externalized from you for it to exist and build rapport.”

Below are some of the most intriguing, thought-provoking and actionable performance-related content pieces I read, watched or listened to this week.   A Lesson In Friendship A very personal post from Shane at Farnam Street. https://fs.blog/2014/08/a-lesson-in-friendship/ What Do You Know Now? “What do you know now that you wish you knew twenty years ago?” https://theirrelevantinvestor.com/2019/05/12/what-do-you-know-now/ … Read more

A little something different this week as we take a break from our normal format. I have MANY favorites in a broad range of genres and categories but if I had to break it down to a tight list of five personal and professional reads for a desert island, or space station, or deep-water exploration … Read more

* The Truth About Burnout: “When we are obsessively passionate, we are constantly striving for things that are outside of our control. When it’s not firmly grounded in a strong foundation, striving leads to craving, and craving leads to suffering.”

* Time Management Through a New Lens: “Productivity Isn’t About Time Management. It’s About Attention Management.”

* Useful and Overlooked Skills: “The ability to recognize that your wins might not signal that you did anything right in the same way your losses might not signal you did anything wrong is vital to learning something valuable from real-world feedback.”

* The Lies We Tell: “We make up stories in our minds and then against all evidence, defend them tooth and nail. Understanding why we do this is the key to discovering truth and making wiser decisions.”

* On Being Alone: “I don’t believe it’s a sign of weakness to feel lonely.”

* Yes, It’s All Your Fault: Active vs. Passive Mindsets: “The hard truth is that most things in your life – good and bad – are your fault. The sooner you realize that, the better things will be.”

* Work Like The Client Is You In Two Years: “Two years is enough time for a few big, valuable projects to completely change your life, if you work on them like a high-value professional.”

* Yes, It’s All Your Fault: Active vs. Passive Mindsets “The hard truth is that most things in your life – good and bad – are your fault. The sooner you realize that, the better things will be.”

* Being Wrong and Changing Your Mind: “We’re more likely to apologize for our behavior than we are for our ideas because it’s easier to admit you did wrong to others than it is to admit you did wrong to yourself.”

* Developing Emotional Intelligence: “Self-awareness involves understanding yourself and your behavior on three levels: 1) what you’re doing, 2) how you feel about it, and 3) the hardest part, figuring out what you don’t know about yourself.”

* The Life-Changing Magic of Unfollowing Almost Everybody: “You’ll feel a lot of aversion and indifference, and small moments of joy. When in doubt, unfollow. I was ruthless and regret nothing.”

*The Anatomy of a Great Decision: “Evaluating decisions on outcomes prevents us from learning.”

* A Guide to Habit Resilience: “Habit resilience is the ability to bounce back when things don’t go as you planned, to stay positive, to encourage yourself, to forgive yourself, to be loving and compassionate with yourself, to shake it off and start again afresh.”

* The Psychological Price of Entrepreneurship: “People who are on the energetic, motivated, and creative side are both more likely to be entrepreneurial and more likely to have strong emotional states. Those states may include depression, despair, hopelessness, worthlessness, loss of motivation, and suicidal thinking.”

* The Importance of Knowing Yourself: “Don’t let anyone decide who you are.”

* How Experiences Influence How You Think About Risk and Reward: “People with different experience than us aren’t necessarily smarter. Part of why learning through experience isn’t necessarily good or bad is due to the lessons we take away from experience.”

* Why Smart People Fall For Fads: “Two of the three variables are highly relevant to why smart people fall for fads: 1. Our need for control over our lives; 2. Our need for belonging.”

* Why Every Detail of Your Craft Matters (PODCAST): “I don’t have a problem catering to individual needs, but if I’m going to do it, then I’ve got to do it my way and just make it better than what the perception would have been.”