Lawson Blake

Breath by James Nestor

Lawson Blake — Mon, 18 Apr 2022 16:06:02 GMT

Short Summary

No matter what you eat, how much you exercise, how resilient your genes are, how skinny or young or wise you are—none of it will matter unless you’re breathing correctly.

Favorite Quote

The perfect breath is this: Breathe in for about 5.5 seconds, then exhale for 5.5 seconds. That’s 5.5 breaths a minute for a total of about 5.5 liters of air.

Book Notes

Breathing in different patterns can influence your body weight and overall health. How you breathe affects the size and function of your lungs. Breathing allows you to hack into your nervous system, control your immune response, and restore health. Changing how you breathe will help you live longer.

Many modern maladies—asthma, anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, psoriasis, and more—can be reduced or reversed simply by changing the way we inhale and exhale.

In a single breath, more molecules of air will pass through your nose than all the grains of sand on all the world’s beaches—trillions and trillions of them. These little bits of air come from a few feet or several yards away. What directs this rambling path are turbinates, six maze-like bones (three on each side) that begin at the opening of your nostrils and end just below your eyes.

Working together, the different areas of the turbinates will heat, clean, slow, and pressurize air so that the lungs can extract more oxygen with each breath. This is why nasal breathing is far more healthy and efficient than breathing through the mouth.

Dr. Mark Burhenne studied the links between mouthbreathing and sleep for decades and had written a book on the subject. He told me that mouthbreathing contributed to periodontal disease and bad breath, and was the number one cause of cavities, even more damaging than sugar consumption, bad diet, or poor hygiene. (This belief had been echoed by other dentists for a hundred years, and was endorsed by Catlin too.) Burhenne also found that mouthbreathing was both a cause of and a contributor to snoring and sleep apnea. He recommended his patients tape their mouths shut at night.

“The health benefits of nose breathing are undeniable,” he told me. One of the many benefits is that the sinuses release a huge boost of nitric oxide, a molecule that plays an essential role in increasing circulation and delivering oxygen into cells. Immune function, weight, circulation, mood, and sexual function can all be heavily influenced by the amount of nitric oxide in the body. Nasal breathing alone can boost nitric oxide sixfold, which is one of the reasons we can absorb about 18 percent more oxygen than by just breathing through the mouth.

In the 1980s, researchers with the Framingham Study, a 70-year longitudinal research program focused on heart disease, attempted to find out if lung size really did correlate to longevity. They gathered two decades of data from 5,200 subjects, crunched the numbers, and discovered that the greatest indicator of life span wasn’t genetics, diet, or the amount of daily exercise, as many had suspected. It was lung capacity.

Many of these doctors found, and Olsson would discover much later, that the best way to prevent many chronic health problems, improve athletic performance, and extend longevity was to focus on how we breathed, specifically to balance oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the body. To do this, we’d need to learn how to inhale and exhale slowly.

There’s nothing controversial about this process of respiration and the role of carbon dioxide in gas exchange. It’s basic biochemistry. What’s less acknowledged is the role carbon dioxide plays in weight loss. That carbon dioxide in every exhale has weight, and we exhale more weight than we inhale. And the way the body loses weight isn’t through profusely sweating or “burning it off.” We lose weight through exhaled breath.

For every ten pounds of fat lost in our bodies, eight and a half pounds of it comes out through the lungs; most of it is carbon dioxide mixed with a bit of water vapor. The rest is sweated or urinated out. This is a fact that most doctors, nutritionists, and other medical professionals have historically gotten wrong. The lungs are the weight-regulating system of the body.

Just a few moments of heavy breathing above metabolic needs could cause reduced blood flow to muscles, tissues, and organs. We’d feel light-headed, cramp up, get a headache, or even black out. If these tissues were denied consistent blood flow for long enough, they’d break down.

It turns out that when breathing at a normal rate, our lungs will absorb only about a quarter of the available oxygen in the air. The majority of that oxygen is exhaled back out. By taking longer breaths, we allow our lungs to soak up more in fewer breaths. I realized then that breathing was like rowing a boat: taking a zillion short and stilted strokes will get you where you’re going, but they pale in comparison to the efficiency and speed of fewer, longer strokes.

It turned out that the most efficient breathing rhythm occurred when both the length of respirations and total breaths per minute were locked in to a spooky symmetry: 5.5-second inhales followed by 5.5-second exhales, which works out almost exactly to 5.5 breaths a minute. The results were profound, even when practiced for just five to ten minutes a day.

In many ways, this resonant breathing offered the same benefits as meditation for people who didn’t want to meditate. Or yoga for people who didn’t like to get off the couch. It offered the healing touch of prayer for people who weren’t religious.

One thing that every medical or freelance pulmonaut I’ve talked to over the past several years has agreed on is that, just as we’ve become a culture of overeaters, we’ve also become a culture of overbreathers. Most of us breathe too much, and up to a quarter of the modern population suffers from more serious chronic overbreathing.

The key to optimum breathing, and all the health, endurance, and longevity benefits that come with it, is to practice fewer inhales and exhales in a smaller volume. To breathe, but to breathe less.

Unlike other bones in the body, the bone that makes up the center of the face, called the maxilla, is made of a membrane bone that’s highly plastic. The maxilla can remodel and grow more dense into our 70s, and likely longer. “You, me, whoever—we can grow bone at any age,” Belfor told me. All we need are stem cells. And the way we produce and signal stem cells to build more maxilla bone in the face is by engaging the masseter—by clamping down on the back molars over and over. Chewing. The more we gnaw, the more stem cells release, the more bone density and growth we’ll trigger, the younger we’ll look and the better we’ll breathe.

Our noses and mouths are not predetermined at birth, childhood, or even in adulthood. We can reverse the clock on much of the damage that’s been done in the past few hundred years by force of will, with nothing more than proper posture, hard chewing, and perhaps some mewing.

Breathing, as it happens, is more than just a biochemical or physical act; it’s more than just moving the diaphragm downward and sucking in air to feed hungry cells and remove wastes. The tens of billions of molecules we bring into our bodies with every breath also serve a more subtle, but equally important role. They influence nearly every internal organ, telling them when to turn on and off. They affect heart rate, digestion, moods, attitudes; when we feel aroused, and when we feel nauseated. Breathing is a power switch to a vast network called the autonomic nervous system.

Men, mainly in their 20s, who’d suddenly been diagnosed with arthritis and psoriasis or depression, who, weeks after practicing heavy breathing, no longer suffered any symptoms. Twenty thousand others in Hof’s community exchange blood work data and other metrics of their transformations online. The before-and-after results confirmed their claims. Some of these people were reducing inflammatory markers (C-reactive protein) 40-fold within just a few weeks.

To practice Wim Hof’s breathing method, start by finding a quiet place and lying flat on your back with a pillow under your head. Relax the shoulders, chest, and legs. Take a very deep breath into the pit of your stomach and let it back out just as quickly. Keep breathing this way for 30 cycles.

If possible, breathe through the nose; if the nose feels obstructed, try pursed lips. Each breath should look like a wave, with the inhale inflating the stomach, then the chest. You should exhale all the air out in the same order. At the end of 30 breaths, exhale to the natural conclusion, leaving about a quarter of the air left in the lungs, then hold that breath for as long as possible.

Once you’ve reached your breathhold limit, take one huge inhale and hold it another 15 seconds. Very gently, move that fresh breath of air around the chest and to the shoulders, then exhale and start the heavy breathing again. Repeat the whole pattern three or four rounds and add in some cold exposure (cold shower, ice bath, naked snow angels) a few times a week.

This flip-flopping—breathing all-out, then not at all, getting really cold and then hot again—is the key to Tummo’s magic. It forces the body into high stress one minute, a state of extreme relaxation the next. Carbon dioxide levels in the blood crash, then they build back up. Tissues become oxygen deficient and then flooded again. The body becomes more adaptable and flexible and learns that all these physiological responses can come under our control.

The best way to keep tissues in the body healthy is to mimic the reactions that evolved in early aerobic life on Earth—specifically, to flood our bodies with a constant presence of that “strong electron acceptor”: oxygen. Breathing slow, less, and through the nose balances the levels of respiratory gases in the body and sends the maximum amount of oxygen to the maximum amount of tissues so that our cells have the maximum amount of electron reactivity.

While some of us may be genetically predisposed toward one disease or another, that doesn’t mean we’re predestined to get these conditions. Genes can be turned off just as they can be turned on. What switches them are inputs in the environment. Improving diet and exercise and removing toxins and stressors from the home and workplace have a profound and lasting effect on the prevention and treatment of the majority of modern, chronic diseases.

As basic as this sounds, full exhalations are seldom practiced. Most of us engage only a small fraction of our total lung capacity with each breath, requiring us to do more and get less. One of the first steps in healthy breathing is to extend these breaths, to move the diaphragm up and down a bit more, and to get air out of us before taking a new one in.

The Sovereign Individual by James Dale Davidson and Lord William Rees-Mogg

Lawson Blake — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 11:54:06 GMT

Read more on Amazon

Short Summary

Published in 1997, this book predicted many changes in technology and society, such as cryptocurrency, digital banking, remote work, rising income inequality, and the metaverse. This book serves as a guide to help you take advantage of the opportunities of the new age while avoiding being destroyed by its impact.

Favorite Quote

For the first time, those who can educate and motivate themselves will be almost entirely free to invent their own work and realize the full benefits of their own productivity.

Book Notes

The Transition of the Year 2000

Throughout human history, there have been three primary stages of economic life:

Hunting-and-gathering societies
Agricultural societies
Industrial societies

Now, we're transitioning into an entirely new stage of human society:

Information societies

In the Information Age, a “job” will be a task to do, not a position you “have.”

The Information Age is shifting the control of power by liberating individuals at the expense of old-world power: the nation-state. Innovations in technology are transforming economic boundaries that once were confined to small portions of the globe to become universal.

The most sweeping revolution in history is both good and bad news.

The good news is that the Information Revolution will be the age of upward mobility. For the first time, those who can educate and motivate themselves will be almost entirely free to invent their work and realize the full benefits of their productivity.

In an environment where the most significant source of wealth will be the ideas you have in your head, anyone who thinks clearly can become rich. The brightest, most successful, and most ambitious will emerge as Sovereign Individuals.

“I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.”
—Henry David Thoreau

In the future, wealth will not be measured by how many zeroes are in your bank account but by your ability to structure your day in a way that enables you to realize full autonomy and independence. The more clever you are, the easier it will be to achieve financial escape velocity.

The bad news is that the Information Age will leave individuals far more responsible for themselves than they have been accustomed to. The transition will likely cause severe economic depression, reducing the unearned advantage in living standards that previous generations have enjoyed. The gap between the haves and haves-not will widen.

The Information Age will be a time of great danger, great reward, and much-diminished civility in some realms and unprecedented scope in others. Increasingly autonomous individuals and bankrupt, desperate governments will confront one another across a new divide.

Megapolitical Transformations in Historic Perspective

In the new millennium, economic and political life will no longer be organized on a gigantic scale under the nation-state's domination. The civilization that brought you world war, the assembly line, social security, income tax, deodorant, and the toaster oven is dying.

Having foresight on where we're heading starts by learning from the past and understanding human behavior. It also helps to understand megapolitics—how governments rise and fall—and what type of institutions they become.

There are four key pieces to understanding megapolitical changes:

Topography: The control and makeup of the land. It, along with climate, played a significant role in early history.
Climate: Can create major shifts in power, and it was the catalyst for transitioning from foraging to farming.
Microbes: The interaction between humans and microbes has produced important demographic effects and altered the costs and rewards of violence.
Technology: The most important factor today in creating megapolitcal change. The more widely dispersed key technologies are, the more widely dispersed power will tend to be, and the smaller the optimum scale of government.

East of Eden

Before the Agricultural Revolution, human population densities were incredibly sparse. The livelihoods of hunter-gatherers depended upon their functioning in small tribes. They had no organized government, usually no permanent settlements, and no concept of accumulating wealth.

The Agricultural Revolution changed more than the human diet; it also launched a revolution in the organization of economic life and culture and a transformation of the logic of violence. The shift to farming raised the scale at which human communities could form and resulted in the emergence of private property.

As competition over land and control of its output became more intense, societies became stationary, and cities emerged. A division of labor became more apparent, and employment and slavery arose for the first time. In contrast to the hunter-gatherer phase of human existence, farming introduced a quantum leap in organized violence and oppression.

Farming set humanity on an entirely new course. The first farmers truly planted the seeds of civilization. From their toil came cities, armies, arithmetic, astronomy, dungeons, wine and whiskey, the written word, kings, slavery, and war.

The Last Days of Politics

The idea of life without politics seems impossible in our current societies. Yet politics is a modern invention that began just five centuries ago with the early stages of industrialism. Now it's dying. A widespread revulsion against politics and politicians is sweeping the world.

Moral outrage against corrupt leaders is not an isolated historical phenomenon but a common precursor of change. It happens whenever one era gives way to another. Whenever technological change has divorced the old forms from the new moving forces of the economy, moral standards shift, and people begin to treat those in command of the old institutions with growing disdain.

The nation-state was a useful institution in a world where returns to violence were high and rising. But megapolitical conditions have changed. Returns to violence are falling, and the nation-state, much like the Church at the twilight of the Middle Ages, is an outdated institution that has become a drag on growth and productivity.

Technology is precipitating a revolution in the exercise of power that will destroy the nation-state just as gunpowder and the printing press destroyed the monopoly of the medieval Church.

Like the late-medieval Church, the nation-state at the end of the twentieth century is a deeply indebted institution that can no longer pay for its continued operation. The nation-state is becoming more irrelevant and even counterproductive to the prosperity of those who not long ago might have been its most unwavering supporters.

The end of the fifteenth century was a time of disillusion, confusion, pessimism, and despair. A time much like now.

The Life and Death of the Nation-State

The Information Age will make it increasingly obvious that the nation-state inherited from the industrial era is a predatory institution. Each passing year will seem less a boon to prosperity and more an obstacle.

The stability and even survival of the Western welfare state depended upon its ability to continue extracting a vast fraction of wealth from its most productive citizens in the form of taxes. The wealthiest countries price their taxes at monopoly rates, often hundreds or thousands of times higher than the actual cost of their services.

The democratic nation-state's current reign of dominance has depended upon extraordinary megapolitical conditions where their magnitude of power was more important than their efficiency. Incomes rose enough above subsistence that nation-states could collect large amounts of money through taxes without negotiating with powerful magnates capable of resisting.

But now, the costs of democratic government have surged out of control, with most democracies running chronic deficits. The costs of government services have become significantly higher than they need to be. It has also become near impossible to fire poor government employees or downsize departments that no longer serve vital purposes.

The Megapolitics of the Information Age

The government's principal economic function is to protect life and property. Yet the government often operates like organized crime, extracting resources from people within its sphere of operations.

The Information Age promises to dramatically alter the balance between protection and extortion, making protection of assets in many cases much easier and extortion more difficult. The technology of the Information Age will make it possible to create assets that are outside the reach of large institutions and the government.

Companies and individuals will also no longer be tied to their location in the Information Age. With a large and growing share of financial transactions occurring in cyberspace, individuals will have a choice of jurisdictions in which to live. If your government becomes inoperable or undesirable, you can simply leave.

As our access to information technology grows, we will be able to multiply our abilities by manifesting a potentially limitless number of agents to complete tasks for us, whether humans or programs. One person's potential output will increase exponentially with technology. We are fast approaching the one-person billion-dollar company.

Information technology will also drive governments to compete amongst themselves in the quality and price of their services. Governments will finally be obliged to give customers what they want.

Transcending Locality

Cyberspace transcends locality, and it involves nothing less than the instantaneous sharing of data everywhere and nowhere at once. The emerging information economy is based on the interconnections linking and relinking millions, if not billions, of users.

In the Information Age, technology will erode most current jurisdictional advantages. New types of advantages have emerged, which include:

Convergent communication: the difference between intercontinental chats and a local call will be negligible.
Global internet access: low-orbit satellites will be able to provide internet to the less-developed parts of the globe.
Mobile banking: you will be able to handle all financial transactions almost anywhere with just your phone or PC.
Understanding foreign language: translation technologies will remove any language barriers, which will increase global competition.
Customized media: your media consumption will be custom-tailored to your interests and search history.
Cyberbroking: you will use cryptocurrency to make investments and pay for products and services.

While paper money will undoubtedly remain in circulation as a residual medium of exchange for the poor and computer illiterate, money for high-value transactions will be privatized. Cybermoney will no longer be denominated only in national units like the paper money of the industrial period.

The new digital money of the Information Age will return control over the medium of exchange to the owners of wealth, who wish to preserve it, rather than to nation-states that wish to spirit it away.

In response, governments will try to enact new laws to restrict the power of these new technologies, but they won't work. As more businesses move online, governments will experience a steep loss in tax revenue, which will cripple them and likely lead to a major financial crisis.

The End of Egalitarian Economics

Globalization, along with other characteristics of the information economy, will tend to increase the income earned by the most talented individuals. The top performers in their respective fields will start to earn outsized incomes comparable to the earnings of professional athletics and pop stars.

The Sovereign Individuals of the information economy won't be warlords, but masters of specialized skills, like entrepreneurs and investors.

With the economy moving online, incentives and market paradigms will reward wealth creation and encourage people to pay for the resources they consume.

Nation-states with a single major metropolis (England, France, Argentina) will remain coherent longer than those with several big cities (the United States, Brazil, Germany) since they have multiple centers of interest.

The new fragmented sovereignties that arise from the breakdown of nation-states will cater to different tastes, enforcing specific regulations within their areas that appeal to the market segments they want customers from. Only cities that reinvest in their upkeep will stay viable in the Information Age.

Inexpensive governments with low costs of doing business will attract new companies in the Information Age. The high-cost governance of North America and Western Europe will drive out companies that need to compete.

Nationalism, Reaction, and the New Luddites

The Information Age is likely to bring discontinuities and sharp breaks in the existing systems, including:

Changes in economic organization.
Organizations that benefit from being geographically isolated.
A wider recognition that the nation-state is obsolete leading to widespread secession movements.
A decline in the status and power of traditional elites and a decline in the respect for the symbols of the nation-state.
An intense and likely violent nationalist reaction among those who lose status, income, and power when ordinary life is disrupted by political devolution and new market arrangements.
Neo-Luddite attacks against Sovereign Individuals looking to leave the nation-state.
The intensity of the neo-Luddite reaction will vary by region, with the reaction being less intense in rapidly growing economies. The reaction will be the strongest among the middle class who face downward mobility.
Old imperatives of Nationalism will lose their appeal.
The nationalist reaction will peak in the early decades of the 2000s, then fade as the efficiency of fragmented sovereignties proves superior to the nation-state.
The nation-state will ultimately collapse in a fiscal crisis.

As it becomes easier to live comfortably and earn a high income anywhere, the pull to choose where to live based on price savings will be more appealing.

The difference between the new "information aristocracy" and the "information poor" is that the information poor will see little benefit from moving. They'll be tied by geography, and the information aristocracy will be extremely mobile, able to earn a living in any jurisdiction they find themselves in.

The internet allows people to transcend any bad luck of being born in a certain country or state, becoming global citizens. There will be a big advantage to being multilingual and cosmopolitan in the Information Age. Those who want to take full advantage of the freedom of mobility will seek residence in multiple places beyond the one they were born in.

Governments won't be able to stop their Sovereign Individuals from leaving, and they'll surely be as clever and enterprising as the migrant workers who sneak in. Unless the US changes its tax laws, ambitious individuals will likely renounce their citizenship in the future in pursuit of a better form of governance.

New memberships and communities will arise that transcend borders, similar to the guilds of old, where you can be part of one no matter where you are. It will afford you certain privileges in the cybereconomy.

People will choose their jurisdictions the same way they today choose their insurance carriers or religions. Jurisdictions that fail to provide an appropriate mix of services will face bankruptcy and liquidation, like an incompetent business.

The Twilight of Democracy

Democracy has prevailed when certain factors support a military power for the masses, including:

Cheap and widely dispersed weaponry.
Weapons that can be used effectively by amateurs.
A military advantage for a large number of participants on foot in battle

Now that information technology is displacing mass production. It's logical to expect the end of mass democracy.

Geographic representative democracy only makes sense in a pre-Information Age world. Now that we can communicate globally instantly, there's no reason to have state-based representatives. The technology of the Information Age will give rise to new forms of governance, just as the Agricultural and Industrial Ages did before it.

Leaders, coaches, executives, etc., are not selected democratically when you look outside of politics. They are hired based on their qualifications. And, they're paid in part based on performance, unlike legislators who make the same amount regardless of how effective they are.

When adding in interest, your additional lifetime earnings would be tens of millions by relocating your assets and citizenship to a more tax-friendly country. The Information Age will be the age of the independent contractor, rewarded based on performance and competence, instead of the "company man."

Morality and Crime in the "Natural Economy" of the Information Age

As the barriers to transmitting information have fallen, more information has been produced, and it's become increasingly valuable to discern the signal from the noise. That skill is becoming increasingly valuable because:

Information overload puts a premium on brevity.
There's an increased value in broad overviews and a lower value in individual facts.
The growing tribalization and marginalization of life will stunt discourse and thinking. Many people will shy away from conclusions that make them uncomfortable, even if obvious.

We will identify more with people who share our interests and work than our fellow citizens. An investment banker in Manhattan has more in common with a trader in Tokyo than the server who prepares his lunch.

My 2021 Annual Review

Lawson Blake — Fri, 31 Dec 2021 17:24:10 GMT

2021 was a weird year for me. I ended up rebelling against a lot of what I learned and accomplished in 2020. In a way, it was me rejecting the digital-first nature of 2020 and returning to the real world where relationships were nurtured in the flesh. It was also the year I got married.

So like how I did for 2020, 2019, and 2018, it's time to answer three important questions:

What went well?
My biggest struggles?
What did I learn?

What Went Well

Career

I let my career take a back seat to other interests in previous years. But after enough stalling and uncertainty, I finally made an effort to start asking for what I wanted. I'm still an engineer but have shifted some of my responsibilities to doing more sales-related work.

After taking on these new responsibilities, I successfully negotiated a 12% raise. While nothing crazy, it was substantial enough to make me realize that I have the power to effect change in my life. I'll discuss it in more detail later, but I learned the importance of knowing what you want and asking for it.

Doubling Down on Physical Relationships

Whereas 2020 was the year of building relationships online, 2021 was the year of doubling down on physical ones. After being a part of multiple online communities and countless Zoom calls from the year before, I finally got fatigued with it all. While I'm grateful for the many wonderful conversations I had online, they all felt too ephemeral.

Instead, I spent most of my free time growing existing relationships with those I didn't get to see as much last year due to the pandemic. 2021 also seemed to be the year of the wedding. And man, did I go to a lot of weddings—10 to be exact, including my own. I also went on three bachelor parties and attended many wedding showers and friendly get-togethers.

Needless to say, I spent a lot of time doubling down on my relationships with close friends and catching up with others I hadn't seen in a while. This year, I also made the ultimate commitment by marrying my wife in October. It was the best day of my life.

A perfect day.

Making Money Online

While I've been publicly writing online since 2018, this year was the first time I started to get paid for my words (not counting the paltry sums I've made from old Medium posts). I'm still not making much from freelance work ($100-200/month), but getting paid directly for your output is an incredible feeling, and I enjoy doing it.

The only downside to freelance writing is that I've commoditized one of my cherished hobbies, and it's why I haven't published as much on my blog this year. Time typically spent writing personal blog posts was used to complete random client work. I want to pursue paid and personal projects but struggle to find a balance.

Still, I look to do more freelance work in the new year. My priority is to be more selective with the type of freelance work I take on to justify the time commitment. Ideally, I'd like to get to where my freelance work brings in at least $500/month.

My Biggest Struggles

Letting the Little Things Slip

I started writing an entire blog post about this topic earlier this year but never got around to publishing it (the irony, I know). But letting little things slip was my biggest struggle this year. It's such a dangerous trap because subtle changes can quickly go unnoticed until you realize months later how far you've drifted off course.

For example, I used to consistently get up around 5:50 AM on the weekdays so that I'd have about two hours to read and write before leaving for work. But after reviewing my habit tracker for 2021, I noticed that my wake time slowly drifted later and later throughout the year. Those two hours of sacred free time gradually shrunk to about an hour and a half. While the shift was subtle, my output was affected as I wrote much less this year.

Realizing how much I'd let some things slide this year was eye-opening. I've never been too hard on myself, so it's easy to see how I let things slip. I know that I can't trust my willpower, so the best thing I can do is continue tracking the routines and habits I care about and review them consistently. It's too easy to trick yourself into thinking you're doing just fine until you see the hard data tell you otherwise.

Losing My Curiosity

I don't know what happened here, but I seemed to have lost some sense of my curiosity along the way. Topics that used to interest me enough to write about could no longer hold my attention, and I found myself spending a lot more of my free time engaging with low-quality content like social media and sports news.

I also found myself rejecting a lot of non-fiction works (self-help, business books, whatever you want to call it) that I used to love and opting for more fiction—mostly science fiction. I'd argue that some of this behavior change is a healthy response (most business books are a bunch of fluff), but it was still weird experiencing myself go through this change.

I know it's perfectly natural for your interests and tastes to evolve, but I haven't quite found my new "home," and it's bothering me. I think it's why I've become susceptible to consuming more low-value content, but it's a terrible substitute I can't allow to continue. Experimenting with my routine and trying new things will be important moving into the new year.

What I Learned

Ask for What You Want

The most important thing I learned this year is asking for what you want. If something is important to you, it's your responsibility to see it become a reality. Waiting for an opportunity to land at your feet is a fool's errand that will have you waiting for most of your life.

I understand that saying this is quite obvious, but following through has never come easy for me. What changed for me was finally realizing that most people aren't out there to see you fail. Instead, they're too busy, distracted, and worried about their own problems to have any time left over to think about what you might want. You have to decide what matters to you and be persistent about making it happen.

Life Still Happens in the Real World

2020 was a chaotic year that taught me how to adjust on the fly and meet many interesting people online. But after a year of Zoom calls and Slack messages, I was yearning for personal connection in the real world. Once the world began reopening and travel plans resumed, I found myself opting to meet people face-to-face.

I still believe that there is immense value in digital tools and social media when used in earnest, but humans are physical beings who need personal connection. Knowing how to navigate the digital world is a valuable skill that I wish to continue, but I don't want to lose sight that the best moments of my life have always occurred in the real world.

Moving into 2022

My goal for 2022 is to focus on improving three areas of my life: relationships, health, and financial stability.

Relationships

2021 made me appreciate the time spent with people in person. I want to continue making an effort to double down on the most important people to me and remove myself from the relationships that no longer serve me.

I already have four weddings scheduled in the new year, so some travel plans have already been made, but I'd also like to make a few trips to visit friends that live further away. Making an effort to see people I care about will continue to be a priority.

Most importantly, I want to invest in my relationship with my wife. Now that we're married and living together, I want to make sure she gets the time and attention she deserves from me.

Health

I fell just short of accomplishing my weightlifting goals for 2021. A combination of moving, getting married, and going on my honeymoon in the same month did not help me hit the gym consistently. Combine that with getting Covid at the tail-end of the year, and I missed enough gym time to fall short of my goals.

I'm really excited about my health goals for 2022, though, as I seek to hit the 1,000lb Club. The 1,000lb Club is when you can lift 1,000lbs between three different lifts. For me, that's 1,000lbs lifted between the squat, deadlift, and bench press.

I'm already close to achieving this goal (roughly at 900lbs currently) using the Wendler 5-3-1 program, so I'm confident that I can hit this goal by year-end. The most important thing will be avoiding any major setbacks. The most significant risk is getting injured, so I plan to dedicate more time to a stretching/yoga routine to maintain flexibility.

Creating a Portfolio of Small Bets

I'm stealing the "Portfolio of Small Bets" idea from Daniel Vassallo because his idea has had such an impact on my thinking that I've enrolled in his mid-January cohort for his Portfolio of Small Bets course.

Essentially, I want to become more robust by diversifying my skills and income streams by trying many things in tandem. I'm a firm believer that the world is changing faster than ever at the same time that it's never been easier to earn a dollar online.

I've already started down this path with my freelance writing work, but I want to prove further that I can adapt quickly and provide for my family in a world filled with uncertainty. It's hard to gauge how successful I'll be at creating a portfolio of small bets, but I'm excited about what will come of it. Expect to hear more about my journey in the new year.

The Best Books and Articles I Read in 2021

Lawson Blake — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 15:47:39 GMT

This year I read 24 books and countless articles. While I read about as much as I did in 2020, this year saw my interests shift to reading more fiction—particularly science fiction. I also found myself reading about nutrition, economics, crypto, philosophy, and methods for how to learn.

In no particular order, these are the five books and five articles I found most valuable.

A quick note: These are the best books and articles that I read in 2021; it doesn't mean that they were published in 2021. You can also check out my reading recommendations for 2020 and 2019.

The Best Books I Read in 2021

Dune by Frank Herbert

One of my favorite science fiction works (along with the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy) got revisited this fall in anticipation of the new movie, which I also highly recommend. If you've seen the movie and want to dive deeper into the world of Arrakis, I can't recommend Dune enough.

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

Part memoir, part instruction manual on what it takes to become a professional writer by one of the best to do it. King doesn't spend much time on tactical advice but instead lays out what it takes in terms of sacrifice and commitment to become a professional writer while mixing in a good bit of humor.

If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There's no way around these two things that I'm aware of, no shortcut.

Finite and Infinite Games by James Carse

I've read this book twice and still come away thinking there's so much I don't fully understand. Still, Finite and Infinite Games is an excellent philosophical work. Carse argues that we play two types of games. A finite game is played for the purpose of winning (sports, business, politics, war, etc.), an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play. Don't be fooled by the book's short length; there's a lot to unpack here.

There at least two kinds of games. One could be called finite, the other infinite. A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play.

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

A dense work of philosophy disguised as a murder mystery. Dostoevsky tackles the fundamental question of how one should choose to live through the story of three brothers: Dmitri, Ivan, and Alexei. The book examines how each brother evolves and deals with their struggles based on their differing worldviews. I recommend taking your time with this one and reading along with a friend if you can.

Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.

Death's End by Liu Cixin

The third and final book in the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy beginning with the bestselling work, The Three-Body Problem. If you're a fan of science fiction, you're probably familiar with the series if not already read the first book. While each book in the series is incredible, Cixin manages to continually blow your mind as he explores the depths of space and time. A truly frightening yet beautiful series.

Time is the cruelest force of all.

The Best Articles I Read in 2021

Half-Assing It With Everything You've Got by Nate Soares

How hard should you really work? Society has conditioned us to believe that we should work as hard as possible instead of slacking off. But both hard workers and slackers are doing it wrong. If you want to be highly effective, you have to remember what you're fighting for.

The slacker in you rebels against pointless tasks, and the tryer in you wants perfection. So satisfy both: aim for the minimum necessary target, and move there as efficiently as possible.

In Praise of the Gods by Simon Sarris

Being rational is a powerful tool, but when used by itself, it becomes dangerous. Modern society and, in particular, the West has become obsessed with functionality and efficiency over making things beautiful for their own sake. There's still immense value in mythology, tradition, and trusting your intuition.

There is this tendency to think that you must understand everything, or that a thing must be proven, to enjoy it or derive serious meaning from it. This mistake is at the heart of the disembodied rationalist worldview.

You and Your Research by Richard Hamming

What's the most important problem in your field, and why aren't you working on it? This is the essence of the 1986 lecture by mathematician Richard Hamming. He makes a compelling argument that the desire for excellence is an essential feature for doing great work. Without such a goal, you'll wander aimlessly.

If you do not work on important problems, then it is obvious you have little chance of doing important things.

The Great Online Game by Packy McCormick

Nobody does a better job at breaking down what's going on at the intersection of internet culture, future or work, and crypto than Packy McCormick. And his piece on the Great Online Game is superb at exploring how we can leverage our digital selves to achieve rewards in the real world. Anyone can play the Great Online Game; all you need is knowledge, curiosity, and willingness to share.

We now live in a world in which, by typing things into your phone or your keyboard, or saying things into a microphone, or snapping pictures or videos, you can marshall resources, support, and opportunities. Crypto has the potential to take it up a notch by baking game mechanics -- points, rewards, skins, teams, and more -- right into the whole internet.

A Chemical Hunger Series by Slime Mold Time Mold

A detailed multipart series makes a compelling argument for what might be driving the obesity epidemic. Here's a hint: it's probably not at all what you think. This series pairs well with my 2020 recommendation, What's Driving Chronic Disease. Slime Mold Time Mold is easily one of the most exciting blogs I discovered this year, with honorable mention going to Applied Divinity Studies.

Only one theory can account for all of the available evidence: the obesity epidemic is caused by one or more environmental contaminants, compounds in our water, food, air, at our jobs and in our homes, that change how our bodies regulate weight.

Want more reading recommendations? Be sure to follow me on Goodreads!

So Good They Can't Ignore You by Cal Newport

Lawson Blake — Mon, 09 Aug 2021 14:16:00 GMT

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Short Summary

Discovering the right career has more to do with developing the right skills instead of following your passion. You discover your passion after you've put in the hard work to become excellent at something valuable. What you do is less important than how well you do it.

Favorite Quote

The passion hypothesis is not just wrong, it’s also dangerous. Telling someone to “follow their passion” is not just an act of innocent optimism, but potentially the foundation for a career riddled with confusion and angst.

Book Notes

Follow these four rules to provide yourself with a realistic path toward a meaningful and engaging career.

Rule #1: Don't Follow Your Passion

Being told to follow your passion isn't just wrong; it's also dangerous. "Following your passion" is not just an act of optimism; it can potentially lead to a career riddled with confusion and angst that you'll later regret.

It's poor advice because it doesn't accurately describe how most people who love their careers actually got there. Compelling careers often have complex origins that reject the simple idea that all you have to do is follow your passion.

To find a compelling career, you want a career that fulfills three basic psychological needs:

Autonomy: the feeling that you have control over your day, and that your actions are important
Competence: the feeling that you are good at what you do
Relatedness: the feeling of connection to other people

Rule #2: Be So Good They Can't Ignore You

Nobody ever takes note of my advice, because it’s not the answer they wanted to hear. What they want to hear is ‘Here’s how you get an agent, here’s how you write a script,’… but I always say, ‘Be so good they can’t ignore you.’

—Steve Martin

Instead of following your passion, you want to adopt the craftsman's mindset.

The craftsman mindset focuses on what you can offer the world instead of asking what the world can offer you. It asks you to leave behind self-centered concerns about whether your job is “just right” and instead put your head down and plug away at getting really damn good.

No one owes you a great career; you need to earn it. Focus on stretching your ability and receiving immediate feedback to acquire rare and valuable skills known as career capital.

There are no shortcuts to building a great career. It will take many years of consistent effort and deliberate practice to get what you want. But with that said, some careers aren't worth the effort.

If your job meets one of these disqualifiers, you may want to start looking elsewhere:

Your job presents few opportunities to distinguish yourself by developing relevant skills that are rare and valuable.
Your job focuses on something you think is useless or perhaps even actively bad for the world.
Your job forces you to work with people you really dislike.

Rule #3: Turn Down a Promotion (Or, the Importance of Control)

Instead of leveraging your newly acquired skills to chase money and prestige, your goal should be to gain more control to create a working life you love.

Having more control over what you do and how you do it will increase your happiness, engagement, and sense of fulfillment. But before you seek more control in your career, there are two traps you want to avoid.

The first trap is believing that you can gain more control over your career before developing the necessary skills. A common mistake people make is quitting their job to become full-time freelancers or starting a business before they have the necessary skills. Making a move too soon could lead to greater stress and financial insecurity as it may be more difficult to attract clients than expected.

The second control trap is that once you have enough career capital to gain meaningful control over your working life, you become too valuable to your current employer. As you ask for more control over when and how you work, your boss may do whatever they can to prevent you from making those changes to maximize your value.

To avoid falling into either of these control traps, you should only pursue a bid for more control if it passes The Law of Financial Viability.

The Law of Financial Viability states that when deciding whether to follow an appealing pursuit that will introduce more control into your work life, seek evidence of whether people are willing to pay for it. If you find evidence, continue. If not, it's time to move on.

Money is a neutral indicator of value. By aiming to make money, you’re aiming to be valuable.

—Derek Sivers

Rule #4: Think Small, Act Big (Or, the Importance of Mission)

Most people who discover their life's mission got where they are by first building up career capital and then cashing it in for the types of traits that define great work. If you want to identify your mission, you must first get to the cutting edge of your career—the only place where it will become visible.

Once you have the capital to identify a good mission, you must still work to make it succeed. To do so, follow The Law of Remarkability. First, your mission must compel people who encounter it to remark about it to others. Second, it must be launched in a venue that supports such remarking.

To maximize your chances of success, deploy small, concrete experiments that return concrete feedback. By using little bets and The Law of Remarkability, you greatly increase your chances of finding ways to transform your mission from a compelling idea into a compelling career.

In Summary

To discover the work you love, you must first build career capital by mastering rare and valuable skills. Once you develop such skills, cash them in for the traits that define a compelling career: autonomy, competence, and control. And remember, when it comes to deciding what to work on, working right trumps finding the right work.

Resource Mode: What to Do When You're Feeling Stuck

Lawson Blake — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 14:21:00 GMT

What should I be doing with my life?

I often ask myself this question when dealing with frustration and anxiety about my life’s direction. This nagging feeling is only made worse when I notice that some of my friends and acquaintances seem to have it all figured out. Feeling stuck while it seems like everyone else is moving right along can leave you feeling isolated, uncertain, and quite miserable.

But here’s the thing: Wallowing in self-pity and allowing yourself to remain stuck is a choice, no matter how hopeless your situation may feel.

You can build towards a better future—even if you don’t know what it looks like—by entering what author and entrepreneur Sebastian Marshall calls Resource Mode.

Resource Mode

“It’s possible to have no idea what you’re building towards, but yet to select intelligent things to do that are clearly wins, and to do them cheerfully, and to trust that when you do eventually find a sense of meaning (almost all people do, eventually)—you’ll then be better and more well-equipped for it for the cheerful actions you’ve done now.”

—Sebastian Marshall

So, what is Resouce Mode?

Resource Mode is investing your free time into building things that will benefit you no matter what. Instead of figuring out what direction your life should take, you take a step back and focus on laying a solid foundation to serve as a springboard for your future self.

To enter Resource Mode is to build skills, meet interesting people, and grow financial assets that will later serve you. It’s learning how to manage your habits, make friends, and establish a reputation for being effective so that when opportunity strikes, you know how to take advantage.

Build Skills

Arguably the worst career advice thrown around is the idea of following your passion. Maybe you’re one of the lucky few who discovered your life’s passion at an early age, but for most of us, it's nearly impossible to know what we’re passionate about until we’ve gotten good at something.

Being told to follow your passion leads you to feel stuck and frustrated because you lack a clear sense of direction. You’re too focused on asking what the world can offer you instead of asking what you can give in return. Instead, work on building skills that are interesting to you and valuable to others.

Once you’ve mastered a few rare and valuable skills, you can leverage them to gain more control and influence over the type of work you do. Get good at something first, and the passion will soon follow.

Choosing What Skills to Learn

The easiest way to determine what skills to learn is to ask yourself:

What’s easy for me to do but difficult for others?

There are likely a few things you already do reasonably well without much effort. You want to uncover what those skills are that’s hard for other people to reverse engineer.

Still not sure what skill to improve?

Start with communication and learning. Knowing how to communicate effectively and learn quickly will give you a competitive advantage no matter your career path.

The most critical communication skills to develop are speaking and writing skills. Knowing how to effectively communicate your ideas via conversation, presentation, and text will boost your credibility and authority at whatever you choose to do. When it comes to making decisions, the most clearly communicated idea almost always wins.

Both communication skills also have clear paths and dedicated peer networks willing to provide feedback, which is a critical component for rapid learning. If you want to improve your speaking, there’s Toastmasters, and if you want to become a better writer, there’s Foster.

Improving your learning and thinking skills isn’t as straightforward, but the easiest way to learn something is by teaching it. It may sound counterintuitive to start teaching something you’re currently learning yourself, but it’s the best tool to accelerate your learning.

Teaching forces you to break out of your comfort zone of passive learning—reading, watching, and listening—and transitions you to a more active role. It requires you to address any gaps in your understanding.

Start by writing out what you’re learning in simple language as if you were teaching it to a classroom full of twelve-year-olds. By writing your ideas down using elementary words, you’ll quickly pick up on where you lack understanding. Obvious signs that you have more to learn would include using big words, being vague, or leaving out important information.

Learning New Skills

You can rapidly learn a new skill by focusing on two components: directness and feedback.

Directness is simply doing the thing you want to learn. It’s improvement through active practice rather than passive learning. If you want to improve your jump shot or become a better writer, don’t spend your time watching how-to videos or reading books; go put in the reps or write more essays.

Receiving corrective feedback serves as another critical component. This type of feedback shows you what you’re doing wrong and how to fix it. The best way to receive corrective feedback is to find a coach, mentor, or teacher proficient in what you’re trying to learn. If a professional coach isn’t feasible, you can still gain valuable feedback by sharing your work with others or tracking what you're doing, and revisiting what went well and what didn’t.

Now that we’ve covered the first stage of Resource Mode, it’s time to move to stage two: Meeting interesting people.

Meet Interesting People

The people you surround yourself with not only open doors for you; they shape the way you think. They influence what you believe is possible.

You want to surround yourself with people who are living examples of the virtues you want to develop in yourself. Find people that value learning, loyalty, critical thinking, and courage. Over time, you’ll naturally absorb some of their qualities.

You also want to seek out others who see the world through a different lens and will challenge your version of reality. For example, if you feel stuck in your career, you’re likely only exposed to others living out a similar path who won’t upset the status quo. Break out of your bubble by meeting people who will question your beliefs and not be afraid to tell you the truth, no matter how harsh.

How to Meet Interesting People

Meeting new people can seem like an impossible task when you’re feeling stuck. But that’s where Resource Mode proves its value.

Instead of thinking that you need to spend your time networking, there’s a more effective method for getting yourself in front of people you want to meet. The secret? Make something awesome and tell people about it.

Sharing your work in public is one of the best things you can do to attract new people into your life. Focus on creating—whether it’s essays, music, digital art, product design, etc.—that reflects your interests and showcases your capabilities. By expressing yourself, you’ll draw the attention of others who care about the same things you do. This will make it easier to form relationships with people who know how to navigate the career you’re interested in.

This leads us to the third stage of Resource Mode: Growing assets.

Grow Assets

Feeling stuck often comes as a byproduct of thinking that your options are limited. And more than anything, increasing your wealth gives you more options to choose where to live, work, and how to spend your time.

Perhaps you can’t afford to change careers because your family’s well-being is dependent on your current income. Or maybe you don’t feel comfortable leaping into a new career because a temporary loss in income would leave you on shaky ground. Unfortunately, it’s nearly impossible to make decisions that will benefit you in the long run when it feels like you’re drowning.

The clear-headedness that can come from having a few months of financial runway is worth infinitely more than any individual object or experience. Because of this, you’ll want to get clever about how you can expand your runway by cutting expenses and finding ways to earn additional income. I prefer Ramit Sethi’s strategy of not feeling guilty about spending money on the things you love but cutting mercilessly on the things you don’t.

For example, I’d rather spend my money on experiences and self-education than gadgets and status symbols. I’m more than happy to spend money on a nice meal and never think twice about purchasing a book I want to read, but I’ve also driven the same vehicle for over ten years and use a three-year-old phone.

While cutting expenses is a good way to get started, there’s a limit to how far you can take it, and—quite frankly—it’s not much fun. But it’s also only half of the equation. You can also focus on building new avenues of income generation. Although it's not as quick or easy as cutting expenses, there’s no cap on your earning potential.

Making money is not just a thing you can do, but a skill you can learn. And the easiest way to build the skill is by doing things you already love to do in the service of others. You want to always ask yourself:

How can I create and deliver more value?

How can I increase my capacity for value creation?

Often the limiting factor for earning more is not your abilities; it's your beliefs. If you believe that people who make money from their work are sellouts or that money corrupts creative expression, then you’re going to have a difficult time selling yourself. The same goes for being timid about charging for your work. It’s a sign that you don’t fully believe in your value.

“Money is a neutral indicator of value. By aiming to make money, you’re aiming to be valuable.”

—Derek Sivers

If you want to earn money from your work, I suggest starting small and slowly ramping up to build your confidence. View money as a signal that you’re providing something that other people want. If you have trouble getting people to pay for your work, take a step back and ask how you can best serve them. Once you start earning from your work, no matter how small, it will shift your mindset about what’s possible.

Conclusion

There's no law in life that states that you must immediately search for meaning if you're unsure what to do. Instead, you may be better off spending your time building skills, meeting interesting people, and gathering resources that will increase your options. Committing to something right now will leave you far better off than just standing around and hoping something will come your way.

Learn more about Resource Mode:

Gateless by Sebastian Marshall and Kai Zau

How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Lawson Blake — Tue, 13 Jul 2021 14:17:15 GMT

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Short Summary

A timeless bestseller that’s still as relevant today as it was when first published in 1936. The principles in this book will help you become more likable and win others over to your way of thinking—a must-read.

Favorite Quote

“Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain—and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.”

Book Notes

Three Fundamental Techniques in Handling People

There are three fundamental techniques for handling people. Master these principles and observe how others will like you more and be willing to sing your praises.

1. Don’t criticize, condemn, or complain. Criticizing others is futile because it puts the other person on the defensive and usually makes them strive to justify themself. Criticism is dangerous because it wounds a person’s pride, hurts their sense of self-importance, and arouses resentment.

The resentment that criticism engenders can demoralize your employees, family, and friends and still not correct the situation. When dealing with people, remember that you aren’t dealing with creatures of logic; you’re dealing with creatures of emotion motivated by pride and vanity.

Anybody can criticize, condemn, and complain, but it takes true character and self-control to understand and forgive. So try to understand other people’s point-of-view.

2. Give honest and sincere appreciation. Our deepest desire in life is to feel like we’re important and to know that we’re appreciated. So instead of just thinking about your accomplishments and wants, try to discover what other people do well and show sincere appreciation. If you can make it a habit to spread gratitude to somebody every day, you’ll surprise yourself with how well your relationships blossom.

But there’s a fine line between showing someone appreciation and flattering them. The first is sincere, and the other is selfish and easily recognized by others, so avoid it at all costs. Instead of just telling people what they already want to hear, think about how you can show them kindness.

3. Arouse in the other person an eager want. The world is filled with people only interested in getting what they want. But if you choose to serve others unselfishly, you’ll have an enormous competitive advantage in life.

The only way to influence other people is to talk about what they want and how they can get it. If you can put yourself in their shoes by understanding their point of view, you’ll never have to worry about anything. As Henry Ford said, “If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.”

Six Ways to Make People Like You

Likewise, there are six fundamental principles for getting people to like you. Master these principles, and you’ll never struggle to make friends.

1. Become genuinely interested in other people. Want to know one easy trick for making more friends? Simply become genuinely interested in other people instead of trying to get them to be interested in you. Be willing to do things for other people—things that require time, energy, unselfishness, and thoughtfulness. Greet people with animation and enthusiasm.

2. Smile. Your smile is a messenger of goodwill. It brightens the lives of all who see it. To someone stressed or experiencing hardship, your smile is like a ray of sunshine breaking through a cloudy day. And the best part? It costs nothing for you but creates so much more for others.

3. A person’s name is the most important sound to them. Most people are only interested in hearing one name above all others: their own. To call someone by their name is to pay them a subtle compliment, to show them that you care. To remember a person’s name is to share with them the sweetest and most important sound in any language.

4. Be a good listener. There’s nothing more flattering than giving someone your undivided attention while they are speaking to you. People will enjoy talking to you if you’re willing to listen intently and encourage them to talk about themselves.

If you want to be a good conversationalist, learn to be an attentive listener. To be seen as interesting requires you first to be interested. Ask questions and encourage others to talk about themselves and their accomplishments. And remember, the people you’re talking to are way more interested in themselves and their problems than they are with yours.

5. Talk in terms of the other person’s interests. Talking about whatever the other person is interested in will benefit both of you. Not only will you learn a lot more about the other person, but they will actively seek you out for how interesting you are.

6. Make the other person feel important. If there’s one law that you should always follow, it’s this: always make the other person feel important. No matter their current standing in life, everyone desires to feel important, so honor their desire and do so genuinely.

“Every man I meet is my superior in some way. In that, I learn from him.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

And the truth is that almost everyone you meet in life, in some way, is superior to you. So if you want to make them feel important, recognize and compliment whatever it is that makes them your superior.

12 Principles to Win People to Your Way of Thinking

1. The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it. You can’t win an argument. You either end up being wrong or make the other person resent you by making them feel inferior. You may be correct, but as far as changing someone’s mind is concerned, you’ll probably be just as futile as if you were wrong.

Instead of letting a disagreement devolve into an argument, follow these steps to win people over:

Welcome a disagreement by being thankful for having it being brought to your attention.
Distrust your first instinctive impression. Instead of getting defensive, stay calm and observe how you react.
Control your temper.
Give your opponent a chance to talk by listening first.
Look for areas of agreement.
Be honest and admit your mistakes. Doing so will disarm your opponent and reduce their defensiveness.
Promise to think over your opponent’s ideas. Your opponent may be right, so it’s better to consider their points and move on.
Thank your opponents sincerely for their interest in the topic of disagreement.
Delay action to allow both sides time to think through the problem.

2. Never say, "You're wrong." Telling somebody that they’re wrong will never convince them that you’re right. Instead, you’ll just shut them down and make them resent you. You cannot teach others how they should think; you can only guide them to your way of thinking.

But you’ll never get into trouble by admitting that you may be wrong. Doing so will stop all argument and inspire your opponent to be just as fair and open-minded as you. It will make him want to admit that he, too, might be wrong.

3. If you are wrong, admit it. When you’re wrong about something, admit your mistake quickly and with enthusiasm. Not only will you disarm your opponent by saying everything that they were thinking, but you’ll also make them more likely to forgive you. They may even try to come to your defense.

“By fighting you never get enough, but by yielding you get more than you expected.”

4. Begin in a friendly way. You will never win an opponent over to your way of thinking with logic and reason. Instead, begin in a friendly way to convince him that you’re sincere. Gentleness and friendliness always win over fury and force.

5. Get the other person saying “yes, yes" immediately. Never begin a conversation by discussing the things on which you differ. Instead, start by emphasizing—and keep emphasizing—the things on which you agree. Make it clear that you are both striving for the same thing and that the only difference is of method and not of purpose.

Use what’s called the Socratic Method by getting the other person to say, “yes, yes” right away. Keep asking questions that your opponent would have to agree to until finally, without realizing it, they agree with your conclusion.

6. Let the other person do most of the talking. One of the biggest mistakes people make is thinking they can convince others to their way of thinking by dominating the conversation. Instead, let the other person do most of the talking. They know more about their business and problems than you do, so ask questions and let them tell you.

7. Let the other person feel that the idea is theirs. Nobody likes being told what to do or feel like they are being sold to. We much prefer to think that we act on our own ideas or buy on our own accord. So let the other people feel that an idea is theirs by consulting their wishes, wants, and thoughts and watch how quickly you win them over.

8. Try to see things from the other person's point of view. Always try to understand the other person by putting yourself in their place. Ask yourself, “How would I feel? How would I react if I were in their shoes?” Seeing something from another person’s point of view will not only save you time and irritation, but it’s also one of the best skills you can develop for building relationships and advancing your career.

9. Be sympathetic with the other person's ideas and desires. Most people you meet in life are hungering for sympathy, so why don’t you give it to them? Show people that you care and sympathize with their ideas and desires, and they will love you.

10. Appeal to the nobler motives. If you wish to change people, appeal to their nobler motives. Most people will favorably react to your requests if you make them feel like you consider them to be honest, upright, and fair individuals who want to do the right thing.

11. Dramatize your ideas. Merely stating a truth isn’t enough to win people over. The truth has to be vivid, interesting, and dramatic if you want others to pay attention. You have to use showmanship like they do in movies or on TV to get your ideas to resonate.

12. Throw down a challenge. High achievers desire to excel and win. So give them the chance to prove their worth by creating a game or challenge for them to excel in. Creating a challenge is a fun way to appeal to people’s creative spirit and desire to feel important.

“The way to get things done is to stimulate competition. I do not mean in a sordid, money-getting way, but in the desire to excel.” —Charles Schwab

9 Ways to Change People Without Offending Them

Being a leader requires you to motivate people without offending them or making them resent you. Here are nine ways to effectively do it.

1. Begin with praise and honest appreciation. It’s always much easier to listen to unpleasant things after we’ve received some recognition. So before you point out anyone’s faults, first lavish them in praise.

2. Call attention to people's mistakes indirectly. Many people begin their criticism with sincere praise followed by the word “but” and ending with a critical statement. While this method may seem effective, most people will immediately question the sincerity of the praise after hearing the word “but.” Instead, use the word “and” to indirectly call attention to the desired behavior you wish to change. Indirectly calling attention to one’s mistakes works wonders for those who are sensitive to criticism.

3. Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person. Admitting your own mistakes before blaming others for the same thing will help convince them to change their behavior. Nobody likes being told what to do, but they will follow the example of a good leader.

4. Ask questions instead of giving direct orders. People are more likely to accept an order if they feel like they’ve had a say in the decision. So instead of directing orders, ask questions to get others involved and make them feel like they contributed to the solution.

5. Let the other person save face. Never openly criticize or condemn. Even if you are right and they are wrong, you will only destroy their ego and harbor resentment by causing someone to lose face. If you must criticize, do so in private.

6. Praise even the slightest improvement. Everybody likes to be praised, but when the praise is specific, it comes across as sincere. Showing someone genuine praise, even for the slightest improvement, might also transform their lives. Most people wither under criticism but will blossom under encouragement.

7. Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to. If you want someone to improve in a particular way, act as though that particular trait were already one of their outstanding characteristics. They will then do everything they can to make sure they live up to their given reputation.

8. Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct. If you want to help others improve, make things seem easy to do and let others know that you have faith in their ability to excel. Sit back and watch how they will rise to the level of your expectation.

9. Make others happy about doing the thing you suggest. You always want to make the other person happy about the thing you suggest. You can do this by following these guidelines:

Be sincere and concentrate on the benefits to the other person.
Know exactly what it is you want the other person to do.
Be empathetic. Ask yourself what it is the other person wants.
Consider the benefits the other person will receive.
Match those benefits to the person’s wants.
When you make a request, share it so that the other person understands how it will benefit them.

How to Use Notion to Track (and Hit) Your Goals

Lawson Blake — Fri, 23 Apr 2021 14:45:00 GMT

Have you ever been excited about setting New Year's resolutions only to never follow through with them? Yeah, I was like that too. At first, I thought I wasn’t working hard enough. That I lacked self-discipline. Eventually, though, I realized that working harder was an excuse to deflect from the bigger problem—I was unorganized.

I didn’t have a system to hold myself accountable and keep me on track. My intentions were pure, but I had no plan for how to succeed. That is until I discovered Notion two years ago.

Instead of relying on sheer willpower, I leveraged the power of Notion to build a goal-setting template to set, track, and hit my goals. But I didn’t just stop there. A goal tracker is valuable, but it’s only as useful as the goals you feed it. Success, therefore, would be determined by how good my template is at helping me set goals worth achieving.

How to Set Goals Worth Achieving

To create goals worth achieving, you have to set goals you want. Sounds obvious, right? But if you're being honest, when was the last time you did something because you wanted it and not because your parents, friends, or society told you that you should want it?

For example, I used to set an annual goal to compete in a local powerlifting competition. I’ve always enjoyed weightlifting, so I thought it was the obvious next step. But years passed, and I never competed. I had failed to realize that working out at a gym filled with serious powerlifters had led me to mimic their desires. I thought I wanted to compete, but I was never serious about investing the time and energy necessary to make it happen.

So, like any discipline, there’s an art and science to setting and hitting your goals. The process of reaching your goals should be just as enjoyable as the moment you finally achieve them. With that said, here’s the high-level structure I use to set goals worth achieving:

25-Year Vision
Annual Goals
Quarterly Goals
Monthly Goals
Weekly Goals
Daily Goals

To key to setting goals worth achieving is that you’ve got to think long-term. I’m talking 25-years long. You want to create what Taylor Pearson calls your 25-Year Vision to drive each layer of your high-level structure. Specifically, you’re looking to find that overlap between what you do well, what you enjoy doing, and what people will recognize you for.

I realize that thinking about who you want to be and what you want to accomplish in 25 years can feel overwhelming, if not downright impossible. I mean, who doesn’t have a change in interests, wants, and desires like every 5-10 years? But the purpose of the 25-year vision isn’t to predict what your future self wants; it’s to reframe your thinking so that you’re not just chasing the latest shiny object.

When you start with a 25-year vision, you give yourself an excuse to set audacious goals that currently seem impossible to achieve. You’re crafting the ultimate vision of who you want to become in all areas of your life.

How to Track Your Goals Using Notion

Now, I’ll show you how to create your high-level goal-setting template—from your 25-year Vision down to your Daily Goals—all inside Notion. And if customizing your template inside Notion isn’t your thing, you can access the exact template I use at the end of the article.

Let’s get started!

25-Year Vision

The 25-Year Vision will ultimately set the direction you want to go.

This is the page where you get to have the most fun, but you also want to take it seriously (after all, it’s your future we’re talking about). I suggest blocking off at least an hour to really think about what you want to get out of your one-shot at life.

Remember, this vision doesn’t bind you. It’s there to help you think big by giving you the excuse to set goals that currently seem impossible. This is your chance to be the director of the life you want to live, so don’t hold back!

Annual Goals

The Annual Goals page is where the actual goal setting starts.

While the 25-year Vision will ultimately set your direction, the actual goal-setting starts here. These are the goals that you want to accomplish by the end of the year.

Your Annual Goals template breaks out into three focus areas: Professional, Physical, and Personal. Feel free to add another area of focus, but these three should be non-negotiable.

Underneath your annual goals, you’ll have two rows: Completed Goals and Abandoned Goals. As you make progress throughout the year, you’ll move your goals to their respective column. And finally, you’ll also have embedded pages up top that link to your Quarterly Goals.

Quarterly Goals

The Quarterly Goals page follows a similar pattern but with priorities included.

Your Quarterly Goals page follows nearly the same template as your Annual Goals. The biggest difference is that your Quarterly Goals template also showcases your priorities for the quarter and page links to your Monthly Goals for the respective quarter.

You also have a Quarterly Review section listed below your goals that should be completed at the end of each quarter to measure your progress and reevaluate any goals left incomplete.

Monthly Goals

Look familiar?

The Monthly Goals page is almost identical to your Quarterly Goals page, so there’s not much else to add. Each section of your template has a similar structure so that you can easily navigate it.

Weekly and Daily Goals

The Weekly Goals page is where the work happens.

The Weekly Goals page is slightly different from the others because you’re setting priorities for the week to determine your daily goals.

For example, if one of your annual goals is to lose an “X” amount of weight or hit a personal record in one of your lifts, then your weekly priority might be to work out four times per week. You’ll then fill in which four days you plan to go to the gym as your daily goals.

For your habit-related goals, it’s easy to add them all in at the beginning of each week. But for those non-habit goals, it might be better to plan a day or two in advance if your schedule is somewhat unpredictable.

At the end of each week, you’ll review what got done and what didn’t. For those goals left unchecked, you’ll want to determine why. If you just had too much on your plate, then no sweat; move them out to next week. If you didn’t feel motivated to complete them, reevaluate whether that goal is something you still want to accomplish or try breaking it down into smaller steps.

The review isn’t just for reflecting on what went well and what didn’t, but also to reassess why you’re working on something. You want to figure out how you can spend more of your time on the 20% driving 80% of results. It should also not take longer than 15-20 minutes, but it’s easily some of the most high-leverage time you can spend to ensure you hit your goals.

My Goal-Setting Template

If you’re ready to get started right away, then click the link below to make a copy of the exact template I use. Once you’ve copied the template, feel free to make as many changes to it as you like.

👉 Access my goal-setting template

And if building new habits play a significant role in helping you reach your goals, check out how to create a habit tracker in Notion to complement your goal-setting template.

Thanks to Matthew Vere, David Burt, Vandan Jhaveri, Ryan Williams, Angelo Belardi, and Compound Writing for reading drafts of this essay and providing thoughtful feedback.

Freedom from the Known by Jiddu Krishnamurti

Lawson Blake — Tue, 30 Mar 2021 14:23:00 GMT

Read more on Amazon

Short Summary

The renowned spiritual teacher, Jiddu Krishnamurti, shares how you can free yourself from the tyranny of the expected. By understanding who you are, you can change your relationships with yourself and others and, consequently, society as a whole.

Favorite Quote

"To understand yourself is the beginning of wisdom."

Book Notes

Man's Search

Since the beginning of time, we have sought something beyond ourselves. We try to live according to the society we were raised in, but it creates conflict in our life.

Conflict arises because we're always looking to someone else to tell us what is right or wrong. We live our entire lives being told what to do, whether by circumstance or our environment, making us the result of the influences surrounding us. There is nothing new or original about ourselves.

Our primary source of pain and discomfort is due to our seeking of a reality promised by another. We mechanically follow somebody else who assures us a comfortable spiritual life, but that only brings about disorder. Even if we reject such authority, we still stand alone in conflict with everybody else.

So if we wish to escape conflict, we must first learn not to seek. Nobody can answer your questions about truth or reality except for yourself. To understand yourself is the beginning of wisdom.

No guide, teacher, nor authority can show you how to live. There’s only you and your relationship with others and the world—nothing else. When you realize this, it will either bring you great despair or great relief, knowing that only you are responsible for yourself.

Instead of having a life philosophy, you want to observe what is taking place in your daily life, both inwardly and outwardly. You must learn about yourself without being burdened by yourself and others’ opinions, prejudices, and conclusions.

To be free of all authority, including your own, is to die to everything from yesterday so that your mind is always fresh, always innocent, and full of vigor. Only then will you know how to learn and observe.

Learning About Ourselves

To observe the movement of your mind and heart—of your entire being—requires having a free mind. Your mind cannot takes sides in an argument, but rather it must seek to understand. When you condemn or justify, you cannot see clearly.

You must also realize that you've been conditioned your entire life. Your nationality, social class, religion, education, family, friends, experiences—every influence you can think of—has made every response to a problem a product of your conditioning.

When you become aware of your conditioning, you’ll either enjoy it, in which you’ll do nothing about it, or you will rebel against it, in which you will be living in the past. But facts can only be faced in the present. If you never allow yourself to live in the present, you will always try to escape from the past.

Instead, you must see the danger of your conditioning immediately so that you’ll act. When you give your total attention to your conditioning, will you finally see that you’re free from the past.

Consciousness

Consciousness is the total field in which your thoughts function and relationships exist. All motives, intentions, desires, pleasures, fears, inspirations, longing, hopes, sorrows, and joys live in your consciousness.

To understand the whole structure of ‘the self,’ you must see yourself totally, immediately, without time. When you look totally, you give your full attention, your whole being, until there’s no room for fear, contradiction, or conflict. What you see in totality is the truth.

To give your whole attention is to be fully aware. And the only way you can become fully aware is if you truly care to understand. You must give your whole heart and mind to find out.

But if you constantly measure yourself against others, then you deny yourself. You are creating an illusion. Comparison in any form leads only to greater illusion and misery. When you understand that such processes lead to greater conformity and greater conflict, will you be able to put it away. Your mind will stop seeking so that it can start seeing.

Pursuit of Pleasure

We are all engaged in the pursuit of pleasure from the time we’re born until the time we die. It isn’t right or wrong to pursue pleasure, but if you do, know that a mind that constantly seeks pleasure must inevitably find its shadow known as pain. The two cannot be separated.

Our desire to repeat a pleasurable experience brings about pain because it will not be the same as yesterday. To end the pursuit of pleasure, which is to end pain, you must learn to look at things without wanting to repeat the experience. To live in the present is to perceive beauty in that instant without seeking pleasure from it.

Self-Concern

The craving for position, prestige, power, and recognition by society as being outstanding in some way is to wish domination over others. It is a form of aggression that is driven by fear. A mind caught in fear lives in confusion, conflict, and therefore must resort to violence and aggression.

Unfortunately, we’ve been raised in a corrupt society that encourages competition that engenders fear. One of our primary causes of fear is that we don’t want to face ourselves as we are. We're constantly looking for ways to escape from ourselves. If we try to overcome our fear by suppressing, disciplining, controlling, or translating it into something else, there will be conflict.

Most of us choose to be continually occupied to prevent ourselves from seeing ourselves as we actually are because we're afraid to be empty. We are scared to look at our fears. Only when you see that you are a part of fear, not separate from it—that you are fear —will it come to an end.

Violence

To be violent is to separate yourself from the rest of humanity. When you separate yourself by belief, nationality, and tradition, it breeds violence. A man seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, religion, political party, or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of humanity.

The most common expression of violence is anger. The moment you protect your family, country, flag, belief, idea, or dogma, that very protection indicates anger. But to be beyond violence means you cannot suppress it, deny it, or say that it’s just a part of who you are. You have to look at it, study it, and become intimate with it.

To understand your anger, you must pass no judgment on it, for the moment you conceive of its opposite, you condemn it, and therefore cannot see it as it is. You must live fully in the moment, without any sense of condemnation or justification, then you’ll understand that you’re finished with it.

Relationship

We have accepted conflict as an innate part of our daily existence because we have accepted competition, jealousy, greed, and aggression as a natural way of life. We have accepted society’s structure as it is because we want to be respected.

To understand and be free of any problem, we need a great deal of passionate and sustained energy that isn’t dependent on any motive, stimulus, or drug. If we rely on any stimulus, then our minds will become dull and insensitive.

All stimulation, whether drugs, alcohol, or motivational speak, will inevitably bring about some dependence, and that dependence will keep us from seeing clearly and strip us of our vital energy. To free our mind of dependence is to see the how stimulation makes our mind stupid, dull, and inactive.

To be peaceful is to live in the moment with no comparison at all. If you don’t compare yourself with others, you will be what you are. Trying to become like somebody else, or like your ideal self, is one of the leading causes of contradiction, confusion, and conflict in life.

Freedom

Freedom is a state of mind. It’s not to be free from something, but to be free to doubt and question everything so that you can throw away every form of dependence, slavery, conformity, and acceptance. To be free is to be alone. Solitude is an inward state of mind that's not dependent on any stimulus, knowledge, or experience. When you experience this solitude, you'll understand the necessity of living with yourself as you are, not as you think you should be.

Freedom can only come about naturally, not through wishing, wanting, or longing. Nor will you find it by creating an image of what you think it is. To find freedom, you must learn to look at life without the bondage of time, for freedom lies beyond the field of consciousness.

Time

Man lives by time. Inventing the future has been our favorite game of escape. We think that we can change ourselves over time, but time doesn’t bring order or peace. There is no tomorrow for you to be peaceful in; you only have this instant.

Time is a deceiver because it doesn’t do anything to help us bring about change in ourselves. It is a movement manufactured by man divided into past, present, and future, and as long as you live by this division, there will be conflict.

Problems only exist in time when you meet an issue incompletely. When you meet a challenge partially or try to escape from it, you bring about a problem. The problem will continue as long as you hope to solve it one of these days.

But action is always immediate; it is not of the past or the future. To act is to be in the present, but action is dangerous because it’s uncertain, so we continue to live in the past or long for the future. So long as time is bred by thought, there will be sorrow and fear. But you cannot be frightened by the unknown because you don’t know what it is.

Most of us are frightened of dying because we don’t know what it means to live. We don’t know how to live; therefore, we don’t know how to die. As long as we are frightened of life, we will be afraid of death. But the man who lives without conflict, who lives with beauty and love, is not scared of death because to love is to die.

To die is to have your mind completely empty of itself. Empty of its daily longings, pleasures, and agonies. When there's death, there's something totally new. Freedom from the known is death, and then you are living.

Love

Love is not the product of thought, which is the past. Instead, love is always active present. Love does not obey; it does not respect or disrespect. Fear, dependence, jealousy, possessiveness, domination, responsibility, and self-pity isn’t love. Love is found once you stop seeking it.

To Look and to Listen

To look and to listen is one of the most challenging things in life. We have lost our ability to see because we’re blinded by worries and have lost touch with the beauty of nature. But our greatest difficulty is not clearly seeing outward things, but looking inward to see ourselves clearly.

Beauty lies in the total abandonment of the observer and the observed. There can only be self-abandonment when there's complete humility. When we see without any preconception, we will be in direct contact with anything in life.

All of our relationships are imaginary, based on an image formed by our thoughts. When you say that you know someone, what you mean is that you knew who they were yesterday. You only know an image of them. But true relationships cannot exist through images, symbols, or ideological conceptions.

You cannot cultivate love or beauty, nor can you invent truth, but if you are aware of what you’re doing, you can cultivate awareness, and out of that awareness, you will see the space between yourself and others. You will see that you are alone in this world.

What is Thinking?

Ideas have become more important to us than action. We have separated ideas from action because we’re afraid to act because we are afraid to live, and therefore ideas become more important to us.

Thought can never solve any psychological problem, no matter how clever. If you want to see things clearly, you must be very quiet, without prejudices, dialogue, and images clouding your mind. Only in silence can you observe the beginning of thought.

If you are aware of how thought begins, then there is no need to control it. We spend a great deal of our time trying to control our thoughts, but if there is awareness of the beginning of thought, then there's no contradiction.

The Burdens of Yesterday

There's very little solitude in our lives. Even when you're alone, your life is crowded by the many influences, knowledge, memories, anxieties, and conflicts that dull your mind. We are constantly carrying the burdens of yesterday. Only when you give complete attention to a problem and solve it immediately—never carrying it over to the next day—that you’ll find solitude. In solitude, you find clarity.

Most of our lives are disciplined by the demands of society, our family, and our suffering. But if you wish to be free, you must learn to be disciplined without control, suppression, and fear. You become disciplined by learning, which will lead to clarity.

A living mind is a still mind; it has no center and therefore no space and time. Such a mind is limitless, and that is the only truth, the only reality.

Experience

The demand for more and more experiences showcases the inward poverty of man. We think that we can use experiences to escape from ourselves, but these experiences are conditioned by what we already are.

Experience is a bundle of memories responding to a challenge, and it can only respond according to its background. Every experience you have has already been experienced, or you wouldn’t recognize it. You recognize an experience as being good, bad, beautiful, etc., according to your conditioning.

A mind that seeks a wider and deeper experience is shallow and dull because it's living in the past with its memories. To live in the present without seeking more—without comparison—is to learn how to meditate.

Meditation is being aware of every thought and feeling and not saying whether it’s right or wrong but just watching it and moving with it. When you just watch, you begin to understand the whole movement of thought and feeling. It’s to look at everything with complete attention, totally.

Meditation is one of the greatest arts in life—perhaps the greatest—but you cannot learn it from anyone. It has no technique; therefore, there’s no authority. When you learn about yourself, watch yourself, and are aware of all that you are, that is meditation.

Once you understand meditation, you’ll find love. Love is not the product of systems, habits, or cultivated by thought. Love comes into being when there's complete silence. And the mind can only be silent when it understands its movement as thought and feeling.

Total Revolution

To change the ruthless world we live in, we must first change ourselves. If you lead a peaceful life every day—a life that isn’t competitive, ambitious, envious—you can influence the world in tremendous ways. You want to have a religious mind, not in the sense of having a religion, but a mind that has no fear and only believes what actually is.

To bring about a total revolution, you must remove all friction in your life. Your energy cannot be wasted on friction found in your relationships with others and yourself. Once you realize that nobody else can tell you what to do, will you be able to save yourself.

Struggle with Self-Discipline? Use this App Instead

Lawson Blake — Wed, 17 Mar 2021 14:15:00 GMT

One of my favorite books in recent years is Deep Work by Cal Newport. Deep work is defined as our ability to focus, without distraction, on cognitively demanding tasks for long periods. While that may sound obvious, Newport argues that this skill is what will ultimately separate the "Haves" and "Have-Nots" in our increasingly accelerated economy.

But there’s just one problem, though.

Most of us can’t focus on one thing for more than twenty minutes without getting distracted. When we try to police ourselves from the near-infinite distractions, we quickly get worn out then feel guilty for eventually caving to the pressure. Even worse, though, is the stories we tell ourselves afterward. It usually begins with this little phrase:

“If only I had more self-discipline…”

What an interesting idea.

Why Self-Discipline is Overrated

If only we had more self-discipline, well, then we would all have six-pack abs, started that business we always talk about, and would’ve checked off every item on our to-do list already. Life would be so much easier if only we had more self-discipline.

But that’s a dangerous phrase to repeat.

While I'm still a firm believer that self-discipline is a trait you can develop with proper effort, I also think that relying solely on it to improve your life is a fool’s errand. Saying that you need more self-discipline is focusing on the wrong problem. Instead, you should be asking yourself how you can improve your life without needing to rely on self-discipline at all.

Why Self-Discipline Fails Us

The problem with self-discipline is that it continually requires effort to maintain. When you tell yourself that you need more self-discipline, what you’re really saying is that you need to be better at telling yourself no. That you need to do a better job at resisting temptation.

Well, good luck with that.

That may sound harsh, but there’s a simple reason why self-discipline fails us: you’re fighting a losing battle.

You’re playing defense, always reacting to what gets thrown at you. Eventually, you’re going to slip up once you’re tired or overwhelmed. And believe me, you’ll eventually get tired or overwhelmed.

And let’s be honest, when you tell yourself that you need more self-discipline, what you’re really doing is giving yourself an excuse not to take action. It’s much easier to say, “I need to work out more,” or “I need to wake up earlier,” but then do nothing about it. So if you can’t rely on self-discipline, what should you do?

Well, there’s good news and bad news. The bad news is, if you’re like most people, you probably won’t train yourself to become more disciplined than you already are. Sure, some of you might make drastic improvements, but I wouldn’t bank on it.

But here’s the good news: you already have all the self-discipline you’ll ever need. You just need to learn how to properly use it.

Forget Self-Discipline; Change Your Environment

If you want to experience stable and predictable growth, you need a stable and predictable environment that doesn’t work against you. You want to use what little self-discipline you have for what it’s actually good for: designing your environment in such a way that it works itself out of a job.

Over the years, I’ve experimented with different strategies for manipulating my environment to reduce my dependency on self-discipline to get things done. These strategies have helped me:

Go to the gym more
Eat healthier
Read every day
Write (almost) every day
Learn new skills
Avoid getting distracted on the internet

I’ll save the health-related strategies for another article, but I’ve found that the best way to minimize distraction and get more done is by designing your environment so that temptation can’t even reach you. And since we live in a world where temptation is always just a click away, the best strategy is to cut temptation off at its source.

Now you could approach this two different ways. First, you could go full monk-mode by getting rid of your phone and computer and revert to using just pen and paper to get things done. While some of us may secretly dream of a simpler pre-technology era, it’s probably not a feasible route.

The other option is more tech-friendly and will keep people from giving you weird glances when you tell them you no longer own a smartphone. Option two is learning how to wield the power of the internet without succumbing to its addictive nature. While this is likely the more favorable choice, it’s not without risk. Thankfully, I’ve discovered a tool that effectively removes all risk of having to rely on self-discipline to resist the countless distractions found online.

How to Be More Productive with the Freedom App

The best tool I’ve found for improving your productivity is the web-blocking software called Freedom. The software lets you automatically block email, news, social media, and any other website or app that can distract you. Freedom has a desktop and mobile app to prevent you from getting distracted, no matter what device you’re on.

Freedom works by letting you create sessions where you control what gets blocked on what device and for how long. You just input how much time you need to block off to focus and hit start. But Freedom’s best feature is the recurring session, which lets you set how often you want a session to repeat—indefinitely.

For example, I have a “Morning Work” session that blocks all social media and email on my phone and work computer from 8 AM to 12 PM Monday through Friday. That means I can’t be tempted to doom scroll Twitter or clean out my inbox when I get the slightest twinge from working on something challenging. It’s just me and the task at hand, staring each other down until one of us breaks.

How to Use Freedom in Four Steps

Step 1: Head to Freedom’s website to download the software on your computer. You can also download the Freedom app from your phone’s app store (iOS & Android).

Step 2: Scroll to the bottom of your dashboard to select which websites and apps to block by clicking “Add Blocklist.” You can also add individual sites to your blocklist if you don’t see them already covered by the default options.

Scroll to the bottom of your Freedom dashboard to manage your blocklists

Step 3: Create a session by clicking “Add Session.” I highly recommend that you use the recurring session option so that you don’t have to rely on your future-self setting it up each time.

You have three session options: Start Now, Start Later, and Recurring

Step 4: The final step is for those that can’t trust themselves from disabling Freedom while it’s running because they really need to check Instagram. Once you know what sessions work best for your schedule, you’ll want to activate Locked Mode. Once in Locked Mode, it will be impossible for you to edit your blocklists and devices during the session.

Now you can still make edits to your sessions and blocklists once they’re over, but until then, you’ll have no way to distract yourself with email, Instagram, or whatever site tugs you away from work.

Set Yourself Free with Freedom

I realize that some of you may find this strategy to be a bit hardcore. And I get it; this strategy probably isn’t for everyone. But you’ve got to remember why you’re doing this in the first place. The goal isn’t to deprive yourself of connecting with your friends or to rebel against technology. Instead, it’s to clear your mind of the constant distractions so you can focus on what’s important.

And I wouldn’t recommend this strategy if I thought it was too difficult to stick with. After all, the entire purpose of using Freedom is to set it up once and forget about it, so you don’t have to rely on self-discipline to police yourself every day.

Sure, you’ll probably find yourself on more than one occasion typing the URL (or tapping the app icon) of your favorite distraction during a session only to be greeted by a calming green screen and the words “You Are Free” typed across it. At first, it will be painful—if not downright annoying—but your brain will quickly adapt to its new world where there's no easy escape route.

Eventually, you’ll even lose the impulse to always reach for your phone during the slightest inconvenience. You'll remember what life was like before you had notifications interrupting you 24/7. It’s a funny thing, but it's only after you've lived with self-imposed restrictions that you will begin to appreciate what it means to be free.

My 2020 Annual Review

Lawson Blake — Wed, 06 Jan 2021 20:03:03 GMT

In a year filled with setbacks, loneliness, and uncertainty, I experienced incredible moments (like getting engaged!), growth, and a reconnection to the things that truly matter. So just like how I did for 2019 and 2018, it’s time to answer three important questions in a year that challenged us more than most:

What went well?
My biggest struggles?
What did I learn?

What Went Well

Without a doubt, 2020 was a year of building for me. Since COVID-19 impacted what I could do out in the real world, I decided to double down on the digital one by learning how to build an audience, build my skills, and build relationships online.

Building an Audience

In early July, I decided to try a little experiment. I wanted to see if I could grow an audience online by growing my Twitter followers and email subscribers. Most of my blog traffic came from SEO (search engine optimization), but a Google algorithm update in early May reduced my traffic from 100-150 visits per day down to 10-20. Witnessing my search traffic get crushed by the update was a wake-up call to figure out how I could diversify traffic to my blog.

I'm still trying to recover my Google search traffic after the algorithm update in May.

When I started my growth experiment, I had 202 Twitter followers and 41 email subscribers. While not quite starting from zero, it’s not much to write home about. My initial growth strategy (not that I had one) was sending out a weekly email newsletter and occasionally replying to people on Twitter or tweeting any time I published a new blog post.

Once I decided to be more intentional about building an audience, I started Tweeting 3-5 times per week about what I was working on and promoting my newsletter more on Twitter. That helped build some consistency, but it barely moved the needle. My audience was too small and unengaged to help me grow.

The real results came after I realized that growing an audience for the sake of growth was the wrong goal. Having a large audience may satisfy my ego, but it wasn’t what I really wanted. I was seeking to build relationships with like-minded people and engage in interesting conversations with those who appreciated my work.

Once I knew what I wanted, I shifted from tweeting out into the abyss to actively engaging with people I found interesting. I started making conversations and offering help instead of trying to promote whatever I’d just written. And that mindset shift worked. By the end of the year, I had roughly tripled my Twitter followers to 595 (+295%) and email subscribers to 110 (+268%) and it feels like I'm just getting started.

Building Skills

I kicked off 2020 by challenging myself to learn new skills and improve the ones I already had. I started by doing a 30-day self-portrait challenge to improve my pencil drawing skills. I could already draw reasonably well, but wanted to see how much I could improve if I worked at it for a few hours every day. This ended up being one of the most fun challenges of the year, and I think the results speak for themselves.

My self-portrait attempts before and after the 30-day challenge.

I also used a 30-day challenge to teach myself how to code. Learning how to code had been something that had interested me for the better part of a year, but I kept putting it off because it seemed overwhelming. What got me to finally take action was using the 30-day challenge format. I knew I wouldn’t become a skilled programmer in such a short time, but it allowed me to overcome my excuses since I knew I could commit to it for at least 30 days.

In those 30 days, I went from being a complete beginner who didn't know what a programming language was to building landing pages and modifying my websites’ theme using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. I ended up not sticking with it after the challenge ended (I decided to focus on writing), but it gave me the confidence that I could learn anything if I make it a priority.

I also used this year to continue improving my skills as a writer. I published six book notes, 11 articles, and 50 email newsletters. But most importantly, I took measures to improve my writing skills by joining two online writing groups. Both groups helped me elevate my skills by offering accountability, giving feedback on my drafts, and being a place where I could interact and learn from other talented writers (more on that in a bit).

Building Relationships Online

One of the biggest mental shifts I had this year was coming to terms that I don’t have to go at things alone. For whatever reason, when faced with a new problem, my default state is to try to figure it out by myself. While this strategy often works just fine for solving smaller problems, it usually fails or takes longer than expected when I try to tackle bigger ones.

I realized that if I want to accelerate my personal growth, I needed to surround myself with two types of people: those who were a few steps ahead of me and those currently working through the same problems as me. The best decisions I made in this area were joining two online writing groups: Writer’s Bloc and Compound Writing. Both groups introduced me to amazing people seeking to get better at their craft and willing to openly share their achievements and struggles.

While 2020 will likely be remembered by most for its setbacks, loneliness, & uncertainty, I'm grateful for the opportunities it has brought me.

Specifically, I'm grateful for the people I've met on this crazy app & the relationships that have come from it.

I'm pumped for 2021!
— Blake Reichmann (@lbreichmann) December 31, 2020

I also expanded my network outside of those groups by meeting interesting people on Twitter and getting to know them better through Zoom calls and DMs. It's incredible what kind of positive impact Twitter can have on your life once you see it less as a tool for curing boredom and more as a tool to connect with almost anyone in the world.

My Biggest Struggles

Escapism

Whether it was watching a lot of sports or spending too much time on Twitter and Reddit, I found it too easy to resort to cheap thrills instead of living in the present. It even got to the point that every time I hit a snag or was working on a problem that required deep thinking, I’d instinctively reach for my phone to relieve myself of doing challenging work.

I find this quite troublesome since I consider my ability to focus on problems to be one of my strengths. This is why I’ve spent a lot of time learning how to become a better writer. I don’t write just to share my ideas; I write because I want to uncover and explore the gaps in my thinking.

But as the year went on, I found it increasingly difficult to sit still and work through problems. It seemed like I forgot how to participate in one of the most sacred processes of great writers: learning to be comfortable with being bored. Boredom is a necessary precursor to letting creativity flourish, and I must rediscover this practice in the new year.

Hunting Field Mice Instead of Antelope

“Did I spend today chasing mice or hunting antelope?”

I pulled this quote from Tim Ferriss, who shared it in his best-selling book, Tools of Titans. Tim uses the question to ask whether or not he’s tackling his most important task. In other words, am I focusing on chasing cheap wins that feel like progress, or am I focusing on goals that actually move the needle?

Unfortunately, I found myself continually getting sucked into chasing field mice by putting too many tasks on my to-do list and doing whatever I could to check them off. It would have been a much better use of my time to ask instead why each item is on my to-do list and even ask what could be done to make the current list irrelevant.

It’s easy to get caught up chasing easy wins because it feels like progress. It's fun to experience that small dopamine hit every time you check off an item on your list. But you could go your entire life checking off all of your to-dos and still live an unfulfilling life. Going forward, I plan to take more time to reflect on what’s actually important and giving it my utmost attention while eliminating or delegating the rest.

What I Learned

Find Your Tribe

The most important thing I learned this year is the most simple: surround yourself with others looking to improve their lives in the same way you are. If you want to get fit, join a gym that offers group sessions so you can meet others with the same goal. If you want to improve a particular skill, attend a class, seminar, or online group to meet others looking to do the same. Find people who want the same things you're after and will encourage you to keep going.

The Power of the 30-Day Challenge

I attempted three 30-day challenges this year (well, one was for 28 days, but close enough). In those three months, I vastly improved one skill, taught myself a brand new one, and learned more about my health while also managing to lose eight pounds.

What makes 30-day challenges so powerful is they help you overcome the inertia to start when making a permanent change can feel so overwhelming. They work because they’re simple to do and temporary. It’s simple because you devote your time and energy to just one goal. And since you’re only committing yourself for 30 days, there’s no pressure to stick with it afterward if you decide that it’s not for you.

Reconnecting with What Matters

One of the most positive effects of living through an unprecedented year filled with uncertainty is reconnecting with what actually matters. Being forced to work from home for a few months with no place else to go made me reevaluate what I wanted out of this one shot I get at life. It also made me aware of just how easy it is to get bogged down by things that don’t really matter.

I spent more time making phone calls to family and friends, taking long walks out in nature, and discussing interesting ideas with strangers I’d met online than I had in any previous year. And do you know what the best part about these things is? They're all free to do and readily available. I guess it really is true that the best things in life are free.

Moving into 2021

Last year’s events provided the necessary jolt to reconnect with what’s important and made me aware of just how uncertain life can be. So to prepare for an exciting and uncertain future, my goal for 2021 is to continue improving four key areas of my life: career, health, writing, and relationships.

Career

Not much changed in this area of my life from the year before. And while I should be grateful that this is my biggest complaint when so many others experienced layoffs and pay cuts, it’s because of my own doing (or lack thereof). Nothing changed because I spent too much time hunting field mice instead of antelope.

Instead of spending my time trying to pull on the biggest levers in life, such as advancing in my career, I defaulted to investing more of my time in my hobbies and pointless distractions. I’m not sure if it was because I was afraid of trying to make a change during a time of great uncertainty, but I need to reevaluate what’s actually riskier in the long run: staying in place or asking for what I really want. I've got to be braver in the new year.

Health

I plan to continue tracking my primary lifts (bench press, squat, deadlift) and my max pullups. To put some numbers to my fitness goals, I want to close out the new year by hitting 20 perfect pullups (I hit 10 in 2020) and squatting at least 1.5x my body weight, or roughly 300 pounds.

I also want to focus on improving my sleep. Ever since the pandemic struck, my bedtime has slowly crept later and later into the evening, with my wake-up time still being around the same time. What used to be close to eight hours of sleep most nights slowly degraded to seven. I want to reverse this trend since I think it will significantly benefit other areas of my life, including my weightlifting goals.

Writing

I made writing an even bigger priority this year by surrounding myself with other great writers and thinkers. Joining two writing groups helped me improve my skills as a writer and editor, but most importantly, it reinforced my beliefs that I’m a writer. I plan to continue supporting my identity into the new year by maintaining a daily writing practice and strengthening my relationships with other writers.

Relationships

If there’s one vital lesson that the pandemic taught me, it’s that relationships are what ultimately matter. Even though I wasn’t able to see many of my friends in person this past year, I made an effort to reach out to them more over the phone. I also established a routine Zoom call with one of my good friends to offer accountability and discuss interesting ideas. We even started a two-person book club by reading through The Brothers Karamazov together.

I want to continue this trend of maintaining close contact with my friends and family and hopefully get back to scheduling some trips in the new year to see them again. I also want to maintain the accountability call. It was one of the best decisions I made last year and I see no reason to stop. And most importantly, I want to continue growing my relationship with my soon-to-be wife.

I got engaged!

The Great Mental Models Vol. 2 by Shane Parrish

Lawson Blake — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 15:44:09 GMT

Read more on Amazon

Short Summary

The second book of The Great Mental Models series brings to life the core ideas from physics, chemistry, and biology. If you want to make better decisions, it starts with understanding the ideas that govern how the world works.

Favorite Quote

"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less."

—Marie Curie

Book Notes

Volume two of The Great Mental Models series explores the core mental models derived from the fundamentals of science: physics, chemistry, and biology. Understanding these models will help you improve your understanding of how the world works so you can learn to make better decisions.

Part 1: Physics

"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less."

—Marie Curie

Relativity

Relativity helps us to understand that there is more than one way to see everything. An effective tool for helping us see things from different perspectives is the thought experiment.

Thought experiments help us understand why people do things that initially don't make any sense. When you understand someone's point-of-view, it will help you better understand their beliefs and biases that guide their worldview.

You can also solve problems by shifting your perspective in multiples ways:

Zooming in or out of the problem
Extending your timeline to weeks, months, or even years
Assuming the perspective of other stakeholders

Nobody can see it all. Filtering a problem through multiple perspectives layered together will help reduce your blind spots and offer you a version of reality that’s closer to the truth.

Reciprocity

We are more strongly driven to avoid losses than to achieve gains. It’s why we find it so difficult to put ourselves out there to engage with others. But life is an iterative and compounding game. In the words of Peter Kaufman, "It pays to go positive and go first."

Reciprocal behavior is embedded in our DNA. You were more likely to survive if you received help from others, and you were more likely to receive help if you offered assistance.

There are two types of reciprocity that we engage in: direct and indirect.

Direct: You help me, and I help you.
Indirect: The pay-it-forward concept. I help you, and you help someone else.

Life is easier and more enjoyable when we act on starting and maintaining win-win relationships. So, if you want to receive help, start by first offering help to others.

Thermodynamics

Thermodynamics refers to a set of four laws that provide the ultimate foundation for how the world works:

The First Law: energy cannot be created nor destroyed; it can only be transferred from one form to another.
The Second Law: Entropy (the measure of disorder) of an isolated system always increases.
The Third Law: As temperature approaches absolute zero, the system’s entropy approaches a constant value.
The Zeroth Law: If two objects are in thermal equilibrium with a third object, then those two objects are in thermal equilibrium with each other.

Thermodynamics teaches us that chaos is the default state. It requires energy to maintain structure and organization. We put in the work to maintain order because we don't like the idea of living in a world that we cannot fully control or understand.

We tell stories to ourselves and others as a way of filling in the gaps of our understanding. Stories attempt to tame the terrifying randomness surrounding us so that we can maintain social order and cultural norms. Without our collective belief in stories (money, government, borders, etc.), our complex societies would collapse.

Inertia

Inertia is useful for understanding some elements of our behavior, including our thinking patterns and habits. We're naturally inclined to reject the new in an attempt to resist the effort required to make a change. Keeping things as they are requires almost no effort and involves little uncertainty.

Real change requires force, and force requires effort. The longer you've been doing something, the more it becomes a part of your identity. Thus, the amount of effort needed to change a habit is proportional to the length of time you've had it. The longer a habit has been around, the more energy is required to change it.

We naturally want to conserve our energy. That’s why getting started is the hardest part. But once you get moving in a direction, it's much easier to keep going.

Friction and Viscosity

Friction is the force that must be overcome to achieve an outcome. It’s what opposes the movement of objects that are in contact with each other. Viscosity is the measure of how hard it is for one layer of fluid to slide over another.

While often hidden, friction and viscosity work against us anytime we try to do something. We often default to using more force to overcome resistance when merely reducing the friction or viscosity will do. Sometimes all it takes to achieve your goals is to think about how you can reduce the resistance instead of just trying to apply more force.

Velocity

Speed is just movement; velocity has direction. It's much more important to pay attention to where you're going instead of how fast you're going. Progress in a given area is not about how fast you're moving now but how far you've moved relative to where you started.

Self-improvement is about finding a balance between speed and direction. Learn to improve your tactics and be willing to adjust and respond to new information. Sometimes you won't move as fast as you want, but it's better to move in the right direction at a steady pace than to go fast in the wrong one.

Leverage

Leverage is achieving results far greater than the force you put in. When it comes to leverage, you want to know three things:

How do I know when I have it?
Where and when should I apply it?
How do I keep it?

If you can figure out those three questions, you can have significant power over the forces acting against you. But as powerful as leverage can be, you need to be deliberate about using it. Abusing your leverage can lead to others feeling exploited and not want to work with you.

Leverage is best paired with reciprocity—building win-win relationships that will help you keep your leverage sustainable over the long-term.

Part 2: Chemistry

"Science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated."

—Rosalind Franklin

Activation Energy

Activation energy is the energy required in a chemical system to initiate a reaction. Without an initial input of sufficient energy, the reaction won't occur.

When it comes to achieving lasting change in your life, you need enough activation energy to break out of old habits. Real change requires more than just enough energy to get started, but enough energy to see the entire process through. The bigger and more challenging the need for change, the more activation energy is required.

Figuring out the right amount of energy is pertinent to quitting some addictions. It's not just the moment you decide to quit; it’s everything that had to happen, and every crisis you had to face to enact that decision.

Real change takes effort. It requires not just updating your goals but also changing your systems. Invest more energy than you think you need to, and you just might get there.

Catalysts

Catalysts accelerate change. They are a part of a reaction, but the reaction does not consume them. Their job is to create an alternate pathway for a reaction to occur that’s usually faster and easier.

Catalysts can just as easily speed up a negative reaction as they can a positive one. They just decrease the amount of energy required to cause change, and in the process, make certain reactions possible that might not have happened otherwise. For many people, unpleasant events, such as losing a job or being rejected, act as necessary catalysts for tremendous personal growth.

Alloying

Alloying is the process of combining components in specific combinations to produce a substance that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Our knowledge can be viewed as an alloy since it’s a combination of knowledge gained from direct experience and knowledge gained from theory. Theory can trigger new experiences, while experience can trigger the updating of our theory.

Our knowledge can be further broken down into what Aristotle discussed as our five components of knowledge:

Episteme: scientific knowledge
Techne: art or craft knowledge
Phronesis: prudent or practical knowledge
Nous: intellect or intuitive apprehension
Sophia: wisdom

Alloying is about increasing our strength by combining multiple skills and specific knowledge. Combining expertise in a domain with a broader understanding of the rules that govern the world is a rare combination that will make you highly valuable in society.

Biology

"A totally blind process can by definition lead to anything; it can even lead to vision itself."

—Jacques Monod

Evolution Pt. 1: Natural Selection and Extinction

Evolution explains the relationship between us and our environment. Natural selection and extinction are powerful models because they demonstrate that we must either respond to our environment’s changing demands or risk dying off.

Natural selection is about what advantages you have in the current environment, not what advantages you might have in the distant future. It doesn't preserve changes that might be useful in the future; it preserves changes that are useful right now. If the environment changes, then you must learn to adapt.

If you want to understand why some traits stick around, why some customs carry through multiple generations, and why some ideas take root and spread, you have to look at their usefulness in their environment.

Evolution Pt. 2: Adaptation Rate and the Red Queen Effect

Adaptation refers to both the useful trait and the process of change it undergoes as it's passed on. Adaptations are genetic mutations that happen to occur at the right place and time. When they provide an advantage, the frequency of that mutation in the population increases.

The Red Queen Effect is an evolutionary principle that explains the pressures that all organisms face just to survive. When enough people are trying to get smarter, better, and more of the limited resources available, it puts direct pressure on everyone else to keep up.

It doesn’t matter how long a species has already survived; it must be willing to adapt or risk extinction. Real success comes from being flexible enough to change, even if it means abandoning what worked in the past, so that you can focus on what you need to do to thrive in the future. Complacency is what kills you.

Ecosystem

Nothing exists in isolation. Everything is connected. Every decision you make may have unintended consequences. Therefore, take the time to learn how your system’s components are interconnected so you can understand how your actions will impact those connections and affect the outcome you're trying to produce.

Niches

Every species in an ecosystem has a niche. A species' niche includes everything that affects its ability to reproduce and survive. Generalist organisms have a broad niche, which means they can survive in a variety of places. On the other hand, specialist organisms need stable environmental conditions to thrive but tend to have few competitors.

Generalists face more daily competition but are more adaptable. Specialists have less competition and day-to-day stress, but only during times of stability. As soon as their environment starts to change, their stress skyrockets as they struggle to adapt.

The fittest species are the ones most suited for their environment and more adapted than their competition. Species will typically become more specialized as competition increases or risk becoming dislocated or even extinct.

Self-Preservation

We have an innate desire to preserve ourselves, whether it's by passing down our genes by having children or by trying to leave behind a legacy. Self-preservation helps us understand why we sometimes engage in counterintuitive actions such as sacrificing short-term guarantees for long-term possibilities.

Replication

Replication, whether through mitosis or meiosis, allows for diversity in traits that can improve our fitness and increase our chances of survival. Replication prevents the accumulation of traits that impair fitness and lets us, as a species, try out new behaviors that could give us an advantage.

Sometimes you don't need to reinvent the wheel. It's often a good starting point to copy what others are doing. Once you get a better sense of the environment, you can adapt to suit your needs and interests. Effective replication requires enough structure and space to produce a copy but enough flexibility to adapt that copy to changes in the environment.

Cooperation

What separates humankind from other species is our willingness to work together and collaborate on projects and ideas that otherwise wouldn't be possible if we went at it alone. Cooperation teaches us to work together by asking for help when we need it and offering it in return.

Our complex societies are built on our ability to work together, believe in the same ideas, and share the same goals. When we cooperate, we lighten our load and create new things that move society forward.

Hierarchical Organization

Hierarchies are found across the animal world, and humans are no different. The way we organize ourselves is often a default to our instincts on leadership and authority. Our hierarchical organizations are where we derive our ego, status, and reputation, and they condition us to focus on growing ourselves rather than growing others.

Even in the absence of an imposed structure, we instinctively self-organize. That explains why even anarchist movements end up with leaders. Since hierarchies are a core human instinct, we must learn to be aware of them and learn how to work with them, not go against them.

Hierarchies are also critical in survival situations and combat. In times of extreme stress and chaos, we naturally crave leadership. We are all looking for leaders, even if it means we are looking at ourselves.

Incentives

Incentives are a powerful force that can’t be underestimated. We instinctually move in the direction of rewards and do our best to take steps to avoid punishment. When we’re thoughtful about incentives, we can modify our behavior or the behavior of others.

Our behavior is continuously changing based on both the actual reward and punishment and our perceptions of it. Becoming aware of the incentives that may be directing our actions can help us recognize any unfavorable influences so that we can refocus our attention on what we value.

It always pays to consider the incentives influencing our choices. We often tell ourselves that our motivation is based on doing the right thing when actually we are incentivized by the allure of rewards. Knowing how incentives work to motivate us can help us be less easily manipulated.

Tendency to Minimize Energy Output

All living things require energy to perform their daily functions. Over time, species have developed different mechanisms to increase their energy efficiency. We’ve evolved to conserve our energy so that we have enough to draw from when we really need it, such as when being chased by a predator.

The problem is that our modern society no longer reflects the environment in which our evolutionary tendencies were developed. Our instinct to minimize energy output can lead us to be resistant to change or avoid taking non-life-threatening risks.

Understanding that we're naturally lazy creatures can help us better understand our tendencies and why it's difficult for us to change our minds. If we want to improve our thinking and get the most out of our environments, we have to be aware of our natural tendency to minimize energy output and correct for it where doing so creates value.

The Best Books and Articles I Read in 2020

Lawson Blake — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 14:54:50 GMT

This year I read 26 books and hundreds of articles. My interests ranged from behavioral psychology, mental models, note-taking, health, wealth, design, and much more. In no particular order, these are the five books and five articles I found most valuable.

A quick note: These are the best books and articles that I read in 2020; it doesn't mean that they were published in 2020.

The Best Books I Read in 2020

Impro by Keith Johnstone

Read more on Amazon

Read my book notes.

"When I consider the difference between myself, and other people, I thought of myself as a late developer. Most people lose their talent at puberty. I lost mine in my early twenties. I began to think of children not as immature adults, but of adults as atrophied children."

Who knew that a book on improv theater (something I've never participated in) would be one of the best books I read this year. What makes Impro so influential is that learning the fundamentals of improv theatre is really a case study into human behavior.

The book's first section on status was by far the most interesting to me. Whether we recognize it or not, we are driven by our desire to achieve a particular level of status relative to those around us. Our status is raised and lowered through our body language and the words we use.

Who Should Read It: You want to become a better communicator and learn how you can raise your status.

How to Take Smart Notes by Sonke Ahrens

Read more on Amazon

Read my book notes.

"If you want to learn something for the long run, you have to write it down, If you want to really understand something, you have to translate it into your own words."

Every year I might read one book that changes my life. This year it was How to Take Smart Notes. It completely changed how I think about, interact with, and process information so that I can spend more of my time thinking, understanding, and developing new ideas.

With the Smart Notes method, you no longer have to decide what to write about or worry about starting with a blank page. You just follow your interests, take simple notes while you read, convert the most important ideas into permanent notes, observe where your note-clusters have built up, then translate your notes into original work.

Who Should Read It: Students, academics, writers, or anyone serious about wanting to improve their thinking.

The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman

Read more on Amazon

Read my book notes.

"Good design is actually a lot harder to notice than poor design, in part because good designs fit our needs so well that the design is invisible."

The ultimate introductory into how design serves as the communication between ourselves and the objects we interact with on a daily basis. When done well, good design effortlessly guides us to the right action at the right time. The results are brilliant, pleasurable products.

Good design is also timeless. Over time, the tools and objects in the world will change, cultures will change, technologies will change, but the principles of design will always remain. That's because the principles of design are based on human psychology, and that will never change.

Who Should Read It: Aspiring entrepreneurs, creatives, designers, or anyone interested in learning more about how design influences our behavior.

The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel

Read more on Amazon

Read my Twitter thread:

Building wealth has little to do with how smart you are & a lot to do with how you behave.

Thankfully, The Psychology of Money by @morganhousel explores why smart people do dumb things with their money & offers timeless advice on wealth & happiness.

👇Here's my top 20 takeaways pic.twitter.com/iSDwff3qLv
— Blake Reichmann (@lbreichmann) October 29, 2020

"The ability to do what you want, when you want, with who you want, for as long as you want, is priceless. It is the highest dividend money pays."

Doing well with money isn't about how smart you are. It's about how you behave. And behavior is hard to teach, even to really smart people.

In the real world, people don't make financial decisions on a spreadsheet. They make them at the dinner table or in a meeting room, where personal history, their unique view of the world, ego, pride, marketing, and incentives all weigh in on their decisions.

To really understand people's relationship with money, don't bother studying the market. Instead, study the history of greed, insecurity, and optimism.

Who Should Read It: This is a book about money and psychology. Everyone should read it.

The Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson

Read more on Amazon

Read my Twitter thread:

There are very few books that seem like every passage could be highlighted. The Almanack of @Naval Ravikant by @EricJorgenson is one of them.

This is one of the most important books I've read and the ultimate guide to wealth and happiness.

👇 Here are my top 10 takeaways pic.twitter.com/S1HNEu2USv
— Blake Reichmann (@lbreichmann) October 21, 2020

“All benefits in life come from compound interest, whether in money, relationships, love, health, activities, or habits.”

Who knew that a book composed entirely of the transcripts, Tweets, and interviews given by famous Silicon Valley founder and angel investor Naval Ravikant, would be the ultimate guide to building wealth and happiness. But, then again, Naval is no ordinary man.

Who Should Read It: You want to have a rich and happy life.

The Best Articles I Read in 2020

The Fine Art of Opportunism by Venkatesh Rao

"Opportunism is about working with and manipulating luck, not waiting for it. It is about engineering your path through life in such a way that the probability of disproportionate-returns events in your life is increased."

There are four types of decision-making: deliberative, reactive, procedural, and opportunistic. Most people are competent at the first three, but it's the opportunistic decisions that can have the highest impact on your life. Thankfully, you can improve your ability to think opportunistically.

Improving your skills as an opportunist requires developing a sense of timing and leverage, adaptability, and willingness to rapidly shelve existing plans and disrupt procedures. It's knowing how to recognize when you're randomly in the right place at the right time.

Who Should Read It: You want to increase your odds of success.

What's Driving Chronic Disease?* by Jeff Nobbs

"Unlike meat, vegetable oil is a new phenomenon in our diets. Its consumption is fairly unprecedented in human history. In fact, if we look back further to 1909, we can see that vegetable oil consumption has increased more than 150-fold in the US."

Rates of chronic diseases such as heart disease, asthma, cancer, and diabetes have grown 700% since 1935. Today, 6 in 10 Americans have at least one chronic disease, and the numbers are steadily rising.

While the blame has often been directed at poor lifestyle choices such as lack of exercise, tobacco use, excessive alcohol consumption, and poor nutrition, there's something missing. Americans are actually exercising more, smoking and drinking less, and eating better than they were 20 years ago. Yet, rates of chronic disease and obesity are still steadily rising.

So if it's true that Americans are generally living healthier lifestyles than they were 20 years ago, why don't we see a decline in the rates of chronic disease? Perhaps there's another culprit at play that's been flying under the radar this entire time.

Who Should Read It: You're interested in improving your health and nutrition.

*This is part one of a three-part series with a part four coming soon. If you enjoy reading this one, I highly recommend reading the entire series.

The Best Networking is Not Networking by Tyler Tringas

"The secret to power networking is: Make something awesome and tell people about it."

Most people are bad at networking. Or at the very least, hate the idea of it. But even the world's best networkers are often constrained by the size of the conference they're attending with regards to who they can reach.

Luckily, there's a networking tactic that's 100X more effective than handing out business cards and shaking hands. Even better, it looks nothing like traditional "networking" and can help get you in front of the people you admire.

Who Should Read It: You want to know how to land your dream job or get in touch with someone you admire.

The Audio Revolution by Alex Danco

"Headphones, and the audio they hiss into our ears, changed everything. Our social values and instincts have changed because of headphones. Populism and politics have changed because of headphones. I think there’s even a case to be made that Donald Trump is president because of headphones. The audio revolution happened while everyone looked elsewhere.."

A case study into how an often-ignored piece of consumer technology has impacted people's politics and beliefs in a pretty radical and consequential way.

Danco expounds upon Marshall McLuhan's famous line, "The medium is the message," by explaining that the choice of media platform actually matters more for understanding than the content that it hosts. One of the most interesting essays I've ever read online.

Who Should Read It: You want a better explanation of why the world (especially here in America) is becoming more politically polarized.

How to Start a Blog that Changes Your Life by Nat Eliason

"A well-developed site is your resume, your real estate, your time machine, and your second brain. It helps anyone learn more about you, how you think, and why they should care. And for you, it helps clarify your thoughts, share what you know, and build a reputation."

This is the ultimate guide for those who've considered starting a blog. But it's more than just a how-to guide. It's a blueprint for showing you what's possible once you start sharing your ideas online.

Nat can't guarantee that you'll have as much success as him by following his advice, but he can guarantee that if you do, you'll at least end up somewhere you never expected.

Who Should Read It: You've either thought about starting a blog or are already on your blogging journey.

Hungry for More?

Check out last year's recommendations: The Best Books and Articles I Read in 2019

What I Learned From Wearing a Continuous Glucose Monitor for 28 Days

Lawson Blake — Sun, 29 Nov 2020 20:43:07 GMT

Disclaimer: This article is for entertainment purposes only. I'm not a doctor nor pretend to be one, so please do not qualify this as medical advice. This article’s content is not intended to substitute professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

For the past 28 days, I’ve had a tiny needle stuck in the back of my arm, reading my blood. And no, I’m not diabetic nor pre-diabetic. I wore a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) as part of a challenge partnered with Levels Health because I used to suffer from spells of hypoglycemia (blood sugar dropping below 70 mg/dL) as a child.

When my glucose levels dropped too low, I’d experience cold sweats, lightheadedness, trembling hands, and an elevated heart rate due to my body releasing epinephrine (adrenaline) to stabilize my blood glucose.

Experiencing low blood sugar made it difficult for me to focus while at school and was quite frankly a scary experience for someone who didn’t understand what was going on.

Over the years, through trial and error, I realized that eating cereal for breakfast always caused my blood sugar to crash. Eventually, I switched to eating eggs, bacon, and fruit (berries or avocado) for breakfast and never experienced low blood sugar again.

At the time, I didn’t understand why the switch worked, but I understood that eating only simple carbs for breakfast wasn’t good for me. I now understand that my body was experiencing reactive hypoglycemia or exaggerated insulin response due to repeated glucose spikes followed by precipitous drops. Over time, this could have led to a host of chronic diseases such as heart disease, Alzheimer’s, asthma, cancer, and diabetes.

Since then, I’ve become fascinated with maintaining a healthy lifestyle and finding ways to improve my metabolic fitness. My curiosity for always looking for ways to optimize my diet eventually led me to wear a CGM for a 28-day challenge.

But before I explain the details of the challenge, let’s first define metabolic fitness.

What’s Metabolic Fitness?

According to Levels, “Metabolic fitness is a term to describe where we fall on the spectrum of metabolic health and how well we are generating and processing energy in the body.”

It’s called fitness because you can control and improve it through your diet and lifestyle choices. Signs that you’re metabolically fit would include having sustained energy levels, a healthy body weight, and a lowered risk of chronic disease.

Specifically, you’re metabolically fit when you experience a minimal rise in glucose levels after meals and a return to your baseline soon afterward. You also maintain a healthy range of glucose levels throughout the day (see chart).

Source: https://www.levelshealth.com/blog/what-should-my-glucose-levels-be-ultimate-guide

Similar to tracking your body weight using a scale to provide insight into your general fitness, you can track your glucose with a CGM to provide useful insight into your metabolic fitness.

But unlike a scale, which measures your body weight without any context of past choices, the insights from reading your blood glucose provide immediate feedback on which foods and lifestyle choices are accelerating—or crippling—your metabolic progress. In other words, measuring your glucose is a better metric for gauging just how healthy you are.

What’s Glucose?

Glucose is a simple sugar that is a product of the carbohydrates you eat. When glucose enters your bloodstream, your pancreas receives a signal to release insulin, a hormone that alerts your cells to absorb the glucose. Any excess glucose that isn’t absorbed by your cells is either stored in your muscles and liver as glycogen or converted into triglycerides and stored as body fat.

So if you enjoy binging on Krispy Kreme doughnuts, Starbucks Vanilla Frappuccinos, and a burger and fries too often, you could end up over-taxing your pancreas, making it less effective at releasing insulin. Over time, this can lead to pre-diabetes or even type-2 diabetes.

The Challenge

What it looks like after you've applied the CGM and Levels-branded protective patch.

The Wearable Challenge is a 28-day weight-loss accountability challenge where you put money on the line and wear a Levels CGM to track blood glucose levels. The challenge requires you to keep your glucose levels below 120 mg/dL. Every day you go over, you lose $25 (talk about having skin in the game). The challenge starts with a three-day grace period, so you can experiment with your diet to see how it impacts your glucose without getting penalized.

So why stay below 120 mg/dL?

According to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) guidelines, your glucose values are considered “normal” if they stay below 140 mg/dL after meals and return to pre-meal levels within 2–3 hours. Since this is a challenge geared towards weight loss, the upper limit is set a bit lower.

What I Learned

Even though it’s advertised as a weight-loss challenge, I enrolled to learn more about how my body responds to my diet and lifestyle (although I did manage to lose eight pounds!) Overall, it was a great learning experience filled with joyous moments of self-confirmation, utter disappointment, and quite a few surprises in between.

For reference, each meal in the Levels app is scored on a range from 0-10, with 10 being optimal. According to their app:

"The score is a composite of glucose rise from baseline, height of the glucose peak, and recovery time back to baseline, all of which are associated with metabolic health."

The Good

The best news was discovering that my typical breakfast of three eggs, bacon, and half an avocado drizzled in olive oil and my afternoon snack choice of raw almonds both caused almost no glycemic response. The Levels app showed that these foods consistently hit a perfect score. Since I eat these foods most often, it was nice knowing that I had a strong foundation.

My standard breakfast consistently earned a perfect 10 score.

The challenge also confirmed my belief that eating a low-carb paleo/keto-inspired diet consisting of mostly meat, vegetables, and healthy fats (olive oil, coconut oil, and butter/ghee) is optimal for maintaining consistent glucose levels.

Raw almonds also consistently scored a perfect 10.

Over the past four years, I’ve made a conscious effort to cook meals that avoid simple carbs, vegetable oils, and sweeteners, and this challenge further confirmed that I should continue with this type of diet.

The Not-So-Good

The foods that had the largest impact on my blood sugar that I was least surprised about were white rice and craft beer. Unfortunately, I love both of these things (so long Chipotle burrito bowls). It was disappointing to finally have to stare the truth in the face instead of continuing to live in the dark of willful ignorance.

Chipotle burrito bowl with white rice and chicken.

I was also disappointed to learn how much sweet potato spikes my blood sugar. I knew sweet potatoes had a lower glycemic index (GI) score than regular potatoes, but they still pushed me over the limit when eaten with other vegetables. I still plan to keep them in my diet but will be more conscious about how often I eat them moving forward.

Pot roast with onion, carrot, sweet potato, and asparagus.

The Surprising

The biggest surprise of the challenge was discovering that quality tequila (G4 reposado, if you’re curious) had almost no effect on my blood sugar. My guess is because quality tequila has zero carbs (whereas an average beer has around 13g of carbs). Since beer is my usual go-to if I want a drink, it’s nice to learn that tequila makes for a healthier substitute.

So long double IPAs, you'll be missed.

But I need to be careful here. Just because I didn’t experience a spike in glucose doesn’t mean I didn’t have a biological response. According to a study performed by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, it’s believed that alcohol decreases your liver’s ability to make new glucose, so it can trigger hypoglycemia, especially if you’re fasting or in a ketogenic state.

Tequila had little effect on my glucose. The spike was from eating sushi.

Another big surprise was discovering that my glucose levels aren’t just impacted by what I eat, but also when I eat. I repeatedly confirmed this discovery because I meal prep twice per week to save time by eating the same meal multiple days in a row. You may find that gross; I find it efficient.

Eating the same meal for lunch and dinner for multiple days of the challenge was great for understanding how my body responds to food at different times of the day. All else being equal, my glucose spikes more after dinner than it does for lunch, and sometimes as much as 20mg/dL!

Even more surprising was noticing how little change there was from eating the same meal from day to day, but then having a large variance between lunch and dinner. I’m sure there’s a reason why, but I can’t seem to find a convincing explanation.

The same meal eaten at different times of the day.

Why I Believe this is the Future of Healthcare

My initial approach to better understanding my health was to go in for an annual physical to see if my biomarkers were trending in the right direction. Every year I would get my blood work results back, then receive some generic advice from my doctor about how I need to watch my cholesterol and maybe not eat so many eggs.

While I still think it’s important for everyone to get an annual physical, your bloodwork results are only useful for showing you the direction your health is headed, not what got you there. In other words, your annual (or multi-year) blood test results are lagging indicators of the culmination of choices you’ve made since your last visit. While still useful to know, it leaves a lot open for interpretation.

Unlike an annual physical, tracking your glucose with a CGM provides real-time feedback about how your diet and lifestyle choices directly affect your health. Instead of playing the guessing game, the data from your CGM gives you the agency to make educated choices about what you should and shouldn’t be eating.

While I don’t want to conflate stable glucose levels with perfect health, your glucose is the ideal biomarker to track because it can be self-monitored every day with a CGM. It lets you be proactive with your health by giving you the ability to observe, decide, and act towards making healthier choices.

Learn More

If you’re interested in learning more about how your body reacts to your diet and lifestyle, I recommend checking out Levels Health. You can sign up for their waitlist to try their product, or if you want to try it sooner, you can check out the 28-day Wearable Challenge. The application is easy to fill out, and they have challenges already scheduled for January, February, and March of next year.

Also, if you’ve already done the Wearable Challenge or were one of the lucky few who got early access to Levels, I’d love to hear about your experience! Feel free to send me an email or DM on Twitter. I’m always curious to learn how certain foods affect people differently and what changes they made to improve their metabolic fitness.

Thanks to Stew Fortier, Sara Campbell, Drew Stegmaier, Ryan Williams, Jamie Russo, Noah Maier, David Vargas, Alexander Hugh Sam, Richie Bonilla, and Compound Writing for reading drafts of this essay and providing thoughtful feedback.

How to Choose What to Read

Lawson Blake — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 15:44:00 GMT

“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”

—Francis Bacon

I used to be proud of reading 30+ books each year. I thought it was the key to gaining a competitive advantage in a world that rewards those who seek to discover and act upon good ideas. But in my constant pursuit of discovering the next "big idea," I never took the time to digest what I'd just read.

Three years and 100 books later, I eventually realized I had been playing the wrong game. In my quest to read as many books as possible, I lost sight of what actually mattered: learning from the ideas that the best books had to offer.

I had committed the cardinal sin of reading: thinking that all books are equally deserving of my time and attention. But this couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, one of the most important skills you can develop as a reader is knowing how to choose what book to read.

Knowing what to read is one of the most important skills you can develop as a lifelong learner. Spending a bit of time upfront on selecting the right book will maximize the significant investment required to actually read it. Where else can 15 minutes potentially save you 15 hours?

So if you’re serious about getting the most out of what you read, then just knowing how to read for understanding isn’t enough. There are too many mediocre books out there willing to steal your time and attention. What you need is a system for discovering the best book that fits your goals and interests.

You need a reading workflow that starts by helping you answer the question, “How do I choose what to read?"

Your Reading Funnel

“A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short.”

—Arthur Schopenhauer

Think of your selection process as a funnel where you take all of the books you’re interested in reading and capturing them somewhere to be filtered at a later time.

There are many options for tracking the books you want to read, but I recommend choosing just one. A few popular options for maintaining your reading funnel are:

Adding books to a bookshelf
Using Goodreads to save your “Want to Read” books
Saving books to an Amazon wish list
Keeping a running list in a notebook or spreadsheet

Any option will work just fine, but I prefer using Goodreads for maintaining my top-of-funnel list. Goodreads is a book recommendation site designed for readers that lets you add books to virtual shelves for what you’re reading, have read, and want to read. But what makes Goodreads my favorite option is its accessibility and social aspect.

Goodreads’ mobile app makes it easy for you to keep track of all the books you want to read. You can either search for a book on the app or quickly scan books using your phones' camera while browsing the bookstore or library. Whenever I see an interesting book cited in an article or book or hear one mentioned in a podcast, I’ll take out my phone, search for it on Goodreads, and save it to my “To-Read” list.

Goodreads also has a built-in social aspect. Just like other social media platforms, it lets you follow your friends to see what books they’re reading, want to read, and any reviews they've left. You can even track your favorite authors to see everything they’ve published and plan to publish.

Feel free to experiment with a few options to see what works best for you, but don’t spend too much time overthinking it. Once you’ve decided how you’re going to track your books, it’s time to start filling your funnel.

Filling Your Funnel

“Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. The library should contain as much of what you do not know as your financial means, mortgage rates, and the currently tight real-estate market allow you to put there.”

—Nassim Taleb

Picking out the right book starts with filling your funnel with a lot of books. You want to build a really big reading list, also known as an antilibrary, because you don’t yet know which books are best suited for your goals. The antilibrary accomplishes two things: it inspires you and allows for serendipity.

Each book on your to-read list serves as a little reminder of all of the things you haven’t learned yet. They inspire you to continue your pursuit of lifelong learning.

Browsing the books you haven't read yet also lets your curiosity take over and guide you toward your next read. Being led by whatever piques your interest instead of picking out a book you think you "should" read will keep the learning process enjoyable.

But while filling your reading funnel with a lot of books is a good start, it's even more important that you pool quality books from sources you can trust, such as:

Recommendations from friends
High-quality online sources
The bibliographies or appendices of books you’ve already read

Recommendations from Friends: Getting book recommendations from friends is an easy way to start filling your reading funnel. If you value their opinion or they happen to be a subject-matter expert on a topic you’re interested in, then chances are good that they can offer quality advice on what books to check out.

But while getting recommendations from friends is easy, it’s also the least effective at filtering for quality. Even if you trust your friends’ judgment, you still want to make sure you’re getting quality recommendations. You can do that by asking them thoughtful questions such as:

“What books have you gifted the most to your friends and family?”

“If you could only read one book on a particular topic, what would it be and why?”

Asking specific questions will give your friends pause to be more thoughtful with their response instead of just recommending whatever was the last book they read.

Online Sources: The Internet is filled with quality information if you know where to look. Fortunately, finding good sources online is relatively easy since many thought leaders and industry experts enjoy sharing their favorite books. Here are a few quality resources I like:

Picking out a book from the list of someone you trust is an excellent way to find quality books since they’ve already been pre-screened and evaluated for their content. This will save you time and lower your chances of picking out a bad book.

Bibliography or Appendix: An often overlooked and underrated source for finding great books is to check out the bibliography and appendix of books you’ve already read. There you’ll discover which books had a major influence on the book you just read. I like to think of the back of the book as a shortcut for helping you get to the root source of an idea.

Applying Filters: The Lindy Effect & Bad Reviews

“The best filtering heuristic, therefore, consists in taking into account the age of books and scientific papers. Books that are one year old are usually not worth reading (a very low probability of having the qualities for “surviving”), no matter the hype and how “earth-shattering” they may seem to be.”

—Nassim Taleb

Once you’ve filled your funnel with enough books, it’s time to ask, “What am I going to read? Specifically, you’re seeking out the book that’s best suited for your current goals or interests. Make the discovery process easier by asking yourself a few questions:

Are you reading for pleasure?
Are you researching a project?
Is there a new skill you're trying to develop?
Do you want to expand your worldview?

Once you’ve defined your reading goal, browse through your list of recommended books. As you browse, you want to run through a mental checklist to filter for the best available option. Some filters to consider:

How old is the book?
What do the reviews look like?
Is a book even the best tool for absorbing this type of information?

Older Books: Picking out a book based on how old it is may seem like an odd approach, but when you view it through the lens of competition, it makes perfect sense. Books that have been around a long time have successfully competed for attention and relevance over multiple generations. These books follow the Lindy Effect, as Nassim Taleb once wrote:

"If a book has been in print for forty years, I can expect it to be in print for another forty years. But, and that is the main difference, if it survives another decade, then it will be expected to be in print another fifty years. This, simply, as a rule, tells you why things that have been around for a long time are not "aging" like persons, but "aging" in reverse. Every year that passes without extinction doubles the additional life expectancy."

Favoring older books prevents you from falling prey to shiny object syndrome. Instead of being swayed by clever marketing tactics and gamed best-seller lists, you let time filter out what’s actually worth reading. There’s just one caveat: in rapidly changing fields, such as technology, newer books can be a better choice since their information will be more relevant.

Reviews: Reading online reviews can help you make two quick judgments about a book: Is it worth reading? And what can I expect to learn? But just remember that reviews can be highly biased and tend to err on the side of being overly critical, so always take that into account.

When reading reviews, it’s often a good sign if a book has a lot of rave reviews mixed with some strong negative ones. While this might sound counterintuitive, seeing a stark contrast in reviews is a good indicator that the book’s ideas are useful or interesting. It’s just that the author’s opinions about the ideas likely didn’t align with the reader’s. However, if a book only has a lot of okay reviews, then its ideas are probably mediocre and not worth your time.

Right Tool: It’s also important to ask yourself whether or not a book is even the best tool for absorbing the type of information you’re seeking. Sometimes the answer you’re looking for can be more easily found in an article, interview, lecture, or just by going out and doing it.

Books are not always the solution you’re looking for, but they’re often the best source for consuming the condensed knowledge of an expert in a way that’s been carefully thought out and edited.

Next Steps

Once you’ve determined your next read, it’s time to move on to the next step in your reading workflow: knowing how to read for understanding. I cover how to do this in part two of this series (coming soon).

Thanks to Stew Fortier, Tom White, Patrick Ward, Fadeke Adegbuyi, Jesse Evers, Alexander Hugh Sam, Noah Maier, Giorgio Parlato, Lyndall Schreiner, Paul LeCrone, and Ross Richey for reading drafts of this essay and providing thoughtful feedback.

Are you interested in being more productive? Click the link below to check out some of my favorite tools for getting more done.

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Lawson Blake

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