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July 6 · Issue #61 · View online
A short monthly newsletter packed with awesome new discoveries and personal recommendations! #Books #Podcasts #Tech #Humour #Psychology #BestOfTheWeb
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Happy July, and welcome to the 61st issue of ‘How Curious!’ ✌️ One month into the Berlin summer, and I’m a major fan so far. I’ve traded Spanish and surfing for German and running. My running routine is going great. The German is progressing at a slower pace! 🇩🇪 🏃♂️ This month’s newsletter is a bumper edition, even after cutting half the content. It could be the best one yet! 💫
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My trusty new Swapfiets rental bike 🚴♂️
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It’s only work if you would rather be doing something else. Find a way to carve a career out of what you already want to do. - James Clear You’re going to die one day, and none of this is going to matter. So enjoy yourself. Do something positive. Project some love. Make someone happy. Laugh a little bit. Appreciate the moment. And do your work. - Naval It’s so much better to promote what you love than to bash what you hate. - Jessica Alba
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#139 Laurie Santos: The Pursuit of Happiness
Can you accurately identify what aspects of life make you happy? Would you even know if you found true happiness? Leading psychology professor and happiness expert Laurie Santos dives deep on all the factors contributing to our happiness, why we spend so much energy pursuing it, some evidence-based methods to boost your happiness, and much more. Santos is a Professor of Psychology and the Head of Silliman College at Yale University. Since 2018 she’s been teaching Psychology and the Good Life, one of the most popular courses at Yale and at one point included approximately a quarter of the school’s undergraduates.
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Episode 1: Without A Plan
BER is the international airport code for Berlin Brandenburg Airport. It has also become a signifier of failure, incompetence, and corruption. BER has been under construction for 11 years, blown through six opening dates, three general managers and two state leaders. Costs have ballooned from around €1 billion to at least €5.4 billion. The series explores why the escalators are too short, the lights are always on, and the rooms seem to be numbered by bingo. It interviews insiders and disgruntled workers, chases ghost trains running to the terminal, and goes inside the unfinished airport.
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Ep.222: The GAA Catfish - The 2 Johnnies Podcast
The two-part thriller explores the incredible story of “The GAA Catfish”. I’d recommend starting from 26 minutes to skip the nonsense chat they have at the start. This podcast is very Irish, so I’m curious to hear if anyone outside Ireland enjoys it too! Kudos to Walter for this excellent recommendation.
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Finding Ultra: Rejecting Middle Age, Becoming One of the World's Fittest Men, and Discovering Myself
Finding Ultra recounts Rich Roll’s remarkable journey from mid-life couch potato to the starting line of the elite Ultraman competition, which pits the world’s fittest humans in a 320-mile ordeal of swimming, biking, and running. And following that test, Rich conquered an even greater one: the EPIC5—five Ironman-distance triathlons, each on a different Hawaiian island, completed in less than a week. One of Men’s Fitness Magazine’s “25 Fittest Men in the World,” Rich has become one of the most recognized advocates of plant-based living. Kudos to Jindy for the recommendation. “The prize never goes to the fastest guy,” Chris replied. “It goes to the guy who slows down the least.” True in endurance sports. And possibly even truer in life. ..the typical amateur endurance athlete trains far too hard on the aerobic and active recovery days. But not nearly hard enough on the intense days. A certain level of proficiency can be achieved this way, but full potential is never realized. Chris said it would take discipline to rebuild. I was now starting to understand what he meant. A different kind of discipline—the discipline to slow down.
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How to Be German in 50 Easy Steps
Since moving to Germany, I’ve started to capture curious things about the culture. This short book covers most of my observations! Interesting quirks include:
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Obey the red man - People never jaywalk. Even on an empty road, they will not disobey the red man.
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Birthdays - On your birthday, you bring cake into the office for everyone and pay for others at your birthday dinner. Not the other way round as is common in most countries!
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House shoes - Most Germans don’t wear shoes indoors, except for their dedicated house shoes. When I first encountered this tradition amongst other cultures, I found it a bit bizarre, but it makes perfect sense (Your outdoor shoes have been on the street, on public transport, in bathrooms etc.!)
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My Favourite Apps
A list of my favourite and most used iOS apps, most of which are also available on Android. Some are obvious, others less well known. Thanks to Conor for reminding me to update and share this list!
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35 Lessons on the Way to 35 Years Old
Ryan Holiday is amongst my favourite authors and one of those that has done the most to spur the current interest in stoicism. His annual birthday lessons are always worth a read. My favourites include:
- If you can afford to, delegate it. If you can’t yet afford to, automate it. Time is the most precious resource.
- Most people would rather argue about reality than do something about reality.
- Seneca said, “I pay the taxes of life gladly.” He doesn’t just mean from the government. Annoying people are a tax on being outside of your house. Delays are a tax on travel. Negative comments and haters are a tax on having a YouTube channel.
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Although I enjoy running, I’ve usually only trained once a week, and never followed a training plan. Since moving to Berlin, I’ve ramped up my training. It’s awesome to see my fitness and times improve! The four things that have had the biggest impact on my training are:
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Commit to an event - Copenhagen half-marathon in September.
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Join a group - Interval training every Tuesday with Kraft Runners.
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Runna App - Personalised training plans to suit your schedule, running level, and goals. The app has helped me structure my runs and commit to a sustainable schedule! Kudos to my friend Walter to building this. View here.
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Garmin Forerunner 55 - Works well with Runna so I can see my running plan on my wrist and maintain my target pace. Particularly useful for intervals. View here.
Bonus:
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Get decent running shoes, in a proper running shop. I’ve tried a few brands, and Asics always prove the most comfortable and reliable for me. It’s worth visiting a proper running shop to get advice on what best suits your feet and running style.
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Get running socks. I don’t know how much difference they make, but if they have even the slightest impact on blister/injury prevention they’re worth it!
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I love building side projects to keep my product skills fresh and stay on top of new tech. LegalTechTrends is one such project. It’s the only LegalTech site I check every day, so I’m feeling a little selfish for not sharing widely with others yet. That needs to change! It helps me daily:
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NewsFeed - I can view LegalTech articles from across the web in one place. It monitors content published on 50,000+ news sites!
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PodcastFeed - I search 1700+ LegalTech podcasts for topics and guests of interest. I immediately see new episodes.
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Trends - All content is auto-categorised, so I can see what topics are most popular each week.
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Bonus: I also built a neat Twitter automation to tweet every article that appears on the site. If you’re in the LegalTech world the Twitter account is definitely worth a follow.
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All your LegalTech news and podcasts in one place.
I hope you get as much benefit as I do! As always, feedback and suggestions are more than welcome 😊
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View all previous newsletters here. Feel free to forward this email to a friend or reach out with feedback and suggestions for the next edition! ✌️ - Peter Duffy
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