Aug 2, 2022

#62 How Curious! One Simple Job, Time Management for Mortals, Coolguides

Revue

How Curious!

August 2 · Issue #62 · View online

A short monthly newsletter packed with awesome new discoveries and personal recommendations! #Books #Podcasts #Tech #Humour #Psychology #BestOfTheWeb

Happy August, and welcome to the 62nd issue of ‘How Curious!’ ✌️

I kicked off last month with a visit to Ireland for a wedding and joining a family holiday in the west of Ireland. My visits to Ireland are relatively limited, so catching up with friends and family was extra special. 🇮🇪

Running training is going well, and I managed to clock my longest ever run with ease. I still have heaps of work to do to hit my target pace, and keeping injury free remains the priority! 🏃‍♂️

Running views in Mayo, Ireland 🇮🇪

Quotes

Life is not measured by length but by depth. Birthdays tell us how long we have been on the road, not how far we have traveled. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

A dream written down with a date becomes a goal. A goal broken down into steps becomes a plan. A plan backed by action makes your dreams come true. — Greg Reid

Independence, to me, doesn’t mean you’ll stop working. It means you only do the work you like with people you like at the times you want for as long as you want. — Morgan Housel

Podcast

Pieter Levels - Thinking and doing for yourself

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I love discussions that question the social norms people take for granted and explore alternative ways of living. This episode points out the unsustainable approach of many modern lifestyles.

Pieter Levels has built numerous successful websites whilst living a nomadic and minimalist life. His ventures make $2.5million/year, but his laptop is the most expensive item he owns.

If you enjoy this episode, you may also enjoy the Pieter Levels episode I shared in How Curious #59.

#143 Andrew Wilkinson: Entrepreneurial Insights

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Canadian businessman and billionaire investor Andrew Wilkinson has made a successful career out of channelling his entrepreneurial spirit, but he knows that sometimes that energy can be a double-edged sword.

In this episode, Wilkinson goes in-depth on the lessons learned from a career that’s seen him build a business empire of more than 40 companies, but also why he’s had to re-calibrate his personal goals after struggling to find happiness in the summer of 2021.

He also discusses building a business in a small Canadian market, competing with venture-backed companies, strategies for hiring CEOs, the mistakes that have cost him millions of dollars, and so much more.

Books

After abandoning two books last month, I finally found one that resonated. Life is short, and there are more books than I’ll ever have time to read, so if I do not enjoy a book, I’ve zero guilt about putting it down.

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals

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Rejecting the futile modern obsession with ‘getting everything done,’ Four Thousand Weeks introduces tools for constructing a meaningful life by embracing rather than denying their limitations.

Most productivity experts act merely as enablers of our time troubles, by offering ways to keep on believing it might be possible to get everything done.

Attention, on the other hand, just is life: your experience of being alive consists of nothing other than the sum of everything to which you pay attention.

Convenience culture seduces us into imagining that we might find room for everything important by eliminating only life’s tedious tasks. But it’s a lie. You have to choose a few things, sacrifice everything else, and deal with the inevitable sense of loss that results.

Check out my digital bookshelf for a ranked list of all books I’ve read.

Best of the Web

24 Powerful Razors - Simplify Decision Making

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A “razor” is a rule of thumb that simplifies decision-making. This list contains many gems. My favourites include:

Luck - When choosing between two paths, choose the path that has a larger luck surface area.
New Projects - Imagine that this will take 2x as long and be ½ as profitable as you expect. Do you still want to do it?
Listen mode - If you encounter someone with opinions or perspectives very different from your own, listen twice as much as you speak.

43 life lessons at age 43 | Life, money and happiness

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I love learning from others and find these life lesson style lists to be a particularly practical way of doing so! I highlighted eight tips, including:

If someone asks you the same question 3x, make it a public Google Doc.

When someone makes you mad, look inside to analyze what’s really going on.

Making unspoken norms “spoken” eliminates a ton of misunderstandings and quarrels.

Coolguides

www.reddit.com – Share

I rarely browse Reddit but came across this cool collection of picture-based reference guides for anything and everything.

Two Training Thoughts 🏃‍♂️

A lovely bonus of running longer distances is the extra thinking time it forces upon me. Two thoughts have stuck with me:

1) Everyone is running their race.

Running loops of a park, I often lap people but also get overtaken by others. It’s reassuring to remind myself that comparison to others is pointless here because I don’t know:

How far have they already run?
How far do they intend to run?
How long have they been training?
What pace are they targeting? Are they even timing themselves? This could be on a recovery run, or they could be aiming for a PB.

In running and many other areas of life, it’s nice to remember that everyone is running their own race.

2) One simple job.

I have one job when running. Keep my watch showing a certain pace for a set distance. Too slow or too fast, and I get a warning. I need to keep it within the allowable range. That’s it.

There is something incredibly humbling and beautiful in accepting that my job is so simple.

PS - Please let me know if you have any good Spotify running playlist recommendations. Thanks in advance! 🙏

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