68: Rules Aren't Real 📐
Dispensing with the status quo is the key to escaping mediocrity.
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67: Not all that glitters 🪩
In one morning I came across three stories that made me think twice about the ‘metaverse’. It’s not some abstract future dystopia—it’s already here. Many of us already inhabit mini-metaverses full of personalised algorithms, and few of us are ready to take off the headset. The first...
66: Win the small hill ⛷
Sometimes in order to win the game you're optimising for, you must lose the ones you've been told were important.
65: What you want for dinner 🍽
How often do you revisit ideas you believe to be common sense? When thinking of possible ways we could develop our thinking or improve our lives we naturally gravitate to new ideas instead of investigating existing patterns. When you start thinking from first principles, a lot of things you might...
64: Constraints and consistency 🎲
People become great by being creative within the boundaries and pushing the expectations of those who merely tow the line.
63: Nobody cares 📵
Sometimes you will be out in the field, pushing the limits of expectation, on the verge of changing the world, and not a single soul will care. The masses often sleepwalk through innovation. You can only make great things if you’re willing to be ignored and unafraid of going...
62: The hard thing about hard work ⚒️
Brandon Sanderson is one of my favourite authors. If he writes something I’m going to eat it up. But not immediately. Because Brandon likes to write big beefy books that could double as self-defence weapons or stools for small cats. He writes a LOT. He recently surprised his entire...
61: It Sounds Better Over There 🎋
Whenever words are carried by saltine winds over vast expanses of water, they somehow gain the magical property of resonating clearer in our minds. This is why we seem to fall head over heels in love with wisdom from faraway lands. It explains our obsession with Ikigai. It’s why...
60: The Sum of our Parts 🧩
No one human knows how to make a pencil from scratch despite it seeming like a fundamentally basic thing - something every child can use. To construct something as simple as a pencil takes mining graphite, cutting wood, shaping metal, and figuring out whatever modern erasers are made out of....
A Tree in the Woods
If the cameras turn off, do the Kardashians still exist? People are designing their lives and actions around black camera lenses, hoping that an audience will exist on the other side. People stand alone in rooms swinging their arms violently and making faces at the wall, because TikTok promises their...
56: Finding your passion 🔮
People spend their lives chasing passion. We have dreams of what life should be like. What it could be like, once we find the magic that's missing. We all want to get paid to do something we love. And we want to be paid well for it! To achieve the...
48: Death of a Cartographer 🌊
What if I told you that nearly every island in Polynesia was discovered without maps or compasses by men in canoes who navigated by the stars? We're losing the art of navigation. As we develop clearer definitions of success and constrain the paths towards it, the opportunities for people to...
45: A guide for better gifts
How to give the best gifts to your past, present and future selves. Gifts for the present One of the greatest gifts you can give yourself in the present moment is your complete and immediate focus. The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost,...
43: Searching for easy answers
Pattern-matching and robust thinking are more important than tactics and abstraction. I get messages from strangers all the time. That’s part of the fun of being on the internet. Many of those strangers become friends. But I’ll always remember one particular incident because it sparked my desire to...
42: How to fail exquisitely
The fine art of failure, and how to make it useful. Failure porn is everywhere. In a world of fortune cookie philosophers and Twitter entrepreneurs, rags (Harvard sweatshirt) to riches stories are in vogue. Founders want to share their story of raising a few million bucks. Everyone else wants the...
7 Reasons Why Business Execution Is Like Baking a Cake
Developing a bias towards action turned me from an occasional ideator to a consistent executor. It turns out executing in business is a lot like baking a cake 🎂 Here are 7 reasons Why: 1. Imagining a cake doesn’t mean you can make it We all have that friend who...
How to Improve Your Multitasking Abilities
Multitasking gets a bad rep. 🤹🏽 But most people spend no time learning how to get better at it! You can have multiple things on the go. You can be a jack of all trades. You can be a competent generalist. Here's the secret: Most people try to multitask by throwing...
🎙 Doing Productive Work with Thomas Frank
David speaks with Thomas Frank, a writer and video creator passionate about helping people become more capable and productive. Thomas is the founder of the College Info Geek, a blog to help you learn effectively, spend less time studying, and become more productive (even if you're not in college). He...
Life Lessons from Legendary Warriors: How to Craft your Legacy
Gather around for a quick history lesson. The first Samurai were thugs. The first Ninja were priests. Sparta was once known for pretty flowers and bees. But that's not what we remember. Here's what these legends can teach you about life and success 👇🏾 For the full history lesson, as well...
Find Your Path: Tips for Finding Clarity in Your Career
It's not uncommon to feel stuck in your career. You're not sure if you're in the right job, let alone on the right path. And even if you are in the right job, you may not be maximising your potential or doing your best work. I was recently asked for...
Working in Corporate Law vs Startup
One thing I miss from working in corporate law which you won't find quickly in a startup is a feeling of complete competence and subject mastery. In law, I worked on $50m-$1bn debt financings. Every deal was different, yet similar. You can get good fast in a narrow domain....
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