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 persisting when others might quit.
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?
45: A guide for better gifts
How to give the best gifts to your past, present and future selves.
43: Searching for easy answers
Pattern-matching and robust thinking are more important than tactics and abstraction.
42: How to fail exquisitely
How to give the best gifts to your past, present and future selves.
Avoid Relying on Biases as Heuristics
The beauty of heuristics is that they are abstractions that help us understand sets of information, and tell us where to put that information, or what actions to take. Heuristics are mental shortcuts that let us be lazy. This can be extremely useful. We’re inundated with data and decisions...
Making Things that Don't Suck: The Secret to Pixar's Success
In November 1995, a movie changed cinema forever. Pixar released “Toy Story,” the world’s first computer-animated feature film. The film became a hit franchise and has been followed by other universal hits like Finding Nemo, Inside Out, Up, Coco, Ratatouille, Monster’s Inc., and The Incredibles. But according to...
The Powerful secret of Stress and Performance
Do you ever sit down and think: “Maybe I need a little more stress in my life?” Probably not. Most people are fed up with it. But the more I learn about stress, the more I realize its potency in maximizing performance. Stress might be better described as cognitive arousal....
🎙The Pathless Path with Paul Millerd
David speaks with Paul Millerd, a Creator, Writer, and Consultant. He’s the author of the Pathless Path, an incredible book. There were a lot of gems in this episode. You're gonna love this if you have any aspirations at all of being a creator or following your curiosity, finding...
The Hidden Cost of Dream Inflation: How to Make Your Dreams a Reality
Deep down, everyone has some change they’d like to make in the world. They just may not frame it in such grand terms. What are your dreams? If you knew failure was impossible, what would you hope to accomplish someday? Hit reply and let me know. If you say...
7 Benefits of Waking up Early
People never believe me when I say getting up early is the closest thing to having superpowers. Especially if: * You have anxiety * You're not great at managing time * You have a lot on your plate Here are a few benefits: A quick point - I'm very aware that people have...
