Africanmoose Random Ideas

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Africanmoose Random Ideas

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0x - System

05 Zettelkasten

05.02 - Digital Garden

AfricanMoose Digital Garden

Improve your finances

08 2024 Music stats

1x - References

11 Notes

11.01 Workflows

Overview of tools for personal management and productivity

11.02 Quotes

A good traveler - Lao Tzu

A growing body of research suggests that as little as 5 percent of our behaviors are consciously self-directed. We are creatures of habit and as much as 95 percent of what we do occurs automatically or in reaction to a demand or an anxiety - Jim Loehr

A growing body of research suggests that as little as 5 percent of our behaviors are consciously self-directed. We are creatures of habit and as much as 95 percent of what we do occurs automatically or in reaction to a demand or an anxiety - Jim Loehr

A little learning is a dangerous thing - Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring - There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, And drinking largely sobers us again - Alexander pope

A man is already of consequence in the world when it is known that we can implicitly rely upon him - Edward Bulwer-Lytton

A man’s life is interesting primarily when he has failed - I well know. For it’s a sign that he tried to surpass himself - Georges Clemenceau

A mature person is one who does not think only in absolutes, who is able to be objective even when deeply stirred emotionally, who has learned that there is both good and bad in all people and in all things, and who walks humbly - Eleanor Roosevelt

A meaningful life is composed of a series of meaningful moments. If this is what we want, then the ability to infuse each moment with meaning would seem to be a skill worth practicing - Bill Crawford

A mind that is stretched by new experience can never go back to its old dimensions - Oliver Wendell Holmes

A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones - for life is short - Arthur Schopenhauer

A shared joy is a double joy - a shared sorrow is a half sorrow.

A simple life, Im beginning to understand, is not one that requires lots of money, but one that is not dictated by debt - Kate Humble

A small daily task will beat a spasmodic Hercules - Anthony Trollope

About the only value the story of my life may have is to show that one can, even without any particular gifts, overcome obstacles that seem insurmountable if one is willing to face the fact that they must be overcome - Eleanor Roosevelt

Achieving success is so simple - Charlie Munger

Alcohol at altitude - Tony Parsons

All advice is autobiographical

All of humanitys problems stem from mans inability to sit quietly in a room alone - Blaise Pascal

All the energy you put into arguing with reality comes at the expense of improving your situation - James Clear

All warfare is based on deception - Sun Tzu

Always be rooting for people you know - James Clear

Always walk through life as if you have something new to learn and you will - Vernon Howard

Amateurs think in absolutes. Professionals think in probabilities - James Clear

Amateurs think that if they were inspired all the time, they could be professionals. Professionals know that if they relied on inspiration, they’d be amateurs - Philip Pullman

An idea wants to be shared. And, in the sharing, it becomes more complex, more interesting, and more likely to work for more people - Adrienne Maree

Anne Lamott on the power of reading

Any fool can capitalize on gains. The important thing is to profit from your losses - William Bolitho

Any fool can make things bigger and more complex - Albert Einstein

Anyone can steer the ship when the sea is calm - Publilius Syrus

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new - Albert Einstein

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty - Henry Ford

Appreciation that we can fly in a plane - Louis C.K.

As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality - Albert Einstein

As our island of knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance - John Wheeler

Asking for help is a superpower anyone can have but only some people use - Alexi Pappas

Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it - Colin Powell

Be guided by beauty...It's a beautiful thing to do something right - Jim Simmons

Be humble about what you know and confident about what you can learn - James Clear

Be impeccable with your word. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love - Miguel Angel Ruiz

Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas - Marie Curie

Behind mountains there are other mountains - Haitian proverb

Books are not just a means of transferring information, but a machine for thinking - Joel Miller

Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations - Henry David Thoreau

Brief is this existence, as a fleeting visit in a strange house, The path to be pursued is poorly lit by a flickering consciousness - Albert Einstein

Bring me a beaker of wine that I may wet my mind - Aritophanes

build capacity in many instead of perpetuating dependence on the few - Sabina NawaB

Caring about everything is a disaster. Caring about nothing is also a disaster - James Clear

Chinese kind rejection letter

Coffee is concentrated sunshine - Humboldt

Commitment is inherent in any genuinely loving relationship - M. Scott Peck

Conservation of energy. Never stand up when you can sit down, and never sit down when you can lie down. - Winston Churchill

Creativity comes from a conflict of ideas - Donatella Versace

Creativity is labor intensive - John Adams

Difference between science and engineering

DNA is like a computer program but far more advanced than any software ever created - Bill Gates

Do it right - Popular Mechanics

Do not develop an attachment to any one weapon or any one school of fighting - Miyamoto Musash

Do ordinary things to do something special

Do the things that interest you and do them with all your heart. Dont be concerned about whether people are watching you - Eleanor Roosevelt

Dont drain the reservoir - Henry Miller

Don’t let the Internet replace your firsthand experience of life, but do let it extend your experience - Douglas Axe

Door of happiness - Helen Keller

Early feedback is usually better than late criticism - James Clear

Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one's self-esteem - Thomas Szasz

Every intellectual endeavour starts with a note - Sonke Ahrens

Every reaction is a learning process; every significant experience alters your perspective - Hunter S. Thompson

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing - the last of the human freedoms - to choose ones attitude in any given set of circumstances - Viktor Frankl

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler - Albert Einstein

Excellence is not an act but a habit - Will Durant

Expectations of youth - Emerson

Fall in love with some activity, and do it - Richard Feynmann

Fall in love with some activity, and do it. Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn’t matter - Richard Feynman

Family is the people in your life who want you in thiers and accept you for who you are - Maya Angelou

Fear less, hope more; eat less, chew more; whine less, breathe more; talk less, say more; love more, and all good things will be yours - Swedish Proverb

Find meaning in life - Viktor Frankl

Find the highest leverage version of your role - Elliot Starr

Focus on the present - Anthony de Mello

Food, I find, has a unique ability to facilitate conversation - Keith Ferrazzi

For who is there who, shooting all day, will not sometimes hit the mark - Marcus Tullius Cicero

For, like a mass in Newton’s first law of motion, once our minds are set in a direction, they tend to continue in that direction unless acted on by some outside force - Leonard Mlodinow

Genius is often only the power of making continuous efforts - Elbert Hubbard

George Orwell six rules for writing

Going to a meeting without Googling someone is unacceptable - Keith Ferrazzi

Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together. The trick is to focus on the first small thing - Vincent van Gogh

Guilt is in the past, worry is in the future. The only thing you can change is right here in the present - Dr Edith Eger

Habit is as second nature - Cicero

Happiness is not a goal, it is a by-product - Eleanor Roosevelt

Have an ambitious plan - Winston Churchill

Have maximum financial flexibility to face both hazards and opportunities - Charlie Munger

Heroism, senseless violence and patriotism - Albert Einstein

How to produce exceptional art - Endless curiosity, observation, and a great amount of joy in the thing - George Grosz

How you do anything is how you do everything

How you talk about your experiences will dictate how you feel about them. Reframing our goals and rewriting our stories are powerful tools - Alexi Pappas

Humility engenders learning because it beats back the arrogance that puts blinders on - Wynton Marsalis

Humor is a way to show you’re smart without bragging - Mark Twain

I am always doing what I can't do yet in order to learn how to do it - Vincent Van Gogh

I believe the way toward mastery of any endeavor is to work toward simplicity- replace complex technology with knowledge - Yvon Chouinard

I hate advice unless i am giving it - Jack Nicholson

I have an uncompromising sense of detail which permeates everything I do...everything must be treated with infinite respect and care - Estee Lauder

I have no special talents, I am only passionately curious - Albert Einstein

I like to have nice conversations with a man that teach me something, make me mad, make me curious - Renee Zellweiger

I make a point to appreciate all the little things in my life, because I learned early that if you don't, you get disappointed a lot. If you do, you might be pleasantly surprised quite often - Dolly Parton

I think of beauty as an absolute necessity - Toni Morrison

I wanted freedom, then I wanted order. Then I realized order is freedom - Winston Churchill

I wasn't scared of missing, looking bad, or being embarrassed - Kobe Bryant

I write when the spirit moves me - William Faulkner

If a nation's literature declines, the nation atrophies and decays - Ezra Pound

If fifty million people say something foolish it is still foolish - Somerset Maugham

If you are busy showing off your brains you are probably not listening closely enough - Strauss Zelnick

If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live - Lin Yutang

If you dig a hole and it's in the wrong place, digging it deeper isn't going to help - Seymour Chwast

If you don't cannibalize yourself, someone else will - Steve Jobs

If you feel safe in the area you are working in you are not working in the right area - David Bowie

if you get a chance to act in a room that somebody else has paid rent for, then you're given a free chance to practice your craft. And in that moment, you should act as well as you can - Philip Seymour Hoffman

If you have more projects than you have time for, you are not going to be an unhappy person - Eleanor Roosevelt

If you have to discipline yourself to achieve art you discipline yourself - Bernard Malamud

If you know something's going to work, it's not worth working on - Eliot Peper

If you learn from defeat, you havent really lost - Zig Ziglar

If you only wished to be happy, this could be easily accomplished; but we wish to be happier than other people, and this is always difficult - Montesquieu

If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion, and avoid the people, you might better stay home - James A Michener

If you wish to improve be content to appear clueless or stupid in extraneous matters - Epictetus

If you would persuade, appeal to interest and not to reason - Ben Franklin

Imagination is more important than knowledge - Albert Einstein

Importance of keeping mouth shut in success - Albert Einstein

In love, unlike in politics, caution is not a virtue - Nelson Mandela

In many cases, you'll find the only thing preventing you from learning is your ego - James Clear

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock - Thomas Jefferson

In the history of culture the discovery of zero will always stand out as one of the greatest single achievements of the human race - Tobias Danzig

In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity - Sun Tzu

In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists - Eric Hoffer

Inspiration is for amateurs, the rest of us just show up and get to work - Chuck Close

Instead of focusing exclusively on our finances, we should be thinking about the things that truly make a difference in our later years - our health spiritual life relationships with family and friends and having interesting things to do - Ralph Warner

Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death - Albert Einstein

It is a danger to wait around for an idea - Gerhard Richter

best to repel instantly the first prickings of anger, to stamp out its very seedlings, to take pains not to be drawn in - Seneca

It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future - Danish Proverb

It is good to know something of the customs of various peoples, so as to judge our own more soundly - Descartes

It is one of the unexpected disasters of the modern age that our new unparalleled access to information has come at the price of our capacity to concentrate on anything much - Alain de Botton

It is only ideas gained from walking that have any worth. - Friedrich Nietzsche

It is still best to be honest and truthful, to make the most of what we have, to be happy with simple pleasures, and have courage when things go wrong - Laura Ingalls Wilder

It isnt talent its continuing - Kyohei Sakaguchi

It isn’t what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about - Dale Carnegie

it pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety - Isaac Asimov

It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who ever had been alive - James Baldwin

It's never too late to do something you love - Pharrel Williams

It's nice to have a little help, but we often resent when someone else tries to do it all for us. Help along the way, but let them run their own race - James Clear

It's so hard to forget pain, but it's even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace - Chuck Palahniuk

Ive discovered that even when you’re in charge, you are often much more effective asking questions than giving orders - Brian Glazer

Ive failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed - Michael Jordan.

Keep strong, if possible. In any case, keep cool. Have unlimited patience. Never corner an opponent, and always assist him to save face - B. H. Liddell Hart

Knowing the work you have to do to know the work you have to do - David Allen

Learn from everyone and everything. From the people you beat, and the people who beat you, from the people you dislike, even from your supposed enemies. At every step and every juncture in life, there is the opportunity to learn - Ryan Holliday

Learning is a series of plateaus with spurts of growth in between - George Leonard

Less is more and more is more. It's the middle that's not a good place - Paula Scher

Let us be lazy in everything except in lovingand drinking except in being lazy - Gotthold Lessing

Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards - Søren Kierkegaard

Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.” Ashley Smith

Life is harder when you expect a lot of the world and little of yourself - James Clear

Like a pauper but with lots of money - Pablo Picasso

Listen to others opinions even if you dont agree - Nelson Mandela

Look for pockets of low competition - James Clear

Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken - Oliver Burkeman

Love me from my hair follicle to toenail - Angie Stone

Lust is a destroyer of peace - Ryan Holliday

Making the simple complicated is commonplace - Charles Mingus

Man progresses in all things by making a fool of himself

Manners is a social lubricant, curiosity is the Tabasco that spices it up - Brian Grazer

Many of the best things in life are endless...The important stuff has no finish line - James Clear

Miserable human being in whom nothing is habitual but indecision - William James

Motivation is not permanent, but neither is bathing - Zig Ziglari

Museums are custodians of epiphanies - George Lois

My basic core belief is that all music is good. Everything. And there's some things that I'm not yet ready to accept as good - but that's on me - Doug Schulkind

My life can be so arranged that I can live on whatever I have - Eleanor Roosevelt

Never be the first to arrive at a party, or the last to go home, and never, ever, be both - David Brown

Never sign a contract or make an investment that you don’t understand at least as well as the person on the other side of the transaction - Seth Godin

No matter what your goal or project, never allow yourself to miss two days in a row - Leo Babauta

Nobody wins unless everybody wins - Bruce Springsteen

Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts - Albert Einstein

Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced

Notetaking - Nate Liason

Nothing happens to the wise man against his expectation - Seneca

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

Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely - Auguste Rodin

Nothing you love is lost - Bruce Coville

Of all the means which are procured by wisdom to ensure happiness throughout the whole of life, by far the most important is the acquisition of friends - Epicurus

Of all the things which wisdom provides to make us entirely happy, much the greatest is the possession of friendship - Epicurus

On spending time optimally - James Clear

On what friends bring out in each other - C.S. Lewis

Once were above the survival level, the difference between prosperity and poverty lies simply in our degree of gratitude - Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin

One has to give something of ones self to the devil that one may live - W B Yeats

One of the commonest and most generally accepted delusions is that every man can be qualified in some particular way-said to be kind, wicked, stupid, energetic, apathetic and so on... - Leo Tolstoy

Only doing what you are good at is a trap - Tim Wu

Only have stuff that is useful or beautiful - William Morris

Only the shallow know themselves - Oscar Wilde

Only through ordering what you know by comparing every truth with every other truth can you take complete possession of your knowledge and get it into your power - Arthur Schopenhauer

Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants - Omar Bradley

Paper has more patience than people - Anne Frank

People are always looking for appreciation, acceptance, and acknowledgment - Dr. Essel

People work better when feedback is fast, direct and honest - Anna Wintour

Photography is personal and should stay personal. You show me your world, and I show you mine - Thom Hogan

Poverty has crippled Kibera but it is not the pity-inducing cry for help that NGOs would have you believe - Jean-Pierre Larroque

Practise deliberately to learn a skill

Preparation is never wasted, regardless of outcome - Bill Belichick

Questions are never indiscreet. Answers sometimes are - Oscar Wilde

Rare indulgence produces greater pleasure - Juvenal

Reading is the greatest Bargain in the world - Gene Roddenberry

Reading without thinking will confuse you. Thinking without reading will place you in danger - Confucius

Reality - Philip K Dick

Remove everything that has no relevance to the story. If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off - Anton Chekhov

Replace judgement with curiousity - Nottage

Risk is half the process of moving forward - Richard Saul Wurman

Running one mile has more in common with running a marathon than sitting at home - James Clear

Saints always have a past and sinners always have a future - Oscar Wilde

Save like a pessimist and invest like an optimist. Plan like a pessimist and dream like an optimist - Morgan Housel

Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind - Albert Einstein

Self-education is the only kind of education there is - Isaac Asimov

Self-limiting Beliefs - Marshall Goldsmith

Selfish people should listen to advice to be more selfless, selfless people should listen to advice to be more selfish - Conor Barnes

Share with someone who wants to listen or listen to someone who wants to share - James Clear

Ship not made to stay in harbour

Since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special attention to those who, by the accidents of time, or place, or circumstances, are brought into closer connection with you - Saint Augustine

Sit round candle light and talk about their inner lives

Solar system is perfect. Gorgeous. Its almost uncanny - Geoffrey Marcy

Some people have a way with words, and other people, uh . . . oh, not have a way

Stop waiting for the world to recognize your potential - start giving the world something positive - James Clear

Stupidity is the same as evil if you judge by the results - Margaret Atwood

Style is doing things in a distinctive way without trying to. Trying to is affectation - Paul Graham

Such as are thy habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of thy mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts. - Marcus Aurelius

Supply and demand - the more people do something, the less valuable it is - Derek Siver

Suspicion and inference, those most misleading incitements, must be banished from the mind... - Seneca

Systems trump goals - James Clear

Teach others what you are learning. You become what you teach. You teach what you are - Brian Tracy

Teachers do one half, bullies do the other. And learning how to deal with bullies is the half you’ll actually use as a grown-up - Chris Rock

Ten ways to build resilience

The art of conversation is the art of hearing as well as of being heard. Some of the best talkers are, on this account, the worst company - William Hazlitt

The best people want to know if they are right - John Cleese

The continued existence of complex interactive systems depends upon preventing the maximisation of any variable - Bateson

The Creative Process - James Clear

The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity - Dorothy Parker

The currency of real networking is not greed but generosity - Keith Ferrazzi

The doer alone learneth. - Friedrich Nietzsche

The easy, conversational tone of good writing comes only on the eighth rewrite - Paul Graham

The end of a melody is not its goal -

The Frugal Hedonist expects that life will be a multi-coloured journey of pleasures and struggles and joy and death and adventure and boredom and epiphany and love and loss - Annie Raser-Rowland

The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt - Bertrand Russell

The good artist's or thinker's imagination is continually producing things good, mediocre and bad - Friedrich Nietzsche

The great men keep working - Pritchett

The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function - Albert Bartlett

The greatest wealth is to live content with little - Plato

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing - Albert Einstein

The knowledge we get by tinkering, via trial and error, experience...is vastly superior to that obtained through reasoning - Nassim Taleb

The mind should have someone whom it can respect - Seneca

The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing. — Voltaire

The more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer - Thomas Merton

The most certain sign of wisdom is cheerfulness - Michel de Montaigne

The natural and literal self-centeredness of all humans

The natural world is unfathomably more rich interwoven and complicated than we are taught - Rick Rubin

The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education - Albert Einstein

The only thing we know about the future is that it is going to be different. - Peter Drucker

The only way to improve is to get negative feedback - Adam Grant

The palest ink is more reliable than the most powerful memory - Chinese proverb

The problem isnt that you dont feel motivated - Oliver Burkeman

The producer of old age is habit - Edith Wharton

The raw material for a sweet life or a bitter life is always there. The story you emphasize is the one you notice - James Clear

The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources - Albert Einstein

The secret to doing good research is always to be a little underemployed. You waste years by not being able to waste hours - Amos Tversky

The secret to waking up is to wake up way earlier than you have to - Simon Sarris

The simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already - Leo Tolstoy

The summary is what is left after someone else decided on what matters - Shane Parrish

The thing I have noticed is when the anecdotes and the data disagree, the anecdotes are usually right - Jeff Bezos

The three most powerful motives are curiosity, delight, and the desire to do something impressive. Sometimes they converge, and that combination is the most powerful of all - Paul Graham

There is a time for many words and there is a time for sleep - Homer

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered - Nelson Mandela

There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all - Peter Drucker

There is some of the same fitness in a mans building his own house that there is in a bird building its own nest - Henry David Thoreau

There was a day when I looked up and realised that I had become someone who professionally replied to email, and who wrote as a hobby - Neil Gaiman

Think in decades and act in days - Matt Griswold

This is grain, which any fool can eat, but for which the lord intended a more divine means of consumption. let us give praise to our maker, and glory to his bounty, by learning about....beer - Friar Tuck

Those whose work is their pleasure need a break - Winston Churchill

Three precious things - gentleness frugality and humility - Lao Tzu

To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, remove things every day - Lao Tzu

To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You - Tom Peters

To be wronged or robbed is nothing unless you continue to remember it - Confucius

To develop a complete mind - Study the science of art - Study the art of science. Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else - da Vinci

To have blessings and to prize them is to be in Heaven, to have them and not to prize them is to be in Hell. . . . To prize them and not to have them is to be in Hell - Thomas Traherne

To know what you are going to draw, you have to begin drawing - Pablo Picasso

To put it bluntly, the pursuit of perfection is a fool’s errand that will drive you up the wall. It will not enhance your life, nor increase the quality of your output - Paul Morrisey

Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Too many spend money they havent earned to buy things they dont want to impress people they dont like - Will Rogers

Train employees well enough to get another job

Two things are infinite the universe and human stupidity - Albert Einstein

Watch your thoughts for they become words - Margaret Thatcher

We all are learning, modifying, or destroying ideas all the time. Rapid destruction of your ideas when the time is right is one of the most valuable qualities you can acquire - Charlie Munger

We are engineered as goal-seeking mechanisms - Maxwell Maltz

We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible because only in that way can we find progres - Richard Feynman

We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them - Albert Einstein

We choose to go to the moon - J. F. Kennedy

We live in a universe whose age we cant quite compute - Bill Bryson

We must always remember that possessions have no inherent value. They become what we make them - Kent Nerburn

We must not cease from exploration - T S Eliot

We must, then, hold back our anger, whether the one who needs to be taken on is our equal, our better, or our inferior. To fight with an equal is a chancy affair; with a better, insane; with an inferior, tawdry - Seneca

Wealth of information creates poverty of attention - Herbert Simon

Well-being depends less on objective events than on how those events are perceived, dealt with, and shared with others - Marc Brackett

Were misinformed not because the government is systematically lying or suppressing the truth. Were misinformed because we like the misinformation we receive and are eager for more - David French

What an astonishing thing a book is - Carl Sagan

What an astonishing thing a book is. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions binding together people who never knew each other. - Carl Sagan

What every human wants and needs - James Clear

What is a friend - Just one with whom you dare to be yourself - C. Raymond Beran

What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen - Rene Daumal

What is common to many is taken least care of, for all men have greater regard for what is their own than for what they possess in common with others - Aristotle

What stands in the way becomes the way - Marcus Aurelius

What the wise do in the beginning, fools do in the end - Warren Buffett

What you HABITUALLY THINK largely determines what you will ultimately become - Bruce Lee

When dreaming, imagine success.When preparing, imagine failure.When acting, imagine success - James Clear

When Man loses his curiosity one feels he will have lost most of the other things that make him human - Arthur C Clarke

When the storm comes - when night falls - what's worse - the danger or the fear of danger. Give me reality, the danger itself - Vincent Van Gogh

When we reach an impasse at any point in the creative process, it can be helpful to step away from the project to create space and allow a solution to appear.

When you are distressed by an external thing, it’s not the thing itself that troubles you, but only your judgment of it - Marcus Aurelius

When you think you are too old to do something new remember you will never be younger than you are right now. - James Clear

When you're procrastinating in units of years, you can get a lot not done - Paul Graham

Whether you are an adult or child, your first attempts will often seem unimportant or foolish - James Clear

Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t - you’re right. - Henry Ford

Without language, one cannot talk to people and understand them, one cannot share their hopes and aspirations, grasp their history, appreciate their poetry or savour their songs - Nelson Mandela

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength - Corrie ten Boom

Writing is the superpower of humankind. It is our truest form of magic - James Clear

Writing isnt hard work its a nightmare - Philip Roth

Wrong decisions are part of life. Being able to make them work anyway is one of the abilities of those who are successful - Warren Buffet

You are going to spend 1000x more time in your surrounding 5 blocks than you will in any other neighborhood in your city - Phil Levin

You are not special and not exceptional - everyone is - David McCullough

You are under no obligation to remain the same person you were a year ago, a month ago, or even a day ago. You are here to create yourself, continuously - Richard Feynmann

You are who you are. You write by sitting down and writing - Bernard Malamud

You become what you scroll - Shane Parrish

You can be more successful in two months by becoming really interested in other people's success than you can in two years trying to get other people interested in your own success - Keith Ferrazzi

You can carve out a very good career simply by being the most reliable person on the team - James Clear

You can cold email nearly anyone but nearly everyone overlooks how powerful it can be - James Clear

You can recall everything you have worked hard and patiently for in your life, but how many things that you have attained with little or no effort can you remember - Thomas Sterner

You have to finish things - thats what you learn from, you learn by finishing things - Neil Gaiman

You have to learn to learn - learn to unlearn and learn to re-learn - Ravi Kumar

You may accumulate a vast amount of knowledge but it will be of far less value to you than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over for yourself... - Arthur Schopenhauer

You need to do your own Thinking. Dont get caught up in mass hysteria. - Jack Scwager

You work so hard just to take two weeks off a year. While I work hard for two weeks so I can have the rest of the year off - Aboriginal man

your job is to be useful and that is done by teaching, entertaining, inspiring, informing, or simply making people laugh - Tim Denning

Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them - David Allen

Your teaching ability is constrained by your writing ability.If you can’t write it down, it will be nearly impossible to teach it well. - James Clear

You’ll learn from them—if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It’s a beautiful reciprocal arrangement - J.D. Salinger

11.03 Ideas

3 ways to gain flow

4 Stages of learning

9 strategies for stress relief

10 years to get good at anything

20 second rule to reduce distractions

20-5-3 rule for spending enough time in nature

A bigger surface area requires more time to maintain. Keep your life simple as much as possible.

A blog is not a democracy

A brief history of the diesel engine

A brief history of the petrol engine

A good story is always the most powerful way of conveying ideas

A hobby can be a source of energy for your main job

A leaders mood is critical to the performance of the team

A poor idea well executed is better than a good idea poorly executed

Ability to do hard things is an asset

Absorptive capacity - the ability to recognize value assimilate new information

Accept change by how we pursue stuff

Achieving change takes time

Activation energy required to start or change behaviour

Adaptability - Do what you can, with what you have, where you are

Addiction is linked to a lust for material consumption

Affect Heuristic - decisions by emotion

Agile Principles

All dogs are mixed breed dogs

All generalizations are false

All subjects are inexhaustible. Focus on one aspect in your writing

All things that give excessive rewards are addictive

All work is collaboration

Allow for a margin for error

Alternative paths and risk not directly visible

Always be calm in arguments or disagreements

Ambiguity Aversion

An adventurous life is a happier life

Analysis Paralysis

Any obstacle or set back should always be viewed as an opportunity

Anything that expands our view of the universe is pleasurable to our mind

Anything that is done more than once could be automated or documented

Appreciate older ones

Appreciate people like how you appreciate a sunset

Appreciate the technology in the items you own

Appreciate unexpected blessings and accept unexpected costs

Around 1000CE the greatest city in the world was Cordoba

Art is about collaboration not competition or comparison

Artificial intelligence not as smart as a five year old

As dust accumulates in a home never cleaned, so our minds need to be focussed on the now

ASAP principle vs ALAP principle - when to make decisions fast and when to make them slow

Ask 'what did I miss' to engage people

Ask an expert to share their knowlege

Ask for advice instead of feedback

Ask people what they are working on that most excites them

Ask what is the next action on this project

Asking questions is an opportunity to be visible

At a certain point, working harder gives only diminishing returns

At the point that you are sure you know what you are doing, creativity plummets

Athletic performance improved by just telling yourself motivational sayings

Athletic performance is improved by our belief about whether we are athletic or not

Average American college student switches tasks every 65 seconds

Average knowlege worker spends considerable time looking for stuff

Avoid oversleeping

Avoid phubbing - phone snubbing to have better conversations

Avoid verbal fillers like um

Bacteria are on us, in us and around us in number we cannot imagine

Balancing vs reinforcing feedback loops

Barbell Method of reading

Bayesian updating

Be a coach not a critic

Be a high volume reader

Be both reflective and reactive

Be comfortable giving compliments

Be distracted, but only temporarily

Be hard to compete with

Be holistic in our view of others

Be inspired by other writers

Be known as someone who can get things done

Be lingerable - good company

Be stubborn about your goals but flexible about your methods

Be the hammer not the nail - try to be proactive in your life

Beethoven wrote music in his head while out on walks

Before blaming others, change the things within our control

Beginners mindset

Being busy doesnt mean we are productive

Being egotistical prevents us from seeing others

Being financially unbreakable is more important than big returns

Being good at self-control not necessarily because of effort made

Being paid destroyed the art of apes

Being prolific is underrated for producing good ideas

Being prolific is underrated for producing good ideas

Belief has power - How George Dantzig solved two unsolvable math problems

Benefit from failure

Best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour

Better to assume I am below average than above average

Better to have someone hate your idea than be apathetic about it

Beware of groupthink

Beware of the illusion of knowlege - admit when you are wrong

Bill Gates think week alone in a cabin every year

Blooms Taxonomy method of learning

Brandolin's Law - It is easier to produce BS than it is to refute it

Broadbracket your decisions

Build a community wherever you are

Build a network by helping people

Building takes time and skill, breaking takes moments

By definition, best practices are average

Caffeine improves cognitive output

Caffeine saves us from withdrawal symptoms

Call attention to the idea rather than to yourself

Carefully curate the quality of what you let into your mind

Carpenters learn to be patient and to plan

Carry around unanswered questions

Challenge your process

Character skills can be learned, and they are more important than cognitive skills

Chauffeur knowlege

Cherish the friend who tells you that you messed up

Chindogu - the Japanese art of eccentric invention

Chinese developed drilling techniques for oil a long time ago

Chisoku - being satisfied

Chose long-term thinking or short-term - you can't do both

Chose your seat wisely

Circular economy vs linear economy

Clutter attracts clutter

Clutter is everywhere

Clutter takes up energy not just space

Coffee is a drink over which to exchange ideas

Coffee is an incredibly complex substance

Coffee taste can be affected by so many factors

Cognitive inertia - difficulty in changing our minds

Collaboration vs compromise

Collecting new ideas for creativity

Combine stories with statistics to increase impact

Commanders intent - formulate, communicate, interpret and implement

Communicate your feelings even in the business world

Complaining blocks learning

Complete what you can then circle back to hard parts

Complex systems have multiple points of failure

Compounding applies to knowledge, experience and relationships and not just money

Compounding is magic

Conferences are not places to learn, but places to meet people in your trade

Confirmation Bias

Confront the reality of our limited control over events

Consider ideas that are opposed to each other

Consider second order effects of your actions

Consider setbacks and failure as part of the process

Constantly review work done with the purpose oflearning

Constraints help learn better

Constraints helped produce the cat in the hat books

Constructive criticism is that which gives an opportunity to improve in future

Constructive feedback focusses on the way forward and not past actions

Contempt for Simplicity

Contrast effect

Cooperation is better than competition

Create a culture of joy of achievement not self-aggrandizement

Create a system for keeping in touch with people

Create a wiki or knowlege base for your organization

Create conditions that will get people what they want in order to persuade them to join you

Create very specific away from work status indicators

Creating a relaxing space requires plant life

Creativity comes from combining previously unconnected things

Creativity doesnt happen by chance, we need to have a creative process

Creativity is a fundamental quality of being human

Cultivate the art of imparting new information to listeners

Culture shapes us but does not define us

Curiosity is the basis of open-mindedness

Curiousity as a management style

Curiousity is a powerful learning tool

Daily routine is a mechanism for productivity

Deal with your inner critic

Debt also compounds like savings

Decisions are like hats, haircuts or tattoos

Deconstruct cool stuff

Deeper conversations result in a better connection

Defer decisions as long as possible for maximum creativity

Deliberate play is better than deliberate practise

Democracy is based on millions of people acting in their own short term self-interest

Design is not decoration

Develop a network of people who will give you honest feedback

Develop a personality instead of using conspicuous consumption

Develop at least 3 routines a day for maximum happiness

Develop the habit of paying the price as early as possible

Difference between manners and etiquette

Differences in learning speed are often just differences of opportunity

Disparity in energy consumption between countries

Disregard the brand new

Distances in the Solar system are unfathomably vast

Distraction and multi-tasking causes a 10 point drop in IQ

Distraction can come from within our own mind

Distractions increase our cognitive load

Do not define yourself by your work

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not - Epicurus

Do not stop in the middle of sentences

Do three random acts of kindness a day

Domain dependence

Don't be afraid to unlearn

Don't be ashamed about naming your price

Dont be too choosy about what work you want to do, but finish what you start

Don't buy more stuff to organize existing stuff

Don't feed your mind mental junk food

Dont be in a rush to learn what people say about you

Dont focus on the most recent event as the point of failure

Dont give more arguments, just select the strongest ones

Dont give the best of yourself to the least important things

Dont let information assymetry intimidate you

Dont read the news

Dont take pride in your ignorance

Dont think twice about investing in yourself

Dont wait for perfect circumstances, start with what you have now

Dont waste energy worrying about what you dont have

Dont worry if your tastes are different from other people

Dorothy tries new adventures in Oz

Downsides of specialization - You are less likely to die of heart surgery when cardiologists are away

Drawing a vital skill like reading

During sleep, your brain cleans itself of toxins

Each human has a unique point of view

Each of us is imperfect and beautiful

Each person is interested in their own personal benefit

Earth is the exact right kind of planet for life

Earth is the precise correct distance from the sun

Economic fears are often unrealistic

Edit your work - cut the bad bits out mercilessly

Educate to allow change

Effort justification

Einstein on the downsides of capitalism

Einstein viewed the lack of miracles as proof of God's existence

Einstein's most elegant imaginative paper had no citations, acknowlegements or references

Einsteins job as a patent examiner helped him develop his physics

Either be acting or be acted upon

Eliminate distractions to learn something new

Email inbox is the priority list of other people

Engage with those who have different views from yourself

Enjoy each experience fully by stretching it out

Entropy applies to everything

Epistemically unique experiences

Establish yourself as an information hub

Even children of atheists invoke a God-like designer to explain the complexity in the world around them

Even Einstein had a hard time getting a job

Even in adversity, find beauty in nature

Even small encouraging words are powerful

Every meeting with someone is an opportunity to help or be helped

Everyone is expected to maximise their potential

Everyone should know how to do basic tasks to survive

Exercise beneficial to our brain

Exercise willpower by going on a 30-day vice fast

Expansion of the universe is set at the correct rate for stability

Experts vs Imitators

Exponential growth feels like no growth at the outset

Expose yourself to novel experiences

Extensive planning only works for achievements that can be described in advance

Extrinsic motivation vs Intrinsic motivation

Eye crinkles are a sign of engagement and happiness

Failure is a positive sign that you are trying to stretch and do something beyond your current abilities

Fallacy of the single cause

Falsification of history

Fast pace of technology requires perpetual learning

Feed the river of inspiration

Feedback loops critical for growth and learning

Feeling seen and understood is central to human experience

Financial independence is having enough

Find hobbies that are radically different from your day job

Find out what your boss hates doing and do it

Find people you admire and ask how they got where they are

Find ways to make others more successful

First principles - ask why five times

Fixed theory vs Incremental theory

Flexible focus better than relentless focus

Fluid and precise gestures improve comprehension by 60 percent

Focus attention on beautiful things in life

Focus is a force multiplier

Focus on accomplishing work, rather than being in the mood to accomplish work

Focus on producing quality rather than quantity

Focus on what is important

Focus on where you are going not what you should avoid

Follow up soon after meeting new contacts

Following the rules may impede expertise

For effective habit change, you must be flexible

Form a judging committee to give feedback on your work

Formula for growing in any field - be nice, ask questions, and engage regularly

Forward movement with optionality gives the best futures

Frugal travel gives you a more intimate experience of where you are visiting

Frugal travel may lead to discomfort, and that is ok

Fundamental Attribution Error

Genius versus skill accumulation

Getting stuck when we are trying something new is just part of the process

Give a stranger a compliment every single day

Give compliments that match to peoples competency or warmth

Give generously in our relationships

Give rough drafts to your boss if they are a control freak

Give your mind time to wander to improve productivity

Give your time and resources to your community

Give yourself space for thinking

Giving advice is an effective way to improve ourselves

Go to the ant - hard work without motivation

Good conversations lead to higher feelings of happiness

Good mentors help learning

Good relationships make us more productivity

Good teachers expect more from their students

Great communication is an easy way to improve business efficiency

Greed results in domination

Growth has a natural rate that is optimum for the organism

Growth is uncomfortable

Hanlon's razor - Don't attribute to malice that which is more likely stupidity

Happiness comes when we are otherwise engaged

Have a networking strategy

Have a personal board of directors as role models and decision makers

Have a short story ready for serendipitous meetings with people of influence

Have an efficiency consultant on a regular basis

Have multiple mental models

Have quicker feedback loops

Have the ability to accept things that are less than perfect

Having a purpose in life is superior to will power

Having a reservoir of ideas allows you to develop ideas over a long period of time

More stuff is inefficient

Hedonic adaptation - We quickly become accustomed to any new source of pleasure

Hedonic Treadmill

Hide your phone and take your watch off to show full interest in a person

Hold regular retrospectives

Honore de Balzac was dependent on caffeine for his creative output

House loan or mortgage narrows options for the next 30 years

How chocolate melts

How did the expert reach his conclusion

How I act during a crisis says a lot about what I truly believe

How much time do you spend daily at a screen

How to acknowlege new work

How to choose an area of interest to focus on

How to give negative feedback objectively

How to know your circle of competence

How to make a meaningful brief first connection with someone

How to view feedback on our art

How we deal with something is more important than the thing that happened

How you deal with bad days is more important than what you do on good days.

Human connection makes your brain work better

Humans are born intrinsically motivated, but learn to become extrinsically motivated

Humans can discriminate between 1 trillion smells

Hyperbolic discounting - minimizing future rewards and delayed gratification

Hyperbolic Discounting

Identify limiting factors and bottlenecks in a system and focus on removing them

If you always agree with a collaborator one of you is unnecessary

If you are in a position of prominence, you need to show more warmth

If you are smart, its dangerous not to be productive

If you cant keep track of your stuff, you have too much

If you have nothing to say say nothing

If you want to get better at something, do it for 30 min for 30 days

Ignore sunk costs - decisions made yesterday are not relevant to the future

Ignore the CNN effect - availability to too much information

Illusion of attention

Illusion of control

Illusion of skill

Immersion learning

Implementation intentions - how to create habits

Improve patience by doing things that take long to accomplish

In architecture, imagination is more important than wealth

In life, it pays to forgive

In order to evaluate AI output, we need subject matter expertise

Inattentional blindness - the gorilla in the room

Inbox Zero is different from unread zero

Incentive super response tendency

Infants are not discouraged by failure

Information Bias

Infuse your writing with your opinion

Inspiration and creativity

Instead of just showing a problem, give the solution

Intention to remember is not important in actual remembering

Intentional practise needed to improve

Cleaning is a way to converse with nature

Interleaved practise

Internal communication platforms are better than email

Ironic Process Theory - We cannot stop thinking about white bears

It is hard to see a system that we are inside of

It is much better to learn from the experience of others than from our own

It may take a lot of work to make something appear sponteneous

It's okay to show feeling when negotiating for a deal

Japanese wisdom - Hara Hachi Bu - Eating until you are 80 percent full

Justify your behaviour

Kaizen - Japanese method of continuous improvement

Keep a few items that have great value to you

Keep changing your habits

Keep in touch to build a connection

Keep notes in a commonplace book

Keeping a list of things done is effective in helping us feel our life has been well spent

Keeping things isolated from each other is exceedingly difficult

Know too much rather than too little

Knowing our own strengths and weaknesses

Knowledge is a source of power

Laugh with someone to feel better connected to them

Leaders job is to think of the big picture

Leaders who are interested in the welfare of their people are more effective motivators

Leaning forward shows we are interested in something

Learn actively more effective than passive learning

Learn all you can about the industry you are in

Learn by doing things

Learn from multiple sources

Learn like a baby - Just dive in and try it

Learn to be good at accompanying others

Learning a language is exceedingly complex

Learning a new language causes one to take on a new personality

Learning from paper is superior to learning from a screen

Learning is best done slowly to accumulate lasting knowledge even if it means doing badly in the short term

Learning is never done

Learning multiple instruments more likely to result in exceptional musical ability

Learning new skills changes the way you think

Learning requires work

Learning skills takes time

Learning something new is good for your brain

Learning with hints is bad for your long term remembering, even in monkeys

Learning with others is more effective

Leave time and space in your schedule for doing nothing

Letting something negative go out of our lives leaves space for something positive

Life is complex and requires time and effort to understand

Likeability is signalled by warmth blended with competence

Limit work in progress

Link your decisions to your deepest wishes

Listen to music with your entire body

Listen to people intently without any electronic devices

London coffeehouses eventually become institutions

Long term thinking is a powerful tool

Long-distance colloboration not as effective as in person collaborations

Longer hours doesnt automatically create better performance

Look at things through new eyes to recognize beauty

Looking at someones eyes increases trust and warmth

Looking at something repetitively does not guarantee remembering it

Louis XV changed houses from mere display to be comfortable and homely

Love does not mean that we will not face negative things

Love is based on knowlege

Love of music does not support theory of evolution

Love requires honesty

Magic is about controlling attention and focus

Maintain a to-learn list

Maintain your tools

Maintaining control cannot exist with love

Maintenance appears dull in comparison to innovation

Make each program do one thing well

Make notes to follow up on people met

Make specific time for conversations

Make your habits ridiculously small

Make yourself inflation proof

Making a statement into a question is a sign of low confidence

Making frugal choices results in greater appreciation of pleasures

Making sense of something better than making a decision

Managers schedule vs Makers schedule

Materialism leads to a world of narcissism

Measure your life in energy not in money

Memory decay is exponential

Memory improves if we take a short break after learning

Memory is state-dependent

Metaknowlege - knowing what we know

Minimalism helps us be more efficient at our work

Minimalist gives us the space to change

Minimalist means clearing out what is not important so we have space to focus on what is.

Mirror people's body language to show that you like them

Money is just a tool. Don't view it in an emotional way.

Monitoring makes change more likely

Monocultured forests die

More is not always better

Organized religion espouses the values of a secular society

Most university graduates go on to jobs unrelated to their degree

Motivation starts when you start moving

Move to learn something new

Moving is a good way to reset what we need in our lives

Multiply impact by including others in what you do

Multitasking reduces our creativity

Must be a thinker as well as a doer

Napoleon would wait 3 weeks before opening any mail

Naptime makes you smarter

Networking is not a mass numbers game

Neuron pathways design in our brain are redundant for backup

Neuroplasticity allows us to design our brain

Never let more than 2 days pass when trying to establish a habit

Never say yes to anything important without thinking it over for a day

Nobel laureates more likely to dabble in other interests

Not project ideal of perfection on those we admire

Not project ideal of perfection on those we admire

Notes should be for jogging memory not substituting memory

Nothing is permanent, but maintenance can keep something going forever

Novelty penalty - people prefer to hear about familiar ideas and experiences

Obsess over quality

Occam's razor - The simplest explanation is most likely to be correct

Official CIA advice on how to ruin an organization

One for me, one for you method of time blocking

Optimize for interestingness

Optimize for speed of retrieval rather than speed of saving

Organization is needed when there are many things. Minimalism may be a better option.

Original ideas come from trying to work on something slightly too difficult

Our attitude makes all the difference

Our brains occasionally prune back cells

Our cells are wondrous

Our forecast of the future just needs to be good enough for us to prepare - we dont need very detailed forecasts

Our hands are made to make

Our identity should not come from our job

Our inboxes should be habitually emptied

Our limits are psychological and come from what we expose ourselves to

Our mental map of our bodies includes tools

Our unconscious can make correct decisions

Our worst experiences can be our best teachers

Out well being is based on relationships, purpose and service

Outcome over ego.

Over time, a small headstart becomes a huge advantage

Palm up vs Palm down gestures

Paradox of choice

Pareto principle in learning new skills

Passive methods of heating and cooling reduce energy use

Pause while speaking

Peak experiences

People are usually happy to talk about themselves and their work

People do business with people they know and like

People who document their processes and make themselves replaceable are valuable and should be given greater responsibility

Periods of quiet are part of the creative process

Permanent information is buried in books instead of headlines

Personal change requires some space to happen

Personification highlight

Peter Principle - One rises to ones level of incompetence

Physical activity on a vacation makes for a happier vacation

Pillars of Creation

Plan ahead for all spending

Planning fallacy

Plug into your friend network by sharing what you need

Polanyi Paradox - We know more than we can explain

Positive feedback works better than criticism

Practical usage of knowlege is superior to theory

Practice failure

Premortem - try to anticipate what could go wrong

Preserve optionality even if it makes you look stupid in the short term

Prethink situations and write down the steps to do

Primacy and Recency effects

Priming helps lay the groundwork for persuasion

Principle of affordable loss

Principle of Atomicity in Notetaking

Principle of reciprocity

Principle of reciprocity in general

Problem based learning

Process information deeply by having a structured note system

Processing more important than motivation for remembering information

Productivity systems need a course-correction method

Professionals always seek to improve their craft

Programming principles that work in real life - Code for humans

Programming principles that work in real life - Communicate well

Programming principles that work in real life - Dont be emotionally attached to your code

Programming principles that work in real life - Keep it simple

Programming principles that work in real life - Slow down to speed up

Programming principles that work in real life - Use consistent standards

Programming principles that work in real life - Use principles instead of rules

Progress is rarely linear

Proximal goals more effective than long-term goals

Questions are the best way to hold a great conversation

Questions to ask people for feedback on your writing

Reading fiction novels makes us better at understanding social cues

Receive wisdom skillfully

Record everything

Reflect someones words back to them to attract them

Regression to the mean

Relevance theory

Replace decisions with rules to overcome weaknesses

Replace dysfunctional habits with healthy ones

Replacing parts in a system helps prevent breakdown

Replicate with enough flexibility to change the copy to meet your needs

Rereading and underlining is useless

Resilience in the face of adversity

Resilience means being in a situation to take advantage of positive random outcomes and to survive negative random outcomes

Resist universal culture

Review values and long term goals regularly

Role rotate regularly to improve documentation and resilience

Rosenthal Effect - people become what you expect of them

Rubbish is only what you treat as rubbish

Save beautiful and special moments in your memory

Schedule time to worry

Sea sponges can live up to 2000 years and are extremely adaptable

Search out activities, hobbies and knowledge that challenge you

Self-control is not a learned skill

Self-control leads to greater happiness

Self-doubt is the counterpoint of creativity

Self-expression is a vital human need

Self-serving bias

Serve the smallest viable audience with something they love

Shift as much time as possible from consuming to creating

Show up in person when its important

Single most important factor in success is not intelligence

Single-loop learning vs. double-loop learning

SLANT method of listening

Sleep is good for you

Sleep is vital for memory consolidation

Slow growth leads to high quality

Small changes pay compound interest in the long run

Small moments define our position. Our position defines our future

Smiling shows we are engaged

Social comparison bias

Social engagement results in better cognitive performance in old age

Social facilitation - we learn better with company

Social media create a little doll that is a replica of you in their servers

Social media gives the illusion of community without the practical benefits

Some decisions are better of made with reality in view rather than optimization

Some things cannot be speeded up beyond a natural limit

Spaced repetition is the best way to remember things

Specific goals can be counter productive

Velocity towards his goal helped Napoleon win battles

Spend 5 minutes a day savoring something

Spiders on caffeine make weird webs

Spotlight consciousness vs lantern consciousness

Stability makes us feel safe but is unrealistic

Stability sows the seeds for instability, and vice versa

Start small and create successive versions

Starting something is hard, but so is stopping something

Steve Jobs course in typography informed later design for the mac

Structure your decisions to be easily reversible

Studying to pass the exam vs to learn

Stuff I use vs stuff that I imagine I should be using

Subjective well being metric

Success seeds failure, which in turn sows the seeds for success

Business is about working with people not against people

Sunk cost fallacy

Surprise and delight others with whom you contact

Survivorship Bias

Switching trades or specialities has a clear benefit

Systems are optimized to slow things down, not to prevent them once they start

Take care what technologies you use, they will shape your mind and thoughts

Take substantial breaks to improve your productivity

Take time daily to learn something new

Take time to ask older ones about their life lessons

Take your time to make your mind up or make a decision

Taking breaks is good for us on many levels

Taking shortcuts shrinks our worldview

Talk or write about what you are interested

Teaching something helps you learn it better

Team sports are good for self-control

Tell others about the work that you do that is what you want to be known for

Test and learn is preferable to plan and implement strategy

The bad outcome principle

The basic building block of everything we do is information

The benefits of walking

The best insurance is being a kind and generous person

The best predictor of whether you will need an item is whether you are using it or used it recently

The better we get at what we do the more we meet people who have done more

The cathedral effect - our surroundings affect how we think

The chances of life starting spontanously are infinitesimally tiny

The clustering illusion - seeing patterns where none exist

The conjunction fallacy

The difference between medicine and poison is the dose

The downsides of clutter

The evil of to do lists

The exotic idea of drinking hot beverages reduced disease

The figlia del coro - The all female multi-instrumental band

The first law of ecology - we can never do just one thing

The forecast illusion

The fox knows many things the hedgehog only one thing

The Generation Effect - Even a wrong answer helps you learn better than no answer

The goal of art is to share who we are

The Golden Thirteen - The first black American officers

The human voice is an amazing instrument

The iceberg principle - dont share everything you know

The importance of Analysis to improve

The importance of choosing a life partner

The internet is derivative

Prepare the path for a loved one or a guest

The law of triviality - organizations give disproportioate weight to trivial matters

The longer people are married, the less accurate they are in predicting their mate

The magic of regular reviews

The more an item is advertised, the less money is used on item quality

The more breaks you take the more productive you become

The more feedback hurts, the more helpful it often is

The most expert are the worst teachers

The most valuable community is the one you already have

The natural world is always changing

The neocortex is the center of intelligence in our brains

The only failure is to avoid creating in the first place

The only way to stand out when doing undifferentiated work is to work harder

The principle of reciprocity applies in human interactions

The Pygmalian effect - expectations influence results

The quality of your decisions depends on the quality of your thinking

The relation between energy costs and food production

The ruthless edit

The Sechenov Effect

The sleeper effect

The spacing effect in memory

The speaker is the source of information not the visual aids

The standard pace is for average

The sun is ridiculously powerful

The superman illusion

The testing effect - Revising with practise tests is the most effective

The time you wake up does not matter

The value of keeping a journal

The what-the-hell effect - A small failure can lead to a large failure

The word Alcohol from Arabic alkohl

The world believes that love is only needed when it is filling our needs

The world is always changing and so are we

There is no competitive advantage from consuming what everyone else is consuming

There is no point in reading if you are not learning something

Things I learned in the past are now wrong

Things will not out for the best, but they will also go less wrong than you thought.

Think first and answer later

Think of things every day that we are grateful for

Thinking is hard work

Thinking negatively about failure leads to less attempts to try to overcome obstacles

Thinking uses energy

Thomas Edison factory burns down and his positive reaction

Thought suppression is not the best way to control ourselves

Tilt your head and nod to show interest in what someone is saying

To be extraordinary is to be a deviant

To make a connection be yourself and share information is better than secrecy and witholding

Too many notifications for modern workers reduces IQ

Total bioproductive land per person is 4.7 acres

Total financial independence may not lead to happiness

Touch releases Oxytocin which makes us feel connected

Track your progress

Tracking progress increases chances of achieving a goal

Traditional schooling methods induce passivity in learning

Travel slows down our perception of time

True love results in change

Try and consider why a person thinks differently from us rather than why he doesnt think like us

Try to design elegant solutions

Try to optimize for time instead of for money

Trying to control information often backfires

Trying to feel safe does not bring happiness

Trying to win at social media is like working for free for youtube, tiktok or instagram

Turning our head or bodies towards someone shows they have our full attention

Ultimate optimization is impossible

Unethical behaviour does not lead to happiness

Universe was created perfectly for existence

Upfront planning or start and adjust as you go

Use a journal to monitor progress

Use AI as a tool or co-editor

Use an autopilot schedule to work steadily over a long period of time

Use boundary phrases to define limits in your relationships

Use every opportunity to revisit great content

Use follow up questions to keep a conversation going

Use gestures, touch or being level with someone to be closer to people

Use gratitude instead of apology

Use multiple sources to learn and to bolster retention

Use pre-reading questions to enhance memory

Use presuasion to lay the groundwork for change

Use short term games to build long term assets

Use those who are ahead of us as inspiration

Variable practise helps learn better

Warmth and competence signal different people

Watching someone else accomplish something encourages us

Water is the ultimate cleaning tool

We are more likely to believe things which are simpler

We are wired to think negatively

We dont buy handcrafted items for perfection

We need other people to survive

We overestimate the impact of external factors on life happiness

We tend to think that other people are not as deep as us

Weak connections to people have enormous value

Welcome people with warmth and enthusiasm

What will people say at your funeral

When an experience goes wrong it can be just as worthwhile as when all goes right

When bring creative, mistakes help you find a new path

When exiting an organization, have a clear plan to ensure that the organization are not hobbled

When we buy higher quality food, we are less likely to throw it out

When we listen fully the speaker communicates differently

When you buy few things you make more effort to buy good quality stuff

When you face a problem, struggle with it for as long as possible before asking for help

When you give away stuff, give away good things not just junk

When you have few things, you tend to be sure that they are better quality

When you know whats coming, prepare. When you don't know whats coming, position

When you write, dont think about how smart you are. Think about how smart your reader is.

Whether a decision is good or bad depends on our attitude after the decision is made

Work hard to produce things that people want to use

Work to understand the core principles of a field

Working for long is not the same as working hard

Working with a master elevates our standards

Write short paragraphs

Writing in the pyramid style - state everything up front

Writing is a tool for learning

Writing is thinking

Writing notes in your own words has power

You cannot remove bad habits. You can only change the habit to something positive

Your body posture changes how you think

Your circle of people and time should always be expanding

Zen master Hakuin prepared for his lecture by sleeping a lot

Zettelkasten Method

11.05 Persons

Anthony Trollope

Antoni van Leeuwenhoek

Benoit Mandelbrot

Chrissie Wellington

Desiderius Erasmus

Django Reinhardt

Eleanor Roosevelt

Ernest Hemmingway

Fibonacci (Leonardo of Pisa)

Frank Lloyd Wright

Haruki Murakami

Henry David Thoreau

Henry Singleton

Hermann Ebinghaus

Maryam Mirzakhani

Octavia Estelle Butler

William Gladstone

Winston Churchill

11.06 Structure Notes

Trent Hamms 14 money principles

Zettelkasten Principles

11.07 Poetry

A little learning - Alexander Pope

Clearing - Martha Postlethwaite

Dust If You Must - Rose Milligan

Each man kills the thing he loves - Oscar Wilde

Eternity - Valerie Carol Holland

I pray the Lord my works all right - Jack London

I watch people in the world - Ryokan Taigu

If Only I Could Write A Beautiful Poem - Douglas Carter

Sleep and poetry - John Keats

Song of the Open Road - Walt Whitmans

The chief benefits of the house - Gaston Bachelard

The road not taken - Robert Frost

The thief left it behind - Ryokan Taigu

The wonders of ordinary life - William Martin

There is a place where the sidewalk ends - Shel Silverstein

There is nothing more than this - Ryokan Taigu

Woman Oh Woman - Bill Simmons

Yes im truly a dunce - Ryokan Taigu

You do not need many things - Ryokan Taigu

11.11 Technical References

Install Watchtower Library on MacOS

4x - Reading and Learning

41 Books

41.01 Book Notes

Love in Africa - Jeffrey Gettleman

41.02 Book reviews

7 Must-Know Strategies to Learn Anything Faster by Scott Young

100 Ways to Improve Your Writing - Proven Professional Techniques for Writing With Style and PowerGary Provost

101 essays that will change your life - Brianna Wiest

365 Days with Self-Discipline - Martin Meadows

List of all book reviews

A Curious Mind - The Secret to a Bigger Life - Brian Grazer

A history of the world in 6 glasses - Tom Standage

A Monk's Guide to A Clean House & Mind - Shoukei Matsumoto

A Place of My Own - Michael Pollan

A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson

A thousand brains - A new theory of intelligence - Jeff Hawkins

A Year of Living Simply - The joys of a life less complicated - Kate Humble

All About Love - New Visions - bell hooks

Be more Japan - the art of japanese living

Beginners - The Joy and Transformative Power of Lifelong Learning - Tom Vanderbilt

Brandwashed - Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy - Martin Lindstrom

Building a Second Brain - Thiago Forte

Clear Thinking - Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results - Shane Parrish

Co-Intelligence - Living and Working with AI - Ethan Mollick

Crack the Funding Code - How Investors Think and What They Need to Hear to Fund Your Startup - Judy Robinett

Cues - Master the Secret Language of Charismatic Communication - Vanessa Van Edwards

Daily Rituals How Artists Work by Mason Currey

Digital Zettelkasten - Principles, Methods Examples - David Kadavy

Einstein - His Life and Universe - Walter Isaacson

Energy - A Beginners Guide - Vaclav Smil

Feel-Good Productivity - How to Do More of What Matters to You - Ali Abdaal

Fermented Foods - Christine Baumgarthuber

HBRs 10 must reads on managing yourself

Hell Yeah or No - Whats Worth Doing - Derek Sivers

Hello Habits - Fumio Sasaki

Hidden Potential - Adam Grant

How Powerpoint makes you stupid - Franck Frommer

How to be Idle - Tom Hodgkinson

How to change - The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be - Katy Milkman

How to keep your cool - Seneca

How to Know a Person - The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen - David Brooks

How to Take Smart Notes - One Simple Technique to Boost Writing Learning and Thinking - Sonke Ahrens

How to Taste Coffee - Develop Your Sensory Skills and Get the Most Out of Every Cup - Jessica Easto 1

How to Taste Coffee - Develop Your Sensory Skills and Get the Most Out of Every Cup - Jessica Easto

How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi - Collected Quirks of Science, Tech, Engineering, and Math from Nerd Nite - Christ Balakrishnan

Kaizen The Japanese Method for Transforming Habits, One Small Step at a Time - Sarah Harvey

Keep the Memories, Lose the Stuff - Declutter, Downsize, and Move Forward with Your Life - Matt Paxton

Making it all work - David Allen

Managing up - How to get what you need from teh people in charge - Melody Wilding

Michealangelo - Gods Architect - William Wallace

My year with Eleanor - Noelle Hancock

Never eat alone - Keith Ferrazzi

Oil - A Beginners Guide - Vacliv Smil

Personal Kanban - Mapping Work Navigating Life

Radical Simplicity - Small Footprints on a Finite Earth - Jim Merkel

Range - Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World - David Epstein

Same as Ever - A guide to what never changes - Morgan Housel

Signature in the Cell - DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design - Stephen Meyer

Simply Put - Why Clear Messages Win - and How to Design Them - Ben Guttmann

Six Not-So-Easy Pieces Einstein's Relativity, Symmetry and Space-Time - Richard Feynman

Slow productivity - Cal Newport

Stillness is the key - Ryan Holiday

Stolen focus - why you can't pay attention and how to think deeply again - Johann Hari

Stuff Matters - Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World - Mark Miodownik

The Antidote - Happiness for people who cant stand positive thinking - Oliver Burkeman

The Art of Frugal Hedonism: A Guide to Spending Less While Enjoying Everything More

The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli

The book of Beautiful Questions - Warren Berger

The Complete Guide to Memory by Scott Young and Jakub Jilek

The Complete Guide to Self-Control - Scott H Young Jakub Jilek

The Creative Act - A Way of Being - Rick Rubin

The Flinch - Julien Smith

The Gift - 12 Lessons to save your life - Edith Eger

The Great Mental Models Vol 1 - Shane Parrish

The Great Mental Models Volume 2 - Physics, Chemistry and Biology

The Great Mental Models Volume 3 - Systems and Mathematics

The Lazy Person's Guide to Investing - Paul Farrell

The obstacle is the way - Ryan Holliday

The Productivity Project - Accomplishing More by Managing Your Time, Attention, and Energy - Chris Bailey

The Science of Rapid Skill Acquisition Advanced Methods to Learn Remember and Master New Skills Information and Abilities

The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life - Leo Babauta

The Writing of the Gods - Edward Dolnick

The Year of Less - Cait Flanders

Think for Yourself - Restoring Common Sense in an Age of Experts and Artificial Intelligence - Vikram Mansharamani

This is Strategy - Seth Godin

This is your mind on plants - Michael Pollen

Wool omnibus - Hugh Howey

Your money or your life - Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin

Zero -The Biography of a Dangerous Idea - Charles Seife

43 Blog Reading

43.02 Blog Notes

How to Do Great Work - Paul Graham

5x - Arts

57 Misc

57.02 Cooking Projects

7x - Financial

75 Financial Education

75.01 Financial Notes

Become an expert materialist to judge product quality and save money

Build good relationships and real friends

Dont worry about what you are investing in - just invest in something

Find and work toward what you are passionate about

Joe Dominguez rules for investment

Learn how to do things for yourself

Save money by reducing the quantities of cleaning products used

Spend less than you earn

Stop worrying about what other people think of your finances

Talk honestly about money

Use the minimum possible to get the job done

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Book reviews

Sep 21, 2025 2:55 PM

Oct 17, 2025 9:23 AM

Highly recommended

The Creative Act - A Way of Being - Rick Rubin
Your money or your life - Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
Clear Thinking - Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results - Shane Parrish
100 Ways to Improve Your Writing - Proven Professional Techniques for Writing With Style and Power - Gary Provost
How to Do Great Work - Paul Graham (not a book, but a long form article. still excellent!)
The Great Mental Models Vol 1 - Shane Parrish
Come Up for Air - How Teams Can Leverage Systems and Tools to Stop Drowning in Work - Nick Sonnenberg
Slow productivity - Cal Newport
Never eat alone - Keith Ferrazzi
All About Love - New Visions - bell hooks

Recommended

Co-Intelligence - Living and Working with AI - Ethan Mollick
The Great Mental Models Volume 3 - Systems and Mathematics
The Great Mental Models Volume 2 - Physics, Chemistry and Biology
This is Strategy - Seth Godin
Einstein - His Life and Universe - Walter Isaacson
Stolen focus - why you can't pay attention and how to think deeply again - Johann Hari
Brandwashed - Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy - Martin Lindstrom
How to change - The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be - Katy Milkman
Keep the Memories, Lose the Stuff - Declutter, Downsize, and Move Forward with Your Life - Matt Paxton
Cues - Master the Secret Language of Charismatic Communication - Vanessa Van Edwards
The Year of Less - Cait Flanders
Hidden Potential - Adam Grant
Energy - A Beginners Guide - Vaclav Smil
Feel-Good Productivity - How to Do More of What Matters to You - Ali Abdaal
Stillness is the key - Ryan Holiday
Range - Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World - David Epstein
Signature in the Cell - DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design - Stephen Meyer
Wool omnibus - Hugh Howey
The Productivity Project - Accomplishing More by Managing Your Time, Attention, and Energy - Chris Bailey
Building a Second Brain - Thiago Forte
The Writing of the Gods - Edward Dolnick
A history of the world in 6 glasses - Tom Standage
Through Masai Land - a Journey of Exploration Among the Snowclad Volcanic Mountains and Strange Tribes of Eastern Equatorial Africa - Joseph Thomson
A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
101 essays that will change your life
Hello Habits - Fumio Sasaki
Beginners - The Joy and Transformative Power of Lifelong Learning - Tom Vanderbilt
Michealangelo - Gods Architect - William Wallace
7 Must-Know Strategies to Learn Anything Faster by Scott Young
Oil - A Beginners Guide - Vacliv Smil
The Complete Guide to Self-Control - Scott H Young Jakub Jilek
The Complete Guide to Memory by Scott Young and Jakub Jilek
Think for Yourself - Restoring Common Sense in an Age of Experts and Artificial Intelligence - Vikram Mansharamani
Wabi Sabi - Japanese wisdom for a perfectly imperfect life
7 Must-Know Strategies to Learn Anything Faster by Scott Young
Stuff Matters - Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World - Mark Miodownik
The book of Beautiful Questions - Warren Berger
Daily Rituals How Artists Work by Mason Currey
The Complete Guide to Memory by Scott Young and Jakub Jilek
The Complete Guide to Self-Control - Scott H Young Jakub Jilek
How to Take Smart Notes - One Simple Technique to Boost Writing Learning and Thinking - Sonke Ahrens
This is your mind on plants - Michael Pollen
The obstacle is the way - Ryan Holliday
Be more Japan - the art of japanese living
My year with Eleanor - Noelle Hancock
Why smart people can be so stupid - Robert Steinberg
The Gift - 12 Lessons to save your life - Edith Eger
The Antidote - Happiness for people who cant stand positive thinking - Oliver Burkeman
How to Taste Coffee - Develop Your Sensory Skills and Get the Most Out of Every Cup - Jessica Easto
Undeniable - How Biology Confirms Our Intuition That Life Is Designed - Douglas Axe
The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life - Leo Babauta
Kaizen The Japanese Method for Transforming Habits, One Small Step at a Time - Sarah Harvey
Digital Zettelkasten - Principles, Methods Examples - David Kadavy
Zero -The Biography of a Dangerous Idea - Charles Seife
Simply Put - Why Clear Messages Win - and How to Design Them - Ben Guttmann
How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi - Collected Quirks of Science, Tech, Engineering, and Math from Nerd Nite - Christ Balakrishnan

Interesting but dont go out of your way

How to be Idle - Tom Hodgkinson
The Flinch - Julien Smith
Love in Africa - Jeffrey Gettleman
Crack the Funding Code - How Investors Think and What They Need to Hear to Fund Your Startup - Judy Robinett
The science of Rapid Skill Acquisition
The Minimalist Home A Room-by-Room Guide to a Decluttered Refocused Life
Wabi Sabi -The Japanese Art of Impermanence
The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli
Personal Kanban - Mapping Work Navigating Life
How Powerpoint makes you stupid - Franck Frommer
Six Not-So-Easy Pieces Einstein's Relativity, Symmetry and Space-Time - Richard Feynman
Hell Yeah or No - Whats Worth Doing - Derek Sivers
HBRs 10 must reads on managing yourself
A thousand brains - A new theory of intelligence - Jeff Hawkins
A Curious Mind - The Secret to a Bigger Life - Brian Grazer
Making it all work - David Allen
Radical Simplicity - Small Footprints on a Finite Earth - Jim Merkel
The Lazy Person's Guide to Investing - Paul Farrell
A Year of Living Simply - The joys of a life less complicated - Kate Humble
A Monk's Guide to A Clean House & Mind - Shoukei Matsumoto
A Place of My Own - Michael Pollan

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Highly recommended
Recommended
Interesting but dont go out of your way

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