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0x - System
05 Zettelkasten
05.02 - Digital Garden
AfricanMoose Digital Garden
Book reviews
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1x - References
11 Notes
11.01 Workflows
Overview of tools for personal management and productivity
11.02 Quotes
A book is a machine to think with - I A RIchards
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
All advice is autobiographical
All machines have their friction - Henry David Thoreau
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
Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity - Simone Weil
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
Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom - Viktor Frankl
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
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
Experience is not what happens to a man - it is what a man does with what happens to him - Aldous Huxley
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 maximum financial flexibility to face both hazards and opportunities - Charlie Munger
He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how - Friedrich Nietzsche
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 a garden and a library, you have everything you need - Cicero
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
Information technologies … modify how we act in the world; they also profoundly affect how we understand the world - Luciano Floridi
Inspiration is a guest that does not willingly visit the lazy - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
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
quote
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 a lot easier than you think to 'beat the odds' because the odds are based on average people. Show up and elevate - Dr. Julie Gurner
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
quote
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
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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
Many situations in life are similar to going on a hike - the view changes once you start walking... - 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 book was so bad but some good might be got out of it - Pliny
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
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 in your leadership tool kit is as valuable as hard work - William McRaven
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 biographies is like a cheat code for facing problems - Shane Parrish
Reading is a technology for perspective-taking. When someone else’s thoughts are in your head, you are observing the world from that person’s vantage point - Steven Pinker
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
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
Show up early. Work hard. Stay late. Have a plan. Deliver on your promises. Share the hardships with the employees. Show that you care. Admit your mistakes - William McRaven
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
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
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 are always learning. Read like crazy. Think alone. Keep a journal. Review regularly - Shane Parrish
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 mother of art is architecture. Without an architecture of our own we have no soul of our own civilization - Frank Lloyd Wright
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
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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 also, ought to copy the bees, and sift whatever we have gathered from a varied course of reading, for such things are better preserved if they are kept separate - Seneca
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 certain amount of stress helps us stay challenged in our work
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 job that involves physical activity is a significant hidden benefit
A leaders mood is critical to the performance of the team
A level of self-esteem is necessary for normal functioning
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
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 Train
Ambiguity Aversion
An adventurous life is a happier life
Analysis Paralysis
Anchoring
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 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 humble in your work
Be inspired by other writers
Be interesting
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
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
permanent note
Being paid destroyed the art of apes
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
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
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
Chronic stress has a negative impact on our brains
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
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
Contrast effect
Conways law
Cooperation is better than competition
Create a culture of joy of achievement not self-aggrandizement
Create a scaffold for your goals
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
Daily routine is a mechanism for productivity
Deal with your inner critic
Debt also compounds like savings
Decisions are like hats, haircuts or tattoos
permanent note
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
Deliberately seek out different opinions to avoid falling in love with our own ideas
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 judge decisions by the results
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 worry if your tastes are different from other people
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 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
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 30 minutes try to get out of breath with some exercise
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
Fading-effect Bias
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 is a force multiplier
Focus on accomplishing work, rather than being in the mood to accomplish work
permanent note
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
permanent note
Genius versus skill accumulation
Getting comfortable with not being sure helps us make better decisions
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 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
Halo Effect
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 personal code of conduct
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
Help others even as you gracefully ask and accept others helping you
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 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 capital
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
In the moment emotions can lead us to make illogical decisions
Inattentional blindness - the gorilla in the room
Inbox Zero is different from unread zero
Income, health, good marriage and lack of trauma only account for 8 - 15 percent of variance in happiness
Infants are not discouraged by failure
Information Bias
Infuse your writing with your opinion
Inspect core competencies in your organization regularly
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
permanent note
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
Kanban
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 Slow
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
Liking bias
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
Looking at someones eyes increases trust and warmth
Looking at something repetitively does not guarantee remembering it
Loss Aversion
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
Memento mori
Memory decay is exponential
Memory improves if we take a short break after learning
Memory is state-dependent
Mentally rehearsing something makes it easier to accomplish
Metaknowlege - knowing what we know
Mindful breathing helps control stress and put your mind in optimal state for performance
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
permanent note
Nobel laureates more likely to dabble in other interests
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
Obesity can spread through a friend network by association
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 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
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 can take away everything from you except your choice on how to react
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
People who walk briskly regularly develop bigger brains
permanent note
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
permanent note
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
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
permanent note
Real life is not like chess where all the information is visible and nothing is hidden
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
permanent note
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
Sharing data and knowledge helps us become experts
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
Smart people have a greater confirmation bias even when presented with evidence contrary to their beliefs
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
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 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
Stress preconditioning helps build resilience to stress
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
Talk to people in your organization in different levels
Teaching something helps you learn it better
Team sports are good for self-control
Technologies have biases
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 11th Century Muslim World had the Best Libraries
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 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
The internet speeds up our retreat into a confirmatory bubble
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 important factor for sleep is regularity
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 pyramids were marvels of construction engineering
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
Time is a tool
To be a leader you must be ready to give it your all
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
permanent note
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
Ulysses contract - make plans to prevent your future self making stupid decisions
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 a premortem to imagine negative outcomes and plan accordingly
Use AI as a tool or co-editor
Use an autopilot schedule to work steadily over a long period of time
Use belief calibration instead of right or wrong
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 scenario planning to plan for future possibilities
Use short term games to build long term assets
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 have a tendency to alter interpretation of information to confirm our existing beliefs
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
permanent note
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 guessing, consider a range of plausible alternatives to increase accuracy
permanent note
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 allows for iterative thinking
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
Archiemedes
Arthur Wharton
Benoit Mandelbrot
Bobbi Gibb
Brian May
Bruce Lee
Chrissie Wellington
Claude Shannon
Dave Brubeck
Desiderius Erasmus
Dexter Holland
Django Reinhardt
Duke Ellington
Eleanor Roosevelt
Emile Leray
Ernest Hemmingway
Fibonacci (Leonardo of Pisa)
Frank Lloyd Wright
Genghis Khan
Haruki Murakami
Henry David Thoreau
Henry Singleton
Hermann Ebinghaus
Hernando Colón
Immanuel Kant
Isaac Asimov
James Croll
John Ruskin
Jose Hernandez
Julius Yego
Maryam Mirzakhani
Moondog
Nikki Giovanni
Octavia Estelle Butler
P G Wodehouse
Paul Erdős
Pete Schoening
Philip Tetlock
Rembrandt
Ronald Fisher
Sen no Rikyū
Shizo Kanakuri
Susan Polgar
Ando
Thomas Young
Toni Morrison
Twyla Tharp
Vannevar Bush
W. B. Yeats
W. E. Deming
William Gass
William Gladstone
Winston Churchill
Yo-Yo Ma
Ching Shih
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
11.12 Scientific Information
A brief history of the diesel engine
A brief history of the petrol engine
Human beings are designed to be social
Our sense of touch is made up of multiple sensor types
REM sleep is important for emotional regulation
The human retina is incredibly sensitive to light
The processing of visual signals by our brain is ridiculously complex
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
Architecture 101 - Nicole Bridge
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
book review
Crack the Funding Code - How Investors Think and What They Need to Hear to Fund Your Startup - Judy Robinett
Creativity
Cues - Master the Secret Language of Charismatic Communication - Vanessa Van Edwards
Daily Rituals How Artists Work by Mason Currey
Death by Comfort - Paul Taylor
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 Organize Your Life, Mind and Home - 9 Organizing Principles To Help You Simplify Your Life, Increase Efficiency And Maximize Productivity -Paul Morrisey
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 Idea Machine - How Books Built Our World and Shape Our Future - Joel Miller
The Idiot Brain - Dean Burnett
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
Wisdom of the Bullfrog - William H. McRaven
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
Thinking in Bets - Annie Duke
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
granola
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
Eliminate debt
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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Thinking uses energy
Summary
Thinking uses energy...so we may fall back on intuition
Details
sensing/intuition is easier
rational consideration requires work, tires us out
References
The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli
Related
Think about before making a decision
Reading is Thinking
Long term thinking - Sam Altman
Beroeans examined scriptures with eagerness of mind not critical thinking