Happy Saturday all!
I hope you’re having a great start to your weekend.
What I’ve been up to:
I've spent the week in Porto, Portugal at the EIA Accelerator, building a startup from the ground up. It's been awesome to meet and work with students from all over the world.
Here's a recap of the coolest things I've explored this week.
✍️ Quote I’m pondering:
Morgan Housel on bias:
“Your personal experiences make up maybe 0.00000001% of what’s happened in the world but maybe 80% of how you think the world works… We’re all biased to our own personal history.”
📚 Book passage I loved:
“I used to resent obstacles along the path, thinking, ‘If only that hadn't happened life would be so good’.
Then I suddenly realized, life is the obstacles. There is no underlying path.
Our role here is to get better at navigating those obstacles. I strive to find calm, measured responses and to see hindrances as a chance to problem-solve.
Often I fall back into old frustrations, but if I remind myself, this is a chance to step up, I can reframe conflicts as a chance to experiment with solutions.”
―Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferriss (quote from Janna Levin)
💡 Idea from me: Aiming Up
A few weeks ago, I was reading a philosophy textbook and came across an idea that's reverberated in my head since.
With every choice you make, you aim up or down.
It’s more obvious with larger decisions but remains true even in small, seemingly minor decisions.
You either aim up or down.
And there is an agent of temptation at every choice point tempting you to aim down—a force pulling you towards your lower nature.
But ceding to temptation “deforms our spirit”. It makes us less than we are and were born to be.
I’ve started to think, with both big life choices and smaller choices throughout the day: “With this choice, am I aiming up or down?”
❓ Question for You:
A question from Naval Ravikant on being more mindful of our desires:
Every time you catch yourself desiring something, ask yourself: “Is it so important to me I'll be unhappy unless this goes my way?”
📸 Photo of the week:
I found a neat vintage store 10 minutes outside the city centre in Porto.
Very eclectic but it had a ton of old-fashioned furniture, classy decorations, and random trinkets.
Maybe I’ll adopt that as my new mantra: “Life is for joyriding”.
If you have any feedback or want to be friends, feel free to reach out.
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Have a fantastic weekend.
Much love to you and yours,
Tommy