☕ saturday mornings - May 14, 2022
controlling anger, old wisdom & influential writing
Hey from Salzburg!
Happy Saturday! I hope you’re having an excellent start to your weekend.
What I’ve been up to:
I spent a few more days in Prague before traveling to Český Krumlov a small sleepy in Southern Czechia that feels preserved in time, with narrow cobblestone streets and medieval architecture from the 14th century.
I left Český Krumlov today for Salzburg, a small city in Austria with views of the Eastern Alps.
Below is your edition of “saturday mornings”, a weekly recap of the coolest things I’ve been pondering and exploring this week.
Thanks for being here.
✍️ Quote I’m pondering:
“A man is about as big as the things that make him angry.” ― Winston Churchill
📕 Book passage I loved:
"Simple heuristic: If you're evenly split on a difficult decision, take the path more difficult and more painful in the short term.
Your brain is overvaluing the side with the short-term happiness and trying to avoid the one with short-term pain."
― The Almanack Of Naval Ravikant
If two choices are equal but one choice has short-term pain, that path must also have long-term gain associated. Choose that path.
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📰 Article I keep thinking about:
On his 70th birthday Kevin Kelly, one of the most interesting men in the world, wrote down 103 pieces of wisdom he wish he knew when he was younger.
I'd highly recommend reading the article yourself. It's that good.
To give you a taste, here are a few of my favourite bits:
Don't ever work for someone you don't want to become.
Efficiency is highly overrated; Goofing off is highly underrated. Regularly scheduled sabbaths, sabbaticals, vacations, breaks, aimless walks and time off are essential for top performance of any kind. The best work ethic requires a good rest ethic.
Life lessons will be presented to you in the order they are needed. Everything you need to master the lesson is within you. Once you have truly learned a lesson, you will be presented with the next one.
Productivity is often a distraction. Don’t aim for better ways to get through your tasks as quickly as possible, rather aim for better tasks that you never want to stop doing.
Speak confidently as if you are right, but listen carefully as if you are wrong.
The consistency of your endeavors (exercise, companionship, work) is more important than the quantity. Nothing beats small things done every day, which is way more important than what you do occasionally.
Ask anyone you admire: Their lucky breaks happened on a detour from their main goal. So embrace detours. Life is not a straight line for anyone.
A great way to understand yourself is to seriously reflect on everything you find irritating in others.
When you have some success, the feeling of being an imposter can be real. Who am I fooling? But when you create things that only you — with your unique talents and experience — can do, then you are absolutely not an imposter. You are the ordained. It is your duty to work on things that only you can do.
You will be judged on how well you treat those who can do nothing for you.
We tend to overestimate what we can do in a day, and underestimate what we can achieve in a decade. Miraculous things can be accomplished if you give it ten years. A long game will compound small gains to overcome even big mistakes.
A wise man said, “Before you speak, let your words pass through three gates. At the first gate, ask yourself, “Is it true?” At the second gate ask, “Is it necessary?” At the third gate ask, “Is it kind?”
If you repeated what you did today 365 more times will you be where you want to be next year?
Aim to die broke. Give to your beneficiaries before you die; it’s more fun and useful. Spend it all. Your last check should go to the funeral home and it should bounce.
💡 Idea I’m exploring: What Makes Persuasive Writing
Most of human communication is expressing our ideas to help others understand how we think and feel.
The ability to persuade others is a fundamental life skill. Negotiations show up everywhere. From increasing your salary to picking a spot for dinner.
In almost everything you write, you’re trying to persuade. It can be explicit, like an essay thesis, or implicit, like explaining a new idea for your company.
We're taught in school that longer pieces of writing reign supreme. Writing more is better than writing less. Length becomes synonymous with quality and effort.
We learn to expand and extrapolate rather than cut and condense.
I fall into this trap myself.
I read an essay by Scott Adams, the who writes Dilbert, and can't stop thinking about this line:
"Simple writing is persuasive. A good argument in five sentences will sway more people than a brilliant argument in a hundred sentences."
To persuade others it's better to be concise than verbose, simple than eloquent. Attention spans are short.
People can mask their lack of understanding in complexity.
If fewer words convey the same meaning, they are better words.
That’s all for this week’s edition of “saturday mornings”.
If you have any feedback, I’d love to hear from you.
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Have a fantastic weekend.
Much love to you and yours,
Tommy
“Aim to die broke. Give to your beneficiaries before you die; it’s more fun and useful. Spend it all. Your last check should go to the funeral home and it should bounce.”
I love this!