#15: as good as you make it

Aug 28, 2020

Your choices tell a lot about who you are.
But more importantly about who you want to be.
Your Social networks are as good as who you follow and what shows up on your feed.
Your conversations are as good as how intentional you are in choosing who to spend time with.
Your intellect is as good as what you feed your brain with.
Your experiences are as good as your choices.
Your life is as good as you make it.

👋 Welcome to the 15th volume of Out of Curiosity, a weekly newsletter promoting ideas to help get 1% better everyday in work and life.

This week’s stories

🤔 It’s not about routine, but about practice

Daily routines are fragile, because every part of the routine is essential to triggering the next: Wake up, go for a run, then take a shower, and finish by having breakfast.

Practices, on the other hand, are what you return to when you need to reconnect. When you need to centre yourself. You do them regularly. Sometimes daily, sometimes not. But they're not triggered in a specific manner.

Routines depend on the individual person.

Practices are universal.

A good, balanced life has both routine and practices.

{6-min read}

🏟 The 7 builders who will thrive in the world

With the advancements of open-source and no-code, the builders who'll thrive in the new world will not only think differently, but look and build differently too.

The 7 builder personalities who will thrive in the new world:

The Designers who Code

combine technical excellence with opinionated design.

The Career Jumpers

cross-pollinate learning across different problems, roles, and industries.

The Ambitious Advisors

transition between full-time roles and advisory ones.

The Creative Hackers

find ways to bring products and experiences to life without writing code.

The Industry Academics

merge their deep expertise with industry experience to become innovative founders.

The Community Builders

build platforms that help other companies start their own businesses.

And of course…

The couples who join forces

{10-min read}

💡 Expiring vs. permanent skills

Each field has a binary set of skills:

First, there are expiring skills. They’re crucial at a certain time, but prone to diminishing with advances in technology.

They're more likely to be the cool new thing. What employers value and employees flaunt.

Then, there are permanent skills. They’re as essential now as they were a decade, or even a century ago.

And although this might make them stale and basic, they'll likely keep remaining relevant and compounding over time.

Some permanents skills:

Being nice
Willingness to adapt old views
Getting along with people you disagree with
Balancing between being helpful and adding distraction
Being concise
Respecting luck and risk equally
Being comfortable with being miserable
Being always patient, but never stubborn

{4-min read}

👓 Assume you’re below average

Instead of assuming you're above average in different situations, what would happen if you thought the opposite?

Would it make you listen more actively and ask better questions?

Could that curiosity lead to more growth in different areas of your life?

To assume you’re below average is to admit you’re still learning. You focus on what you need to improve, not your past accomplishments.

{1-min read}

🎓 What matters more than your talents

There's a difference between gifts and choices.

Cleverness is a gift, kindness is a choice.

Choices are hard.

How will you use your gifts? What choices will you make?

Will you guard your heart against rejection, or will you act when you fall in love?

When it’s tough, will you give up, or will you be relentless?

When you are 80 years old, and in a quiet moment of reflection narrating for only yourself the most personal version of your life story, the telling that will be most compact and meaningful will be the series of choices you have made. In the end, we are our choices. Build yourself a great story.

{12-min watch}