#18: two mistakes

Sep 17, 2020

It's one thing to give an idea (or a side hustle) a chance, and decide to take a break from it.
It's another thing altogether to consider starting something, but not even take the first steps to get it off the ground.
One is pausing to catch your breath.
To get back to it again, starting where you left off.
The other is perfection over completion.
Waiting too long until you're finally ready.
Which is relative, and unattainable.
You can only make two mistakes along the way:
Not starting.
And not going all the way.

👋 Welcome to the 18th volume of Out of Curiosity, a weekly newsletter sharing ideas to help get 1% better everyday in work and life.

Every week, I go through nearly 100 pieces of content (from books and podcasts, to newsletters and tweets), and bring you the best in this newsletter.

📚 Choose Yourself (by James Altucher)

Notes on gratitude, seeking joy, and living in the moment:

Now, every day when I wake up I am grateful. I have to be. And I have to count the things that are abundant in my life. Literally count them. If I don’t they will begin to disappear. I’ve watched them disappear before. I don’t want it to happen again.

Only do things you enjoy. I mean it down to your very thoughts. Only think about the people you enjoy. Only read the books you enjoy, that make you happy to be human. Only go to the events that actually make you laugh or fall in love. Only deal with the people who love you back, who are winners and want you to win too.

I don’t like the word purpose. It implies that somewhere in the future I will find something that will make me happy, and that until then, I will be unhappy. People fool themselves into thinking that the currency of unhappiness will buy them happiness. That we have to “pay our dues,” go on some sort of ride, and then get dropped off at a big location called our “purpose,” where now we can be happy. It doesn’t work that way. You can find the tools to be happy right now. I still don’t know what my purpose is. I’m afraid I will never know. That makes me very happy.

{276 pages}

🎬 Getting started

Once you get into flow, it's not too hard to keep going and get things done.

But the path to the flow state is no easy feat. Getting started alone sometimes takes hours, or days.

And once you get started, it just seems to be rolling and falling in place.

💭 Maybe the key to productivity is exactly that: getting started. Taking the first step. Diving in.

Before you're ready.

You have to move forward a little bit, every day. It doesn’t matter if your code is lame and buggy and nobody wants it. If you are moving forward, writing code and fixing bugs constantly, time is on your side.

Keep time on your side.

To get ahead, get started.

{7-min read}

🎙 Selfish creativity

You can be certain you're in for a treat when Morgan Housel is in conversation with David Perell.

Key takeaways on writing, calming ignorance and selfish creativity:

📝

Most of my "writing" happens when I go for walks. Nothing comes out by just sitting at my desk. I get most of my work done while walking (sometimes 2-3 walks). I usually take notes when I walk (by sending emails to myself).

🧘‍♀️

The more the internet exposes people to new points of views, the angrier people get that different views exist.

Now that we're more exposed to how other people live, we get angry that other people live different than us. And maybe the ignorance that took place in other eras, resulted in a calming effect that existed back then.

You just assumed that other people lived the same way you did, but in reality, that might've not been the case.

✍️

I'm writing for an audience of one: myself.

I come up with topics that I find interesting and write about them in a way that I find interesting. I call this selfish writing. That's when you do your best work.

I only write something if I'm personally interested in it. Every sentence that I right, I pause and think, do I like that sentence. And if that sentence doesn't add any value to me personally, I get rid of that sentence.

And then you just take the leap of faith that, if I'm interested in this as a writer, there are readers out there who might think this is interesting too.

{59-min listen}

🖼 Means to a fulfilled life

/

Proactively neglect what matters less

The attempt to get on top of everything is doomed.

Thanks to capitalism, human ambition, and technology, there's no fit between how much we want to do and how much time we have.

A viable solution is consciously choosing what to eliminate so there's opportunity to focus on what matters most.

//

Choose based on growth potential (not happiness)

It's not always easy to predict what will make us happy.

A better question than "will this make me happy" is, "how much will it contribute to my growth".

///

Gradually increase your discomfort capacity

Don't let the perceived boredom, anxiety or unpleasantness of certain actions stop you from reaching for your ambitions of any kind in life.

From a creative project, to initiating a difficult conversation with a colleague, checking your bank balance or asking someone out.

////

Do your thing

The irony is that you don’t actually serve anyone else by suppressing your true passions anyway. More often than not, by doing your thing – as opposed to what you think you ought to be doing – you kindle a fire that helps keep the rest of us warm.

{7-min read}