Hello,
Greetings from Chandler, AZ!
I hope this email finds you and your loved ones in good health.
I’m sure you’ve received enough emails about the virus sweeping the world right now. I don’t want to add to that anxiety.
Instead, I want to share with you the best of what I learned this last week while locked away.
First, I rejoined Twitter and crafted my first thread on how you can cheaply build a second brain using digital note-taking apps like Evernote.
Tiago Forte created a course called Building a Second Brain that sells for >$1000. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have that kind of cash sitting around.
I exhausted free/cheap information online to build a DIY version, and I’m ecstatic with how it’s impacted my life. The even better news? You can do the same if you put in the time.
I’ll admit, Building a Second Brain was made for people like me. I recently came across the term “infovore” and I can’t think of a better way to describe me.
But I suspect I’m not alone. If you want to make information work for you instead of bog you down, you should read the blog post I created now:
Links of the Week
The Top Idea In Your Mind – Paul Graham
My favorite quote from the article:
“I think most people have one top idea in their mind at any given time. That’s the idea their thoughts will drift toward when they’re allowed to drift freely. And this idea will thus tend to get all the benefit of that type of thinking, while others are starved of it. Which means it’s a disaster to let the wrong idea become the top one in your mind.”
Why You’re Disappointed With Your Work
Ira Glass, host of This American Life says this:
“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this.
And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
h/t: Sidhartha Jha
The Sigmoid Curve
A mental model for organizational innovation I learned about reading about the All Blacks.
Apply it to businesses. Apply it to your life. How do you get out of the curve and take a “sigmoid leap”?
Inside the Managerial Mind of Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp
Liverpool FC’s manager has quickly become my favorite coach on the planet. His energy is infectious. His relationships with players are genuine. Here, we get an inside look into the man himself.
Thank you to those of you who respond each week with feedback and article suggestions. I love our conversations.
Until next week,
Stay healthy and wash your hands,
Tanner