Music of the Week
St. Paul and The Broken Bones is an eight-piece based hailing from Alabama composed of “Paul Janeway (vocals), Browan Lollar (guitar), Jesse Phillips (bass), Kevin Leon (drums), Al Gamble (keys), Allen Branstetter (trumpet), Amari Ansari (saxophone), and Chad Fisher (trombone).” Blending the southern and soul genres is what you find with St. Paul’s music. Waves and Apollo are two of my favorite songs by the musical group.
Quotes of the Week
One way to aim high is to try to make something that people will care about in a hundred years. – Paul Graham
When we make decisions, we focus on the most important thing. – Warren Buffett
The more things we desire and the more we have to do to earn or attain those achievements, the less we actually enjoy our lives—and the less free we are. – Ryan Holiday
Do something today that you used to love doing as a kid. Try to reconnect with your impulse voices. – Robert Greene
If you ask me my three keys to a successful life, transcendental meditation, lift weights, espresso. Just do those three things and you will kill it. – Jerry Seinfeld
I’m not a big guy. And hopefully kids could look at me and see that I’m not muscular and not physically imposing, that I’m just a regular guy. So if somebody with a regular body can get into the record books, kids can look at that. That would make me happy. – Ichiro Suzuki
As long as you are governed by that desire you will never get what you want. You are trying to peel an onion; if you succeed there will be nothing left. – C.S. Lewis
Don’t wait to be successful at some future point. Have a successful relationship with the present moment and be fully present in whatever you are doing. That is success. – Eckhart Tolle
If you wish to improve, be content to appear clueless or stupid in extraneous matters. – Epictetus
All I want to know is where I’m going to die, so I’ll never go there. – Charlie Munger
All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone. – Blaise Pascal
There is nothing the busy man is less busied with than living: there is nothing that is harder to learn. – Seneca
Articles of the Week
“The work you choose needs to have three qualities: it has to be something you have a natural aptitude for, that you have a deep interest in, and that offers scope to do great work.” How To Do Great Work
“As social media continues to falter and stumble in its role as a unifying cultural force, its model of people volunteering their creative labor in return for uncompensated attention is beginning to lose its appeal.” Lessons from YouTube’s Extreme Makers
“If we want to pass a law that might make an even bigger difference, now is a good time to take a closer look at what Australia did last fall, when they banned social media for users under sixteen.” The TikTok Ban Is About More Than TikTok
“Have fun, spend time with each other, and learn.” The making of ‘Acquired,’ the No. 1 tech podcast sensation
“Although the business first started as a haven for the Vietnamese community, members of the Tran family contributed to its explosive popularity, one recipe at a time.” In New Orleans, Dong Phuong’s King Cakes Reign Supreme
“Multitaskers are terrible at ignoring irrelevant information; they’re terrible at keeping information in their head nicely and neatly organized; and they’re terrible at switching from one task to another.” How Multitasking Drains Your Brain
“Staring down an epidemic of loneliness, people in their 20s and 30s are gathering to play chess, backgammon and mahjong in hopes that old-fashioned game clubs might help ease the isolation and digital overload that weigh heavily on their generation.” The Extremely Offline Joy of the Board Game Club
“Every day after school “from 3:30 to 7 p.m., Ichiro would hit soft toss and take fungo drills in a nearby park. After returning home for dinner and schoolwork, he’d work in the batting cage from 9:30 to 11. Ichiro did this for 360 days out of the year.” Jerry Seinfeld, Ichiro Suzuki and the Pursuit of Mastery
“The adults’ role is to provide a conducive environment and then get out of the way — or at the most, to cheerlead gently.” Why kids need to take more risks: science reveals the benefits of wild, free play
“Buy the tickets you want and move on.” These Travel Hacks Are Everywhere. That Doesn’t Mean They Work.
“Ask yourself: Is this thing that I’m consuming likely to still be relevant, still important, in a day? Or in five days, or in a week or in a year or five years?” This Habit Is Making You Miserable (And Driving You Insane)
“It’s not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.” On The Shortness of Life: An Introduction to Seneca
“As a simple rule: If someone is creating energy, spend more time with them. If someone is draining energy, spend less time with them.” Unlocking the Power of Simplicity
“Travel as much as you can. Collect one token from every trip to remember it by.” Life Lessons from 1,000 Years
“Do not have your phone out when your kid is trying to play with you.” The Anti-To-Do List
“Call your parents or siblings this week for no reason other than just to chat.” How We Spend Our Time
“You spend time on things that don’t matter and miss the things that do.” How to Escape the Busy Trap
Book of the Week
The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt is one of those hit-you-in-the-face books if you are a parent. Haidt’s overarching question in the book is why rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide of adolescents in the early 2010s. The book then lays out the facts about the epidemic that is teen mental illness. An illness that hit many countries nearly at the same time. Haidt explains why children need free play to become thriving adults. Play-based childhood started its descent in the 1980s. It was wiped out with the arrival of what Haidt calls a phoned-based childhood in the early 2010s. The book argues that a phone-based childhood interferes with children’s social and neurological development. Impacts from this inference show up in sleep, attention spans, addiction, loneliness, and social comparison. Haidt walks you through why social media impacts girls more than boys. The books also show that boys are withdrawing from the real world into the virtual world and the consequences of this withdrawal for themselves and society. I loved how the book provides four clear calls to action to set every free: no smartphones until high school, no social media until 16, phone-free schools, and more free play for children.
Podcasts of the Week
Invest Like The Best With Patrick O’Shaughnessy are conversations with the best investors and business leaders in the world. Recent episodes I enjoyed include Shane Parrish – Mastering Mental Models, Peter Attia, M.D. – How to Live a Longer, Higher Quality Life, Tim Urban – Grand Theft Life, Chris Dixon – The Future of Tech, and Bill Gurley – All Things Business and Investing.
Bonus: Video of the Week
How Costco Became A Massive “Members Only” Retailer
Bonus: Film of the Week
Gladiator II, directed by Ridley Scott, is the story of Lucius (Paul Mescal) entering the Colosseum to conquer Rome “years after witnessing the death of Maximus at the hands of his uncle.”
