Semi-controversial opinion: There’s no such thing as working too hard. There’s just being under rested.
1. Winston Churchill used to work 16 hours per day in his old age during the war — but he also worked in bed every day until 11am. He had a nap after lunch, and a 2 hour nap before dinner at 8pm before working late into the night.
2. John. D Rockefeller took a 30 minute nap everyday at 12pm. No meeting was important enough to move this out of his calendar.
3. Advice I’d give my younger self: Don’t focus on energy output (working too hard). Focus on energy production (recharging activities). If you produce more energy than you burn, it’s impossible to burn out.
4. The person that is well rested might be able to work 16 hour days 6 days per week. The person who never works but scrolls TikTok all day can struggle to do 30 minutes without burning out.
5. Josh Waitzkin has this concept called the "Simmering Six":
“Most people in high-stress, decision-making industries are always operating at this kind of simmering six, as opposed to the undulation between just deep relaxation and being at a 10. Being at a 10 is millions of times better than being at a 6. It’s just in a different universe.”
6. Eleanor Roosevelt credited one thing to surviving her White House schedule for 12 years: Before meeting crowds or giving a speech, she would sit still, close her eyes and relax for 20 minutes.
7. When Dale Carnegie asked Henry Ford how he had so much energy before his 80th birthday: “I never stand up when I can sit down; and I never sit down when I can lie down”
8. Marcelo Garcia, the best BJJ practitioner of all time, was found asleep minutes before his semi final world championship bout and stumbled into the ring out of a slumber — before destroying his opponent.
9. When Triple H went to see Floyd Mayweather before his fight with Marquez backstage, he expected Floyd to be psyching himself up for the big occasion. Instead, he was lay on the sofa watching a baseball game.
10. Christopher Nolan doesn’t have a smartphone. His assistant manages his emails and he writes everything on a laptop without an internet connection. “I do a lot of my best thinking in those kind of in-between moments that people now fill with online activity”
11. What does the rest and recharge industry get wrong? It tries to sell a magic pill for everyone. Instead, it should always be personalised to the individual. Some people get energy from a massage — others like to do 48 hours in Vegas Denis Rodman style.
12. There’s a simple algorithm for identifying the highest leverage relaxation for yourself: (Energy produced ÷ time it takes)
13. Ironically, if Type-A personalities rest better, they’ll also be happier and live longer. But it’s always better to sell it as the ability to increase their work — and sneak happiness and health in the back door.
- George Mack
@ebookscafe
1. Winston Churchill used to work 16 hours per day in his old age during the war — but he also worked in bed every day until 11am. He had a nap after lunch, and a 2 hour nap before dinner at 8pm before working late into the night.
2. John. D Rockefeller took a 30 minute nap everyday at 12pm. No meeting was important enough to move this out of his calendar.
3. Advice I’d give my younger self: Don’t focus on energy output (working too hard). Focus on energy production (recharging activities). If you produce more energy than you burn, it’s impossible to burn out.
4. The person that is well rested might be able to work 16 hour days 6 days per week. The person who never works but scrolls TikTok all day can struggle to do 30 minutes without burning out.
5. Josh Waitzkin has this concept called the "Simmering Six":
“Most people in high-stress, decision-making industries are always operating at this kind of simmering six, as opposed to the undulation between just deep relaxation and being at a 10. Being at a 10 is millions of times better than being at a 6. It’s just in a different universe.”
6. Eleanor Roosevelt credited one thing to surviving her White House schedule for 12 years: Before meeting crowds or giving a speech, she would sit still, close her eyes and relax for 20 minutes.
7. When Dale Carnegie asked Henry Ford how he had so much energy before his 80th birthday: “I never stand up when I can sit down; and I never sit down when I can lie down”
8. Marcelo Garcia, the best BJJ practitioner of all time, was found asleep minutes before his semi final world championship bout and stumbled into the ring out of a slumber — before destroying his opponent.
9. When Triple H went to see Floyd Mayweather before his fight with Marquez backstage, he expected Floyd to be psyching himself up for the big occasion. Instead, he was lay on the sofa watching a baseball game.
10. Christopher Nolan doesn’t have a smartphone. His assistant manages his emails and he writes everything on a laptop without an internet connection. “I do a lot of my best thinking in those kind of in-between moments that people now fill with online activity”
11. What does the rest and recharge industry get wrong? It tries to sell a magic pill for everyone. Instead, it should always be personalised to the individual. Some people get energy from a massage — others like to do 48 hours in Vegas Denis Rodman style.
12. There’s a simple algorithm for identifying the highest leverage relaxation for yourself: (Energy produced ÷ time it takes)
13. Ironically, if Type-A personalities rest better, they’ll also be happier and live longer. But it’s always better to sell it as the ability to increase their work — and sneak happiness and health in the back door.
- George Mack
@ebookscafe
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“Optimising for engagement (clicks) has distorted mainstream media, but it’s just as distorting to independent and alternative media as well, if not more so. Sad to see the best minds of my generation destroyed by algorithms.” —
There’s a term in the online content creation world called Audience Capture which you might have heard of…
When a creator finds a particular type of messaging that resonates really well with their audience, they are incentivised to lean into that messaging more, as it grows their channel.
As their channel grows and they get more positive audience feedback, the creator begins to make editorial decisions about what topics to focus on based on their prediction of how it will land with their audience.
They’re playing the game purely to appease the crowd.
The problem is that just like with any drug, the users require ever-intensifying doses to be able to get the same effect.
So the creator has to have more outlandish takes, more extreme views, more clickbait, with even less nuance.
Any subtlety or deviation from the audience’s expectations looks like a lack of conviction to the tribe. It results in poorer performance and pushback, so the incentive to challenge the audience with alternate points of view is no longer there.
You can see how a creator who desires growth at all costs would easily be seduced by this.
“If I keep on being more extreme and predictable, I get positive feedback and growth and money. If I move in the opposite direction I get negative feedback and growth and money stops.”
Instead of being an outlet for their own curiosity, the channel has now become a limbic-hijack-prediction-engine for the creator’s audience.
This tends to lead to hacky, clickbaity, tribal, overblown work.
You can easily tell which online creators have become Audience Captured…
Can you accurately predict this person’s opinion on any topic, even without having heard them talk about it?
Has the creator almost become a caricature of themselves?
Do they rarely surprise you with what they believe or the guests and stories they feature?
If not – you’ve probably got someone who is Audience Captured.
The internet is so tribal that some audiences are only prepared to support a creator that agrees with their entire worldview wholesale.
The slightest deviation from this can identify them as no longer a member of their in-group, and thus an enemy.
Just as social media has created Echo Chambers for audiences, it’s also created Echo Echo Chambers for creators.
@ebookscafe
There’s a term in the online content creation world called Audience Capture which you might have heard of…
When a creator finds a particular type of messaging that resonates really well with their audience, they are incentivised to lean into that messaging more, as it grows their channel.
As their channel grows and they get more positive audience feedback, the creator begins to make editorial decisions about what topics to focus on based on their prediction of how it will land with their audience.
They’re playing the game purely to appease the crowd.
The problem is that just like with any drug, the users require ever-intensifying doses to be able to get the same effect.
So the creator has to have more outlandish takes, more extreme views, more clickbait, with even less nuance.
Any subtlety or deviation from the audience’s expectations looks like a lack of conviction to the tribe. It results in poorer performance and pushback, so the incentive to challenge the audience with alternate points of view is no longer there.
You can see how a creator who desires growth at all costs would easily be seduced by this.
“If I keep on being more extreme and predictable, I get positive feedback and growth and money. If I move in the opposite direction I get negative feedback and growth and money stops.”
Instead of being an outlet for their own curiosity, the channel has now become a limbic-hijack-prediction-engine for the creator’s audience.
This tends to lead to hacky, clickbaity, tribal, overblown work.
You can easily tell which online creators have become Audience Captured…
Can you accurately predict this person’s opinion on any topic, even without having heard them talk about it?
Has the creator almost become a caricature of themselves?
Do they rarely surprise you with what they believe or the guests and stories they feature?
If not – you’ve probably got someone who is Audience Captured.
The internet is so tribal that some audiences are only prepared to support a creator that agrees with their entire worldview wholesale.
The slightest deviation from this can identify them as no longer a member of their in-group, and thus an enemy.
Just as social media has created Echo Chambers for audiences, it’s also created Echo Echo Chambers for creators.
@ebookscafe
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It’s better to be the oldest person in the weight room than the youngest person in the nursing home.
@ebookscafe
@ebookscafe
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Productivity Boils down to:
1) Getting Started
2) Not getting distracted
Period #Productivity
@ebookscafe
1) Getting Started
2) Not getting distracted
Period #Productivity
@ebookscafe
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I’ve been thinking about how tech use impacts our conversations.
Conversations are the most human and humanising thing that we do.
It’s where empathy is born, where intimacy is born.
Because of eye contact, because we can hear the tones of another person’s voice and sense their body movements.
It’s where we learn about other people.
But, without meaning to, without having made a plan, we’ve actually moved away from conversation in a way that research shows is hurting us.
89% of Americans say that during their last social interaction, they took out a phone.
82% said that it deteriorated the conversation they were in.
Basically, we’re all doing something that is hurting our interactions and making them more shallow, as we desperately try to find more depth & meaning in relationships.
If you put a phone on the table in during a social interaction, it does two things:
First, it decreases the quality of what you talk about, because you tend to talk about things where you wouldn’t mind being interrupted.
And secondly it decreases the empathic connection that people feel toward each other because we realise that all parties see each other as less of a priority.
So, even something as simple as going to lunch and putting a phone on the table decreases the emotional importance of what people are willing to talk about.
And it decreases the connection that those people feel toward one another.
If you multiply that by all of the times you have your phone on the table when you have coffee with a friend or are at breakfast with your child or are talking with your partner about how you’re feeling, we’re doing this to each other multiple times per day.
A good solution here is to create sacred spaces where you won’t use your phone.
Make the kitchen or dining room or car or restaurant phone-free zones.
Just leave your phone in the car or in your bag when you’re spending time with your friend or partner or kids.
Maybe even suggest that they do it too.
The social media apps will be waiting for you when you’re done, but you can’t rerun a cherished conversation which you were too distracted to enjoy.
- Chris Willsx
#Socialmedia #Distracted #Deepwork #Focus
@ebookscafe
Conversations are the most human and humanising thing that we do.
It’s where empathy is born, where intimacy is born.
Because of eye contact, because we can hear the tones of another person’s voice and sense their body movements.
It’s where we learn about other people.
But, without meaning to, without having made a plan, we’ve actually moved away from conversation in a way that research shows is hurting us.
89% of Americans say that during their last social interaction, they took out a phone.
82% said that it deteriorated the conversation they were in.
Basically, we’re all doing something that is hurting our interactions and making them more shallow, as we desperately try to find more depth & meaning in relationships.
If you put a phone on the table in during a social interaction, it does two things:
First, it decreases the quality of what you talk about, because you tend to talk about things where you wouldn’t mind being interrupted.
And secondly it decreases the empathic connection that people feel toward each other because we realise that all parties see each other as less of a priority.
So, even something as simple as going to lunch and putting a phone on the table decreases the emotional importance of what people are willing to talk about.
And it decreases the connection that those people feel toward one another.
If you multiply that by all of the times you have your phone on the table when you have coffee with a friend or are at breakfast with your child or are talking with your partner about how you’re feeling, we’re doing this to each other multiple times per day.
A good solution here is to create sacred spaces where you won’t use your phone.
Make the kitchen or dining room or car or restaurant phone-free zones.
Just leave your phone in the car or in your bag when you’re spending time with your friend or partner or kids.
Maybe even suggest that they do it too.
The social media apps will be waiting for you when you’re done, but you can’t rerun a cherished conversation which you were too distracted to enjoy.
- Chris Willsx
#Socialmedia #Distracted #Deepwork #Focus
@ebookscafe
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It's not about the information you can consume. It's about what you consume ? How can you make it work more according to your condition? How much do you iterate it? ( Because if you apply the same thing..you won't have the competitive advantage)
Reminder: Whenever consuming information. Go slow. Understand. Iterate. Apply. Don't just go on with more and more new content..it's endless.
CONSUME. PAUSE. WRITE. REFLECT. APPLY. ITERATE
It's not about more information, it's about how much time you put in to make it personalized and how you make it work in real world.
@ebookscafe
Reminder: Whenever consuming information. Go slow. Understand. Iterate. Apply. Don't just go on with more and more new content..it's endless.
CONSUME. PAUSE. WRITE. REFLECT. APPLY. ITERATE
It's not about more information, it's about how much time you put in to make it personalized and how you make it work in real world.
@ebookscafe
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Today, with the cost of creating content being close to zero, people can share an incredible amount of content. This has sparked my curiosity about the concept of long shelf life versus short shelf life. While much of what we see and hear quickly becomes obsolete, there are timeless ideas or even pieces of music that can remain relevant for decades or even centuries.
For example, we’re witnessing a resurgence of Stoicism, with many of Marcus Aurelius’s insights still resonating thousands of years later. This makes me wonder: what are the most unintuitive, yet enduring ideas that aren’t frequently discussed today but might have a long shelf life? Also, what are we creating now that will still be valued and discussed hundreds or thousands of years from today?
@TheBestTwitterThreads
For example, we’re witnessing a resurgence of Stoicism, with many of Marcus Aurelius’s insights still resonating thousands of years later. This makes me wonder: what are the most unintuitive, yet enduring ideas that aren’t frequently discussed today but might have a long shelf life? Also, what are we creating now that will still be valued and discussed hundreds or thousands of years from today?
@TheBestTwitterThreads
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Most people stop at consumption. This has always been the case, and will continue to be the case forever and ever, Amen. This makes sense, as it requires the least amount of effort. But the evolution of algorithmic and hyperpersonal content makes moving beyond consumption even more challenging. If I already enjoy the content I’m being served, why would I spend time in discovery or discernment (synthesis)? However, there is a critical, existential issue embedded here.
@ebookscafe
Synthesis is where taste develops.
@ebookscafe
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“Strategising is easy but execution is hard.” — Chris McChesney
It’s a sad fact about life that we are all drawn to strategising much more than we are to executing.
We all have a friend who constantly fantasises about their huge plans without taking a single step toward making them a reality.
They prefer to talk, rather than do because it’s easier.
Execution requires us to take action which involves getting off our arses.
Another reason we have an aversion to execution is that it brings us face to face with potential failure.
We never have to worry about failure when we only strategise, because our plans don’t need to prove their effectiveness in the real world.
By always strategising and never executing, we sacrifice the potential for success but inoculate ourselves from failure.
This is the slippery slope of mental masturbation.
Where in your life are you strategising and not executing?
Your goal should be to constantly seek the point of immediate execution.
Where is the next available physical step toward doing the thing?
Over time this will seep into other areas of your life.
You’ll notice you bypass the talking stage and move straight to walking more and more.
@ebookscafe
It’s a sad fact about life that we are all drawn to strategising much more than we are to executing.
We all have a friend who constantly fantasises about their huge plans without taking a single step toward making them a reality.
They prefer to talk, rather than do because it’s easier.
Execution requires us to take action which involves getting off our arses.
Another reason we have an aversion to execution is that it brings us face to face with potential failure.
We never have to worry about failure when we only strategise, because our plans don’t need to prove their effectiveness in the real world.
By always strategising and never executing, we sacrifice the potential for success but inoculate ourselves from failure.
This is the slippery slope of mental masturbation.
Where in your life are you strategising and not executing?
Your goal should be to constantly seek the point of immediate execution.
Where is the next available physical step toward doing the thing?
Over time this will seep into other areas of your life.
You’ll notice you bypass the talking stage and move straight to walking more and more.
Execution eats strategising for breakfast.
@ebookscafe
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“The happiness of most people is not ruined by great catastrophes or fatal errors, but by the repetition of slowly destructive little things.” —
Ernest Dimnet
@ebookscafe
Ernest Dimnet
@ebookscafe
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The paradox of productivity:
It's difficult to start the task, but once you do, it's difficult to stop.
@ebookscafe
It's difficult to start the task, but once you do, it's difficult to stop.
@ebookscafe
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What we call our destiny is truly our character and that character can be altered. The knowledge that we are responsible for our actions and attitudes does not need to be discouraging, because it also means that we are free to change this destiny. One is not in bondage to the past, which has shaped our feelings, to race, inheritance, background. All this can be altered if we have the courage to examine how it formed us. We can alter the chemistry provided we have the courage to dissect the elements.
― Anais Nin, The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934
@ebookscafe
― Anais Nin, The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934
@ebookscafe
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