Dickie's Digest - Countdowns, Writing, Reflection, Vaccines, and Dividends
Hey there - happy Sunday.
Absurd realization: the US election was only four weeks ago. November may as well have been 100 days long. But! It’s finally the holiday season. I hope you and yours had a nice Thanksgiving.
A few quick things from me this week. I wrote up a thread of my morning routine which a good amount of people found helpful. I also published an essay on my curiosity flywheel for creating content and exploring ideas. If you check out either of them, let me know what you think. Oh, and we’re still taking sign-ups for the January Ship 30 for 30 cohort. Would be awesome to get some Digest readers involved.
That’s it from me! In this week’s Digest:
Have an epic week
Dickie
⏰ My Life Countdown with Kevin Kelly
I loved this quick reminder on the shortness of life from Kevin Kelly. To remind himself every day just how few days he has left, he set up a countdown calendar that ticks away one day at a time. It’s not the perfect system, but it’s a great way to treat every day as sacred.
He also talks about his framework for five-year thinking. His friend Stewart has been arranging his life in blocks of five years for the last 40 years. He says that anything worth doing will take at least five years, so plan accordingly.
I like the combination of these frameworks. Five years is just long enough to keep the long-term view. But breaking that down into days, and treating every day as sacred, focuses on the here and now.
“My friend Stewart Brand, who is now 69, has been arranging his life in blocks of 5 years. Five years is what he says any project worth doing will take. From moment of inception to the last good-riddance, a book, a campaign, a new job, a start-up will take 5 years to play through. So, he asks himself, how many 5 years do I have left? He can count them on one hand even if he is lucky. So this clarifies his choices. If he has less than 5 big things he can do, what will they be?”
“My hope was that a reckoning of my numbered days would help me account for how I spend each precious 24 hours, and to focus my attention and energy on those few tasks and projects I deem most important to me.”
This essay reminded me of two of my other favorites: The Tail End from Tim Urban and On the Shortness of Life from Seneca. Same message, different format.
Read more: My Life Countdown, On the Shortness of Life, and The Tail End
✍🏼 Jordan Peterson on Writing as Thinking
Jordan Peterson was in the news this week after workers at Penguin Random House pushed back on the company’s publishing of his most recent book.
I’ve never gone down the Peterson rabbit hole (but I do know it is deep and dark.) So I waded in carefully and stumbled across this video explaining the power of writing.
Quite simply it is the best explanation of why everyone should start writing that I’ve come across.
“If we want to teach people to think critically, we need to teach them to write.”
“Writing is the most powerful weapon you can arm someone with.”
“If you can think, build, speak, and write, you are deadly. Nothing can get in your way.”
I definitely don’t agree with everything he stands for, but these were straight facts. He also has some good frameworks for writing an essay and keeping a schedule.
Watch more: The importance of writing
💼What to Work On with Julian Shapiro
I’m beginning to put some plans in the works for 2021. The whole world has changed this year. I’m looking to set aside some quiet time - a whole day or two - to think about this year and what I want to work on in the next year.
This guide from Julian Shapiro will one of the first resources I put to work. Inside, Julian lays out a framework for choosing what to work on. The main formula is the regret minimization technique, popularized by Jeff Bezos. When weighing different projects, choose the one that, if you never work on, you will regret when you’re 80.
His main point is that our values change over time (especially true this year.) But often the projects we’re working on were chosen on a prior set of values that may no longer serve us. People spend YEARS working on things that used to align with their values without ever stopping to ask why. That’s the point of his exercise - periodically interrupting your momentum to ask: should I still be doing this?
I won’t go into the full exercise, but I’m looking forward to doing it.
Read more: What to work on
Last week’s most popular link
Ship30for30.com - Start sharing your ideas in 2021.
🎧This Week in Podcasts
If you love the Digest and its weekly podcast recommendations, consider checking out the Digest Podcast Compendium. It’s a curation of my favorite podcast episodes ever recorded, tagged, and summarized with three key takeaways. Supporters get three new podcasts and summaries every week plus an invitation to a private Slack group to chat about the best episodes.
The All-In Podcast with Chamath, Jason Calacanis, David Sacks, and David Friedberg
This podcast quickly became a must-listen for me. Picture four of the smartest investors, VCs, and operators in the world sitting at a bar crushing beers and talking shop. That’s what this podcast feels like. This episode breaks down the COVID vaccine timeline (with some fascinating facts), Chamath’s latest SPAC, and much more. I highly recommend this one.
😎 Cool Things Corner
Part of my morning routine is high-quality caffeination. I’ve experimented with dozens of coffees, teas, and supplements. But the one I keep coming back to is Four Sigmatic coffee. I can’t explain all of the science behind mushroom supplements, but there is a noticeable difference in how this caffeine hits - both physically and mentally. You just have to try it.
They hooked me up with a discount code DICKIE that gets you 10% off. They also have some absurd Black Friday deals that end on Monday. My recommendation: pick up a three-pack of their ground coffee sampler. If you’re not in love with it immediately, they’ll give you a no-questions-asked full refund. It’s win-win. And I’m sure it will level up your morning routine.
🧠 Idea Corner
🥃 Sunday Chaser
Thanks for reading!
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