Dickie's Digest - Creativity, Ideas, Side Hustles, Agency, and Alchemy
Hey there - happy Sunday.
This week’s Digest is PACKED - there should be something for everybody. Let’s dive right in.
In this week’s Digest:
💭 The Top Idea in Your Mind [HIGHLY RECOMMEND]
📔 The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
💵 The Four Kinds of Side Hustles
🎧 This Week in Podcasts
😎 Cool Things Corner
🧠 Idea Corner
🥃 Sunday Chaser
Have an epic week!
Dickie
💭 The Top Idea in Your Mind (link)
Paul Graham is one of my favorite writers. Everything he writes is concise, insightful, and high-signal. This essay is about creativity and the top idea in your mind, something that really resonated with me.
The top idea in your mind is where your mind wanders if left on its own (think: shower thoughts). Our creative breakthroughs come when the idea that is top of mind is the exact one we want it to be. All subconscious thinking trends toward that idea.
The worst place to be is when the top idea in your mind is something you DON’T want it to be. This is creativity purgatory.
The two thoughts that most often become top of mind that shouldn’t be — money problems and dealing with other people’s drama.
Therefore: the most creative people seek financial freedom and don’t put up with other people’s bullshit.
Read more: The Top Idea in Your Mind
📔The Almanack of Naval Ravikant (link)
This week, Eric Jorgenson published The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, a synthesis of 10 years of tweets, essays, and interviews with the one and only Naval. There are a few reasons I’m excited to read this.
First, it’s a beautiful book. I ordered the hardcover immediately and can’t wait to put it on my coffee table.
Second, it’s actionable. The book is broken down into the two things Naval talks about most: wealth and happiness. I plan on consulting the wealth section when I am thinking about new things to work on, and the happiness section whenever I’m feeling down.
The best part: you can read it for free online.
Here are a few of my favorite quotes so far:
All the returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest.
The winners of any game are the people who are so addicted they continue playing even as the marginal utility from winning declines.
A taste of freedom can make you unemployable.
Forget rich vs poor, white-collar vs blue. It's now leveraged vs un-leveraged.
Read more: The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
💵 The Four Kinds of Side Hustles (link)
I quite enjoyed this Superorganizers essay from Kettle and Fire / Perfect Keto CEO Justin Mares. In the post, side hustle extraordinaire Justin Mares walks readers through the nine or ten businesses he’s started and what he learned from each of them. His experience is wide-ranging, everything from launching online courses, selling e-books, running an Airbnb scheme, and buying digital assets.
He breaks down side-hustles into four kinds:
Buying an existing asset (think: real estate or online business)
Launch a product on a marketplace with existing demand (think: online course, Airbnb)
Launch a unique product where you can acquire customers via paid acquisition (think: eCommerce, niche products)
Arbitrage (think: reselling on eBay, running an Uber pyramid scheme)
The coolest idea I took away:
Niches don’t mean smaller markets. Niches mean less competition.
Read more: The Four Kinds of Side Hustles
🎧This Week in Podcasts
This week I listened to two epic podcasts both of which I highly recommend.
Eric Torenberg on the Pomp Podcast [HIGHLY RECOMMEND]
Eric Torenberg is the founder of Village Global, a network-driven venture firm, and OnDeck, a red-hot learning platform. Pomp and Eric talk about personal moats, the decentralization of venture, the importance of high-agency, and an idea I really liked: epistemological modesty.
Rory Sutherland Invest Like the Best [HIGHLY RECOMMEND]
Rory Sutherland is the founder of Ogilvy, a legendary marketing and copywriting agency. His new book Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don’t Make Sense is one of the more thought-provoking books I’ve ever read. Rory and Patrick talk about why humans work better with binary rules, the tie between quality and focus, and why Five Guys and Starbucks sell more than just burgers and coffee.
😎 Cool Things Corner
This section explores any new gadgets, apps, study playlists, or anything I found cool this week.
Long-time Digest readers know I’m a big fan of Copilot, the best personal finance app I’ve ever used. Their updates for iOS 14 confirmed what I already knew: this app is incredible. Their homescreen widgets are an absolute game-changer. If you’re looking for a new personal finance app, you can get a free month of Copilot premium by going here.
🧠 Idea Corner
This section explores one new idea I came across in the past week.
I have a simple definition of wealth. Wealth is the freedom to choose.
🥃 Sunday Chaser
Thanks for reading!
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