Dickie's Digest - Getting Lucky, Meditations, and Attention Diets
Hey there! Happy Sunday.
Do you ever have those weeks where you try to do a little bit too much? I’ve said before that the most ambitious person on the planet is my Sunday-night self thinking about all the things I’ll get done that week. Last week, I ended up doing six or seven things just okay rather than two or three things really well. So this week, after setting my intentions on Sunday night, I’m going to cross off the three least important ones and not even think about them.
I’ll report back next week with how it went. If this kind of thing happens to you as well, I’d love to hear how you deal with it. Respond directly to this email to let me know!
In this week’s Digest:
Have an epic week!
Dickie
🎯 How to Get Lucky: Less Chance, More Chances (link)
Luck has nothing to do with chance. Luck has everything to do with chances.
Getting lucky is a skill. The people we consider lucky are simply better at it than others. They get lucky for a reason - and it’s not the rabbit’s foot in their pocket.
This week I wrote about how I think about luck. To me, luck is about seizing opportunities. To get luckier, we need to have more opportunities and more consistently seize them. The essay explores four mental models for getting lucky: George’s Razor, Leverage, Fat Tails, and Serendipity Vehicles. You can read the full essay here - let me know what you think!
🏛 Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (link)
One year ago today I finished Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. When people ask me which book has had the biggest impact on my life, I say Meditations without question. This week, I decided to pick it back up and read through it again. Right away I remembered why it was such a powerful book. Nearly every passage has something underlined or scribbled in the margins. If you want to check it out, you can read my notes and if you decide to grab a copy, make sure you get the Gregory Hayes translation. My favorite quote below 👇🏼
If you seek tranquility, do less. Or (more accurately), do what's essential— what the logos of a social being requires, and in a requisite way. Which brings a double satisfaction: to do less, better. Because most of what we say and do is not is essential. If you eliminate it, you'll have more time and more tranquility. Ask yourself at every moment, is this necessary?
🧠 How to Manage Your Attention Diet (link)
Since I started working from home, my ability to focus on a single task for an extended period of time has diminished. I’m working on a post talking about the exact steps I am taking to try and bring my focus back under control, but this article is a great place to start if you’re struggling as well. As much as I’d like to think I’m disciplined enough to stay focused without constraints, it turns out I’m not.
Steps I’ve taken so far:
Turned off nearly all notifications on my phone and computer.
Spent an hour unsubscribing from a bunch of emails + setting up Gmail filters.
Greyscaled my iPhone (gamechanger).
Leaving my phone in another room while working.
Removed all social media apps and news apps from my phone.
Implemented time blocks with Cold Turkey (app linked in the post above).
Committed to working on one task, for one project, at a time (way easier said than done).
🎧 This Week in Podcasts
This week I listened to two really strong podcasts, both under 30 minutes in length. As always, the link to the podcast is at the bottom of the tweet thread.
The first was a masterclass on copywriting from my friend Ari Lewis. No matter the industry you work in, the ability to write convincing sales copy is a tremendous personal differentiator. Oliver is a top tier salesman, and the advice is very practical.
If you want the full notes, you can get them here
The second was a quick 20-minute episode from Noah Kagan, the founder of AppSumo. He lays out 10 practical pieces of advice for ambitious people in their twenties. My personal favorite: seek to have massive failures. The bigger the failure, the more lessons learned.
If you want the full notes, you can get them here.
📚 Kindle Highlight of the Week
Do external things distract you? Then make time for yourself to learn something worthwhile. People who labor all their lives but have no purpose to direct every thought and impulse toward are wasting their time even when hard at work.
From Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, which I read on my Kindle Paperwhite. I can honestly say the $129 I spent on this Kindle is the best purchase I’ve made in years.
Thanks for reading!
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