The Super Bowl is here in my hometown of Tampa today. Even better, my Tampa Bay Buccaneers are playing! I can confidently say there will never be another opportunity to see my home team play in a home Super Bowl. Which is why the Digest is a few hours early this week - I’m headed to the game! Here’s to a Tampa Bay victory.
A handful of things from me this week:
Tim Ferriss mentioned me in his 5-Bullet Friday newsletter (which has over two million readers!) I spit my drink out when I saw my name pop up in a newsletter I’ve read for years. Here’s a link if you’re interested!
Tomorrow is the last day to enroll in the February Ship 30 for 30 cohort. Digest readers can lock in their spot for $100 off using this link. Join the 243 others in kickstarting their online writing habit, starting next week!
Podcast Notes published notes on my recent interview on the Louis and Kyle Show. Click here for the in-depth breakdown and takeaways from that conversation - we talked about writing online, building habits, and how I think about investing.
This was a fascinating read that has me more excited than ever for the next 10 years. It’s a ~25-minute read, but worth every second. The essay touches on five sectors of technology set to explode this decade:
Biotech and health
Energy
Transportation
Space
Information technology
If you only want to skim, I highly recommend the Space section. Eli breaks down how SpaceX could change the way we manufacture goods on Earth (because some could be more easily-developed in space!)
And if you found this interesting, check out ARK’s Big Ideas in 2021 for a fascinating deep dive into deep learning, digital wallets, Bitcoin, electric vehicles, and much more.
I think a lot about improving my information diet. In a world where the smartest engineers on Earth are competing for your attention, you have to be deliberate in choosing your sources of information.
In his most recent newsletter, my friend Nick lays out an epic framework for intentionally designing your information diet. I wish I would have found his framework before I published my thoughts on Idea Flow and Mental Wealth.
Nick suggests building a “T-shaped” information diet - developing a shallow idea flow in a broad array of topics, and developing a deep, dense idea flow in the few topics most important to you.
The T-shaped talent model suggests that the best way to grow your abilities is to build a shallow understanding across a breadth of domains and a depth of expertise in whichever domain is most relevant to your profession.
This same lens helps identify which topics to prioritize within your information diet.
In choosing your information sources, he suggests striking the balance between:
Undiscovered vs. Popular Knowledge
Accessible vs. Gated Sources
Institutional vs. Individual Publishers
Primary vs. Secondary Sources
New vs. Old Ideas
I’ve started to implement these by better curating my Twitter feed, paying for premium content, and cutting out anything that isn’t a 7 or 8 at least on the information quality scale.
If you aren’t reading Sahil’s threads, you are missing out. I came across the Feynman Technique about a year ago, and it transformed the way I think about learning. This thread is a masterclass in simple, first-principles thinking.
Richard Feynman observed that complexity and jargon are often used to mask a lack of deep understanding.
The Feynman Technique is a learning framework that forces you to strip away needless complexity and develop a deep, elegant understanding of a given topic.
Greg Isenberg’s threads have been fire recently. This one is no exception. My favorite piece of advice:
Okinawa is an Island in Japan with the highest life expectancy. It's called "the land of immortals" The secret: almost everybody gardens Entrepreneurship is a marathon not a sprint. Be sustainable Find your gardening.
Chamath is everywhere lately, and he never disappoints. In this conversation, Chamath and Patrick discuss society’s biggest problems including institutionalized poverty, access to education, and access to equity ownership. Chamath lays out a clear, first-principles approach to solvingthese problems including a “growth dividend” of $2,000 invested in the S&P 500 on the day you are born.
This two-hour conversation was the best thing I listened to this week. Pomp goes into his background in the military, working at Facebook, and how he found himself in the crypto space. Then, he lays out his thesis for the future of Bitcoin and monetary policy, and how he is positioning to profit from it. I highly recommend this one.
If you’re enjoying the Digest so far, I’d love it if you shared it with a friend or two by forwarding it or sharing it with the button below! You can find all of my other writings, ideas, and book notes at dickiebush.com.
