Dickie's Digest - Writing, Josh Kaufman, Robinhooders, and Poker
Hey there! Happy Sunday.
What a week for the Digest. To the 394 of you who are reading this for the first time - welcome to Dickie’s Digest. Every week I share thoughts and ideas on growth of all kinds.
My goal for the Digest is simple: for every reader to LEAVE the Digest email down a rabbit hole of curiosity. Sort of like Hinge’s ad campaign - Designed to Be Deleted (but only after reading..!)
In this week’s Digest:
🧠 Idea Corner
Have an epic week!
Dickie
📝 My Latest Essay: Four Reasons Why I Write
I've been writing online for six months. Ever since I started, people have kept asking the question "Why are you doing it?"
For six months, I've struggled to have a good answer.
The TL;DR version:
Have a creative outlet for my personal experience
Create a curiosity flywheel
Hone my ability to express ideas
Be a lighthouse for like-minded people
Read the full post here and let me know what you think!
💼 Inside the Mind of Josh Kaufman
This week I discovered the work of Josh Kaufman, author of The Personal MBA. I ended up going down the rabbit hole of his personal website and found some absolute gems which I shared in this tweet thread:
If you want to become more effective, check out these three essays from his website:
How to Ask Useful Questions [HIGHLY RECOMMEND]
💵 The Inside Story of Robinhood's Billionaire Founders, Option Kid Cowboys, and the Wall Street Sharks That Feed on Them (LONG READ)
Robinhood has taken the financial world by storm in 2020. Armed with $1,200 stimulus checks and too much time on their hands, an army of day-traders are shaking up how things are done on Wall Street.
How did Robinhood's founders generate a 1-million person waitlist with zero advertising spend? What are the longer-term implications of an investing app designed to be as addictive as Instagram? And with a potential IPO on the horizon, what will potential shareholders think about their shady business model, letting Wall Street sharks prey on unaware options traders?
This long-read takes a fascinating deep dive into each of these questions. Give it a read here when you have some time this week.
🎧 This Week in Podcasts
This week I listened to three epic podcasts which served as the inspirations for three tweet threads.
Josh Kaufman on The Modern Wisdom Podcast (link) [HIGHLY RECOMMEND]
Josh and Chris talk about the five fundamental parts of every business, how to ask better questions, and how Josh churns out so much great work.
Balaji Srinivasan on The Paradox Podcast (link) [HIGHLY RECOMMEND]
Following up with another Balaji podcast after last week’s gem, this episode dives into two cool concepts: the future of cloud cities and the rise of decentralized citizen journalism.
Morgan Housel on The Pomp Podcast (link)
Morgan Housel is one of my favorite financial writers. In this episode, he and Pomp talk bitcoin, content creation, his new book The Psychology of Money, and the future of the 60/40 portfolio.
🧠 Idea Corner
This section explores one new idea I came across in the past week.
Table Selection - In poker, the skill of your opponents matters more than your own skill. This means you should choose your table carefully. Applied to business, this means avoiding areas with too much competition or too much capital. Applied to life, this means focusing your efforts on areas where you have a natural advantage. If you want to win, pick an easy table and focus on execution.
🥃 Sunday Chaser
Do they sell these on Amazon?
Thanks for reading!
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