Articles
- The Secret – Dani Alves
Right before every match, I have same the routine. I stand in front of a mirror for five minutes and I block out everything. Then a movie begins to play in my mind. It is the movie of my life.
I tell myself, “You are not going back to the farm until you make your father proud. You might be 51st in ability. But you are going to be No. 1 or 2 in drive. You are going to be a warrior. You are not going back home, no matter what.”
- The Ego and the Universe: Alan Watts on Becoming Who You Really Are (Long read)
His 1966 masterwork The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are builds upon his indispensable earlier work as Watts argues with equal parts conviction and compassion that “the prevalent sensation of oneself as a separate ego enclosed in a bag of skin is a hallucination which accords neither with Western science nor with the experimental philosophy-religions of the East.” He explores the cause and cure of that illusion in a way that flows from profound unease as we confront our cultural conditioning into a deep sense of lightness as we surrender to the comforting mystery and interconnectedness of the universe.
- The Valley’s Best Investors On “Distribution”
One key ingredient missing from most startup recipes is a focus on and healthy respect for something elusive: Distribution.
- Japan’s habits of overwork are hard to change
Twelve-hour days are common. Holidays are stingy—just ten days a year when you start out at work—yet Japanese workers, on average, take only half their due. Japan leads the world in paternity leave—up to a year. Yet barely 5% of men take advantage of it, and then usually for just a few days. Japan has given the world the term karoshi, or death by overwork.
- First Principles: The Building Blocks of True Knowledge (Long read)
First-principles thinking is one of the best ways to reverse-engineer complicated problems and unleash creative possibility. Sometimes called “reasoning from first principles,” the idea is to break down complicated problems into basic elements and then reassemble them from the ground up. It’s one of the best ways to learn to think for yourself, unlock your creative potential, and move from linear to non-linear results.
- Beginner’s Guide to Game Theory (must read if you’re unfamiliar w/ game theory)
Game theory is the study of how and why people make decisions within a competitive situation, while keeping in mind what actions their competitors will take. You can think of it as the study of strategic decision making.
- Risk as a Form of Purpose
Fortunately, we no longer have to risk our lives to feel a sense of purpose, but the fact that risking something is what often provides purpose is not something we can just overlook.
More than ever, people feel that what they do on a daily basis has little worth, that it isn’t meaningful and that their time could be better used if it was more clear where to invest it.
- An Interview with Morgan Housel – David Perell (On the future of Brands)
- Six Questions for Brent Beshore – Morgan Housel (What have you changed your mind about in the last decade?)
- Advice on writing – Devon Zuegel
The art of writing is mostly about unblocking yourself. I find I don’t really have a lack of ideas, more that I hold myself back from letting them flow out of me and onto the page.
Books
Hackers and Painters – Paul Graham
How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big – Scott Adams
(For a preview check this out: https://fs.blog/2013/12/scott-adams-fail-at-everything/)
rahulramchandani.com 