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Gradual Daily 69  📈

To: Gradually's OGs
February 11, 2021
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Survival Guide

[Image source: @theopeninvite]
Cheers to the newly subscribed OGs🧃

“Back when I was a young whippersnapper like you, the entire human race went through one of the deadliest pandemics known to mankind. Hundreds of millions of people were infected and more than two million died from it. Many lost their jobs. Countless others suffered through anxiety, loneliness, and depression as quarantine mandates were issued around the globe.”

It’s now 2031 and the coronavirus is a distant memory. All is well.

 

If you’re new here, welcome! Below you’ll find 3 pieces of valuable curated content that aim to make you wiser, wealthier, and healthier  — gradually (aka your daily dose of digital vitamins).

You can find all previous issues here, all previous curated content organized/archived here, and if you aren’t subscribed yet — you can do so here.

Wisdom
1mg • consume content below with care for full effect
[Image source: Ribbonfarm]
The Holy Grail of Self-Improvement  by Tiago Forte

Takeaways

I highly suggest consuming the full piece here (23 min. read time)

“People tend to choose difficult goals, like going on a run every morning, meditating an hour per day, or studying a new language every evening…The problem with continuing to rely on sustained momentum is that any hiccup or missed day is interpreted as a failure. High stakes means, sooner or later, a long way to fall.” — Tiago Forte

“People do what they enjoy, and then narrativize it as self-discipline after the fact. When we see someone with high performance we desire, we extrapolate from the immense amount of effort it takes for us to perform even at a low level, and conclude that if they perform at 10x our level, it must require 10x the willpower. But this ignores the critical fact that they enjoy doing it.” — Tiago Forte

“When it comes to trying and learning new things, people have difficulty transferring success in one arena to even highly related ones. Even small failures lead to learned helplessness so quickly, we learn to protect against that eventuality by not trying new things unless success is guaranteed.” — Tiago Forte

“We pour billions into education and training, but ignore the fact that most health-related decisions are based on habits, intuitive response or assessment, self concept, or heuristics, not rational cost-benefit analyses.” — Tiago Forte

“Self-compassion aids change by removing the veil of shame and pain that keeps you from examining the causes of your mistakes (and often, leads you to indulge in the very same bad habit as a way of forgetting the pain). Self-forgiveness is the first step in fostering an invitational attitude that is open to feedback and learning, from yourself and others.” — Tiago Forte

My two cents: When I originally started this newsletter, I knew I wanted it to be somewhat about self-improvement. For whatever reason though, self-improvement in my world is becoming almost a cringy word. I wish this wasn’t the case. Gradually revolves around the notion of improving gradually through the content that we consume. I believe the content we consume directly influences our actions in the real world. 

 



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Wealth
1mg • consume content below with care for full effect
[Image source: Reaction Wheel]
Startups and Uncertainty  by Jerry Neumann

Takeaways

I highly suggest consuming the full piece here (27 min. read time)

“…uncertainty is not just a nuisance startup founders can’t avoid, it is an integral part of what allows startups to be successful. Startups that aim to create value can’t have a moat when they begin, uncertainty is what protects them from competition until a proper moat can be built. Uncertainty becomes their moat.” — Jerry Neumann

“Risk can be quantified, uncertainty can not. Both of these lead to unpredictability but, as noted, they are qualitatively different.” — Jerry Neumann

Uncertainty and uncertain things in general oftentimes look obvious in retrospect.

“Uncertainty can create a no-go zone around a new market, allowing a startup to build without competition for some period of time, but the startup’s management has to remain aware that if they are successful, competition will eventually arrive. Uncertainty creates space and time, but only a limited amount. Wise startup management will make use of what time they have to build a moat.” — Jerry Neumann

“To be successful a founder must seek out uncertainty and then must manage the company through it and emerge from the other end with a moat. Uncertainty creates a difficult trade-off for entrepreneurs. Without uncertainty they will immediately face competition from many others, including some who are better resourced. But a business subject to high levels of uncertainty has seemingly intractable management problems.” — Jerry Neumann

“Startup strategies like lean, customer development, design thinking, and many others were all created to manage uncertainty. These strategies were created out of necessity by hands-on practitioners. Like similarly developed ways of working, they can be made more useful by connecting them to underlying theory. If you understand where uncertainty comes from and how it affects decision processes you can craft the right strategy for your company’s situation.” — Jerry Neumann

My two cents: Nothing is certain about starting a company. Maybe this is why it can be so overwhelming. Sure, being in a proven market comes with less uncertainty, but after reading this, I’ve learned that less uncertainty means more competition. It obviously makes sense, but I liked how Jerry gave detailed examples from Apple’s and Google’s startup experiences. 

 



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Health
1mg • consume content below with care for full effect
[Image source: Peter Marlow/Magnum]
How to find your mindfulness  by Gill Johnson & Willem Kuyken

Takeaways

I highly suggest consuming the full piece here (12  min. read time)

“…mindfulness is our innate capacity to be aware of our experience as it happens. In any moment, what we attend to is processed by our minds to create our reality: where we place our attention shapes our perception of our world. When we are mindful, we guide that attention to the present moment.” — Johnson & Kuyken

“By paying a kindly interest to where our attention is focused, we get a better understanding of our actual experience, rather than what we think it should or could be. This open interest in the present moment is described as ‘simple knowing.’” — Johnson & Kuyken

Informal practices: 

Start the day mindfully → Before getting out of bed, before you check your phone, before you do anything, just lie there. Check how you feel and what’s going through your mind. 

Pay attention to daily tasks → Don’t just go through the motions of daily tasks. Be curious about all the routine things you do throughout the day.

Use cues as reminders → It’s easy to slip back into mindlessness. Use cues to gently remind you to be more mindful (ex. when getting a notification).

Formal practice: “Formal practice, such as a sitting meditation with a focus on the breath, involves setting aside time to pay attention to experience in a more structured way. Spend time anchoring your attention on bodily sensations, and notice thoughts and moods. Then deliberately move your attention to the physical sensations of breathing for a few moments. Finally, widen awareness to notice body sensations, thoughts and moods present now before responding to whatever comes next in your day.” — Johnson & Kuyken

My two cents: I definitely don’t think the pandemic has made it easy to be more mindful. I’ve said it before, but mindfulness can come off as this mythical form of living, yet realistically, I think it just means attention. “Just be in the moment,” can certainly be an eye-roller of a statement, however, the truth behind it is pretty real. 

 



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