68: Rules Aren't Real 📐
Dispensing with the status quo is the key to escaping mediocrity.
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67: Not all that glitters 🪩
In one morning I came across three stories that made me think twice about the ‘metaverse’. It’s not some abstract future dystopia—it’s already here. Many of us already inhabit mini-metaverses full of personalised algorithms, and few of us are ready to take off the headset. The first...
66: Win the small hill ⛷
Sometimes in order to win the game you're optimising for, you must lose the ones you've been told were important.
65: What you want for dinner 🍽
How often do you revisit ideas you believe to be common sense? When thinking of possible ways we could develop our thinking or improve our lives we naturally gravitate to new ideas instead of investigating existing patterns. When you start thinking from first principles, a lot of things you might...
64: Constraints and consistency 🎲
People become great by being creative within the boundaries and persisting when others might quit.
63: Nobody cares 📵
Sometimes you will be out in the field, pushing the limits of expectation, on the verge of changing the world, and not a single soul will care. The masses often sleepwalk through innovation. You can only make great things if you’re willing to be ignored and unafraid of going...
62: The hard thing about hard work ⚒️
Brandon Sanderson is one of my favourite authors. If he writes something I’m going to eat it up. But not immediately. Because Brandon likes to write big beefy books that could double as self-defence weapons or stools for small cats. He writes a LOT. He recently surprised his entire...
61: It Sounds Better Over There 🎋
Whenever words are carried by saltine winds over vast expanses of water, they somehow gain the magical property of resonating clearer in our minds. This is why we seem to fall head over heels in love with wisdom from faraway lands. It explains our obsession with Ikigai. It’s why...
60: The Sum of our Parts 🧩
No one human knows how to make a pencil from scratch despite it seeming like a fundamentally basic thing - something every child can use. To construct something as simple as a pencil takes mining graphite, cutting wood, shaping metal, and figuring out whatever modern erasers are made out of....
59: Greener Grass
The Sword of Damocles has become synonymous with imminent danger and the threat of sudden calamity - but that’s only half the story, and perhaps the wrong half to focus on. If you’ve never heard of Damocles before, you’re in for a treat! The story of Damocles...
57: The Power of Impostors 👻
What the heck is an impostor anyway? Someone who is not supposed to be there. An impersonator. A copycat. A covert intelligence gatherer. Uninformed. Uninitiated. Uninvited. Maybe that’s you. It’s definitely me—but maybe there’s power in that. The ones who are different I am not supposed...
A Tree in the Woods
If the cameras turn off, do the Kardashians still exist? People are designing their lives and actions around black camera lenses, hoping that an audience will exist on the other side. People stand alone in rooms swinging their arms violently and making faces at the wall, because TikTok promises their...
56: Finding your passion 🔮
People spend their lives chasing passion. We have dreams of what life should be like. What it could be like, once we find the magic that's missing. We all want to get paid to do something we love. And we want to be paid well for it! To...
55: Almost Invisible 👻
We quickly get used to the sound of alarm bells. My smart watch keeps vibrating, every single hour, reminding me to stand up. I turned on the feature because I know sitting for too long is unhealthy. And when I say I know, I KNOW. I know it in my...
54: A glass half full 🥃
Is the glass half empty or half full? Apparently, your answer indicates whether you’re an optimist or a pessimist. I think that’s silly. It’s a question of orientation, not optimism. Are you picking it up or putting it down? What’s your motivation in the scene? Are...
The Sparrow and the Snake: The Danger of Short-Sighted Solutions
Sometimes trying to fix a problem only makes it worse. China learned this lesson the hard way in the 1950s. As part of the Great Leap Forward movement, the Chinese government launched a campaign to eliminate four pests that were seen as harmful to agriculture: sparrows, rats, flies, and mosquitoes....
The Abilene Paradox: When Groupthink Goes Wrong
It is commonly believed that if everyone thinks something is a bad idea, no one will do it. However, a phenomenon called 'the Abilene paradox' suggests otherwise, named after a 1974 story recounted by professor and management expert Jerry B. Harvey. In the story, a family is playing...
🎙️Creativity and Chaos with Kevon Cheung
David speaks with Kevon Cheung, an author and content creator. Kevon runs a course, Build in Public Mastery, to help entrepreneurs show their work publicly to build up their brand and superfan base. He wrote a book, Find Joy in Chaos, to help entrepreneurs build their online presence so opportunities...
Mastering the Productivity Game: Why Saying No is the Key to Success
In a world where busyness is glorified and productivity is often equated with saying yes to every opportunity, there is a profound and often overlooked truth: the ultimate productivity hack is saying no. In our quest to achieve more, we often neglect the power of boundaries and the impact of...
🎙️ The Alexander Technique with Michael Ashcroft
David speaks with Michael Ashcroft, a writer and Alexander Technique teacher who previously spent 10 years consulting on clean energy innovation. A lot of Michael's work centres around helping people expand their awareness. He's written several essays and posts I've loved, particularly about the...
4 Proven Secrets to Discovering Your Life's Purpose
We all have a profound yearning as humans to uncover our life's purpose, to understand why we are here and what we are intended to do with our lives. Unfortunately, many people go through life feeling unfulfilled and aimless because they never discover a clear answer to this...
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