Happy New Year Everyone 🎉
Hope you had a blissful holiday and are ready to kick ass in 2024. I surely am all geared up and committed to taking my game to the next level. I will update you on new developments soon.
Let’s go on with some pieces of content that I enjoyed going through -
Global Supply Chains
Shipping Issues. -Link
This video explains the shipping issues taking place in the Red Sea, the background of the events, and how these affect the global supply chains and alliances between various countries. It’s an insightful video and will open your mind to risks that aren’t factored into the asset prices traded globally.
Growth Strategy
Mario Newsletter Growth - Link
If you write online or intend to create content for audiences globally, then this piece is a gold mine. It shares everything that Mario Gabriele did to make his newsletter one of the most sought-after globally. This will make you appreciate the work that goes into making a writer stand out. It’s just not the quality of work, it also needs relationships, gamification, collaborations, and so much more. Loved it !!!
Habits
Ryan Holiday Better Habits - Link
An excerpt - “To be able to endure the cold reception of a bold idea, start with enduring a cold shower. To be able to step forward when the stakes are high, regularly do that when the stakes are low. To be able to embrace the discomfort of a major life change, accustom yourself to minor discomforts.”
This is a beautiful piece on making habits stick in 2024. All of you may have a new goal for 2024 and that very goal requires a stronger and bolder you, mentally and physically. This piece will make you think about how to make that better version of you happen.
Technology
Phones are making students dumber - Link
An excerpt - “PISA finds that students who spend less than one hour of “leisure” time on digital devices a day at school scored about 50 points higher in math than students whose eyes are glued to their screens more than five hours a day. This gap held even after adjusting for socioeconomic factors.”
These are challenging times for parents as getting their children off the phone gets them dislikes due to loss aversion tendencies while allowing their children to surf endlessly also brings them stress about the future outcomes due to online influence. It’s a tricky path to navigate and this piece shares with you important statistics about the influence of phones on students globally.
Writing
Writing vs Journaling - Link
An excerpt - “The act of transferring one’s thoughts onto a piece of paper or other devices is an act of fidelity, of giving meaning to one’s thoughts and preserving them for posterity. They are a reflection of who you are at the most basic level. This act of writing is unfiltered and therefore truest to you.”
Writing could be daunting for some, and liberating for some. It could be relaxing for someone and just a means of getting work done for some. Either way, we all have written in some form or another. If you’d be keen to learn about writing that draws your heart and soul in it, that could make you happier, that could allow you to express your ingenuity? If yes, then read this piece.
Quality
Notes on Taste - Link
An excerpt - “Though taste may appear effortless, you can’t have taste by mistake. It requires intention, focus, and care. Taste is a commitment to a state of attention. It’s a process of peeling back layer after layer, turning over rock after rock.”
This would count as one of the best pieces I’ve read on Taste, on Quality, or on Class. It’s deep and may need you to re-read it. But if you like the good stuff or would like to get better at distinguishing the good stuff from the mediocre, then this is a must-read.
Boredom Manifesto - Link
An excerpt - “It has become frankly impossible to be bored in today’s day and age and that is where the problem arises. In the past, boredom was considered a curse; today, it is a luxury to be bored with the easy availability of entertainment.”
This piece will make you think about the busy-ness that we have allowed in our lives, making us constantly consume content. Though it stimulates us all the time, it leaves no room for mental wandering, that could allow us to arrive at deep insights or epiphanies that could be transformational.
Learning
How to Read - Link
An excerpt - “Reading requires a lot of effort and practice. Hearing language versus reading it engages different mental processes. Reading forces you to move more slowly. If an author explains an idea to you, the constraints of natural conversation mean that you can’t just pause for 10 minutes while you think deeply about what he or she just said and then subsequently resume the discussion. Books enable you to do that.”
This is a call to action to pick up a book and to immerse yourself in it in a way that allows you to extract the nuggets of wisdom hidden in there. Reading is easy if you don’t care about learning from the material. It just needs a pair of eyes. But reading in a way that changes you, develops you, or teaches you would need the facilities of the mind too. And that is an art everyone should develop.
Active vs Passive Learning - Link
An excerpt - “It seems bizarre that as a boss you should give your employees idle time to do things that don’t look like productive work. But so many successful people found their key educational experiences during free time, passively, driven by their own curiosity and wandering minds.”
Morgan Housel nudges you to get out of the box and explore the world, understand the umpteen linkages between domains, and get a nuanced perspective to life. This piece might just make you feel like a frog in a pond, but it’s important that you feel that way, so you do something to shake that mode off.
Wisdom
Sam Altman - LinkAn excerpt - “Fast iteration can make up for a lot; it’s usually ok to be wrong if you iterate quickly. Plans should be measured in decades, execution should be measured in weeks.”
If you manage a team or a business, then this is a list of very effective maxims to implement. It comes from the man behind OpenAI and hence deserves a read, as its these principles that have gone into making OpenAI one of the highest-valued private companies globally.
Wishing you all a fantastic day ahead 🤝
Manish