The Listen: Recent Episodes
Francis Cortez
YouTube: https://youtu.be/8NmU-JIg8Zs
Book notes on "Shot Ready" by Steph Curry
00:00 Introduction: The Grind of the NBA Season
00:20 Steph Curry's New Book: Shot Ready
00:43 Growing Up in the Air Canada Center
01:16 Lessons from Dell Curry
01:34 Mind the Game Podcast Insights
02:13 Childhood Memories and Basketball Education
03:20 The Mental Game: Confidence and Commitment
04:05 Overcoming Injuries and Mental Strength
04:32 Changing His Shot Form
05:34 Consistency and Mechanics in Shooting
06:52 Early NBA Years: Don Nelson's Coaching Style
10:14 Mark Jackson's Belief in the Splash Brothers
12:51 Steve Kerr and the Joy of Freeform Play
15:26 Rituals and the Importance of Consistency
17:14 The Euphoria of Winning the First Championship
18:57 The 73-9 Season and the Pain of Losing
20:26 Visualization: The Double-Edged Sword
21:25 Kevin Durant: Pushing Each Other to Get Better
27:04 Breathing and Managing Stress
31:35 Back to the Mountaintop: Winning Without KD
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Microwaving another bag of broccoli
That was the 1 habit I wanted to work on.
The rest of the 1-1-1-1-1 pact
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1 habit
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10 pages
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100 reps
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1000 words
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10000 steps Which adds up to 11,111 and maps to
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Habit building
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Reading
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Weightlifting
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Writing
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and Walking Initially I'm aiming for 500 days but I want to do these daily for the rest of my life. Which means the intensity is lower than other challenges you might come across. Which are great, which I've definitely tried and strayed off of.
The PACT idea is from Tiny Experiments. You decide "I will ACTION for DURATION"
It stands for
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Purposeful: it's about the daily behaviors
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Actionable: I know these are doable
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Continuous: I'm going for daily for... hopefully decades
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Trackable
I already do most of these on various days but now I'm trying to be deliberate about getting all of those in every day.
So what's with the broccoli?
- One habit every 21 days?
This is probably Video-idea Driven Development.
I've long wanted to do some kind 10k, 1000, 100, 10 thing but could never figure out how to round out the "1"
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1 minute meditating?
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1 gratitude?
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1 video posted? But last week I realized 1 could be a flexible thing I could use to represent an experiment to try. The 1 also reminds me of the BJ Fogg thing of "Floss 1 tooth":
"Think of it this way: You can keep many tiny plants alive by giving them a few drops of water a day. It’s the same with habits. There are still days when my motivation is unusually low for flossing. On those days, I floss only one tooth."
I want to document this whole thing through vlogs so, yes, I did think this might be a way to make the videos a littttle less repetitive.
I'll be able to align the "1" to some shorter-term goal I have. Right now? Lose some weight. It starts in the kitchen, etc. so I want to eat a bag of broccoli every day.
Why this goal? First, it's not an all-day goal. All-day goals become hard.
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Tracking food every day takes a lot of effort initially and I always fall off.
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Avoiding snacking is another all-day thing
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Avoiding anything as a whole is an all-day thing So with these habits I'll aim to make them things I add to the day and can very clearly say "I'm done"
With the broccoli I can cook it, eat it, say "I'm done", then feel slight discomfort for 2 hours because I should probably split it into 2 meals.
- We don't have walrus meat so we need to add hard things (10 pages)
Earlier this year I read The Wide Wide Sea by Hampton Sides. It's about Captain James Cook. It was an extremely hard life with not so great food on the ships:
Midshipman George Gilbert had stronger words for walrus flesh. He described the elaborate procedure the men improvised to make the “disgustful” meat palatable. “We let it hang up for one day that the blood might drain from it,” Gilbert wrote. “After that, we towed it overboard for twelve hours, then boiled it for four hours, and the next day cut it into steaks and fried it. And even then it was too rank both in smell and taste to make use of except with plenty of pepper.”
But Captain Cook loved it because of the goal: make maps of the world
He was finally doing what he loved and knew best: serious cartographic fieldwork, on a big scale, in an unfamiliar place. There wasn’t time for laying down much precision—the minute details would have to be filled in by later explorers—but the general idea of Alaska, its outline, was coming into focus.
Anyway, it was a reminder that life can be kind of easy compared to centuries ago. We seek out these hard things because we don't have to hunt for food anymore. Shaan Puri had a great phrase for this sort of content: "toughness influencers"
So anyway. Speaking of books, that's what the 10 represents: 10 pages of reading every day.
I want a daily practice for building back my ability to focus and concentrate. I know I've read consistently in the past. I can do it again. So I'm aiming to read 10 pages a day. A 300 page book every month.
- "Wake up at 5am and work out": James Altucher & Sahil Bloom (100 reps)
It is why the first thing I say, whenever a young person comes to me looking for life advice, they're feeling lost is wake up at 5am and go work out for 30 straight days.
That's Sahil Bloom, author of The 5 Types of Wealth, on the James Altucher podcast.
I've worked out regularly for more than a decade. But you wouldn't be able to tell!
I've spun my tires for too long. As mentioned I want to lose some weight and I've bought into weightlifting being an important part of that.
I did sort of shoehorn it into the "100" here because I wanted weights to be a part of this. It sort of works:
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100 kettlebell swings is 100 reps
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5x5 w/ warmup sets is around 100 reps
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100 burpees in a hotel room 100 reps is flexible.
I am not. So maybe I need a 100-rep mobility routine.
- Amplify patterns (1000 words)
The 1000 is for 1000 words and it's a writing habit. Good things seem to happen creatively during periods where I'm writing regularly.
From, Tiny Habits, Anne-Laure Le Cunff talks about amplifying existing activities:
Finally, for activities that are already part of your life but which you wish to engage in more regularly, a three-month pact helps reinforce and amplify patterns so you can collect better quality data to guide your journey. Incidentally, three months is roughly the length of the #100DaysofCode challenge and my own challenge of writing 100 articles in 100 workdays at Ness Labs.
She amplified things with 100 articles in 100 work days.
I already write daily in private. These are just journal entries or notes on my info diet. I don't know if journal is the right word either. Anyway I write in Obsidian or Google Docs or Evernote or whatever app I'm using at the time is. Many days are already 1000+ words.
I want to amplify it by measuring it and steering the writing more to writing I'll publish. Scripts for these videos or for Shorts or for blog posts.
Daily writing is great in so many ways so I want to keep it up.
- Distract the distraction with another distraction (10,000 steps)
10,000 is for steps. You've probably heard of walking 10,000 steps as a goal already. You might have paced around the room trying to get 100 more steps before trying to do this sort of thing.
Walking is good for mind and body so I want to have that as a habit. I also can't do 10,000 reps weightlifting or read 10,000 pages in a day. I might be able to blab into a microphone all day to write 10,000 useless words.
One thing I really want to use walking for is to relieve stress.
In The Comfort Crisis, Michael Easter writes about Dr. Trevor Kashey suggesting he replace food as a reward with light exercise.
He recommended that I distract the discomfort of reward hunger with another form of discomfort: light exercise. “Find some ‘calorie negative’ ways of dealing with stress,” he said. “Walking is my number one. It relieves more stress and is health promoting. It leads you to burn calories rather than onboard them. And it removes you from the situation and adds time for reflection, where you can realize that you weren’t really hungry.”
Walking is the greatest thing to pair other things with.
I have a treadmill desk set up. If I use it and just brain rot with the laptop, I still don't feel as bad as I would have if I was melted on the couch doing the same.
But usually I do find myself actually reading and writing when I'm on the treadmill. I can type totally fine.
10,000 steps is also a nudge to get outdoors.
All 5 of the things in this 1-10-100-1000-10000 plan are daily nudges toward something broader in the long term. I'll do another video on that later. Like, subscribe, but most important: get your reading/writing/walking/lifting in!
Thanks for checking this out.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit activerecall.substack.com
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit activerecall.substack.com
A content diet review to start the new year. Aiming for weekly but we’ll see! Trying to get back into podcasting by focusing on audio-only. Also check out my latest Shorts.
(1) Journey to Michelin chef
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YouTube: h woo “i think i want to be a michelin star cook”
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Book: “Show Your Work” by Austin Kleon
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YouTube: Sam Sulek
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YouTube: Matt Choi
(2) Fourth Wing → The one thing... do they need to kill so many people?
“There is nothing more sacred than the Archives. Even temples can be rebuilt, but books cannot be rewritten.”
- Amazon: “Fourth Wing” by Rebecca Yarros
(3) Shogun → If you like Last Samurai and 1000-page books...
"The Emperor and the entire Imperial Court were kept completely isolated in walled palaces and gardens in the small enclave at Kyoto, most times in penury, and their activities perpetually confined to observing the rituals of Shinto, the ancient animistic religion of Japan, and to intellectual pursuits such as calligraphy, painting, philosophy, and poetry."
- Amazon: “Shogun” by James Clavell
(4) Feel Good Productivity → What if this were fun?
"What would this look like if it were fun? I stuck the note to my computer monitor and went to sleep."
- Amazon: “Feel Good Productivity” by Ali Abdaal
(5) Predator → “Last Action Heroes”
Mac: [to Blain's corpse] Here we are again, bro... Just you and me. Same kind of moon, same kind of jungle. Real number 10, remember? Whole platoon, 32 men chopped into meat... We walk out, just you and me, nobody else. Right on top, huh? Not a scratch... Not a f**n' scratch. You know, who ever got you, they'll come back again. And when he does, I'm gonna cut your name right into him... I'm gonna cut your name into him!
- Amazon: “Last Action Heroes” by Nick de Semlyen
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Sharing some takeaways from “Same as Ever” by Morgan Housel and how they connect to the NBA from a casual watcher.
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Best Story Wins: MVP narratives
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Wild Numbers: Why watch games when you can watch highlights for an hour
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Calm Plants the Seeds for Crazy: Load balancing plants the seeds for the In-Season Tournament
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Does Not Compute: You miss 27 straight 3-pointers on hardwood, not on a spreadsheet
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Too Much, Too Soon, Too Fast: Cars, clothes, and the 2008 crash
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I moved all the episodes and the feed to Substack! We’ll see how this goes.
On this week’s episode, I recorded in the car and tried to come up with some creativity takeaways from “Demon 79”
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No one likes the horns look, what do you want me to look like? (Share those guilty pleasures!)
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Use a list! (When you have to eat a frog, procrastinate with murder)
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Demon vision to find bad people (You don’t always see the hard work)
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“You’re a basher” (Find your format)
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Resistance shows up (right after you’ve run the politician off the road)
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Notes on the podcasts I listened to recently
Not Investment Advice: "George Mack: Ignored Ideas, Creativity Hacks, Game Psychology, US vs. UK & Finding The Right Metrics"
David Perell: "Kevin Kelly: On Fame, Structuring Ideas, Writing Books, and Founding Wired Magazine"
Deep Questions with Cal Newport: "Ep. 263: Overhaul Your Life"
The Ryen Russillo Podcast: "Russillo on the Road: Spain Travelogue"
The Game w/ Alex Hormozi: "Hormozi Life Hacks You Need To Hear | Ep 605"
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I talk about my coffee/gym/dinner routines when living in 3 different apartments in New York.
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Book notes on "Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention" by Johann Hari
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Applying MMA concepts to creativity
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Lessons from David Chang's book "Eat a Peach" shoved through the lens of "The Bear"
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Book notes for "The Last Action Heroes" by Nick de Semlyen
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Let’s see… here’s an automated summary:
Rule number five in becoming a chef is to fight for the job you want and aim for a kitchen that pushes you beyond your skills and comfort zone.When going for a job interview at a restaurant, show up early, look presentable, and bring all your equipment in case you're asked to start immediately.Don't give up on a restaurant you believe is the right place for you, even if they initially say they're not hiring.The story of Magnus Nielson highlights the importance of persistence in pursuing opportunities.Stepping outside your comfort zone and being pushed beyond your skill level is essential for growth and improvement.Practice and continuous effort are crucial for becoming a successful chef or artist.Engaging in daily practice and honing your craft is vital for artists to develop their skills.Working hard and continuously is the key to success as an artist or creator.When seeking opportunities in the digital creator space, it's not enough to offer to work for free and do anything. You need to showcase specific skills and accomplishments.Creating valuable content that aligns with the work of established creators can attract their attention and potential collaboration.Timing and luck can play a role in seizing opportunities, but hard work and demonstrating value are essential for making the most of those opportunities.
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Broaden your horizons: Travel the world physically and digitally, absorb the diverse cultures, cuisines, art, history, and languages. Immerse yourself in experiences and use those to fuel your creativity, as cooking is about more than just preparing a dish. Don't let the language barrier be an excuse, and be open to every experience, even if it's uncomfortable.Learn through doing and experiencing: Art isn't about mastery or understanding but about the act of creation and experience itself. Apply this ethos to any craft or skill, embrace the journey and celebrate the process, not just the final product. Your audience doesn't need to understand your art, but they should feel it.Harness the internet to enhance your creativity: As a digital creator, use the internet as a window to the world, participate in various subcultures, and connect with others in your niche. Find and interact with others interested in similar intersections, build your community, and broaden your perspective, thus enriching your creative journey.
And the quotes here…
From “Eat a Peach” by David Chang:
Go on vacation with your parents. Stuff your belongings into a duffel bag and hit the road yourself. If you’re a college student, study abroad. If you’re already a cook, here’s the good news: you can cook anywhere. Do not let the language barrier be an excuse. You don’t need an interpreter to understand what the chef means when they gesture over to the pile of plates sitting by the sink. You might have to stay in domiciles with questionable plumbing. That’s what being young is for. I stayed in a homeless shelter while I was working in Japan. It was all I could afford.
From “How to be an Artist” by Jerry Saltz:
No one asks what Mozart means. Or an Indian raga or the little tripping dance of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers to “Cheek to Cheek” in Top Hat. Forget about making things that are understood.
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Shout out ChatGPT for this summary:
In this recording, I share my thoughts on the importance of intersections and imitation in creativity. Drawing from David Chang's "Eat a Peach" and Jerry Saltz's "How to Be an Artist", I argue that aspiring creators should cast their nets wide and cultivate a broad set of skills.How, you ask?Well, it involves stepping out of your comfort zone and exploring different fields. Imagine chefs experimenting with recipes from a cookbook - we can all apply the same approach. Now, let's add an interesting twist. Think of combining different interests, much like Steve Jobs blending calligraphy and technology, or MKBHD melding tech with ultimate Frisbee. Intriguing, isn't it? So here's my tip: Find your intersection and dive into it. It's a unique blend that could lead to your breakthrough in the creative world.
That sounds probably better than what I would’ve come up with.
Here’s the David Chang quote
Study Shakespeare instead. Even if you're 100% sure that you want to be a chef, I would still urge you to go to college over culinary school. Culinary technique makes cooks. If you want to be a chef, you need a far broader set of skills.
[…]
I was a religion major and studying the Bhagavad Gita changed my life. So did studying logic and Godel's incompleteness theorems. Joining the debate club, practice, piano, write for the college newspaper.
[…]
Pick a state school with a low tuition in a vibrant food city. Like Austin, Houston, Los Angeles. Chicago San Francisco or New York and get a job in a restaurant or a bar.
And then Jerry Saltz’s quote
Feel free to imitate. We all start as copycats. People who make pastiches of other people's work. Fine. Do that. However, when you do this, focus, start to feel the sense of possibility and making all these things your own. Even when the ideas, tools and moves come from other artists.
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FIRST: THANK YOU to prior subscribers. I understand if you unsubscribe because I haven’t sent anything in like years and now will be emailing more frequently.
(Or for like 4 days straight before another years-long hiatus…)
A ChatGPT summary of what I blabbed about on the mic.
Get ready for some mind-bending tips to be a better creator. Ditch that cooking school dream – because it's not about the degree, it's about the experience. Learn for free and harness the power of the internet to build your skills in the kitchen.
For artists, your story is what makes you unique. So, tell it! Embrace the baby steps and build a library of work that shows off your talent.
Finally, when it comes to being a creator, don't be afraid to blend conformity with innovation. Find a balance between what everyone else is doing and what sets you apart. Absorb, reject, and add what is uniquely yours.
These three powerful tips – ditch the degree, embrace your story, and blend the familiar with the fresh – will set you on the path to being an extraordinary creator.
And here are the quotes I used. From David Chang’s “33 rules of how to be a chef”:
Don't go to cooking school. Theoretically cooking schools are a great idea. They provide a curriculum, experienced instructors and job placement opportunities. Degree from the culinary Institute of America will open doors to a perfectly comfortable career track in a hotel restaurant or corporate kitchen that pays a decent salary with benefits.
a little bit more
Make no mistake. Cooking schools are businesses that are selling you on the illusion that you will emerge from their programs as a bonafide chef. They prey on your not realizing that you can learn all of this stuff for free.
And Jerry Saltz’s “33 lessons for how to be an artist”
Don't be reigned in by other people's definitions of skill or beauty or be boxed in by what is supposedly high or low don't stay in your own lane. Drawing within the lines is for babies, making things add up and be right as for accountants. Proficiency and dexterity are only as good as what you do with them. But also remember that just because it's your story, that doesn't mean you're entitled to an audience. You have to earn that. Don't try to do it with a big single project. Take baby steps and be happy with baby steps.
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Trying to find a format that I can keep up.
Here’s the—I know, I know—ChatGPT summary of what I just recorded:
The user talks about starting a daily 10-minute podcast, inspired by David Chang's book "Eat a Peach" and Jerry Saltz's "How to Be an Artist." They plan to discuss each of the 33 rules for becoming a chef from Chang's book and each lesson from Saltz's article in each episode. The user also considers incorporating design principles from their experience as a UX designer and insights from Russell Brunson's book "Expert Secrets."
The user reflects on the importance of finding one's voice and overcoming embarrassment to create content. They acknowledge that although the quality of their content may not be high initially, it's crucial to start and keep making stuff to develop a unique voice. The user reminisces about their early blogging days, aiming to rediscover that voice through this podcast project.
Anyway. That’s the first episode. It was a good reminder that audio-only is so much easier to make than even a barebones video.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit activerecall.substack.com
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit activerecall.substack.com
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit activerecall.substack.com
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit activerecall.substack.com
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit activerecall.substack.com
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Consistency: Indie Hackers #267: The Path to $3M in 3 Years as a Solopreneur with Justin Welsh
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Classics: Ray Dalio: Principles
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Crane Kicks: "Fat Loss Happens on Monday" by Josh Hillis and Dan John
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Applying principles from Morgan Housel's "The Psychology of Money" to my own fitness journey.
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Applying principles from Morgan Housel's "The Psychology of Money" to my own fitness journey.
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Applying principles from Morgan Housel's "The Psychology of Money" to my own fitness journey
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit activerecall.substack.com
Applying principles from Morgan Housel's "The Psychology of Money" to my own fitness journey.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit activerecall.substack.com
Applying principles from Morgan Housel's "The Psychology of Money" to my own fitness journey.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit activerecall.substack.com
Applying principles from Morgan Housel's "The Psychology of Money" to my own fitness journey.
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Taking some of the finance principles from "The Psychology of Money" and applying them to fitness as I try to finally lose that 10 pounds
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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit activerecall.substack.com
Still a solo episode. Sharing some book notes from the last few books that I read.
- "The Nineties" by Chuck Losterman
- "Fat, Crazy, and Tired" by Van Lathan
- "Plays Well With Others" by Eric Barker
- "Building a Second Brain" by Tiago Forte
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Books mentioned:
- "Psychology of Money" by Morgan Housel
- "Jony Ive" by Leander Kahney
- "Stolen Focus" by Johann Hari
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Talking about
- "NITRO: The Incredible Rise and Inevitable Collapse of Ted Turner's WCW" by Guy Evans
- "The Nineties" by Chuck Klosterman
- "The Daily Laws: 366 Meditations on Power, Seduction, Mastery, Strategy, and Human Nature" by Robert Greene
Super Bowl
- nWo-esque Paul Mitchell ad
- 1995 Super Bowl halftime with Indiana Jones
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Books mentioned: "Now You See It and Other Essays on Design" by Michael Bierut "Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals" by Oliver Burkeman
"How the Internet Happened: From Netscape to the iPhone" by Brian McCullough
"How to Read a Book" by Mortimer J. Adler
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Book notes for
- Breathe by Rickson Gracie
- The Sovereign Individual by James Dale Davidson and Lord William Rees-Mogg
- The Extended Mind by Annie Murphy Paul
- Winning by Tim S. Grover
- The Gap and the Gain by Benjamin Hardy and Dan Sullivan
- Dune by Frank Herbert
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These are six mental models to apply for better productivity.
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Back with some lessons from NYC Food Spots. Based on these three posts from the blog that I wrote in August.
Creator lessons from NYC food: Very Fresh Noodles
Creator lessons from NYC food: Katz’s
Creator lessons from NYC food: Xi’an Famous Foods
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Breaking down the principles of generalism from Pat Flynn's "How to be Better at Almost Everything"
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These are some book notes about leisure
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Just finished reading "Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder"
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3 mental tools:
- Loops: Open for curiosity, Close for focus
- Friction: Add for bad habits, Remove for good habits
- Level Changes: Up/Down for learning and teaching, Left/Right for creativity
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Talking about:
"Year Book" by Seth Rogen
"A Very Punchable Face" by Colin Jost
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Book notes for "Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life" by Luke Burgis
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Trying something new: book stacks.
Quotes from 3-5 books centered around a single topic. For this one: creativity.
I also talk about the 3x3 practice I've been doing
Books in this episode
- Creativity by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
- Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace
- Creative Confidence by Tom Kelley & David Kelley
- Principles by Ray Dalio
Other links
- 3x3: https://twitter.com/activerecall/status/1397693640382640129/photo/1
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Talking about "Effortless" by Greg McKeown
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Talking about a few books I read in May
- Effortless by Greg Mckeown
- The Art and Business of Online Writing: How to Beat the Game of Capturing and Keeping Attention by Nicolas Cole
- Soundtracks by Jon Acuff
- The Infinite Machine by Camila Russo
- Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa
- 21 Lessons: What I've Learned from Falling
- Down the Bitcoin Rabbit Hole by Gigi
- How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be by Katy Milkman
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Book notes for "Soundtracks" by Jon Acuff
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A quick Mortal Kombat review and some lessons for creating things online.
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Talking about some new additions to the desk setup as I try to make more videos about drawing and stuff.
Related it to some book notes from
- "Atomic Habits" by James Clear
- "Show Your Work" by Austin Kleon
- "Work Clean" by Dan Charnas
And at the end I mentioned Captain Sinbad's channel
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Going through some recently finished and in-progress books.
Just writing out a list of different books I’ve been reading with some thoughts.
Recently finished
- Bitcoin Billionaires by Ben Mezrich — I got more interested in crypto/blockchain through NBA Top Shot and the NFT boom. I had some Bitcoin already, but NFT popularity made me realize how little I know about how it all works. This ended up only having high level explanations of Bitcoin. But the whole story of the Winklevoss twins’ second act was fascinating.
- Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson — Great read the week leading up to getting married. There’s plenty about getting wealthy, but the happiness chapters were more timely. The audiobook was my companion on a couple long walks in the city. If you want to mainline some of Naval’s thinking, then this is the way to go.
In-progress
- Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa — Still working on this. I started it in December and just crossed the halfway mark. About 450 pages to go. Somewhat slow going but getting very interesting now. Good reminder to lean into things I might not enjoy but that I’ll learn a lot from.
- The Infinite Machine by Camila Russo — Continuing to learn mode about crypto/blockchain technology. This book is about the history of Ethereum, which is the main coin involved in the recent NFT a boom. The only history I know of Ethereum is that I wish I had bought some earlier. Just started this but one takeaway is that Vitalik Buterin started by writing for Bitcoin Magazine before building Ethereum.
- Working Backwards by Colin Bryar and Bill Carr — Mostly here to learn about Amazon’s use of narrative writing instead of PowerPoints. (After seeing @TrungTPhan mention it in this thread.)
- The Energy Paradox by Steven R. Gundry — I want to get my energy back. Basically: I can rarely stay awake through a full movie after a workday. And when I’m up I just don’t have any, as the book puts it, get-up-and-go (GUAG). I’ve felt better in the past and would love to get back to that.
- Fast Forward: Hollywood, the Japanese, and the Onslaught of the VCR by James Lardner — Combining some learnings from last year’s books (1) I enjoy reading older books about some recent technology (like Michael Lewis’s Next) because it’s fun to re-live that time without it being filtered through a modern lens and (2) I enjoy reading about Hollywood/filmmaking (one of my favorites from last year was Robert Rodiguez’s Rebel Without a Crew).
Next up (maybe… there’s a ton I want to read)
- Daemon by Daniel Suarez — Continuing the pattern of learning about crypto, I saw this book recommended somewhere. I really should’ve written down where I saw the recommendation because I’ve completely forgot now. Anyway, this is pretty much combining three thoughts: (1) I want to learn more about crypto/blockchain technology and (2) Musashi reminds me that I should read more fiction and (3) I admire Tiago Forte’s thinking and he wrote about the value of reading science fiction.
Tiago: “I started reading sci-fi to pass the time. I had good memories of reading Jurassic Park as a kid. I continued because I noticed that it gave me something: a stronger imagination, a disrespect for the merely possible.” * Two Meals a Day by Mark Sisson — Trying to get my health back in order (I wrote a long post here). I have more information than I need for my goals but reading books does help keep motivation up. And I can try to share good bits and pieces to better frame my own learning and writing. * Soundtracks by Jon Acuff — I enjoyed all his previous books. I’m guessing I’ll like this one as well. I tend to overthink so this seemed like something that might help me either (1) stop overthinking or (2) start overthinking in a more useful way.
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Talking through some ideas for future threads aka pulling loose connections between MMA and making things online.
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Just watched the dunk contest and some lessons for content creators came to mind.
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Book notes about "How to Get Rich" by Felix Dennis
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Okay we hit RECORD again finally. Kicking off 2021. We talk about some of our goals
- Fitness goals
- Creation goals
- Personal goal
We'll be making videos in 2021 and sharing our progress as we go.
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Just turning the mic on and recording to start to kick the rust off this whole podcasting set up. Let's goooo — talking about moving to SF, the MacBook Air M1, and the Oculus Quest.
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We've played a good amount of Magic: The Gathering in our lives so we talked about some life lessons from playing it.
Books mentioned:
- High Output Management by Andy Grove
- A Fighter's Heart by Sam Sheridan
- The Power of Moments by the Heath Bros.
Podcasts mentioned
- Tim Ferriss & Derek Sivers (2015)
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[02:09] "We Don't Need Roads" note
[06:51] "Apprenticeship Patterns" note
[10:46] "Every Tool's a Hammer" note
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Books we talked about (some Active Recall CLASSICZ)
- "The Obstacle is the Way" by Ryan Holiday
- "Stillness is the Key" by Ryan Holiday
- "Grit" by Angela Duckworth
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This week I'm talking about "Hackers and Painters" by Paul Graham.
- "Do Things that Don't Scale" - Paul Graham's essay.
"When you only have a small number of users, you can sometimes get away with doing by hand things that you plan to automate later." * "Revenge of the Nerds" - Paul Graham essay. * That Tim Ferriss & Derek Sivers thing about The Magic of Thinking Big:"And, it’s also one of those books, sorry, but I’m getting defensive. But, it’s one of those books that I read in around 2000, maybe a year or two after college, and I was in a shitty 100-plus hour a week job, where I was sleeping at my desk, and sitting the the fire exit, because that’s the only place they can fit me. But, yeah, it has to catch you at the right time."
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Corrections: Messed up Ethan Suplee's name (I said 'Sharplee'). Sorry about that. Check out his episode with Kevin Smith.
This week I'm talking about BJ Fogg's "Tiny Habits".
If you've ever heard the advice of "if you want to build a habit of flossing your teeth, make the habit flossing one tooth", then you've been influenced by some of BJ Fogg's work.
I go over some of the concepts covered in the book and take a look at my habit of checking my phone first thing in the morning (instead of my aspirational goal of working out first thing in the morning).
Some topics
- Aim to do what you already want to do: Read things you enjoy if you're trying to build a reading habit. If you want to read more difficult, dense things, it'll be hard if you aren't already reading regularly in the first place.
- Practice doing the habit: I mentioned a post by Steve Pavlina about practicing waking up. "Tiny Habits" encourages practicing the habit itself a few times in a row. This way, if it's a daily habit, you aren't limited to one rep every day. Practice the entire habit (including the celebration) then do it again.
- Speaking of celebrating, most people aren't good at it: Sometimes we're driven by incentives to stick to a diet. One common example is the cheat meal. You stick to your diet day in and day out and then have the cheat meal (or day) on the weekend. This can be effective but it's more of an incentive rather than a celebration. You can add tiny celebrations immediately after your tiny habit. Fist pump after flossing one tooth. It sounds silly but it'll pour a little bit of concrete on the habit.
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[ 0:49 ] An internet recommendation rabbit hole ending with Michael Jackson and Prince and starting from JJ Redick and Bill Simmons (Learn about the Staples Center replica court that a very rich person has in Bel Air)
[ 6:47 ] How do you deal with overplanning?
[ 9:04 ] How many episodes will it take to hit your stride? ("Traffic Secrets" by Russel Brunson)
[ 11:34 ] How do you figure out what your ideal environment is? ("Making of a Manager" by Julie Zhuo)
[ 15:04 ] What's the magic of 120 hours and hard days? ("How to be a Straight A Student" by Cal Newport)
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This week, I'm talking about Ben Bergeron's book "Chasing Excellence"
===
If you have Netflix and also don't like reading: check out The Redeemed and the Dominant. I watched this midway through and you get some of the behind the scenes.
How do you write an entertaining nonfiction book?
I definitely wanted to keep reading. The narrative is following two of his athletes as they compete in the 2016 CrossFit games. (They both also win.) Each chapter focuses on a characteristic (Commitment, Grit, Positivity…) that's needed to win the games. Then the chapter usually jumps from the present day event back to the months of training in a session where they focused on that movement.
Would you start with someone with above-average talent or someone who’s mentally tough? — The book focus on the mental side of competing at that level. Everyone that makes it to the games is physically world class. Nobody there is perfect.
"Given the choice between coaching an athlete with above-average talent or one who is mentally tough, it might surprise you to hear I’d pick the former. Not because I believe talent is more important, but because I know I can teach someone to be mentally tough."
**As much as I like the idea that you can practice and work hard to become great at something, there are limits in different disciplines.
I always like the simplicity of the NBA comparison. If you want to make it to the NBA, it's better to start with a 6'5" who is mentally weak than someone who is 5' and 10x tougher mentally.
It reminded me of this piece from The Fighter's Mind**
“Mental toughness is learned. It’s not a skill that everyone has, or is born with. There are people that are born tougher than others mentally, or figure things out earlier in their life. But if you have motivation you can acquire mental toughness, it’s just about what your body gets used to putting up with."
Why is it a good thing to get some experience at the top level?
Because you might realize you're already there. The book mentions Mat Fraser not qualifying for the Games earlier in his career:
"At the North East Regional that year, Mat, a former Junior National Weightlifting Champion, did well in events involving moving a barbell, but had obvious holes in his game. He finished fifth overall, two spots out of contention for the Games. Instead of being demoralized, he was heartened—it was his first time interacting with Games-caliber athletes up close, and he walked away thinking, If I work hard and practice, I could beat them."
This reminded me of Mark Hunt's book Born to Fight (which I need to do a Notepod episode on), where he talks about his fight with someone at the top level:
"The bell rang and as I walked back to the corner it occurred to me this prick didn’t even hit that hard – I’d been hit harder than this my whole life. I even managed to drop the dude in the second round with a running leg kick, but as the last seconds of the third and final round ticked away I knew I’d lost on points. In those moments one thought spun around my head over and over again. That was it? The guy couldn’t throw fireballs from his hands or Dragon-Punch twelve feet into the sky or do anything I couldn’t do. If that’s all those guys had, I could get my hands on them. If I could get my hands on them, I could certainly put them to sleep. They weren’t the characters from Dragon Ball Z, and Jérôme wasn’t Super Saiyan"
Have I personally experienced this? Look, no. Not athletically.
But there are definitely those moments in life where you realize someone is human. Or that some group of people is made up of… humans.
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Here’s the second episode of The Notepod. This is another book notes episode. Each episode might be about a book. I’m still figuring it out but wanted to get started with consistency.
Which sort of relates to the book this episode is about, “Rebel Without a Crew” by Robert Rodriguez.
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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit activerecall.substack.com
We're back (and probably need to stop starting every episode with "we're back for real this time!") talking about Work Clean, one of our favorite books from last year and maybe a top-10 all timer.
Some concepts we talk about from the book
- Daily plan
- Clean as you go
- First actions
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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit activerecall.substack.com
Sections
- Start, stop, continue (with the podcast)
- 3 book quotes from some of my favorite books in 2019
- Ranking the books I read in 2019 and a sort of top 10
Active Recall 2019 Reading List
The 10 books I mentioned from 2019
- Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality
- Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don’t Make Sense
- Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
- Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
- Work Clean: The life-changing power of mise-en-place to organize your life, work, and mind
- Liar’s Poker
- Creative Calling
- Recursion
- Stillness is the Key
- The Algebra of Happiness: Notes on the Pursuit of Success, Love, and Meaning
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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit activerecall.substack.com
From Save the Cat:
Go back to Blockbuster (boy, are they tired of you by now) and check out the 6-12 movies in the genre of the movie you’re writing. Sit and watch as the beats of these films are magically filled into the blanks of the BS2.
(BS2 being the beat sheet — check out an example beat sheet for The Martian.)
I was listening to a podcast with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (I thiiink it was this episode of Creative Processing with Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and they talk about how they were lucky to have a school very close to 2 video rental places. Those places then had their price wars to the point that you could rent 7 movies for 7 bucks for 7 days.
I’ve definitely been in those video rental spots.
Not theirs.
But my hometown’s version of it. The catch is usually that the movies need to be 7 years old. At least. Okay so it’s probably just that new releases were excluded.
But you’ll just grab whatever movies, some you’ve seen already, and then just watch them. You start seeing the patterns and get a sense for story structure.
Rogen and Goldberg took it a step further and wrote their first movie and then the next and the next.
One of my favorite books of interviews is Sick in the Head by Judd Apatow. He’s interviewed comedians throughout his life and shares a bunch in that book. (The best pairs of interviews are with the same comedian but decades apart—Apatow in high school and then after become famous.)
Oh yeah but this reminds me of what Apatow says about structure and learning to write:
Many years ago, when I first tried to write a good screenplay, I wrote a screenplay with Owen Wilson. We drove across America, trying to write it, and I remember being in a hotel, watching The Graduate. We took out notepads and outlined it because we were trying to understand how it worked and we didn’t understand.
Outline things you enjoy. Break them down into components. Practice writing different components.
You can practice scenes for movies and TV with the goal being to swing emotion from negative to positive or positive to negative
Hunter S. Thompson typed out Hemingway and Faulkner stories to learn prose.
Some old copywriters would copy successful sales letters by hand
You can walk through a magazine aisle and look at fitness magazines and see the future selves promised in all the headlines.
Writing can be broken down into pieces you can practice.
Putting it together effectively is another thing.
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Shocking rule: Start with an adult worksheet
This is the worksheet that I created:
Links
Creative Processing (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) Collaboration & Friendship / Seth Rogen + Evan Goldberg, Comedy Duo — Seth and Evan talk about growing up learning to write together. They talk about how some of the jokes that ended up in Superbad were pretty much written when they were 13. They started making spoofs of things like Spaceballs, Pulp Fiction and then continued to work together for decades. They mention the influence of a VHS store deal: 7 movies for 7 days for $7—they’d rent 7 (often bad) movies and watch them over the weekend.
Not Overthinking: Being Weird — In part of this episode of Not Overthinking, Ali and Taimur discuss books and television. In particular, they consider why books are okay to binge on but if you binge on TV then it’s less acceptable in society.
In Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy, Judd Apatow talks about outlining The Graduate
We took out notepads and outlined it because we were trying to understand how it worked and we didn’t understand. We were trying to figure out how much information the movie gave about Benjamin, the main character. And so we just wrote down everything.
I mention this because I recommend outlining work that you enjoy. By outlining, you can start understanding the structure in different types of work. (You can also follow some advice of ad copywriters: copy things word for word by hand for exercise in paying attention to the writing.) Then you can try that structure for yourself and see how it helps (or doesn’t).
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Quote from What You Do is Who You Are by Ben Horowitz about shocking rules:
Here are the rules for writing a rule so powerful it sets the culture for many years:
It must be memorable. If people forget the rule, they forget the culture.
It must raise the question “Why?” Your rule should be so bizarre and shocking that everybody who hears it is compelled to ask, “Are you serious?”
There are two more rules (straightforward cultural impact, encountered daily).
It sort of shares the same powers from the AIDA model for copywriting:
Attention: The shocking part of the rule means that it gets everyone's attention. People hear it
Interest: Everyone asks why this rule is in place and eventually get to the uppercase Why.
Desire: There's desire to be someone who does X, because Y. (Or X, because Why.)
Action: A shocking rule means that you take daily action on it
If you're starting a daily creative practice, is there a shocking rule you can have in place that will help remind you of why you're starting this?
I've been thinking of (easy-to-remember, if not shocking) rules to follow for this newsletter:
Start with audio: To remember that low friction is important to be consistent and consistency over time is important for me
Set a timer (currently trying 10 minutes): Need to keep things sustainable and I can't aim to write essays each time (and I need to be able to write shorter things that people read before I write longer things)
Links
Seth Godin's blog: The first 1,000 are the most difficult
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I need to write a pre-amble for this initial set of issues:
I wanted to write a year’s worth of daily newsletters in November, channeling the spirit of NanoWriMo. These first 17 issues were recorded on Nov 2nd and Nov 3rd.
I guess if I keep it up with this system then I need to consider that the release of an issue will always be some time after I actually recorded things. If I actually did finish a year of daily newsletters by the end of this month, then the last one would be scheduled out near October next year.
I should draw this out because there are a few different timelines. (This is like a dumb version of Recursion—great book I read earlier this year.) For this initial set:
Timeline 1, the initial recordings (Nov 2 & 3) — These are the initial 17 recordings. I had a free weekend. It was the weekend of the New York marathon and UFC 244 at Madison Square Garden. I edited all the audio.
Timeline 2, transcription and notes (Nov 4 to 10th) — My goal is to add notes and schedule them to be sent out by the end of next weekend. And also do another batch of recording.
Timeline 3, release (Nov 3 to Nov 25th) — Assuming weekday releases, the 17th episode would have a 22-day gap between initial recording to release.
If I stick to this and follow through on doing 260 of these (a year’s worth of weekday issues) by the end of the month, then the gap would be something like… okay shout out to Wolfram for this calculation:
(And if this is a newsletter then I better start sharing some links. Check out Stephen Wolfram’s work setup. It’s long. There’s an AMA also.)
The last episode could have 334 days between initial recording and release (Nov 30 to Oct 29, 2020).
There might be some interesting things as a result of that. By interesting I mean in the design-feedback form: “interesting.”
It’ll be confusing.
For instance, right now I want to reference issue #007 where I talk about the Indie Hackers podcast with Patio11 (and an AMA also, also.)
Actually I’m realizing I don’t need to mention my own issue at all. Just need to grab this quote from that interview, in a section where Patrick talks about writing:
What do you do on a blog? You write about what you did today, and so I would write about what I did today. And I did that for about two years, and I realized that's the things that were really landing with people, and stuff that I could look back a year later and say, hey, that thing that I wrote was actually useful
He says he wrote 3 million words over the course of a decade.
Oh yeah but the reason I bring it up is that, because of this increasing gap between when I record and when it’s released, I should probably focus a little more on evergreen topics.
Oh yeah the show notes
I mentioned Ben Horowitz’s book What You Do Is Who You Are: How to Create Your Business Culture and creating a shocking rule. He also has rules about shocking rules, here are 2 of them.
It must raise the question “Why?” Your rule should be so bizarre and shocking that everybody who hears it is compelled to ask, “Are you serious?”
People must encounter the rule almost daily. If your incredibly memorable rule applies only to situations people face once a year, it’s irrelevant.
Shocking rules help turn your (Simon Sinek uppercase’d) Why from an idea to action. From what you think to what you do.
Do the verb.
Why think about writing a newsletter when I can be a newsletter-er?
Other links for things I mentioned
XKCD: Standards
Wikipedia: AIDA (attention, interest, desire, action)
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In the spirit of NanoWriMo, I tried doing a burst of writing this weekend. I “wrote” 17 posts. Which by the end of it mostly meant that this is what I did:
Outlined a topic
Recorded 5 minutes of audio talking about the topic
Now I’m going through each episode and writing some notes and scheduling them for the rest of the month.
Here’s an example outline from one of the episodes I recorded this weekend:
By the end of it, I was getting into a pretty good rhythm. Still working out a few things, like what audience I’m making this for. Initial ideas are (1) a newsletter for people writing newsletters or (2) a newsletter for creative people making something daily.
I leaned toward the whole bias-to-action sort of thing and made the episodes instead of waiting around to figure out who it’s for. (Which, of course, means that it’s probably for no one at this point. Which is fine for now.)
Now some show notes
I’m doing this newsletter to try to make something daily. I didn’t mention this quote in the audio but it’s from Chase Jarvis’s Creative Calling:
“Creating before consuming is a seemingly minor shift that will have a profound effect on your daily outlook and creative capacity. So please, create first. Make something (and ideally share it), no matter how small.”
I mentioned a Tim Ferriss Show episode with Chase Jarvis where they talk about systems thinking and how it applied to launching his podcast. His goal was to make the podcast sustainable and consistent:
That’s a month and a half of long form interviews. And then, I have the shorter ones. And all of that is intended to make it sustainable and consistent. And it allows me to focus on the pieces that I am best at.
I want to make this newsletter sustainable and consistent. So here are my answers to the two questions I mention in the audio.
1) What is the one thing I can do to make everything else easier or unnecessary?
Start with an outline that includes a book quote. This makes the rest of the process easier. Having an outline…
Helps keep me on track when recording the audio.
Gives me a way to capture future ideas (just write a title and a bullet or two) and park them somewhere. Then I can weigh them against each other before taking it from a title to a thicker outline.
The book quote provides an anchor that I can return to when I notice I’m straying away from the topic. It also makes it easier to think of topics to talk and write about. I can always talk about something new (or something old that was reinforced) that I learned recently through reading. As long as I keep reading, that will remain true.
2) What might this (in my case, starting with an outline) look like if it were easy?
Here are some things that create friction and some thoughts on how I can eliminate that friction.
Not knowing what to write an outline about—As long as I have the parking lot, I’ll have at least a few ideas to choose between.
Having too many ideas and wanting to write about more than one—Aiming for a daily newsletter means that if a couple ideas are particularly exciting for me at the time, I can just pick one and go, knowing that I can write about the second one immediately after or the next day.
Having a bunch of ideas and not wanting to write about any of them—This is probably a sign that I should take a break for the day and maybe just move on to recording.
Feeling like it’s too much to write—As mentioned, the outline size is now pretty small. It’s short enough that I know I can write the outline in 10 minutes or less.
Feeling like there are too many ideas in one outline—Having the title and the quote will help me stay focused on one idea at a time.
Alright time to hit publish
There’s some level of oddness here that I’ll continue working on:
Timing—I batched 16 more posts to publish over the next three weeks. In most of the audio I mention some things that happened this weekend. That might be weird but maybe as I write the notes, I can continue to call that out. (In particular, I mention UFC 244 a few times.)
Audience—In some audio, I talk about writing a newsletter for newsletter writers. In others, I talk about writing a newsletter for people building up a daily creative practice. (Writing for people writing newsletters is more specific but I think it might lead to me just doing a bunch more of this meta navel gazing instead of sharing good ideas I come across.)
Calling these episodes or issues. Initially I was thinking I’d just post transcriptions of the audio. But then I transcribed the audio above and it was 850 words with no organization. The other option was to just start recording 1 or 2 minute clips to be more toward 250 words. But that felt like it was too brief for audio. By the end of this weekend’s recording session I think aiming to talk for 5 minutes and then writing a few notes with links will be the format I’ll stick to in the short term.
Nevermind, I’ll just call them issues. This is a reversible decision, so it doesn’t matter.
Okay really hitting publish now.
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Tool: Charge your phone outside of your bedroom (so you can sleep more)
Today’s recommended podcast episode:
Muscle for Life: Hafthor “The Mountain” Bjornsson on Life as the World’s Strongest Man (Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts)
Other things mentioned
Matt Walker: Sleep is your superpower (TED Talk)
Joe Rogan Experience #1109 - Matthew Walker - YouTube
Why We Sleep by Matt Walker — “Humans are not sleeping the way nature intended. The number of sleep bouts, the duration of sleep, and when sleep occurs has all been comprehensively distorted by modernity.”
Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport — "A philosophy of technology use in which you focus your online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support things you value, and then happily miss out on everything else."
The Moment with Brian Koppelman: "Cal Newport 5/28/19" (Apple Podcasts)
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This is my first post and I’m going by the “Just get started” advice.
Every day or so, I’ll take a walk and I’ll…
… listen to something (podcast, audiobook)
Record some thoughts afterward
Write some additional thoughts and add links
The gimmick: Each note describes a room in a memory palace to capture some of the concepts captured during the listening session.
Each week, I’ll gather the individual audio posts here, combine them, add some music and sound effects, and make them full episodes on the Active Recall feed.
I’m hoping that posts on this newsletter will:
A: Give me some of the satisfaction of finishing smaller chunks
B: Force me to actually write show notes
This first voice note is about “The Bullet Journal Method” by Ryder Carroll.
https://bulletjournal.com/pages/book
Quote mentioned on this episode: “Cultivating this self awareness is a lifelong process but it starts with checking in with yourself.”
My first few posts are going to be about journaling. I’m looking at this as a bit of a form of journaling in public. Using the Bullet Journal concept of collections, this newsletter would be like making a public version of my reading/listening trackers.
Here’s a page from a few months back when I was trying to use the iOS Notes app for bullet journaling.
And some links mentioned in the voice note:
Creating A Decision Journal by Farnam Street (article) — I started tracking decisions after reading this article. I took some of the questions in this article and then made a note in Evernote that I duplicate for new decisions. I fill it in and then set a reminder on the note for 6 months in the future. Every time I review past entries, I always wish I made more of them.
Joe Rogan talks tough with Brendan Schaub (2014) (clip starts on video at 13:35) —Make your journal like Joe Rogan. Over time, it can help you build up awareness. It can help you make better decisions, like leaving cage fighting for commentary and stand-up comedy. “The reality of your skillset, where you’re at now, I don’t see you beating the elite guys…”
That’s that for now—hello world!
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