Brain Food – No. 555 – December 17, 2023
Timeless ideas and insights for life. (Read the archives).
FS
“To get what you want, deserve what you want. Trust, success, and admiration are earned.”
— Source: The Munger Operating System: How to Live a Life That Works
Insight(s)
1.
“What does it feel like to be alive?
Living, you stand under a waterfall. You leave the sleeping shore deliberately; you shed your dusty clothes, pick your barefoot way over the high, slippery rocks, hold your breath, choose your footing, and step into the waterfall. The hard water pelts your skull, bangs in bits on your shoulders and arms. The strong water dashes down beside you and you feel it along your calves and thighs rising roughly backup, up to the roiling surface, full of bubbles that slide up your skin or break on you at full speed. Can you breathe here? Here where the force is the greatest and only the strength of your neck holds the river out of your face. Yes, you can breathe even here. You could learn to live like this. And you can, if you concentrate, even look out at the peaceful far bank where you try to raise your arms. What a racket in your ears, what a scattershot pummeling!
It is time pounding at you, time. Knowing you are alive is watching on every side your generation’s short time falling away as fast as rivers drop through air, and feeling it hit.”
— Annie Dillard, An American Childhood
2.
“Never waste valuable time, or mental peace of mind, on the affairs of others—that is too high a price to pay.”
— Robert Greene, 48 Laws of Power
3.
“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.”
— Herman Melville
Tiny Thought(s)
1.
An empty calendar is a competitive advantage. The person who fills their calendar with average opportunities has no time for exceptional ones.
2.
Fear of failure is highest when you’re looking at the ultimate destination. To reduce fear, close the gap. Focus on the smallest action that moves you forward.
3.
To the person in a strong position, every change is an opportunity. To the person in a weak position, every change is a struggle, just to stay in the game. Win the decade, not the day.
TKP
Run toward the roar:
“In Africa, lions hunt in packs. And when they go out to hunt, they take with them the oldest female of the pride. By this point, she’s old and [infirm] and toothless, can no longer catch her own prey, a little bit like me. But she has the deepest roar. And what the lionesses do—and it’s the lionesses who do the hunting—the lionesses position this old lion in the middle of a field facing the bush. The bush could be a mile away. And the prey are between the old lion and the bush, and all the lionesses hide in the bush. And when this old lady roars, the prey run away from the roar to their death. And so the concept is “go at the problem.” Go at what you perceive to be the problem. And what you’ll invariably find is [that] it’s a toothless old lady.”
— Paul Assaiante, The Knowledge Project #183
Thanks for reading,
— Shane
P.S. Adorable.
P.P.S. We’re running a limited seating event with Jim Dethmer and Diana Chapman called Level Up: Leadership and Decision Making in the Real World. Only 60 spots.