No. 643 – August 24, 2025
Welcome to Brain Food, a weekly newsletter full of timeless ideas and insights you can use in life and work. (Read the archives). Not subscribed? Learn more and sign up.
Tiny Thoughts
Move like you’re late and wait like you’re early.
Your heroes are your blueprints.
Study what makes them exceptional, not to become them but to become who you’re capable of being. The point isn’t to be a second-rate version of your hero, it’s to be a first-rate version of yourself with upgraded tools.
Learn their system. Keep your soul.
The math is simple: if you do what everyone does, you get what everyone gets. If you want different results, you have to diverge.
However, the second you do something different, you become a target. Some people criticize from fear, some from threatened egos, some from genuine concern disguised as caution. But criticism is the easy part.
The hard part is that you lose the map. If you’ve outsourced your definition of success your whole life, having to define it yourself feels like losing GPS mid-drive. You have to build your sense of direction while you’re already moving.
Meanwhile, the conventional path parades its rewards right in front of you every day: the promotions, the vacations, the security. You can see exactly what you’re giving up, while what you’re building remains invisible.
Most people optimize for comfort. They choose being one blade of grass among many over being a tall poppy, the safety of the group over the risk of criticism for being different.
Outliers pick their own game, choose how to keep score, and then pay the price to play it.
Insights
Legendary Coach Bill Belichick on being ready:
“Preparation is never wasted, regardless of outcome.”
Nobel Prize-winning writer Toni Morrison on taking responsibility and seeing clearly:
“[T]his is my work. I have to take full responsibility for doing it right as well as doing it wrong. Doing it wrong isn’t bad, but doing it wrong and thinking you’ve done it right is.”
Some deep wisdom from Henry Miller on character:
“One thing seems more and more evident to me now — people’s basic character does not change over the years … Far from improving them, success usually accentuates their faults or short-comings. The brilliant guys at school often turn out to be not so brilliant once they are out in the world. If you disliked or despised certain lads in your class you will dislike them even more when they become financiers, statesmen or five star generals. Life forces us to learn a few lessons, but not necessarily to grow.”
The Knowledge Project
This conversation will change how you handle your relationship starting tonight.
Dr. Sue Johnson, pioneer of Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), reveals how childhood attachment patterns shape our adult relationships and explains why emotional responsiveness, not communication skills or conflict resolution, is the real foundation of lasting love.
Through decades of research and clinical work, she shows that relationships aren’t random events we fall into and out of, but living systems we can understand and actively shape.
It doesn’t matter if you’re single, dating, married, divorced, or just a parent looking to raise securely attached kids. You need to hear this.
+ Listen now on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Web/Transcript
Thanks for reading,
— Shane Parrish