No. 601 – November 3, 2024
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
Attention isn’t free. It’s the most valuable thing you spend.
Flashy gets attention. Boring gets results.
While most chase the views, the greats obsess over the basics.
Don’t curse the obstacle; find a way around it.
Elite special forces don’t complain about defenses—they adapt their tactics or create new ones. When a primary route is compromised, they don’t waste time lamenting. They quickly shift to another approach. Elite athletes don’t complain about defenses—they find the gap or create one.
Face the obstacle. Find the gap. Or make one.
Insights
Agatha Christie on love:
“It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them.”
Alexander Graham Bell on looking for the opportunity:
“When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the ones which open for us.”
Sam Altman on avoiding regrets:
“If you think you’re going to regret not doing something, you should probably do it. Regret is the worst, and most people regret far more things they didn’t do than things they did do.”
The source is Altman, but the sentiment is very much that of Mark Twain.
Mental Models
V2 | Physics | Relativity
Relativity is the idea that our perceptions and judgments are not absolute, but are shaped by our unique vantage points and frames of reference. It’s the understanding that our experiences are subjective.
We each inhabit a particular web of experiences. This context shapes how we see the world, what we notice and overlook, what we value and dismiss.
Two people can look at the same event and come away with vastly different interpretations based on their unique frames of reference. Consider two people standing in the same room: They experience the same absolute temperature differently. One can feel hot while the other feels cold, even though the temperature is the same.
However, relativity is not the same as relativism— the idea that all perspectives are equally valid. Recognizing the relativity of our perceptions doesn’t mean we don’t have to make judgments about validity. Rather, it’s a call to examine our assumptions, seek out diverse perspectives, and expand our frames of reference.
We all have blind spots— things we cannot see. Understanding that our perceptions are relative allows us to open ourselves to other ways of seeing. If you’re wondering where to get started, try asking others what they see that you can’t. Apply your judgment to their responses and update your beliefs accordingly.
— Source: The Great Mental Models v2: Physics, Chemistry, and Biology
TKP
In this episode, John Mackey provides a detailed account of the inception of his journey building Whole Foods. While I loved many parts of this interview, we rarely talk about the tension between our ideals and reality.
“If you just want to have your ideals, you can have them, but you may not have a business. So you have to engage with the market. You can try to influence the market, you can try to educate the market, but at the end of the day, they vote every day with their pocketbooks for exactly what they want. If you’re not prepared to serve them what they want, then they’re going to go find it somewhere else and your business may end up failing. So there is that tension between your ideals [and reality]. You have to mediate between them. I always like to say we’re always pushing our ideals, but always listening to our customers. It’s like a dialogue you’re having or a dance. And if you don’t dance with your partner, your partner’s going to dance away from you, so you have to meet them where you find them.”
— Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or watch the interview on YouTube.
(You can also do us a huge favor and FOLLOW the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube channel. This helps us secure the best guests.)
Thanks for reading,
— Shane
P.S. A polar bear having fun.
P.P.S. All four books in The Great Mental Models are now available. The first three volumes have been revised, including all new conclusions to each model. The fourth version was never published before.