Howdy friends,

Writing to you from my parent's dining room in Memphis - I hope everyone had an awesome week!

This is my 3rd straight Sunday of sending The Baer Necessities to 77 people!

Thank you to everyone for subscribing! I know you have hundreds of emails bombarding your inbox every week so I'm grateful that you're letting me take up space in your inbox.

If you want to share this email with anyone, you can do so by sharing this LINK.

Here is the biggest project I'm working on right now:

Ship 30 for 30🚢 I'm writing a daily mini essay for 30 days as part of the first cohort of Dickie Bush's Ship 30 for 30. If you're interested in developing a writing habit and a community to back you up, I highly recommend checking it out. You can see the first 20 days of my mini essays on Twitter here.

I see these essays as an experiment to see what I enjoy writing, what comes naturally to me, and what resonates with others. Follow along on Twitter if you want to stay up to date on the next 10 essays!

Eventually, I will be uploading the best of these essays to my blog but, for now, Twitter is the only place you can find them.

Let's get right to it with what I found this week...

The Necessities

Listening 🎧

• Jim Collins on The Tim Ferriss Show 🔎 The NYT bestselling author of many business classics including Good to Great is back for round 2 on the Tim Ferriss Show. If I could recommend only two podcasts from Tim Ferriss, this interview (along with the round 1 interview wth Jim) would both be in my top 10 (out of nearly 500 interviews on the podcast). You will learn so much including how to seek out mentors, how he thinks about questions, how he starts all of his business consultations with huge companies, how you can turn a bad day into a good day, and why you should stop what you're doing if you can't find a way to make it fun.

• Balaji Srinivasan on Bankless 🏦 I have listened to a ton of podcasts on Bitcoin / blockchain this year and this is definitely one of my favorites. Get read to have your mind absolutely blown with Balaji's innovative thinking on crypto, crypto civilizations, and how the next 10 years might unfold
• Quick side note: Whenever friends ask me how to start investing in crypto, I recommend everyone go to the Bankelss Guide to learn the basics on how to get started in the most effective, safe way. Let me know if you have questions on anything!

Watching 📺

• Your Mind is an Excellent Servant, but a Terrible Master - David Foster Wallace 💭 This is one of the most famous commencement speeches ever from David Foster Wallace at Kenyon College in 2005. I just stumbled across this talk from Wallace recently, and it blew my mind. Now I try to listen to it at least once every few weeks. This YouTube video from After Skool gives you an unbelievable visual experience along with the talk. You can also watch the unedited audio version here.

Reading 📚

• The Promise and Paradox of Community 🌍 While writing a mini essay on the Paradox of Community myself, I discovered this research essay from Margaret J. Wheatley on this exact same concept. I'm fascinated by this contradiction that we constantly seek to improve ourselves but our biology shows that we should care more about others. She lays it out much better than I ever could. Here is one of my favorite passages from the article:

Life's second great imperative propels individuals out from themselves to search for community. Life is systems-seeking; there is the need to be in relationship, to be connected to others. Biologist Lynn Margulis notes that independence is not a concept that explains the living world. It is only a political concept we've invented. Individuals cannot survive alone. They move out continuously to discover what relationships they require, what relationships are possible.

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2020 Year-End Review

The Ultimate Annual Review 💭

I'm ending this email by sharing a resource for reflecting on 2020 and planning for 2021.

I'm typically not a believer of New Year's Resolutions because they always seem to fall by the way side. But I do think there's a TON of value in reflecting on your year and setting intentions for the year or years to come. This resource linked above is a great starting off point for thinking about these things. Thank you to Morning Brew's newest newsletter Sidekick for the recommendation and to Steve Schlafman for the framework.

I'll be working through my year-end review in the next few weeks to come. I also may or may not publish this review on my blog because I think it might be valuable for others to see. Most importantly, it would hold myself accountable. I'll keep all of you posted if I decide to share it.

Lastly, let me know if you have any other resources you like to use for year-end reflections and/or goal-setting. Would love to hear about them!

I hope everyone had a fun, productive, and exciting week! I'll be back in your inbox next Sunday afternoon.

Cheers to making the end of 2020,

Jonah Baer

P.S - If you enjoyed reading this, I'd be SO happy if you shared it with one friend or family member 😁

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