The Sunday Stir #1 - Progress, Learning, Tools, Sparkling Water, Twitter, and more
Nov 30, 2020 5:01 am
Happy Sunday!
Welcome to The Sunday Stir! This is the first installment of the weekly newsletter. I started this as way to document what I'm learning and to provide you with some interesting information. There's so much information added to the Internet daily that you'll drive yourself crazy trying to keep up with even a fraction of it. However, a tiny amount of information can go a long way.
Thank you for supporting and taking the time to read this. I hope you enjoy it!
Alright, on to the Stir
----------------------------------
The World of Progress
Here's a bold statement - Progress has stalled. I know, I know, we hear from everyone all the time that we're living in the most exponential period of technological growth ever. We have smartphones and the Internet! So much innovation, right? Well this article, makes a compelling case for why progress has actually stalled.
The notion that our 21st-century world is one of accelerating advances is so dominant that it seems churlish to challenge it. Almost every week we read about ‘new hopes’ for cancer sufferers, developments in the lab that might lead to new cures, talk of a new era of space tourism and super-jets that can fly round the world in a few hours. Yet a moment’s thought tells us that this vision of unparalleled innovation can’t be right, that many of these breathless reports of progress are in fact mere hype, speculation – even fantasy.
Yet there once was an age when speculation matched reality. It spluttered to a halt more than 40 years ago.
Most of what has happened since has been merely incremental improvements upon what came before. That true age of innovation – I’ll call it the Golden Quarter – ran from approximately 1945 to 1971. Just about everything that defines the modern world either came about, or had its seeds sown, during this time. The Pill. Electronics. Computers and the birth of the internet. Nuclear power. Television. Antibiotics. Space travel. Civil rights.
Today, progress is defined almost entirely by consumer-driven, often banal improvements in information technology.
The author explores a few reasons why 1945-1971 was the era that so much progress was made and why current progress isn't nearly as expansive. One of the reasons that I thought particularly insightful is that we're more risk averse now than ever. Taking big leaps in innovation requires risk, danger, and potentially people dying. We're way less likely as a society to take a risk now than during the "Golden Quarter."
Apollo almost certainly couldn’t happen today. That’s not because people aren’t interested in going to the Moon any more, but because the risk – calculated at a couple-of-per-cent chance of astronauts dying – would be unacceptable.
It's a fascinating article that challenges the commonly held belief that innovation is currently accelerating faster than any time in history. You may not agree with it but it's definitely worth the 12 minute read.
The World of Learning
Interested in a great recipe for learning or a way to deconstruct ideas so you can better understand them? The Feynman Technique may be one of the best ways to effectively learn something. It's an incredibly simple process to follow.
There are four steps to the Feynman Learning Technique: 1) Choose a concept you want to learn about. 2) Pretend you are teaching it to a student in grade 6. 3) Identify gaps in your explanation; Go back to the source material, to better understand it. 4) Review and simplify.
Often times when I'm trying to explain a concept or idea to someone, I realize - "Wow I'm not really articulating the point that I'm trying to get across." This is a sign that I don't really know the subject. The best test of knowledge is if you can teach someone else what you've learned. In this case, being able to explain it in simple enough words that a 12 year-old would understand. Following this technique is extremely useful for learning about things you care about -- maybe you're learning about finances or psychology and want a better understanding of what it is you're learning. This technique will expose the holes in your understanding and help you fill them. Maybe you want to develop a more solid belief about a controversial subject so you can refute and persuade others to your side. Whatever the case may be, the technique is a definite way to ensure that you truly understand something. The article goes into depth on each step so give that a read.
The World of Tools
I use a lot of productivity software but recently came across a whole sleuth of apps that work well together.
Pocket -- It allows you to save content from anywhere - links, articles, videos, whatever and save them for later. You can also tag what you've saved and categorize it. Instead of just reading things as you see them, you can save something, organize it and read it later when you actually have time. It's easy to get distracted on the Internet so this helps save stuff for later so you can focus when you should really be working.
Airr -- "Highlight" the audio of podcasts. Listening to a podcast and hear something interesting but can't write it down? Airr will save the section you want and even transcribe it.
Notion -- A great app for organizing your notes, tasks, ideas, reading lists, etc. I've been using it for 2 months and it's an awesome way to organize your digital life. You can use it like a second brain. It's free for personal use so definitely give it a try.
The World of Sparkling Water
Apparently there's man-made toxic chemicals in the bottled water and carbonated water we all love and drink. I drink a lot of Polar's Black Cherry and they got one of the worst scores on this list. Uh oh. Consumer Reports found toxic PFAS chemicals in several popular water brands, especially carbonated ones.
What the hell are PFAS? They are man-made chemicals that we're all exposed to but they stay in the human body for a long time, potentially causing increased cholesterol, cancer, and other health issues. Something to think about when you're about to drink your 5th La Croix of the day. Here's the corresponding PFAS score of different brands.
Pick your poison.
The World of Tweets
I joined Twitter (Follow me) at the end of July and it's my favorite social media platform. Why?
Twitter is an absolute gold mine for business and entrepreneurship. So much valuable advice, tips, and wisdom on there, I find myself learning a lot. It's also an absolute trash heap of the most vile political tribalism. Do your best to stay away from political twitter. It's a cesspool. If you do wade into those waters, beware.
Here's a few really great tweets that I came across recently.
The ultimate test of whether you own a high quality business? The CEO can go on vacation for 3 months unannounced, and everything keeps on running smoothly.
Thoughts: Entrepreneurship really boils down to delegation. My own business isn't at this point but the goal of 2021 will be to get make this a reality.
Forget what the scale says. Forget your body fat %. Judge yourself on TWO things: 1. Do you have the strength and aerobic capacity to handle a bad situation? 2. Do you feel good about what you see in the mirror? Adjust accordingly.
Thoughts: I'm currently a little out of shape and injured and found this to be a great reminder that this is the essence of why I workout and exercise to begin with - to be strong.
Only 4% of businesses in America ever exceed $1M ARR.
Thoughts: Passing $1M a year in revenue is an incredible achievement and puts you among the top 4% of all businesses in the US. Pretty incredible.
Tweet #4 - Entrepreneurship Opportunities
Baby Boomers: Own 12m small businesses in US. Employ 25m people. 58% have no succession plan. Boomers are currently 56-74 years old. Most of these aren't worth buying, but that still leaves 10s of thousands of incredible businesses, with a small pool of buyers.
Thoughts: There's a ridiculous amount of opportunities for buying a baby boomer's business. Starting a business is very hard. Purchasing someone else's business that has a historical track record of success for 1 or 2, maybe 3 decades, is much easier and can make you a lot of money. Granted, you have to know how to operate a business and not run into the ground. Taking a loan out to buy a small business is not a bad option either. Depending on how much the business is being sold for, you'll need a good chunk of change for money down of course, and taking out a loan on a business is risky. But the upside is great - it has the potential for making you very wealthy If you grow the business over the next 10 years and sell it. If you're interested in this type of stuff, let me know and I'll go more into depth with this in next email.
What people flex with: Cars, Houses, Clothes. What they should flex with: Treating friends to dinner, Providing for their family, Creating generational wealth. The former is called toys, the latter is called legacy.
Thoughts: Being generous is so much more rewarding than being flashy. It also makes you extremely influential.
The World of Proverbs
I like to end the email with one proverb because attaining wisdom is more valuable than just about everything else you can do.
“The wounds of a friend are faithful, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.” - Proverbs 27:6
Thoughts: Friends speak honestly and aren't afraid to say something that will hurt their friends in the short term in order to help in the long term. It means they love you. People who always kiss your ass and never speak the truth to you aren't your friends. They are your enemy.
My Website
I have a website where I write about things that I'm interested in at the moment. My goal is to have one new post and one new book notes posted each month.
Here's some of my past posts:
- Information Overload and the Low Information Diet
- "Your Brain on Nature" Notes
- "Never Split the Difference" Notes
End Note
If you've enjoyed the Sunday Stir, I'd love it if you shared it with a friend or two. You can send them here to sign up. I will try to make it one of the best emails you get each week, and I hope you're enjoyed the first episode.
These being the first one, I'm sure there's room for improvement for the next one, so if you have feedback, let me know. And should you come across anything interesting this week, send it my way! I love finding new things to read through from members of this newsletter.
Live free,
Brennen