Welcome to Issue 18 of TheFireside!
And more importantly: Welcome to 2020 :)
Recently Iāve done a great deal of thinking about what Iāve achieved in the last decade and what I want to achieve in the next one.
And Iāve realised two things. The first one is that if we donāt take a break every now and then in our busy lives to list and celebrate our achievements, we will feel like we have not achieved much.
āMost people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.ā
- Bill Gates
The second thing Iāve realised is that if we are not deliberate in designing our life for the outcomes we want, whether is spending more time with our family, running a successful business, do deep and meaningful work, etc, life will take over and dictate its priorities on us.
So go ahead and make a list of what youāve achieved in the last 10 years. You will feel instantly better. Hereās my list.
What Iāve achieved in the last decade:
traveled to 33 countries
started 2 companies
became fluent in a second language (English)
created a lifestyle with a fairly large degree of freedom
last but not leastā¦ I found the love of my life :)
What I want to achieve in the next 10 years:
kids
buy a house
maybe buy a farm
achieve total financial and geographical freedom
being more deliberate in how I design my life
On to The Fireside...
New blog posts: speaking of celebrating achievements, this is myĀ Year in Review post about everything Iāve done (or not done) in 2019.
New Book: and speaking of living a more deliberate life, one of the best books Iāve read recently is āDigital Minimalistā by Cal Newport. Itās a book about our addiction, as a society, to technology (especially social-media) and how we can be more deliberate about our relationship with it instead of just using it mindlessly. (PS: Another book from this author, āSo good they canāt ignore youā was mentioned in TheFireside #15)
Have a great rest of the week :)
Manuel
ā¤ The links
š” Ideas that changed my life
[Manuel's best pick] You spend years trying to learn new stuff but then look back and realize that maybe 10 big ideas truly changed how you think and drive most of what you believe. This post is about half a dozen of such big ideas.
š§ AirPods are a tragedy
Apple AirPods symbolise everything that is wrong with consumerism: an overpriced product designed to last 18 months and then die.
āEven if you only own AirPods for a few years, the earth owns them forever. They canāt be easily recycled, because thereās no safe way to separate the lithium-ion battery from the plastic shell. When you die, your bones will decompose in less than a century, but the plastic shell of AirPods wonāt decompose for at least a millennia.ā
š„ The Surprisingly Relaxed Lives of Elite Achievers
Most people think elite players are such because they are more dedicated and willing to put in the long hours. But according to several studies, itās not the number of hours spent practicing that make you an elite player, but rather what you do during these hours. There is a special type of practice that makes you more likely to achieve elite status.
Important read if your goal is to produce high-quality work while also working less. (I also recommend this related read from the same author, Cal Newport, whoās also the author of the book mentioned above āDigital Minimalistā)
š How to Read: Lots of Inputs and a Strong Filter
Books are easily the investment with the highest ROI on the planet. A book costs, on average, $10 to $20 so even if only 1 every 100 books you read changes your life in a significant way, the return on investment is outrageously high.
However most people still think they must read books to the end, even when they donāt like them or they are not valuable. So how do you solve this and start getting a lot out of reading:Ā lots of inputs and a strong filter.
š What youāll wish youād known
This 15 years old essay by Paul Graham, wrote originally for a high school talk, contains some of the best advice ever about finding your path in life. While the vast majority of you are probably not in high-school anymore, anyone can learn something from it, especially if you have kids or are just interested in education.
ā Other things from the internet
(ThatĀ may or may notĀ make you look smart at dinner parties)
šš»āāļø The craziest sport event of all time
The 1904 Summer Olympics Men's marathon is easily the craziest sport event ever recorded. Among other things:
Temperatures during the marathon reached 33 Ā°C (92 Ā°F)Ā and humidity reached into the 90s. Despite this, the only source of water for the competitors was a well at about the 11-mile mark.
The first to arrive at the finish line, Fred Lorz, actually dropped out of the race after nine miles and hitched a ride back to the stadium in a car, waving at spectators and runners alike during the ride. When the car broke down at the 19th mile, Lorz re-entered the race and jogged across the finish line.
The actual winner of the event, Thomas Hicks, received several doses ofĀ strychnineĀ (a common rat poison, which stimulates the nervous system in small doses) mixed with brandy.Ā He continued to battle onwards, hallucinating, barely able to walk for most of the course. Despite this, the judges decided this was acceptable, and gave him the gold medal.
Another participant called William Garcia was found lying in the road along the marathon course with severe internal injuries caused by breathing the clouds of dust kicked up by the race officials' cars.
18 out of 32 entrants didnāt even finish the race and the winner recorded the slowest winning time ever - 3:28:45.
āļø The ACTUAL scale of the solar system
Have you ever seen a model of the solar system? I mean, an ACTUAL scale model of the solar system?
šµ Explained by marketing
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, right? And you should get 10,000 steps a day to be healthy, correct? Wrong. Or rather, we have no scientific evidence for it. Then why do these ātruthsā persist? Because itās great for marketing and easy to remember, despite it being completely made up.
PS: ReadĀ theĀ fullĀ TheFiresideĀ archives here
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