Happy Sunday,
it’s me Waldi!
Phew! What a week!
First, work this weekend was crazy! It was by far the most demanding work-day of the last two years. Yet, at the same time, I was totally engaged. The challenge of completing multiple tasks while keeping track of new ones coming in and switching between them continuously made me enter the flow-state. So after over 4:30 hours with not even a second to take a break, I was feeling good. I realized that long and hard workdays don’t have to be a grueling affair - they can be very enjoyable experiences if they push you enough.
Second, I am back in the game as I posted on Instagram earlier this week. Which means that I’m back in the gym. I avoided the gym because of the coronavirus since February but decided to go again on Friday. That day ay and, especially, one day later I felt great and look forward to hitting the gym thrice next week!
Third, I published another blog article on Thursday where I take a look at why and how goals help you to be motivated long-term. Read it here.
Fourth, I made some adjustments to the blog style to make it easier to read. Let me know what you think! :)
Now, let’s have a look at today’s bullets!
1. Why Jocko Willink doesn’t talk about politics
Jocko has a popular podcast but doesn’t talk about politics.
He shares why that is in this video.
I mostly think the same about the consumption of news and the longevity of political arguments: they’re mostly not worth your time and attention. Of course, that doesn’t mean that politics or news are never worth your time. It just means that most of their content is outdated in days, weeks more months and no one will care or even remember it. As such, I choose to invest most of my time and effort into topics and endeavors that offer a return in the long-term. Such as amazing books, thoughtful conversations, or interesting lectures. There’s a lot more to gain from these than from politics or news.
What do you think?
2. Jordan Peterson’s Maps of Meaning lecture
I recently started to listen to Jordan Peterson’s Maps of Meaning lecture again. It’s fantastic and I highly recommend it to… well, anyone. I already have pages of notes and I am not even through with the introduction.
Watch it here. Listen to it here.
3. Airr
Listening to Jordan Peterson’s full Maps of Meaning lecture is a long-time wish of mine. I started multiple times bust quit every single time. The reason has nothing to do with the content of his lecture (which is phenomenal), but with my desire to take so many notes in the process (because there is so much to learn) that I eventually get annoyed by this tiring notetaking-process and quit.
Thankfully, Airr provides a decent solution. It’s a podcast player with the additional benefit of having a quote-button. If you press that button you get a transcript and audio-snippet of the last 45 seconds or multiple minutes of what you listened to. You can then edit these highlights in length, get the transcript and even take notes to remember why you highlighted them.
When you combine this with Nat Eliason’s guide on how to link Airr with Readwise and RoamResearch so that your Airr highlights get transferred to Roam automatically, you’re looking at a winner - and my new podcast app.
4. A Simple Roam Research Guide
If you’ve been following this newsletter for a while you know that I am really into Roam Research. If you haven’t checked it out yet, I highly recommend this simple guide for getting started.
5. Does coffee make you fat and anxious?
In his most recent video, Joseph Everett from What I’ve learned explores this intriguing question. Regardless of if you drink four cups of coffee a day, or none at all (like I do), you’ll learn a lot about its effect on your body and mind.
6. An introduction to the Life and Work of Eckhart Tolle
Tolle’s work is on my to-read-list and this short introduction made me more exciting to do so eventually… after reading all those other books I want to read… one day…
7. Austin Kleon on systems
“I have built systems in my life for producing work, and whenever I abandon those systems in the hopes of “getting serious” about something, the results are far, far less than spectacular.”
Source: Austin Kleon in The past 100 days
That’s it for this week! I hope you found something valuable.
Until next week!
- Waldi
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