Don’t become an internet dweeb
Howdy folks, I’ve had my metal detector out this week searching all over the internet for precious metals, you can find my haul below.
Don’t become an internet dweeb
The entrepreneurship / creator / self improvement / build an internet business space is incredible. It has changed my life completely and presents incredible opportunities to build.
But if you blindly follow the advice on twitter it will turn you into an insufferable dweeb who is excruciating for others to be around.
See, I was reading this article from Jack Raines (You Can Be Successful Without Being Insufferable) the other day and it got me thinking about how I have been this insufferable dweeb before.
The kind of person who’s personality is intermittent fasting, pomodoro timers and ice baths.
It can be misleading to think that to be successful you need to be someone who doesn’t drink, have hobbies or vices.
And, that’s because the outliers of society are portrayed as these robots who sacrifice everything to be successful, but is that really who you want to be?
Someone who masters just 1 area of life but fails miserably in every other.
To avoid being this dweeb I’ve made some changes over the last couple years.
Knowing that I’m already ambitious and driven, I try to run my decision making through 2 questions:
What would be the most interesting thing to do?
What would make me happiest?
The answer to this usually is not the thing that would result in the quickest, largest payoff on the ‘success scale’ but it’s the one that is way more enjoyable.
If you’re an ambitious, driven person you don’t have to be a dweeb.
You can have a successful career while having hobbies, friends and building deep relationships.
p.s you should go read Jack’s article, it’s great.
1. 31 Lessons I’ve Learned About Money (article): Some great money and life advice in here, especially this:
If it makes you a worse person (parent, neighbor, writer, whatever), it’s not success. If starting a business makes you a worse person—if it stresses you out, if it tears your relationships apart, if it makes you bitter or frustrated with people—then it doesn’t matter how much money it makes or external praise it receives. It’s not successful.
2. Being frugal with time (quote):
“People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering time they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy." - Seneca (On the shortness of life)
3. Pixars 22 rules of storytelling (thread):
4. Finding your zone (tweet):
5. Seth Godin on The Tim Ferris Show (podcast): This was an interesting episode. Seth Godin is a good storyteller who always has well thought out ideas and seems to be living a well balanced life.
6.David J Schwartz on gossip (quote):
But there’s another type of poison perhaps a little more insidious-thought poison-commonly called “gossip.” Thought poison differs from body poison in two ways. It affects the mind, not the body, and is more subtle. The person being poisoned usually doesn’t know it. — The Magic of Thinking Big
7. Stadiums are modern cathedrals (thread): This is a fun idea drawing a lot of parallels between how people treat sport and religion. Not sure stadiums are actually that close to cathedrals though.
I've been to a lot of football stadium that suck. Even Old Trafford (Man Utd stadium) is crumbling and rat infested. Also this is literally the entrance to a Premier League ground... not very cathedral like.
8. Things that don’t seem to work in business (thread): Anecdotal but useful list of things that don’t seem to work well when building a business. This one stood out to me, I’ve always been confused as to what consultants actually do???
Hiring outside management/compensation/etc consultants (they have no alignment and get paid regardless of the outcome / often incentivized to tell you to change everything so they sound smart / they can’t deliver hard news to management because they serve them / “consulting is the art of picking your pocket watch to tell you the time”)
End Note
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Have a fantastic week!
- Stephen
p.s this is fine...