Artwork: Near Brodick, Isle Of Arran, Scotland, 1849-1851 by William Andrews Nesfield
Hello,
Here is your weekly dose of “Postanly,” weekly curated content for wealth, wisdom, and smarter living. If you’re new here — Hello. I’m Thomas. Welcome to the ever-growing crew. Check out the archive for all the essays and tools you missed.
A quote I’m pondering — “Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.” —Immanuel Kant
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Essays of the week
How to Build a Book Brain in Less Than 66 Days — These are ten of the most successful and wealthiest people on the planet who have built book brains. Their love for reading is no secret. They read daily. Reading has become a common and automatic habit among highly efficient and productive people.
People Who Can Learn Across Domains Are More Likely To Be Successful — Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, says if you want an extraordinary life, you have two paths: “Become the best at one specific thing,” or “Become very good (top 25%) at two or more things.”
Insightful essays I read this week
Autofocus: The Productivity System That Treats Your To-Do List Like a River — In one of the emails Oliver Burkeman, author of Time Management for Mortals, sent out to his subscribers, he talked about how we typically treat our to-do lists like buckets that we need to empty every day.
11 Ancient Solutions for Modern Malaise — Seneca wrote his essay “On a Happy Life” during those difficult last years with Nero—written as advice to his brother, but no doubt advice to himself—on what one needs to do to maintain equanimity in the face of personal chaos.
Escape the perfectionist trap with the Japanese philosophy of “wabi sabi” — I’m a bit of a perfectionist. I plan vacations to a T, my mind replays blunders on loop, and the thought that there might be typos in my articles makes my jaw clench in agitation. Okay, maybe more than a “bit.”
Incentives: The Most Powerful Force In The World — No matter how much information and context you have, nothing is more persuasive than what you desperately want or need to be true. And as Daniel Kahneman once wrote, “It is easier to recognize other people’s mistakes than our own.”
Oh wow! How getting more awe can improve your life – and even make you a nicer person — Whether it’s the immensity of the Grand Canyon or the beauty of an intricate spider’s web, feeling awestruck is good for you.
Oliver Burkeman on productivity trap:
“The problem with trying to make time for everything that feels important—or just for enough of what feels important—is that you definitely never will. The reason isn’t that you haven’t yet discovered the right time management tricks or supplied sufficient effort, or that you need to start getting up earlier, or that you’re generally useless. It’s that the underlying assumption is unwarranted: there’s no reason to believe you’ll ever feel ‘on top of things,’ or make time for everything that matters, simply by getting more done.”
“There is an alternative: the unfashionable but powerful notion of letting time use you, approaching life not as an opportunity to implement your predetermined plans for success but as a matter of responding to the needs of your place and your moment in history.” Source: Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
My favourite things
Finny — Finny sends you free personal finance insights so you can make better money moves. When it comes down to learning good money habits, there's so much jargon out there. Finny's newsletter, The Gist, is different. Twice a week, you'll get simple 5-minute breakdowns of top money trends, personal finance, and investing tips delivered right to your inbox - for free.
Morning Brew — There's a reason over 2.6 million people start their day with Morning Brew - the daily email that delivers the latest news from Wall Street to Silicon Valley. Business news doesn't have to be dry and dense...make your mornings more enjoyable, for free.
Refind — Get smarter every day. Every day Refind picks 7 links from around the web for you, tailored to your interests. Loved by 50k+ curious minds.
To our common journey,
Until next week,
Be Epic!
Thomas