Hey there —

There’s a good chance you… overcomplicate things.

But don’t take it personally. It happens to the best of us - even astronauts.

Let us explain.

During the Space Race of the 1960’s, Russia and America were head-to-head against one another. The two had zero intention of helping the other out.

No worries. They’d face their problems solo.

One little issue was how to write stuff down in space. Pens couldn’t function because gravity wouldn’t allow the pens’ ink to travel down to the ballpoint.

NASA rolled up their sleeves and got to it. They ended up spending millions of taxpayer dollars over the years developing a ballpoint pen that could function in zero gravity.

And what did the crafty Soviets do?

They just used pencils.

While the story is a bit of an urban myth (no, NASA didn’t actually spend millions of taxpayer dollars) the lesson remains.

We tend to overcomplicate things, believing that if something isn’t making us grind, we’re not doing it right. It could be starting a new creative project, attempting to kick a bad habit, or making pens that work in space.

Author of the 4-Hour Workweek, Tim Ferris, is no stranger to questioning the norm. To make sure he’s not making things unnecessarily difficult he asks himself, “What would this look like if it were easy?”

It might look like an unnecessarily straightforward question, but that’s kind of the point. It’s an inquiry that allows us to zoom out and see if we’re missing the bigger picture.

So instead of:

✖️ “I need to write a book. This means I need to write ~1,500 words a day, contact 30 publishers by the end of the year, and lock myself in my room to write.”

✔️ “I’ll write for 30 minutes every day before work.”

Or:

✖️ “I want to learn how to play the guitar. I’ll subscribe to a dozen Youtube channels, download guitar tabs, learn to read music, and study jazz theory to master every scale.

✔️ “I’ll learn to play my favorite Green Day song (you know, the one with four chords).

When in doubt, follow the wise words of Confucius. “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”

Ask yourself how you can make something easier, and don’t wonder, “What’s the catch?” when you eventually figure it out.

Story Credit: Daniel Canosa

The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Just Showing Up Everyday

Article | by Kishore Nallan

How do you build a company when you’re already swamped with school, a full-time job, or (insert X activity here)?

Do you quit everything and go all in? Corner the industry? Find product market fit? Take the leap?

Not necessarily.

Founder of search engine Typesense, Kishore Nallan, started by just showing up a little, every day. His goal? Write some code before or after work.

Could be 10,000 lines. 5,000 lines. One line!

It didn’t matter, as long as it was just something.

And this worked very well for Kishore. Unreasonably well, even.

After six years, Typesense ended up taking off. He was able to quit his job and go all in, without ever taking the major risk.

Kishore’s main advice is to “pick an idea in a large market that will always be in demand and work on a product that caters to a subset of use cases exceedingly well.”

If you go this route, you can afford to go nice and slow on whatever you’re working on, because it’s not a fad. You get to chug on purposefully, de-risk the situation, and use your slow ramp to understand what you’re doing even better.

TL;DR

If you show up a little each day, you can grow on your own terms without having to dive full-in.

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Vanity Metrics

Article | by Julian Shapiro

You’re spending time on things.

The question is… is it on the right things?

While this makes us sound like some low-grade fortune cookie, there is such a thing as focusing on the wrong task. Writer Julian Shapiro calls this “vanity metrics,” and it’s when our attention isn’t in the right place.

But, um, what exactly are vanity metrics? According to Julian, they’re:

✖️Relatively easy to accomplish

E.g.: How many books you’ve read this year. (This doesn’t account for knowledge absorbed).

✖️Frequently encouraged by society

E.g.: Getting featured in Forbes magazine. (This can be bought).

✖️Intermediary goals before the fulfilling goal

E.g.: Number of people visiting your website. (What you’re really aiming for is how many people click “purchase” or “subscribe”).

Julian’s post introduces three frameworks to uncover whether the goal you’ve been working on is actually worth your time. They include the goal path, the ability spectrum, and the virtue spectrum. All of these mental models emphasize putting your skin in the game with either reputation, resources, and time rather than virtue, ability, or outcome.

But to your credit, society normalizes the hell out of vanity metrics. After all, an IG post with “I read 500 books this year” would get a lot more recognition than “I read one book 12 times to fully absorb all the knowledge!”

The final lesson from Julian’s post? Don’t measure things without making sure it’s the right stuff.

TL;DR

Use one of Julian Shapiro's mental models to identify if you’re losing your time (and sanity) on vanity metrics instead of what actually matters.

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The Dream Job is Dead. Long Live the Good Enough Job

Article | by Rainesford Stauffer

Have you ever thought how weird of a question “What’s your dream job" really is?

I mean...have you ever "dreamed" of labor?

For decades now, there’s been a subconscious pressure to find meaning in our work. If your job is just something that pays the bills, people will believe you’re not living a “meaningful" life.

Stauffer’s thoughtful article investigates this wacky notion and asks: Where does the urge to make our jobs into more than just work come from?”

While work can bring a sense of purpose, the fact that it must have a dual purpose (provide income and fulfillment) is a reach.

Stauffer suggests:

“Passion seeking in a job is so compelling because of this deep recognition that work takes far more than 40 hours a week. We’re expected to be dedicated to the work we do. And if we’re personally committed to it, that will be much easier.”

This article is a refreshing analysis into our relationship with work and allows us to feel a-okay if work is just something that pays the bills. While work can bring a deep sense of fulfillment, your life isn’t less meaningful without it.

TL;DR

Sometimes, all a job needs to do is pay the bills. Finding fulfillment through labor is optional.

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Thien Le Minh

Introduce yourself! Who are you?My name is Thien. I am a 22-year-old college dropout who turned his passions into a full-time thing. I document my process and hope to help a younger version of myself through videos.

Why do you create? Who is your content for?I create to inspire and influence my younger self. Videos have changed my life and I am using this passion of mine to help others. I create videos that the younger me would've liked to have. My content is mostly for 15-22 year-old students who are into self-help and self-development and want someone to support them in their endeavors.

The biggest lesson you’ve learned since you began creating content?The BEST lesson I've learned was that no one cares about what I do. They only care about what value you can provide to people. The key is mixing passion and need in the market!

One thing you wish you knew before you got started?One thing I wish I knew was that it would be an extremely long process. The learning curve is hard, but people aren't in it for the competition. Other creators are here to collaborate and enjoy the process together.

In one to two sentences, what’s one piece of advice you’d give to aspiring creators and self-development nerds?Keep investing into yourself. You're the only variable in your life that is always consistent and that you can 100% rely on. Keep investing back into this one consistent variable and enhance its biggest strengths.

Would you rather be a strawberry with human thoughts or a human with strawberry thoughts?I would rather be a human with strawberry thoughts! I know that if I were a strawberry with a significantly more advanced brain, I would go crazy!

Check out Thien's Youtube Channel →

Written by Alice Lemée

Edited by Matt D'Avella & Shawn Forno