Today at a Glance:Whether we admit it or not, we spend a good portion of our lives protecting ourselves from reality. But there are times when our rose-colored glasses hold us back. In certain situations, when we fail to see the world as it is, we make sub-optimal decisions and miss out on critical growth and learning opportunities.Today's piece shares the "harsh truths" I've observed as life changing in their importance to our decision-making and progress.This piece is not intended to be dark or morbid. It's intended to make you think—to hopefully question some underlying (yet flawed) assumptions and spark active discussion with those around you.

Today at a Glance:The most successful people in the world achieve compounding success through incredible focus on a small number of projects and opportunities.You have a personal flywheel. Before it gets spinning, saying yes will help you identify the actions that will get it moving. Once it gets spinning, saying no will help you ruthlessly prioritize the actions that accelerate its pace.Use the 2-list strategy for establishing core priorities: Make a list of 25 priorities, circle the top 3-5 items on the list, mark everything else as the avoid-at-all-costs items.One helpful razor for saying no: If you don't want to do something RIGHT NOW, it's probably a no.

Today at a Glance:Warren Buffett is the most famous investor of all time. He is a treasure trove of frameworks, ideas, and insights, most of which apply well-beyond investing.Today's piece shares 8 of my favorite frameworks from the so-called Oracle of Omaha, including their application to your business, career, and life.

A “razor” is a rule of thumb that simplifies decision making.Humans are wired to take shortcuts in our decision-making. These shortcuts can lead us astray—but when used appropriately, the shortcuts can be extremely valuable.Today's piece shares a long list of powerful decision-making razors to help you make better decisions, faster than ever before.

Today at a Glance:Studying the daily routines of people you admire is a worthy pursuit. You can learn a lot about a person's priorities by breaking down their typical day. You may also learn something that will dramatically improve your own systems, habits, and processes.Benjamin Franklin was one of the most prolific entrepreneurs, thinkers, and leaders in history. I expected his daily routine to be a reflection of his incredible output: long, unrelenting, and complex. But the beauty of this schedule is in its pristine simplicity: two core questions and six blocks of time.The 6 core principles to apply: (1) Establish a fixed sleep schedule, (2) Create Clarity Questions, (3) Become a polymath, (4) Work in sprints. (5) Create order, and (6) Make time to unwind.

Episode at a glance:Incentives are a powerful and ubiquitous force. "Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome" - Charlie Munger. Thoughtfully-designed incentives are likely to create wonderful outcomes. Poorly-designed incentives are likely to create terrible outcomes.Goodhart's Law says that when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. Because of Goodhart's Law, incentive systems often suffer from unintended consequences.Poorly-designed incentives typically exhibit the McNamara Fallacy (what can't be measured isn't important), a narrow focus (missing the forest for the trees), or an obsession with vanity metrics (what looks impressive versus what actually matters).The 6 principles to consider in crafting thoughtful incentives: (1) Objectives, (2) Metrics, (3) Anti-Metrics, (4) Stakes & Effects, (5) Skin in the Game, and (6) Clarity & Fluidity.

Episode at a glance:What do you think you're in the top 0.1% of the world at? This question from a friend sparked me to think deeply about my own answer. I would encourage everyone to think about the question for themselves.My response: I legitimately enjoy being wrong. My father once told me that the most important thing wasn't being right; rather, it was finding the truth. From that point forward, I began embracing new information as “software updates" to improve upon the old.One result of this practice has been the logging of a long list of "truths" that I now believe are anything but. In today's piece, I share a portion of that list: 23 lies you've been told about careers, business, life, and more.Read the full post

Hank is a 95-year-old man who asked to spend a day at Harvard for his 90th birthday. He arrived early, sat in the front row, took notes, and asked questions. He learns with no end in mind. He learns because he loves learning.The forced structure of our formal education years often saps the innate curiosity and excitement for learning. New knowledge is crammed into closed containers in our brains--it's not allowed to mingle and network in a way that sparks new thinking pathways.5 core habits of highly-effective lifelong learners: stimulate dynamically, build learning circles, build a learning engine, consistently ask why, and read daily.

Episode at a glanceRead the full postThe letter to your future self is a 10x unlock for life. The process of writing a letter forces deep reflection on the present and thoughtful rumination on the future.Use a baseline time horizon of 5 years in the future, but adjust as you see fit. A basic letter structure to follow: (1) Reflections on the Present, (2) Changes to Make, (3) Goals for the Future, and (4) Fun & Crazy Predictions.I handwrite the letters and store them in a cabinet, but if you’re looking for a more technology-enabled solution, there are tools like FutureMe that should do the trick.

Welcome to the 1,070 new members of the curiosity tribe who have joined us since Friday. Join the 100,000 others who are receiving high-signal, curiosity-inducing content every single week.Thank you to all the subscribers that have joined me on this journey. 100,000 is an amazing milestone—but to be honest, I feel like we’re still at the starting line. Let’s go!Today’s newsletter is brought to you by Flatfile!Personally, I have spent enough time in spreadsheets to get my excel PHD. This also means I’ve spent enough time pounding my face into my keyboard in frustration while trying to import spreadsheets.Data onboarding is a MASSIVE headache. Flatfile fixes this.Flatfile is an unmatched toolkit for data import that is helping teams save precious time to focus on the business tasks that matter. Instead of staring at cell D47 and wondering how a missing comma just caused you to miss your lunch break, Flatfile does the work for you and sends you on your way. With over $44 million in funding and blue chip clients like Square, Zuora, and Clickup, Flatfile is making serious waves. To level up your data onboarding and improve your customer experience, schedule a risk-free demo of Flatfile today!Today at a Glance:Our minds tend to overcomplicate the process required to achieve forward progress. We incorrectly assume that it requires herculean effort or intensity.The reality? Giant leaps forward are simply the macro output of tens, hundreds, or thousands of tiny daily steps.The Seinfeld Calendar Framework: (1) Hang a big calendar on the wall; (2) Use a big red marker to put an X over every day that you complete your daily habit; and (3) Don’t break the chain of Xs!The 30-for-30 Challenge: Choose the arena, commit to 30 days of 30 minutes per day, create pressure loops by stating your intentions publicly, and use a calendar or tool to track your daily execution.If you’re interested in being a part of a 30-for-30 Challenge community, fill out the form here to get exclusive first access when it’s launched.The 30-for-30 ChallengeI spend a lot of time thinking about progress.I find happiness and fulfillment in progression—in the feeling of being one step further down the path from where I was yesterday.I’m not quite sure where that path is headed, but I am sure that the only way I want to progress along it is forward.Over time, I’ve observed that our minds tend to overcomplicate the process required to achieve this forward progression. We incorrectly assume that it requires herculean effort or intensity.The reality? Giant leaps forward are simply the macro output of tens, hundreds, or thousands of tiny daily steps.My goal with my writing is always the same: take the complex and make it simple. So today, I’d like to share my simple, tactical approach for making forward progress.Seinfeld’s SecretJerry Seinfeld is an absolute legend—an inspiring figure to study for creatives and non-creatives alike.He is considered one of the top comedians of all time and has amassed a reported financial fortune of nearly $1 billion. He earned a total of $100,000 for the entire first season of Seinfeld. By season 9, he was earning over $1 million per episode.Jerry Seinfeld is impressive in many ways, but perhaps most impressive is the fact that he has exhibited such tremendous creative consistency over the years. As he is quick to point out in a number of interviews, this was not some gift he was simply born with.It was—at least partially—engineered.An up-and-coming comedian named Brad Isaac had a famous interaction with Jerry Seinfeld that revealed his strategy for hacking consistency and growth:He said the way to be a better comic was to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes was to write every day.He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker. He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day.“After a few days you'll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You'll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job is to not break the chain.”I call this the Seinfeld Calendar Framework:Hang a big calendar on the wall.Use a big red marker to put an X over every day that you complete your daily [insert habit]. The habit should be simple and manageable to complete.Don’t break the chain of Xs!Importantly, it was not about the writing or jokes being high quality—it was about the consistency of the daily practice.The beauty in this system was in its sheer simplicity. It emphasized a manageable daily practice that would compound effectively.Seinfeld knew: With daily practice comes long-term prowess.30-for-30 ChallengeAfter reading about Seinfeld’s calendar hack, I adapted it to create my own improvement approach.I call it the 30-for-30 Challenge: 30 days, 30 minutes per day.The mechanics are simple:Choose your arena for progress. This can be any new skill, habit, or an existing area of competency you are looking to improve.Commit to focused effort in that arena for 30 minutes per day for 30 consecutive days.Create a positive pressure loop. State your intention publicly or tell a friend or family member about your plan. This subtle decision makes it more costly to quit.Track the daily execution with a calendar.The 30-for-30 Challenge has three core advantages:Meaningful CommitmentChoosing a single arena for progress requires clear commitment that reveals whether you are physically and psychologically invested in the thing you want to improve at.30 days of effort is meaningful.If you’re half-in, you won’t want to take it on and commit to the full scope 30 days.It’s a commitment razor.Light IntimidationWhile 30 days is long enough to require a real commitment, 30 minutes is short enough that it removes intimidation and allows you to mentally attack it.Pre-start self-intimidation is one of the biggest drivers of stagnation. We make something too daunting, so we don’t take it on. New habits and improvement initiatives can often feel that way.Remember: When you’re staring at a cold lake, jumping in is the hardest part—once you’re in it, it’s not so bad!A lot of people say they want to get into great cardio shape, but if they’re currently out of shape, it can feel like a daunting task. 30-for-30 breaks the intimidation down into something simple, reasonable, and manageable.Just punch the clock for 30 minutes today. That’s it.Effective Compounding30 days of 30 minutes per day is 900 total minutes of accumulated effort.900 minutes of focused effort can have surprisingly significant results. There’s almost nothing in the world that you won’t improve at if you spend 900 minutes of focused, dedicated effort on it.A few examples:900 minutes of Zone 2 cardio puts you in much better cardio...