Idea Journal Weekly 3
By Idea Journal
issues
Evaluate your core relationships
Who exactly are the five people you spend the most time with?Authors Geoffrey Miller and Tucker Max write in their book Mate that if your closest friends and colleagues are “upbeat, confident, and rational, you’ll raise your game just by being around them.”Bu…
How to identify your strength(s)
Entrepreneur Emil Anton writes on his blog that a strength is something “you can consistently and reliably do well.”And you probably have more than one. You might not think they’re amazing, but others do. See if you can identify three of your strengths by ask…
What environment works best for you?
Author and marketing guru Seth Godin writes on his blog that in the face of obstacles, rejection, and exploring the unknown, we need a “narrative to fuel our forward motion.”That fuel empowers you to keep insisting on better results and on doing work that mat…
Weekly 3: Use "career math" for success
In an article about how to be successful, entrepreneur and investor Sam Altman writes that the process of compounding acts like magic: “Exponential curves are the key to wealth generation.”For example, a medium-sized business that grows 50% in value every yea…
Weekly 3: You could do so much more
Psychologist Abraham Maslow first proposed the now-popular “hierarchy of needs” in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs suggests that to reach your full potential (“self-actualization”), you first need to satisfy your basic…
Weekly 3: The role of status in your life
Author and researcher Josh Kaufman writes in his book The Personal MBA that when a person is given a choice between different alternatives, they will most likely choose the option with the highest perceived status. High status generally means being associated…
Weekly 3: Make your interactions more meaningful
Journalist R.B. Sparkman writes in The Art of Manipulation that when you meet someone new, go beyond simply asking them what they do for a living. Also ask how they got into their career. Why is this effective? The question quickly warms the person up to you …
Weekly 3: How do you manage your energy?
Personal development experts Catherine McCarthy and Tony Schwartz write in the Harvard Business Review that most of us react to rising demands at work by putting in longer hours. And this takes a toll on us emotionally, mentally, and physically.The main probl…
Weekly 3: How to communicate more clearly
In their book Writing That Works, authors Joel Raphealson and Ken Roman suggest that it’s not enough to write so that your readers can understand you: “Careful writers are ever alert to the many ways they might be misunderstood.“ For example, a student paper …
Weekly 3: Dig for the source
Investor Graham Duncan says in an interview that many organizational tensions are the result of not explicitly acknowledging who “the source” of the given company or initiative is. For Duncan, the source is “the person who took the first risk on a new initiat…
Weekly 3: How do you handle change (i.e., life)?
Psychologist Carol Dweck says in an interview that to learn effectively in a dynamic environment, you need a growth mindset.She notes that people tend to have one of two mindsets: a fixed mindset or a growth mindset.Someone with a fixed mindset believes that …
Weekly 3: Will you ever be satisfied?
Historian and meditation practitioner Yuval Harari says in an interview, “the problem is that at a very deep level, the reaction of the human mind to pleasure isn’t satisfaction—it’s craving for more.”For Harari, the key to happiness is to know the truth.But …
Weekly 3: Will you be missed?
Another way to ensure that you’ll be missed is to ask: How can you make yourself more memorable?Consider this scenario: You just gave a well-prepared presentation, or made a compelling case for why you should be chosen instead of the other candidates intervie…
Weekly 3: Place better bets on the future
Author and journalist Charles Duhigg points out in an interview that there are “a thousand different systems or prescriptions” to help you become more productive: from exercise regimens to mental models.But there isn’t one method that works for everyone. Ther…
Weekly 3: Can you be *too* informed?
Investor Morgan Housel writes on his blog that the amount of raw, accessible information we have access to is orders of magnitude more than it was 20 years ago.For example, Yahoo has historical financial statements of every public company. Twitter spits out 2…
Weekly 3: How to do opportunity triage
Author Josh Kaufman writes in his book The Personal MBA that many people have trouble figuring out what to do because they hesitate to make an actual decision: loss aversion prompts them to leave all of their options open, just in case.But as Kaufman points o…
Weekly 3: How to find a role that fits *you*
Author Robert Cringely writes in his book Accidental Empires that there are three types of people required at different points in the life cycle of an organization or project: commandos, infantry, and police. Commandos are the first troops to see battle, whet…
Weekly 3: Your individuality vs. the group
Entrepreneur and investor Naval Ravikant writes on his blog that, “What society wants for you is not always what’s good for you.”That’s because while individuals search for truth, groups search for consensus—and society is the largest group. As Ravikant puts …
Weekly 3: Are you happy?
In an interview on The Knowledge Project podcast, chess master and investor Adam Robinson says one of the key life lessons he’s learned is that the secret to happiness is to be fully engaged in your life.He points out that if someone were to ask him during th…
Weekly 3: How to build your community
A community is different than an audience: members of a community take a more active role in shaping the group experience.Product Hunt founder Ryan Hoover and community-building expert David Spinks suggest the following 6 principles for bringing together a gr…