“Five Bullet Friday” is a weekly series of what I’m enjoying or pondering inspired by Tim Ferriss. I want to stay consistent with this log, so I decided that for every extra day that I put things off, I will add an extra bullet.
1. Life changing action
I deleted all forms of social media from phone to maximize productivity and peace of mind.
2. Concept to embody
Will power becomes stronger the more you exercise it.
3. Useful purchase
The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
I am using this as part of my morning ritual. Every morning, I read the stoic quote of the day, ponder about it and write notes for a few minutes, then try to internalize the lesson throughout the rest of the day.
4. What I am reading
How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams
Adams goes through all his embarrassing life stories to demonstrate how he has created a system to maximize the probability of his success no matter what. A key theme is simplify (systems) vs. optimize (goals). When you create a system, that is something simple that you can follow automatically with high success rate. This decreases black swan risks of something going wrong. Make everything you do into a system and run it as an automated background process to maximize your happiness. Optimizing every single minor detail is not necessary, it simply drains your energy and introduces extra potential errors.
I am still reading Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin and I will upload the notes for the next chapter.
5. What I am watching
罗辑思维 185 什么是战略 (Logic Talk Show 185: What is Strategy?)
罗 (Luo) hosts a famous philosophy show in China. In this episode, he discussed the difference between strategy and tactics. Luo recommends using Strategy: A History by Lawrence Freedman as a manual for thinking in terms of strategy rather than tactics.
A key lesson is that with strategy, you goal is balanced forces diplomacy, not crushing all opposition. You want to maximize your long term survival rather than egotistically showing off your prowess. This is clearly demonstrated in Go vs. Chess. In Go, your goal is to win more than your opponent by influencing the overall balance in your favor. In Chess, you have to take your opponent's pieces. It's always better to focus more on what's mutually beneficial whenever possible.
This lesson can be related to the current US election delusion. Neither side practices strategy very well, but the Clinton side is particularly nasty. There is much spreading of fears of existential crisis. This is like Newton's 3rd Law of Motion: when people are pushed to the edge, they will resist with equal and opposite force. This creates a sustained cycle of increasing violence and irrationality.
6. Podcast I am listening to
Tim Ferriss on The Art and Science of Learning Anything Faster
Metalearning is one of my favorite topics and probably one of the most important things to get good at to live a fulfilling life.
Remember this acronym: DSSS
Deconstruct: what are the minimum learnable units?
Select: which 20% of the block should I focus on for 80% of the wanted results?
Sequence: in what order should I learn the blocks?
Stakes: how to set up consequences to motivate me to follow through?
7. Movie I watched
American Sniper
This is probably the most emotional that I've ever gotten when watching a movie. Jocko and Leif were Chris Kyle's commanding officers. I felt like I've gotten to know them personally from listening to all their podcasts and reading Extreme Ownership. Chris is one of their fallen brothers who they have talked about. While watching the movie, I could feel how Jocko and Leif felt about the tragedies of war and the discipline required to live a heroic life. I couldn't imagine how tough it must be to lose brothers under the most intense circumstances and still overcome all the obstacles of their duties while becoming a huge positive for many other people. I don't think that I could even survive BUD/S training, much less all that they have been through. The deaths of my mentors' brothers were not in vain. They became better people through this journey and taught me and many others to become better people.
Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful upcoming week,