Timeless Ideas | May 9, 2021
Here’s your weekly dose of timeless ideas to sharpen your mind, make smarter decisions, and live better.
Quotes
I.
A good marriage is one in which each spouse secretly thinks he or she got the better deal, and this is true also of our friendships.
― Anne Lamott
II.
Reality does not conform to the ideal, but confirms it.
― Gustave Flaubert
III.
No alibi will save you from accepting the responsibility.
— Napoleon Hill
Ideas
I.
When you say no, you are only saying no to one option.
When you say yes, you are saying no to every other option.
No is a decision.
Yes is a responsibility.
Be careful what (and who) you say yes to. It will shape your day, your career, your family, your life.
James Clear
II.
Set aside the messages this culture sends, through its advertising, its entertainment, its disdain and its disapproval, about how you should behave. Set aside the old traditional notion of female as nurturer and male as leader; set aside, too, the new traditional notions of female as superwoman and male as oppressor. Begin with that most terrifying of all things, a clean slate. Then look, every day, at the choices you are making, and when you ask yourself why you are making them, find this answer: for me, for me. Because they are who and what I am, and mean to be.
This will always be your struggle whether you are twenty-one or fifty-one. I know this from experience. When I quit the New York Times to be a full-time mother, the voices of the world said that I was nuts. When I quit it again to be a full-time novelist, they said I was nuts again. But I am not nuts. I am happy. I am successful on my own terms. Because if your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all. Remember the words of Lily Tomlin: If you win the rat race, you're still a rat.
Anna Quindlen's commencement speech
III.
The world is increasingly designed to depress us. Happiness isn’t very good for the economy. If we were happy with what we had, why would we need more?
How do you sell an anti-aging moisturizer? You make someone worry about aging. How do you get people to vote for a political party? You make them worry about immigration. How do you get them to buy insurance? By making them worry about everything. How do you get them to have plastic surgery? By highlighting their physical flaws. How do you get them to watch a TV show? By making them worry about missing out. How do you get them to buy a new smartphone? By making them feel like they are being left behind.
To be calm becomes a kind of revolutionary act. To be happy with your own non-upgraded existence. To be comfortable with our messy, human selves, would not be good for business.
Matt Haig in Reasons to Stay Alive
Articles Worth Reading
I.
The Untold Story of How Jeff Bezos Beat the Tabloids
Brad Stone | Bloomberg
In February 2019, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was the subject of tabloid stories in the National Enquirer about his relationship with a married former television host. Rather than doing what most billionaires do under such scrutiny—keep quiet and wait for the storm to pass—Bezos had gone public. He’d written a salacious blog post that included descriptions of the "below the belt selfie" photos the Enquirer claimed it had acquired. Here's how Bezos turned a rare moment of weakness into a display of dominance.
II.
Sriram Krishnan | The Observer Effect
Spotify's Daniel Ek does things very differently from other business leaders. He likes to go on long walks that help him sharpen his thinking. He looks to Beyoncé for ideas on the creative process. He refuses to schedule more than three meetings per day. Ek, who is personally reserved but professionally ruthless, reveals his fresh approach to creativity and leadership.
III.
Shane Parrish | Farnam Street Blog
There’s a good chance most of the problems in your life and work come down to insufficient slack. The irony is that we achieve far more in the long run when we have slack. We are more productive when we don’t try to be productive all the time. An absence of slack is unsustainable. Inevitably, we end up needing additional resources, which have to come from somewhere.
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