Friday Finds (Steve Jobs, Sowell, America, History)

Hi friends,

Greetings from Austin!

At Write of Passage, we want to hire 10-15 people by September. Most of these are full-time roles. Naturally, we want Friday Finds readers.

We're looking for course designers, operations leads, education experts, marketers, script writers, video editors, and anybody who's as enthralled by the world of online writing as we are. I'll promise you something right now: this isn't your average corporate job. You'll have tons of autonomy in your day-to-day and join a group of talented true believers. If building a writing school for tens of thousands of students sounds enticing, we want to talk to you.

If you're interested, enter your email here and I'll let you know when the job postings go live.

Here's what I want to share this week:

1. Against 3x Speed: I used to try to read as many books as possible. But I reconsidered that strategy once I started seeing others brag about how many books they were reading every year. Something felt off. It turns out, there's a better and more enjoyable way to learn. Read my essay here.​
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2. How to Build a Personal Monopoly: The ultimate goal of writing online is to build a Personal Monopoly. Once you have one, people start seeing you as the go-to person in an area of expertise that you've defined. In this workshop, Jack Butcher and I demonstrate how we built our Personal Monopolies and present a step-by-step guide to help you do the same.

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Today's Finds

​Steve Jobs Speaks at MIT: In the spring of 1992, Steve Jobs spoke to the MIT School of Management. At the time, he was the CEO of NeXT. If you only watch one section, I recommend this one about consulting. From the level of the individual, he says that working as a consultant slows down learning because you only get a two-dimensional picture of what's happening inside the company. The more you're forced to take ownership over your decisions, the faster you'll learn, and the more three-dimensional your understanding will be.

​An Introduction to Thomas Sowell: An excellent introduction of Sowell’s work by Coleman Hughes. If you don’t know Sowell, he’s a Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. This essay tells the story of his life from growing up without electricity or hot water in North Carolina, to moving to Harlem in 1939, to receiving his Ph.D. in economics at the University of Chicago.

​The Imitation of Christ: This is the most widely-read Christian devotional book outside of the Bible. It was published in the 15th century, and by 1650, it was one of the most published books in existence with a grand total of… 745 copies. The book was published anonymously. With humility and inspired by Christian teachings, the author wrote: “One should love to be unknown… Do not let the writer’s authority or learning influence you, be it little or great, but let the love of pure truth attract you to read. Do not ask ‘Who said this?’ but pay attention to what is said.”

​How All This Happened: Word-for-word, this is the best history I've read of America after World War II. There's been a few surprises. Most importantly, there hasn't been a single nuclear attack. After the war, population growth exploded, and the Federal Reserve kept interest rates low to make it easier for people to buy cars, toys, and homes. For a while, inequality fell too. Things began to change in the early 70s. The number of Americans who lived alone went up. So did inequality. Debt, too. This piece puts all these events in perspective.

​Why Winners Keep Winning: Our social universe has very few rules. But if I had to pick an iron law, it’s that winners keep winning. We’ve known this since the New Testament. Specifically, the book of Luke says: “I tell you, that to every one who has will more be given; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” Here, we have empirical evidence from Stephen King and J.K. Rowling. Outside the writing world, this article shows how a small financial advantage at the beginning of your career can lead to outsized gains over time.