Hi friends,

Greetings from Los Angeles!

Today's edition of Finds is a little shorter because I'm in the midst of a jam-packed schedule of How I Write interviews. I spoke with Mark Manson, Tiago Forte, and Riva Tez today, and Steven Pressfield is coming on the podcast tomorrow.

Some pieces from me before we get into the usual recommendations:

1. ​50 Ideas That Changed My Life: Exactly what it sounds like, and it's basically a tour through the biggest epiphanies I had over a five year stretch. ​
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2. Danny Miranda Interviews Me: Something about this podcast is really resonating with people, so figured I'd share it again. (Listen: Apple | Spotify | YouTube)​
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3. How I Write Interview with Ava (@Noampomsky): Precision meets poetry — that's how I describe her writing. She's grown her newsletter audience to more than 24,000 people, and if you're curious about how to layer emotion into your writing and pour your heart onto the page, this episode is for you.
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   ​(Listen: Apple | Spotify | YouTube)

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Today's Finds

​Experts Being Experts, This Time with Photographic Memory: The insanely detailed memory of LeBron James is an under-rated aspect of his excellence. It's not just his recall. It's the presence you need in order to remember what's happening so vividly. I imagine it stems from extreme calmness and familiarity. Almost nothing can happen on the court that he hasn't seen before. The stand-out example to me came in a press conference after losing to the Boston Celtics when a reporter asks "what happened," and LeBron responds with a flawless play-by-play synopsis. Dude's so engaged. It's nuts.

​The Famous Gorilla Video: A classic, and for good reason. Not going to share too much because I don't want to spoil it, but the theme of selective attention shows up everywhere. I've been thinking through the tradeoffs of focus. I'm only able to produce my best creative work when I'm 100% in-the-zone, but such maniacal and single-minded intensity comes at the cost of just about everything else in my life: time with friends, things that need to be done at Write of Passage, exercise, a clean home, eating well, and caring well for others. I remember feeling like my entire life was crumbling apart when I published Peter Thiel's Religion, but I was so obsessed with the essay that I didn't mind all the chaos, and in retrospect, I'm glad I pushed through (even if it took me a few weeks to stitch my life back together afterwards).

​My Heart Says Yes, but My Schedule Says No: Focus begins with saying no. The world is filled with distractions and the more successful you get, the more enticing those distractions become. Meetings are particularly costly. On a case-by-case basis, each one seems important. But taken together, they can grow into a time drain that sucks all your deep work time and the oxygen out of your creative spirit. If you struggle to say no like I do, consider publishing a piece like this one from Dharmesh Shah, the CTO of HubSpot. He sent it to me, and I liked the way it made his "no" feel much less personal.

​How Instant Messenger Shapes Thinking: The most meta interview you’ll ever read because it’s an interview about instant messenger which takes place on instant messenger. The standout section centers around writing as a technology for thinking, as opposed to speech. When we’re talking, we hop from thought to thought. But writing asks us to freeze our thoughts, which is why it’s such an effective way to improve your thinking. Each minute feels difficult (almost to the point of feeling stuck), but if you write for long enough, you'll see how the patience to stick with the same idea for a while lets you think deeper about a topic than you ever could with only your mind. The lesson is simple: Writing is useful precisely because it’s difficult.

​Music and Burial in Human Evolution: If you aren’t familiar with Kevin Simler’s writing, it’s time to change that. He writes at the intersection of anthropology, psychology, and evolution. His entire archive is worth reading but I recommend this essay on music in particular. Humans are the only ground-dwelling species that sings (the others like birds, gibbons, dolphins, whales, and seals sing from water or the air). Of all the animals that sing, humans are the only ones who use rhythm. This essay explores why.

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P.S. Know somebody who'd appreciate this newsletter? If so, text them this page, which is a longgggggg list of the links I've shared in years past, and encourage them to sign up.