Brain Food: Prioritization Beats Efficiency

FS | BRAIN FOOD

April 21, 2024 | #573 | read on the web | Free Version

Welcome to Brain Food, a weekly newsletter full of timeless ideas and actionable insights you can use in life and work.


FS

"Species that are more responsive to change can gain a relative advantage over the ones they compete with and increase the odds of survival. In the short run, these small gains don’t make much of a difference, but as generations pass the advantages compound."

The Red Queen


Insights

*

"Sadness will not kill you. Depression won’t, either. But fighting it will. Ignoring it will."

— Brianna Wiest

**

“In the long-run, prioritization beats efficiency.”

— James Clear

***

“Whichever route you take, expect a struggle. Finding work you love is very difficult. Most people fail. Even if you succeed, it's rare to be free to work on what you want till your thirties or forties. But if you have the destination in sight you'll be more likely to arrive at it. If you know you can love work, you're in the home stretch, and if you know what work you love, you're practically there.”

— Paul Graham


Tiny Thoughts

*

It's more advantageous to structure decisions to be easily reversible than to take too much time trying to make the perfect choice.

**

Success is often a product of environment.

While a polar bear might thrive in the Arctic, it would not thrive in a desert. People are no different. The person who excels in one environment fails in another.

Understanding how environments impact performance changes how you hire. Employees who thrive in one environment easily fail in another if their performance was contingent on the workplace conditions. This is why hiring a superstar away from a competitor, without understanding the role of environment on performance, often fails.

***

If you’re not willing to bet on yourself, don’t expect other people to bet on you.


(Share Tiny Thought one, two, or three, on X).


TKP Podcast

Frank Slootman on the difference between skills and behaviors:

Performance is something that we will give more time; behavior we won’t. And that’s because behavior is a choice, not a skill set. When you come in as a new leader, everybody’s watching not just what you’re doing but [also] what you’re not doing. So if you’re not moving on things that everybody is seeing, your leadership brand is already in question because apparently you’re blind and apparently you’re hesitating or you’re tolerant of behavior that you shouldn’t be tolerant of."

— Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or jump to this part on YouTube.



Sponsored by Incogni

The most likely source of your personal information being littered across the web? Data brokers. They're using and selling your home address, Social Security number, phone number and more. Use Incogni to scrub this personal info from the web with a 50% discount for the annual subscription!

Thanks for reading,

— Shane

P.S. A visual look at kinetic and elastic energy.

P.P.S. This tea set makes an excellent Mother's Day present.




Upgrade Yourself

You're getting the free version. Members get exclusive content — like my reflections at the end of every podcast, access to an online community, hand-edited podcast transcripts, ad-free everything, and more. See what you're missing.







Older messages

Brain Food: The Inner Scorecard

Sunday, April 14, 2024

FS | BRAIN FOOD April 14, 2024 | #572 | read on the web | Free Version Welcome to Brain Food, a weekly newsletter full of timeless ideas and actionable insights you can use in life and work. FS "

Brain Food: Committing to your Craft

Sunday, April 7, 2024

FS | BRAIN FOOD April 7, 2024 | #571 | read on fs.blog | Free Version Welcome to Brain Food, a weekly newsletter full of timeless ideas and actionable insights you can use in life and work. FS We tend

Brain Food: Discipline vs. Motivation

Sunday, March 31, 2024

FS | BRAIN FOOD Mar 31, 2024 | #570 | read on fs.blog | Free Version Welcome to Brain Food, a weekly newsletter full of timeless ideas and actionable insights you can use in life and work. FS “If you

Brain Food: Unspoken Expectations

Sunday, March 24, 2024

FS | BRAIN FOOD Mar 24, 2024 | #569 | read on fs.blog | Free Version Welcome to Brain Food, a weekly newsletter full of timeless ideas and insights you can use in life and work. FS “While we naturally

Brain Food: Nothing to Lose

Sunday, March 17, 2024

FS | BRAIN FOOD Mar 17, 2024 | #568 | read on fs.blog | Free Version Welcome to Brain Food, a weekly newsletter full of timeless ideas and insights you can use in life and work. FS “Rather than focus

You Might Also Like

‘We found the thing that gives us joy’: Microchild on the microverse, music, and shared language

Wednesday, March 12, 2025

The wife and husband pair of Shannon Sengebau McManus and Jonathan Camacho Glaser are souls behind the band Microchild. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏

🦅 Reminder: Masterclass with Jesse Pujji

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

At 1:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏

[Webinar tomorrow] Canadian? How to Grow Your Amazon FBA Business as a Canuck

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

Hey Reader, Are you a Canadian? No? Well, you should never skip a single line on an EcomCrew email but this is one exception and you can continue with your day. Yes? Then congratulations on hitting the

The state of ad serving for brands and agencies

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

How ad-serving technology is changing and unlocking new opportunities ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

♟️ OpenAI's smart chess move!

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

Guess who's sweating? ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

March Madness is here: Tap into the hype with these marketing plays

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

And more insights to drive smarter social strategies and ROI ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏

ET: March 11th 2025

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

Exploding Topics Logo Presented by: Exploding Topics Pro Logo Here's this week's list of rapidly trending topics, insights and analysis. Topic #1 Gruns (trends) Chart Gruns is a DTC startup

If SEO is dead…

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

Here's a surefire way to fall behind your competition: Declare SEO as dead and stop optimizing your content. Sure, the strategies that worked five years ago may not work today, but businesses that

Niche = $$$

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

Why Your Tiny Newsletter Could Be an Advertiser's Dream ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

The Founder Institute targets first VC fund

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

Startups join the M&A big leagues; Hinge Health files for IPO; stablecoin surges with regulation in play; VC-backed IPOs give up post-election gains Read online | Don't want to receive these