September 15, 2024 | #594 | read on fs.blog | Free Version

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

Insights

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“There is no formula for success—you just begin and then you continue. I’m often asked how to have a career in stand-up and the answer is confoundingly simple: Do the work. Over and over again, just do the work. After you build the courage to get onstage that first time, it’s all about repetition.”

— Cameron Esposito

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“Most people go through life using up a very, very small part of their potential. You could have a three-hundred-horsepower motor and get three hundred horsepower out of it or you can get a lot less. The people who I see function well are not the ones with the biggest “motors,” but the ones with the most efficient ones.”

— Warren Buffett

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“There's a second component of reading that many people don't realize exists: searching for the good books. There are a huge number of books and only a small percentage of them are really good, so reading means searching. Someone who tries to read but doesn't understand about the need to search will end up reading bad books, and will wonder why people who read a lot like to do something so boring.”

— Paul Graham

Tiny Thoughts

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“If you ask other people about every decision you make, you're going to end up doing exactly what everyone else does and getting the same results that everyone else gets.”

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“You don't have to be special to be successful. Ordinary people can do extraordinary things by choosing to be what most people are unwilling to be: consistent, hardworking, patient, and determined.”

***

“The short-term crowd is always too distracted to notice the long-term crowd slowly compounding.

An investor obsessing over daily economic data misses the big picture. A teenager chasing fleeting popularity neglects to develop genuine interests and skills. A co-worker stops paying attention to the details to chase attention. All chase false stimuli at the cost of lasting value.

Never try to win the moment at the expense of the decade.”

Mental Model

V4 | Economics and Art | Scarcity

The rarest thing you possess is your own potential.

"Scarcity shapes our choices and drives our actions. When something is scarce, it suddenly becomes valuable. We want it more because there is less. This principle underlies everything from the price of gold to the thrill of the hunt.

Scarcity isn’t just about material things. It applies to time, opportunities, and ideas. It’s why we’re drawn to the exclusive, the ­ limited-­edition, the one-of-a-kind.

In economics, scarcity is a foundational principle. There are infinite wants and desires but limited resources. We can’t have everything, so we must choose. Scarcity guides those choices.

Some businesses operate with a scarcity mentality, removing shock absorbers and operating lean, with just enough resources to produce the day’s goods. This model is prone to disruption with the slightest hiccup and signals to employees that they’re in a culture of scarcity, triggering our biological instinct toward self-preservation. We subconsciously hoard things of value to gain an individual advantage.

Scarcity can work to your advantage. Imagine you’ve got a rare combination of qualities: honest, hardworking, and smart. People like that are scarce, and the world tends to reward them disproportionately. It’s not just about being good at one thing; it’s about having a mix of traits.

The key to navigating scarcity is understanding its power, recognizing when it’s driving our choices, and asking if those choices align with our true values and goals. Sometimes, scarcity creates real value. But sometimes, it’s just a mirage, a trick of the mind.”

— Source: The Great Mental Models v4: Economics and Art

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Thanks for reading,

— Shane Parrish

P.S. Back to school means back to the ritual of making a pot of After-Dinner Mint while the kids do their homework. After our podcast episode, David looked at my purchase history and assembled a Brain Food Bundle for FS readers. This is exactly what I use to maximize mental performance.

P.P.S. I read John Mackey's The Whole Story in preparation for an upcoming podcast and added my highlights to the repository. Members have searchable access to this and all the other books I read.

P.P.P.S You can use this link to share this newsletter: https://fs.blog/brain-food/september-15-2024/

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