Trevor McKendrick - Optimism now, optimism forever

Hi all,

This last week I read Alexei Navalny’s memoir: Patriot. It was excellent.

He is a top example of what drives the most driven people on the planet.

They just have to do their thing

Navalny was poisoned by Putin, took 5 months to recover in Germany, and then chose to return to Russia(!) where he was later killed.

This was after already having been arrested and imprisoned many, many times.

At the end of the book he tries to answer the question that everyone – prison guards, Russian citizens, judges, lawyers – asks him:

Why did you go back to Russia?

He struggles to answer and admits so in the book. But his answer basically comes downs to this is who I am, I love my work, I just had to do this.

How could it be any other way?

The greats are like Navalny – they just have to do their thing.

I think the best life strategy for personal fulfillment is to follow who you already are.

This is simple, but not easy. More than anything it takes courage.

Not because it’s necessarily dangerous like in the case of Navalny, but because leaving the flock and doing your own thing is always – always! – scary.

Trevor

How to read one hundred pages every day (article)

The whole thing is worth reading for exactly what the title says.

But the 2nd paragraph has this gem related to my note above on why people do the things they do:

“While I have chosen to refer to it as a “strategy,” the truth is that most of it, including the page target itself, is really something more like a post-hoc attempt at systematizing my own habits; I did not wake up one day as an infrequent reader and work slowly towards one hundred pages a day out of some inchoate desire for self-improvement.”

Navalny just felt that he had to oppose Putin. Elon just feels in his soul that he must take us to Mars. Gold medal Olympians just must do their sport.

You don’t get to the Mars or overthrow dictators by setting goals or thinking in grand strategy. You just do what you are compelled to do.

Who are you? And what are you about?

Patrick Collison has thoughts on reading “important” historical novels (twitter)

He’d be most likely to reread Middlemarch: “If Succession is a show with no likable personalities, Middlemarch is the opposite.”

52 things Tom Whitwell learned in 2024 (article)

TIL the smell of Crayola crayons and Playdoh are trademarked.

And: “Ozempic seems to be changing the second hand clothes market, creating a surge in plus-size women’s apparel sales. Size 3XL listings have doubled over the last two years”

Don’t say “Hi” in a chat: nohello.net (website)

“Imagine calling someone on the phone, going hello! then putting them on hold”

And another single page / single purpose website that I love: UnlessIHearDifferently.com will help you make progress on any work involving 2 or more people.

Trung’s 11 best things from 2024 (article)

Covers best film, book, quote, purchase, song, SatPost article, TV show, meme, meme by Trung, podcast, and decision.

Trung is a great follow, especially if you are also terminally online.

”You guys” is gender neutral (article, NYT)

“When women call one another “you guys,” “dude” or “bruh,” I don’t hear a fear of being women. They have sapped the gender from a masculine word in order to use it for their own purposes.”

My new favorite website: syllabi.directory

A set of syllabi from experts to quickly learn their area of expertise. Current syllabi include Cities, Housing Supply, Great English Literature, and Improving Clinical Trial Design.

Includes sections for “In ~5 hours” and “With More Time”

More syllabi please!

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