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Hello and happy Sunday!
What we published this week
We published four new articles this week totaling ~10,000 words. We dived into the real history behind Copernicus’s model of the universe, the fates of Wix and Weebly in an era when people are using Notion to build websites, and the strategy behind the fastest profitable unicorn in the U.S.
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Enjoy!
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Superorganizers
How the world’s smartest people organize their work
⚡️ How New Ideas Happen
What should we do with our bad ideas? Dan thinks there’s an answer in how both science and business progress: new ideas often seem bad at first by the standards set by the old, but eventually result in a paradigm shift. Read his latest post to learn how Copernicus’s model of the universe and Christensen’s insight into hard drive diameters are related.
⚡️ How Anne-Laure Le Cunff Wrote 200 Articles In One Year
(And is also earning her master’s degree in applied neuroscience on the side.) Anne-Laure came by her mindful productivity practice the hard way: through burnout. Check out this interview to learn her weekly review process that she conducts every Sunday without fail and how she keeps track of ideas so she doesn’t struggle to find topics to write about
From the Superorganizers archives — “How A Pro Soccer Player Turned VC Stays Organized.” By age 26, Cameron Porter has succeeded in two wildly different and competitive fields. Check out Dan’s interview with Cameron on his note-taking habits, daily journaling, and the trick he uses to stay in touch with friends.
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Divinations
Get smarter about strategy
🔮 Complexity Convection
Why do products tend towards complexity and then become replaced by simpler ones? Nathan — and guest co-author Sidhartha Jha — analyze Wix as a case study to explain how complexity is an inevitable side-effect of optimization.
From the Divinations archives — “Quibi Will Be A Multi-Billion Dollar Company.” Nathan and Adam make their case for short-form premium video, by tackling objections like Quibi raised too much money or that it raised too little.
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Praxis
The modern frontier of productivity
➰The Four Pathways of Modern Book Publishing
Tiago Forte spent several months immersed in the world of nonfiction publishing, interviewing self-published authors and New York Times bestsellers. Here’s his breakdown of the different paths aspiring authors can take, and his rationale for the one he chose for the several ebooks he’s already published.
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Napkin Math
Get smarter about investing
📐Want to Become a Unicorn? Buy it, Don’t Build it
Roll-up strategies are commonly thought of as the bread and butter of private equity. But they are also the key to the success of Thrasio, the fastest profitable company in the U.S. to become a unicorn. Read Adam’s latest post to learn about Thrasio’s operating strategy and how to generalize it to other industries.
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Talk Therapy
A podcast about what happens when two friends start a business
💞 #14 - Focus Pocus
Nathan’s focus is slipping as the Everything bundle grows, and Dan helps him troubleshoot. By the end of the episode, they decide to try a new way of working.
💞 #15 - Maker weeks & feedback loops
Nathan and Dan talk about why they are taking turns alternating between maker mode and manager mode. They also discuss the transformative impact of the newly-introduced feedback form.
Don’t see your favorite podcast app here? Just search for “talk therapy” and look for our red and purple cover art!
FROM OUR NETWORK
☕️ Morning Brew will bring in $20m this year
This interview with Morning Brew’s CEO is fascinating, and reveals how big the five-year-old business has grown. Another fun fact: their email list has 2 million subscribers.
How did you feel about this week’s digest?
👋 That’s it!
This issue was written by Saanya Jain and edited by Nathan Baschez. Thanks, and see you next Sunday :)
