Z's 3-in-3: cost of an hour of daylight, your circle of influence, E = mc² and your day to day life

By Zvonimir Fras • Issue #7 • View online

If you can only read one thing today, make it Thing 3.

But you’re already here, and 90% of success is showing up so go for the full thing 😜

Thing 1: Cost of an hour of daylight

It’s just daylight saving time.

Or is it?

It’s supposed to help us “make better use of daylight” and save energy.

What it also does:

8% more car accidents
5% more heart attacks
More injuries at work
Lower SAT scores
5% harsher sentences in court

Lesson: if you’re a doctor go on vacation the week after clock is moved?

(6:30) Why Daylight Saving Time is Bad for Your Health | Samer Hattar & Andrew Huberman

The U.S. Senate just voted to make daylight saving time permanent from 2023. This is great because no more switching but choosing standard time might’ve been better.

There’s nothing stopping Americans from moving all the start times to an hour later. That fixes it. 🤔

(source 1, source 2, source 3, source 4)

Thing 2: How E = mc² affects your life

While he wasn’t making faces at paparazzi, this witty German was coming up with formulas that make the life you’re used to - possible.

Albert Einstein

One day, people are going to use this to order food and find out how to get places.

… was something Einstein never said, or thought. But somehow it’s happening.

This is what Albert did say, tho - the oldest manuscript on his theory of relativity etc.

What does this have to do with you?

What does it have to do with your day-to-day life in 2022?

General relativity predicts that the stronger the gravity, the more slowly time runs
Special relativity deals with changes when objects move very fast

Without them GPS errors would get worse at a rate of 10 km per day.

Imagine ordering an Uber and the driver comes to pick you up in a different city. You can’t? Yeah.

(source 1, source 2, source 3, source 4)

Thing 3: Circle of influence

You can only affect things inside your circle of influence. Let’s say you want to maximize your impact.

The goal then is to increase your circle of influence.

What’s in your circle of influence

people you know
people you could contact if you wanted to
technology at your disposal
capital you control
things you can build
message you can deliver

How to extend your circle of influence

meet new people
cold-contact people you can help
you have a supercomputer in your pocket with an instant access to almost anyone in the world - what else do you want?
make more money, persuade people to give you money or other resources, learn about microeconomics, persuasion, game theory
learn to code, learn to build with your hands
learn to write, learn about persuasion
…