No. 467 — April 10, 2022 — Read on FS

Welcome to Sunday Brain Food: a weekly newsletter full of ideas and insights that never expire.

FS

"Don’t criticize, condemn or complain."

→ How To Win Friends and Influence People

TKP Podcast

"The only journalism is citizen journalism. Because that’s independent. That’s Substack. That’s newsletters, that’s something where that person may be flawed, but they’re writing their own voice over their own time. They can’t be canceled and they actually have an incentive. That’s the opposite of the school of fish strategy. Remember our thing about how tribalism, if there’s an economic incentive, all those folks have to build their own newsletter distributions. So if they say exactly the same thing as everybody else, then they’re not unique. So they actually have an incentive to stand out versus to fit in."

→ Balaji Srinivasan makes a mind-expanding return appearance to The Knowledge Project, this time to go in-depth on Web3, Crypto, and the state of the world today. This can't miss episode offers unfiltered thoughts on the advantages and disadvantages of established democracies, the Russia-Ukraine situation, housing as an investment, education, legacy wealth, and which country he would bet on to dominate the future. Listen on FS (with show notes), Apple Podcasts, Spotify, watch on YouTube, or read the transcript.

Insight

"When I look back on my life nowadays, which I sometimes do, what strikes me most forcibly about it is that what seemed at the time most significant and seductive, seems now most futile and absurd. For instance, success in all of its various guises; being known and being praised; ostensible pleasures, like acquiring money or seducing women, or traveling, going to and fro in the world and up and down in it like Satan, explaining and experiencing whatever Vanity Fair has to offer. In retrospect, all these exercises in self-gratification seem pure fantasy, what Pascal called, “licking the earth.”"

— Stephen Covey

Tiny Thought

What seems like the fast way in the moment is the long way in the end.

In an effort to go faster and outsmart the process we turn to shortcuts, cut corners, and engage in short-term behavior. While it might seem like we're going faster, these tiny debts accumulate into an anchor.

Short-term actions eventually become long-term weights.

(Share this Tiny Thought on Twitter)

Explore Your Curiosity

"Why, even in peacetime, do friends become enemies? And why, even in wartime, do enemies become friends?"

→ The Evolution of Trust

"Homogeneous groups were more confident in their decisions, even though they were more often wrong in their conclusions.”

→ The Out-group Advantage

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Stay safe,
— Shane

P.S. The most pleasant odors are ...