Things read - Week 17

Hell yeah, or no

For the past couple of weeks, I have mostly been reading "Hell Yeah, or No" by Derek Sivers. I initially assumed it would be about a single topic, but it is actually a compilation of different blog posts. Some things that stood out to me, paraphrased:

Balance

Happiest people the author knows are: someone with a well-paying job and seriously pursuing the art for love, not money. The key is balance: balance between stability (job) and adventure (pursuing art), certainty and uncertainty, money and expression. If you have too much stability, you get bored. If you don't have enough stability, you panic. So, do something for love and do something for money - don't try to make one thing satisfy your entire life.

Bronze medal mindset

If you catch yourself burning with envy or resentment, think like a bronze medalist, not silver medalist. A silver medalist just lost to Gold because she was only one second slower and that hurts. But imagine if the bronze medalist was one second slower, he would not have won anything at all. So she is just happy to be even at the podium. If you're trying to be ambitious, you can use the drive to up-skill. However, most of the time you need to be grateful for what you have got and how much worse could have been.

Disconnect to be successful

The author's advice to be successful is to disconnect and focus on writing, practice, and creation. That's what rare and valuable these days. We get no competitive edge trying to consume the same stuff everyone else is consuming. Silence is a great canvas for our thoughts and that vacuum helps turn all of your inputs into outputs. This is especially important these days when every company wants you to get addicted to their infinite updates, pings and what not.