Dinis Rodrigues

[Brad Stulberg @BStulberg]

Excellence is not hustle-culture bullshit. It's not waking up at 4 AM to cold plunge and telling everyone about it, restrictive diets, sacrificing your soul, or bending the knee to make as much money as possible.

As someone who wrote the book on excellence, it feels imperative to clear the air once and for all.

People are longing for purpose and achievement. This longing has led to the rise of what I call internet excellence. At the extremes of internet excellence you get influencers who peddle steroids and other unregulated substances.

Slightly less extreme are the complex protocols and fads that change every week: breathe this way, exercise that way, eat this not that, and on and on and on.

Whenever you see a bunch of shallow influencers herding around a topic, it's because there's a real need to exploit. In this case, people—perhaps especially young men—feel numb and directionless. They're desperate for purpose. And right now, performative nonsense is winning.

All humans have foundational psychological needs. We need to belong, participate in meaningful activities, feel competent, and have a direction to follow.

In short: we need sources of mastery and mattering.

In a chaotic world where people don’t know where they belong or where they are headed, they grasp onto groups and ideologies that make them feel good in the short term but backfire over the long haul. Without better alternatives, the Andrew Tates of the world fill the gap.

Most influencers don’t know what they’re talking about.
But they are world class at converting existential anxiety into attention and tribal loyalty. They turn someone’s genuine longing for more purpose and aliveness into a superficial feeling of being destined for greatness, even if it is built on a flimsy foundation of elaborate online kabuki.

Instead of alpha, high-T, lion-mentality garbage, we need to model what true excellence actually looks like, especially for young people:

- Hard, honest work
- Showing up consistently
- Caring deeply
- Nailing the fundamentals
- Staying patient
- Developing focus
- Practicing discipline
- Building community
- Failing and trying again

If there is any battle, it is that of a performative excellence that benefits nobody but the grifters who are peddling it versus a more genuine and authentic version that benefits us all.

Winning it will take role models stepping up at all levels: from teachers and coaches to award-winning artists and professional athletes.

I’m trying to do my part. Please do your best to do yours.

[Dinis Rodrigues @DinisRo95]

@jspujji GA

[Marc Randolph @marcrandolph]

If I had to give anyone advice about how to go about things, here’s what I’d say:

Chill out.

Every successful career I’ve ever known was filled with long periods of meandering, months or even years when no one knew what would happen next.

Look at me: I started as a geology major turned failed realtor.

Like @JeffBezos, I didn’t start Netflix until I was 38. And I didn’t get into tech until I was around 33.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger @Schwarzenegger]

As you start today with all the motivation in the world, remember this: it won’t last.

Build a routine. Do it no matter what. When you really can’t, don’t quit or beat yourself up, just do it the next day. Show up, over and over.

It is the only thing that works.

[Brad Stulberg @BStulberg]

Do not go after big goals because you think achieving them will make you a happy and fulfilled person. (Spoiler alert: it won’t!) Go after big goals because you think the process of pursuing them will make you a happy and fulfilled person. 99.9 percent of life is the process.

[Kevin Dahlstrom @Camp4]

⌛️Someday

Last week, I ran into an old climbing friend who I hadn’t seen in 10 years. He has Parkinson’s now, with severe symptoms.

It shook me. Mortality is an abstract concept… until you see someone who’s on the clock.

On my 40th birthday, my dad—a man of few words—sat me down and told me:

“Whatever dreams you have, go chase them now because you’re a lot less likely to do it in your 50s.”

I took Dad’s words to heart and adopted a mantra:

The time is now.

By decade’s end, my life looked completely different.

We all have a mental list of things we want to do someday, when the time is just right. But here’s the problem with “someday thinking”:

Someday never comes.

There’s NEVER a convenient time to make bold, scary moves. And the likelihood of doing them decreases with age, eventually falling off a cliff.

Or worse, something tragic happens—as it did with my old climbing friend—and your future disappears.

The time to live your best life isn’t someday, it’s now.

[Garry Tan @garrytan]

Everytime I get mad at people in the cheap seats criticizing founders in the arena, I remind myself of what Giannis said. Arguably my favorite response to a reporter ever.

[Idea Browser @ideabrowser]

There's a new way to build businesses now that didn't exist three years ago

Old way:
-Move to Silicon Valley.
-Raise VC money
-Hire engineers and a big team.
-Build for 18 months, pray for product-market fit.
-Exit or die.

New way:
- Be anywhere
- Build cash-flowing businesses
- Launch in 90 days
- Test, iterate and ship with vibe marketing

AI made it possible.
It didn't remove the hard part.
It removed the expensive part.

You can find a winning validated idea with demand
Build a minimum viable funnel
Spend $10/day on ads
Start testing the offer with customers
Experiment and iterate.

The best time in history to build.

If you are reading this, you are early. You have an unfair advantage.

Please build and ship your ideas. I am rooting for you.

[Bryan Johnson @bryan_johnson]

give your best advice to someone struggling in a rough patch of life

[Z Fellows @zfellows]

Peter Thiel: “You get many chances so long as you keep trying. If you get hung up on failure, and if you think you don’t have another chance, that’s when you really don’t.”

[Reads with Ravi @readswithravi]

Steve Jobs on doing the work:

[Z Fellows @zfellows]

No excuses, just get it done.

— a CEO mindset from Sam Altman

[The Winning Difference @thewinningdiff1]

Your legacy isn’t in what you do, but in who you become while doing it.
Success is temporary.
Who you become is forever.

[The Olympic Games™ @Olympics]

What it means. 🥹🇵🇹

[Dinis Rodrigues @DinisRo95]

@stevemagness Athlete made in Portugal, such an important achievement. Proving that we can develop top athletes.

[Steve Magness @stevemagness]

One of the best things you can do for you mental and physical health: Move.

Don't over complicate it.

Walk, jog, cycle, lift weights, whatever it is.

Don't get caught up in the details until you are moving regularly.

[Navalism @NavalismHQ]

"The highest status people in human history are those that asked for nothing and gave everything."

@naval

[Andrew Gazdecki @agazdecki]

Friendly reminder you don't need a brilliant idea to build a startup.

[Brad Stulberg @BStulberg]

You are not going to find the happiness, fulfillment, or satisfaction you seek by going after the other side or some nebulous boogeyman from behind a keyboard. Get to know your neighbors. Build something. Play a sport. Make art. Do something useful in the world.

[DAN KOE @thedankoe]

Most people suck at speaking, being social, and relationships because they see people as the static image they've constructed in their head rather than human beings who are just as stupid as you.