Barry⚡️Allen

compete. evolve. adapt, or die

[Jaynit @jaynitx]

Naval Ravikant: "You're going to die. It's all going to zero. What's there to stress about?"

"Stress is when your mind has two conflicting desires at once. You want to be liked, but you want to do something selfish. You don't want to go to work, but you want to make money. You have two conflicting desires, and that's stress."

Naval explains the difference between stress and anxiety:

"Anxiety is this pervasive, unidentifiable stress where you're stressed out all the time and you're not even sure why. The reason is you have so many unresolved problems that have piled up in your life, you can no longer identify what the problems are. There's this mountain of garbage in your mind. A little bit is poking out the top like an iceberg; that's anxiety. But underneath, there's a lot of unresolved things."

He shares his personal anxiety resolver:

"One big anxiety resolver for me is just ruminating on death. You're going to die. It's all going to zero. You cannot take anything with you. If you can keep that idea in front of you at all times, what's there to stress about?"

Naval reframes what "wasted time" really means:

"What is wasted time? Everything is wasted time in a sense because nothing matters in the ultimate. But in each moment, it's the only thing that matters. So if you're doing something you want to do and you're fully there for it it's not wasted time. If your mind is running away, wishing you were somewhere else, anticipating the future, regretting the past, that's wasted time. That's time you're not present for."

He concludes:

"People get worried about dying and no longer being here. But they don't realize that so much of their life is spent not being here in any case."

[The Vigilant Fox 🦊 @VigilantFox]

Tom Brady reveals the overlooked reason practice squad players never succeed in the NFL

It’s not a lack of talent.

Brady watched it happen for 20 years. The pattern was undeniable.

As soon as a practice squad player got promoted and had to perform under real pressure, they crumbled. It took years for Brady to understand why.

“There’s 53 guys on the active roster and there’s now 15 guys on the practice squad. So there’s 68 players. But those practice squad players are important because if anybody on the active roster gets hurt, they can get elevated to the squad.”

“These scout team receivers would come in and practice with the scout team and they do really well. And I’d be watching. I’m like, ‘Man, we got to get that guy. Let’s get him up on offense. He’s making a lot of plays.’”

“Then all of a sudden, we’re like, ‘Hey man, you’re doing really well. You got to come over here and deal with the pressure of succeeding now that you have expectation.’”

“And these guys are like, they weren’t prepared for it. So whatever we saw in practice against where there was not a lot of pressure, now when they’re put in a situation where there’s an expectation for performance, they’ve never had to personally deal with that and then they fail.”

“And then what I realized was a lot of guys on those practice squads, they don’t want to be elevated to the roster.”

“They’re very happy living this life where they could tell their family and friends, which I have no problem with that. But the reality is a lot of guys don’t want the pressure of dealing with top.”

Twenty years in the league and seven Super Bowl rings later, Brady learned that talent wasn’t the hardest thing to find.

It was people who actually wanted the pressure that comes with being great.

[Podcast Notes 🗒️ @podcastnotes]

Jerry Seinfeld's life advice: lift weights and do TM. That's pretty much it.

@tferriss adds 4 more:

1. Learn to talk to people (read Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg)
2. Never invest in things you don't understand (more about this in the video)
3. Zone 2 cardio, 30-60 minutes, a few times a week
4. Don't eat processed food (Michael Pollan's rules)

[Shane Parrish @shaneparrish]

Charlie Munger on how to succeed:

“It’s so simple: you spend less than you earn. Invest shrewdly. Avoid toxic people and toxic activities. Try to keep learning all your life. And do a lot of deferred gratification. If you do all those things, you are almost certain to succeed. And if you don’t, you’ll need a lot of luck. And you don’t want to need a lot of luck. You want to go into a game where you’re very likely to win without having any unusual luck.”

[Greg Berge @GregBerge]

“Hear Me…”

Mike Tomlin GOLD 🔥

“It’s not what you are capable of; it’s what you are willing to do. Plenty of people are capable. Fewer people are willing.”

Potential is common.
Commitment is rare.

[Hedgeye @Hedgeye]

The bond market sees inflation rising above 5.3% YoY over the next twelve months.

[David Senra @FoundersPodcast]

Jensen nails it:

[CooperBaggs 💰🍞 @edgaralandough]

My favorite quote from Atomic Habits by James Clear:

"It doesn't make sense to continue wanting something if you're not willing to do what it takes to get it.
If you don't want to live the lifestyle, then release yourself from the desire.
To crave the result but not the process is to guarantee disappointment."

[Barstool Sports @barstoolsports]

One of the filthiest goals you’ll ever see

[Coach AJ 🎯 Mental Fitness @coachajkings]

Rory McIlroy gives a masterclass on mindset, visualization, and dealing with pressure.

"You never really know what's gonna pop into your mind at any given point. But when something undesirable pops into your mind, that's when you have to replace that with a better thought."

Don't fight the negative thought.

"Sometimes when I'm reading a putt, I see myself over the putt and hitting the putt, and the ball going in the hole."

Here's what makes his approach unique - he visualizes in the third person.

"I see myself making a swing or making a stroke."
"If something does pop into your head of a flashback to a certain moment that you haven't done what you've wanted to, just replace it with that visualization. That's something that works well for me."

Your mind will wander. Doubt will creep in. Bad memories will surface.

The skill isn't avoiding those thoughts because they will appear. It's having the preparation and confidence in your ability to refocus and reset.

See yourself succeed before you execute.
(🎥Whoop Podcast )

[Reads with Ravi @readswithravi]

I’m in love with this sentence:

“The best math you can learn is how to calculate the future cost of current decisions.”

[David Senra @FoundersPodcast]

Marc Andreessen on why it’s critically important to expose yourself to risk:

“Put yourself in situations where you will succeed or fail by your own decisions and actions, and where that success or failure will be highly visible.

Why?

If you're going to be a high achiever, you're going to be in lots of situations where you're going to be quickly making decisions in the presence of incomplete or incorrect information, under intense time pressure, and often under intense political pressure.

You're going to screw up - frequently - and the screwups will have serious consequences, and you'll feel incredibly stupid every time.

It can't faze you.

You have to be able to just get right back up and keep on going.

That may be the most valuable skill you can ever learn. Make sure you start learning it early.”

[Crypto Rover @cryptorover]

🚨BIG WARNING: THE FIRST MAJOR DOMINO HAS FALLEN.

Today, Blue Owl Capital announced that it permanently halted redemptions for Blue Owl Capital Corp II (OBDC II), its $1.7 billion private credit fund aimed at retail investors.

And this is not a small thing.

Blue Owl Capital is a major alternative asset manager with $307.5 billion in AUM.

The reason they are permanently halting redemptions for Blue Owl Capital Corp II (OBDC II) is to manage a "liquidity mismatch" caused by a surge in withdrawal requests.

But isn't this issue related to Blue Owl only?

Well, this is certainly not the case.

Blue Owl’s move to permanently restrict redemptions is signalling broader stress in $3 trillion private credit market.

Here are a few warning signs:

Roughly 40% of direct lending companies are generating negative free operating cash flow.
30% of companies with debt maturing before 2027 have negative EBITDA, making them extremely difficult to refinance.
Default rates for middle-market (MM) borrowers have reached 4.55% and are only rising .
Downgrades have outpaced upgrades for seven consecutive quarters.

If the stress continues in the private credit market, it'll first impact the small businesses for whom the private credit market is a critical funding source.

Additionally, it'll cause refinancing costs to go up and will result in more defaults, which will create a vicious cycle.

The only way to stop this is by lowering interest rates and providing liquidity.

This is probably why the Fed pumped $18 billion into the economy overnight, as more entities are experiencing a liquidity crunch.

But this amount is too small to stop stress in the private credit market.

The Fed would have to go full dovish here, or the dominos will continue to fall.

[Reads with Ravi @readswithravi]

James Clear on creating the life you want:

[Reads with Ravi @readswithravi]

Only the disciplined ones in life are free.

[Rick Golfs @Top100Rick]

Bryson with the cold top driver!

Legit worm burner. Goes 60 yards. Skip to 27 seconds to see it in slow motion.

One of us!!!

Well…until you see the next shot…🤯

[ESPN @espn]

Terry Smith changed the sports logo game when he created the San Jose Sharks logo in the early 90s 🦈🙌

(via @NHL)

[junkbondinvestor @junkbondinvest]

You want to know where we are in the credit cycle?

A prison food company just issued CCC bonds to pay a dividend to its PE sponsor.

That's where.

[Reads with Ravi @readswithravi]

Robert Greene: No matter your field, you must think of yourself as a builder.

[The Kobeissi Letter @KobeissiLetter]

Investors are piling into emerging markets at a record pace:

Emerging Markets ETFs attracted +$20.6 billion in inflows last month, the biggest monthly intake on record.

This marks the 12th consecutive monthly inflow.

This also nearly TRIPLES the prior two months and DOUBLES the previous peak set in 2018.

The MSCI Emerging Markets ETF, $IEMG, covering 24 emerging market countries, attracted $8.9 billion in inflows, or 43% of the total, its largest monthly intake since its inception in 2012.

As a result, the MSCI Emerging Market Index rallied +8.8% in January, its best start to a year since 2012.

Bullish momentum in emerging markets is accelerating.