Pedro Arévalo D.

“If we each live properly, we will collectively flourish” - Dr. Jordan B. Peterson

[lavitalenta @lavitalenta]

It is Sunday. Let us seize the means of relaxation.

[James Clear @JamesClear]

The information you consume each day is the soil from which your future thoughts are grown.

[Dr Jordan B Peterson @jordanbpeterson]

You can not be a good person until you know how much evil you contain within you.

[Navalism @NavalismHQ]

"I, and I alone, am responsible for everything I think and feel."

@naval

[Vala Afshar @ValaAfshar]

Life is meant to be lived; happily, gracefully, whimsically, peacefully, lovingly, joyfully

[Navalism @NavalismHQ]

"Your trauma creates you."

@naval

[Navalism @NavalismHQ]

- No meetings before 11am.
- No meetings when emails or calls will do.
- Don’t schedule calls, text coordinate them on the fly when possible.
-Cram all meetings into two days a week.
- 1-on-1s are usually 30-minute walking meetings. (Meetings are the death of productivity)
@naval

[Ascendant Power @AscendantPower]

WHEN BOYS BECOME MEN

A boy becomes a man when he starts trying to impress himself more than others.

A boy becomes a man when he learns to value respect more than attention.

A boy becomes a man when he stops altering his behavior to please women.

A boy becomes a man once he’s completely comfortable being alone.

A boy becomes a man when he begins teaching his parents more than they teach him.

A boy becomes a man when he finishes his first hero’s journey.

A boy becomes a man when he’d rather appear broke than rich to the masses.

A boy becomes a man when he can both suffer and celebrate in silence.

A boy becomes a man when he enjoys giving gifts more than receiving them.

A boy becomes a man once he’s completely comfortable saying “no” to women he’s attracted to.

A boy becomes a man when he stops causing unnecessary suffering for others and starts seeking necessary suffering for himself.

A boy becomes a man when his mother seeks his validation more than he seeks hers.

A boy becomes a man when he stops begging and starts building.

A boy becomes a man when he starts producing more than he consumes.

A boy becomes a man when he values silence more than speech.

A boy becomes a man once he desires fulfillment more than fame.

A boy becomes a man once he fears the regret of a meaningless life more than he fears insult, injury or death.

[Billy Oppenheimer @bpoppenheimer]

On December 11, 2021, I picked Robert Greene up from the airport, and we drove forty-five minutes to Bastrop, TX.

At one point, Robert told me he’s had more than 20 research assistants since Ryan Holiday and none have been any good.

Why weren’t they any good? I asked.

He said,

“Some didn’t grasp the spirit of the material I look for. Some couldn’t discern what's interesting from what isn't. Some melted like an ice cube in the sun at the first piece of constructive criticism. Some...”

He paused here and thought.

As he was thinking, I understood the implication was that those first three reasons didn't really cut to the core of his troubles with research assistants.

“Without exception,” Robert realized, “they weren’t interested in boredom. It’s a dividing line between people who are successful and people who are not.”

Takeaway 1:

Mastery, Robert said, requires boredom and tedium.

It requires doing the same things over and over and over.

It requires sitting with the frustration of putting in work that doesn't immediately pay off.

It requires sitting with the uncertainty of, am I going to spend sixteen hours reading this biography only to discover there’s nothing in it I can use?

You have to be able to sit with boredom, Robert said.

Takeaway 2:

In another conversation, Robert told me he believes one of the reasons people struggle to sit with boredom is that they have a false idea about the word “creativity.”

“People have all sorts of illusions about the word that aren’t the reality,” he said.

“The reality is that creativity is a function of the previous work you put in. If you put a lot of hours into thinking and researching and reading, hour after hour—a very tedious process—creativity will come to you…It comes to you, but only after hours and hours of tedious work.”

I like this definition because it means creativity is not some mysterious form of magic. It’s something that is rewarded to those who put in hours and hours of boring, tedious work.

- - -

“One sign that you're suited for some kind of work is when you like even the parts that other people find tedious.” — Paul Graham

Follow @bpoppenheimer for more content like this!

[Tim Ferriss @tferriss]

“And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.” — John Steinbeck, East of Eden

[Ryan Holiday @RyanHoliday]

Belief in yourself is overrated. Generate evidence.

[Navalism @NavalismHQ]

If there's something you want to do later, do it now. There is no "later".

@naval

[Billy Oppenheimer @bpoppenheimer]

In 1997, at the age of 27, Matt Damon won his first Academy Award for Best Screenplay (“Good Will Hunting”).

After Damon won the Oscar, he went home, sat down on his sofa, and looked at the award.

As he looked at it, he was suddenly overwhelmed by a heartbreaking thought:

“I remember very clearly looking at that award and thinking,

‘Imagine chasing that, not getting it, and then getting it finally in your 80s or your 90s with all of life behind you and realizing what an unbelievable waste of your life.’

It can't fill you up. If that's a hole that you have, that won't fill it.”

“My heart broke,” Damon said. “I imagined another one of me [not getting that award until I was] an old man, and going like, ‘oh my god, Where did my life go? What have I done?’ And then it's over.”

Takeaway 1:

Many rich and celebrated people talk about chasing money and recognition, getting it, and realizing that it didn't feel like they thought it would. That it didn't, as Damon said, fill the hole they had.

One of my favorite analogies for this pattern comes from Sam Hinkie.

Hinkie was asked about what he's learned from reading Robert Caro's books—about some very rich and famous people.

“I think of it like the Pacific Salmon,” Hinkie said. “They spend their whole life making this journey upstream to spawn in this one spot. And as soon as they do, they die. That's largely what Caro shows you.”

The outcome is always a tiny percentage of the total experience.

Matt Damon stood on that Oscars stage for eighty-one seconds. That’s 0.0000641% of the four years he spent working on Good Will Hunting. To let 0.0000641% of an experience determine one’s happiness or satisfaction, as Damon said, is an unbelievable waste of your life.

Takeaway 2:

If not things like money, awards, and celebrity, what should we strive for?

“When we were writing 'Good Will Hunting,'” Matt Damon said, “Ben [Affleck] and I always talked about just wanting to love it.

We would say, 'If it's just a tape on our mantel that no one ever watches, we want to love it.' We kind of stumbled into a very wise strategy, which is to try to get most of the rewards from the work itself.”

Since you control the process, the effort, the work more than the outcome, Ryan Holiday once told me,

“The work has to be the win. Ultimately, you have to love doing it. You have to get to a place where doing the work is the win and everything else is extra.”

- - -

“It's such a gift to be able to do something and to love it for the sake of it.” — Rodney Mullen

Follow @bpoppenheimer for more content like this!

[Navalism @NavalismHQ]

"You’re going to die one day, and none of this is going to matter. So enjoy yourself. Do something positive. Project some love. Make someone happy. Laugh a little bit. Appreciate the moment. And do your work."

@naval

[Ryan Holiday @RyanHoliday]

Be quiet, work hard, and stay healthy. It’s not ambition or skill that is going to set you apart but sanity.

[Andrew D. Huberman, Ph.D. @hubermanlab]

The only thing we can truly control is where we place our attention and where we place our effort. Choose wisely.

[Tom Bilyeu @TomBilyeu]

Life’s a beautiful game. Learn to play it well.

[Pedro Arévalo D. @pedrinare]

#NewProfilePic

[Tim Ferriss @tferriss]

“The best fighter is never angry.” ― Lao Tzu

[Robert Greene @RobertGreene]

What offers immediate pleasure comes to seem like a distraction, an empty entertainment to help pass the time. Real pleasure comes from overcoming challenges, feeling confidence in your abilities, gaining fluency in skills, and experiencing the power this brings.