This Week I Learned #88
“Go to bed smarter than when you woke up”
2020-02-03
Podcast interview with Dan Pink, famed author of Drive, When, To Sell is Human and others. After choosing to forego law school and become a writer that explored his own curiosities, Dan still had to make ends meet by writing speeches for corporate executives. He hated doing this but it was necessary for him to live the life he wanted. Dan writes on various topics intertwined in the category of human performance/development/psychology. I learned that his idea gathering process starts with taking notes of everything. He keeps copious records of all TV shows, movies, books and other mediums he has digested. He doesn’t need to know when or how he will use it but it’s to keep a record of his information consumption for the future. He also keeps notes in his “spark” folder for any ideas or questions he has and he examines them about 6 months later. Knowing he has such a system, it makes me think further about how I can evolve the 300+ learning points I’ve collected with this TWIL newsletter into some sort of mental reference library for myself going forward. Something else Dan talks about is the idea of looking at introversion and extroversion as a spectrum. A spectrum where only the edge 10% of the populations may be classified as introverts/extroverts with the vast 80% being made up of ambiverts (people who are a mix of the two). I for one believe that I am an extrovert who is introverted. Per his book, To Sell is Human, he notes that ambiverts are the best sales people because they can actually empathize and understand people by balancing the two traits. https://www.chasejarvis.com/blog/dan-pink-if-you-believe-in-it-share-it/
2020-02-04
Fascinating interview with the lawyer who is defending Harvey Weinstein. A point of view (POV) of ’innocent until proven guilty’, a sentiment that seems to be lost in today’s world where allegations from women can destroy lives. Where ’she said’ should actually be examined as there are two sides to every story. I think the lawyer presents great factoids to consider before people choose to pick sides or pass on swift judgment with fear of looking different. It also is a POV on how it’s not about ignoring the possibility of anything (which the interviewer tries to elude to) but about putting people accountable and responsible for situations. So people can’t just play the helpless victim but that most actually have made choices that result in this situation. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/07/podcasts/the-daily/weinstein-trial.html
2020-02-05
Food for thought. An exploration on how travel bans do not necessarily stop the spread of viruses and how it may actually be wasted action that may only cause needless stress to those subjugated to it. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-canadas-decision-against-travel-bans-tied-to-coronavirus-backed-by/
2020-02-06
Interview with Peter Buffet, Music composer and Warren Buffet’s youngest child. It was the first interview I listened to that examined the life of one of Buffet’s children and it was quite fascinating. Peter pursued music at an earlier age and found a way to construct a unique career in the field. He currently tours with a cello player doing a ‘music+conversation’ where they have a concert with intermissions where the musicians will have conversations with the audience. Something Peter says that stuck in my mind was how all he knew of his father was that his father loved what he did. Despite Buffet’s growing wealth, Peter did not feel its impact because their house, car or surrounding didn’t change. All he saw was a father obsessed with what he did and so at an early age he learned that he should probably do something he loved just as much. An indication of why its important for parents to be doing what they love because they will set an example through their actions. He is also big in philanthropy and shares his criticism of the modern philanthropic world as being filled with rich, old, white guys who don’t actually give two shits (my word) about making any change. http://investorfieldguide.com/peterbuffett/
2020-02-07
Braverman test. I learned about this personality test that tells you what neurotransmitters you are dominant/deficient in. It’s used by the late Canadian strength coach Charles Poliquin to understand an athlete’s personality so he can create a program that is fitting to how the athlete responds to stimuli. Poliquin uses the results from the Braverman test and applies it to the 5 Chinese elements to describe an athlete. As for my results, there definitely are some alignment with how I’ve responded to various training stimuli when I examined the last few years of training data. But this will be the year I design programs specifically tailored to testing these principles so it is a ’to be determined’ pejorative. However, my result came out as a Acetyl Choline dominant person and what they describe about my nature has been determined to be ’spot on’ by those close to me. So give it a whirl! https://www.bravermantest.com