Category: Expectations
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Montage fallacy
The training montage of Rocky was the most outstanding part of the story to me. It was inspiring to watch Rocky’s personal transformation, from a bum to a champion, effectively take place in several minutes. This kind of montage is a common element in all sorts of movies. It’s an incredibly boring part of the…
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Confidence, from within
A few months ago, I read this piece by Kunal Gupta on conditional confidence. He observes that he reached a state of confidence after an event, like a successful outcome or an achivement. For example, one statement would be, “Once I hire people to work with me, then I can feel confident in my business…
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Manifesting works as an initial step
Chris Do asks, “Do you believe in manifesting?” He expands, “About 10 years ago, I started telling people that I wanted to travel the world, and have other people pay for it. Now, I’m invited to speak (all over the world) and am paid for it.” Chris shares a couple of additional examples, like daydreaming…
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Take an inventory of your top ten memories
There’s a saying, “You’re only as good as your last performance.” For example, an author might say, “You’re only as good as your last article.” That’s all good until you experience a setback—or perhaps an unfortunate streak of them. If you buy too heavily into the statement, “You’re only as good as your last performance,”…
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Intergenerational advantages
Children of entrepreneurs are more likely to start their own businesses; this paper pegs an increased likelihood at 60%. This has implications for financial well-being; as Robert Frank writes in Richistan, “Most Richistanis got where they are by tapping into this global river of cash—usually by starting their own companies.” It’s important to acknowledge this…
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POSSE
Platforms can amplify your voice, certainly. However, publishing directly on them as a medium also changes the way you approach writing. A platform incentivizes you to think of what your work can do for you; true creative work requires you to consider what you can do for your work—and for other people. It’s a platform’s…
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“Why not?”
Sometimes you don’t need a good reason to do something. You need a good reason to not do it. Also, “Why not me?” Is there a good reason that you don’t deserve something good to happen to you? Is there a good reason that something positive shouldn’t happen to you? (The same question can be…
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Your bowl of spaghetti
In Truth, Hector Macdonald writes, “A schoolteacher of mine once compared history to a bowl of spaghetti. There are many strands, all mixed up together, he said. Historians have to select a strand and pull it free from the rest to paint a coherent picture of the past. I still think it’s a great metaphor.…
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Charlie Munger, on low expectations
The first rule of a happy life is low expectations. If you have unrealistic expectations you’re going to be miserable your whole life. You want to have reasonable expectations and take life’s results good and bad as they happen with a certain amount of stoicism. Charlie Munger, via Morgan Housel
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Paul Graham, on raising ambition
Economist and author Tyler Cowen recently spoke to Y Combinator founder Paul Graham. There’s a particular section of their conversation that caught my interest, which was about raising other people’s ambitions. Cowen had previously written a blog post on the topic, concluding, “This is in fact one of the most valuable things you can do…