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Your brain’s ecosystem
Virgil Abloh really DJed. Music, hanging out, and DJing shaped his brain—they were key fundamentals to his ecosystem. This ecosystem would enable him to take his skills and approach into fashion and creative direction. I write every day at this blog. It’s a key part of my ecosystem. In a recent interview, I was reminded…
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Sleeping just enough
A few years ago, I started experiencing fragmented sleep. One of the first things I did was buy a book entitled, Quiet Your Mind and Get to Sleep. It came with a worksheet to help keep track of how much sleep you had, what the circumstances were, etc. I tracked this for 12 weeks or…
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Don’t just talk about it, write it out
There is a lot of jargon in the business world. That’s because it’s easy to give something a name and talk about it. It’s much more difficult to give meaning to the name and define it. Writing the new definition out forces you to get clear on the specifics of what it means. It also…
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Assume sincerity
“It was so great to see you!” your colleague says. Does your colleague say that to everyone to be polite, or did they actually mean it? “I love your shirt!” a waiter tells you. They just served you the bill. Are they flattering you in the hopes of earning a higher tip? You describe a…
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Dead ends and gateways
The reward for good projects are more projects. Some people are willing to pay you for projects that you may not enjoy doing. There are two types of projects: Dead ends are projects that you don’t enjoy, and don’t lead you to an outcome you want. You can figure this out by looking at people…
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The sincerity of a blog post
It’s not very likely your blog post will go viral. There is no status, money, or recognition to gain from writing a blog. Here’s what remains: I’ve recently been reminded of how sincere and vulnerable that people who write blog posts choose to be. I find it rare even for many of my friends, many…
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Tolerance for difficult emotions
A paper from decades ago studied both elite and non-elite swimmers. The findings suggest that while both types of swimmers experience intense anxiety, elite swimmers interpreted the emotion as a part of the process—their bodies were getting ready to perform well—whereas more non-elite swimmers felt that the anxiety was debilitating. This tendency could probably apply…