🗣 How to talk good.

If you’ve spoken to me in real life you’d probably think I’m a bit aloof (not friendly or forthcoming; cool and distant). The reason is that I listen more than I speak and I also think more than I feel which I’m trying to improve but I'll always worry if what I say is not coming across as clear and impactful as I’d like.

Writing has helped me improve how I speak as it’s the key to connecting the dots in my mind to help muster an idea.

✍️ Quote of the week:

You can waste years of your life if you keep thinking you still have time.

🎶 Song of the week:

Vegas Lights by Panic! At The Disco

📖 What I’m reading:

Still reading the 12 Rules of Life. As I said before, It’s a lengthy read but I’m hoping to be finished with it this week. It is getting better as I continue to read through it.

🧠 Top 3 learnings:

🤝 Share feelings, not facts - People connect with people as simple as that sounds. The best connections are the ones that make us feel a certain way. People will often forget the conversation they had but they’ll never forget how you made them feel. Telling a friend that just moved into their new apartment that the average rent price has gone up 43% in the past 2 years is not anything that they can reply back with. You’ve now made yourself the instructor and they now think their job is to listen to you.

People connect with feelings, not facts. Sharing something personal, a story, an anecdote, or even an opinion based on something that’s happened to you is all better than just being informative.

⬛️ How to deal with Nihilism (nothing matters) - When I get thoughts like “in a million years none of this will matter” it triggers my existentialism to the point where everything is meaningless. But any idiot can choose a time frame in which nothing matters. For instance, if you invested $5 in Dogecoin 4 years ago, you’d have $43 million dollars. Or my personal favorite: “if you invested $100 dollars in the stock market in the year 1800, you’d be dead by now.”. What's done is done, what happens tomorrow is unknown, but what happens today is all we have and we can't relive it.

Talking yourself into non-existence is not a meaningful critique of yourself. It robs you of your true potential and also your joy.

✍️ How I remember everything I read - One thing that is helping me become a better reader is that I’m writing down the things I’ve learned. I highlight quotes inside physical books (I think you can also do that in a kindle) that stand out to me, I write down memorable quotes, what I didn't like, plus a little book summary all in Notion when I’m finished. This helps me recollect a lot of what I read and helps my ADD mind when it comes to focusing on the content of a book. I’m not just passively reading, I’m actively listening. Looking for things that I can teach others and myself.

Reading helps reveal the dots and writing connects them.

🤑 Crypto

I end up having to rewrite these a few times throughout the week. I should just write these fresh right before I post since the market changes so quickly. Who knows, an hour after this is posted this information could be outdated.

Welp, I was wrong about Ukraine. Looks like there's a war. In fact; Kazahkstan shut down 13 illegal bitcoin mining facilities. My guess is that is why the BTC hash rates were so high leading up to the new developments in Russia. With Russia getting rid of its U.S. reserves it makes sense that they're putting value elsewhere: gold, silver, crypto, and commodities.

Also disclaimer: keep in mind I've been trading for 6 years and I just became a foreign policy expert last night. So take my comments with a grain of salt.

🖍 Designer thoughts:

Design feedback is one of the worst parts of being a new designer unless you’re Kanye West and everything you do is perfect. It’s one of the main reasons imposter syndrome exists. We live in a world that is constantly improving, finding new ways to get better, and seeking to disrupt what’s already disrupted. When you apply that morale to design it can limit a designer's growth. Here’s a harsh truth as I’ve been doing this for 12 years. It doesn’t get easier, you just get better at handling feedback. Feedback is a healthy thing. What I’ve seen that separates moderately-successful designers and extremely-successful designers is that the latter legitimately enjoy being wrong. They seek out feedback often. They embrace new information that forces them to change their perspective. The more of it the better they get at it.

👴 Dad thoughts

As a kid, my mother gave me all the love and attention in the world. As I got older I realized that it didn’t prepare me for much. I’m not saying that it stunted me or what she was doing was wrong. I’m saying that when I moved on to the real world it was difficult for me to find that my life, as well as abilities, had limitations. Realizing those harsh truths can be healthy but certainly hard especially when you’ve been told the opposite your whole life. As a dad now I realize that there’s a strong balance. Letting kids do things for themselves and seeing them fail is great. In my household, we reward failure. It lets me know that we’re on to something.

Give too much praise and kids might feel too compelled to do things only for that praise. And feel disinterested if it doesn’t fulfill that internal need. Give too little and kids feel neglected and tired. Always searching for ways to feel noticed. The balance there is to give praise when it’s needed and to help them when it’s not.

I'm headed to Vegas for the weekend, I hope yours is great!

📬 PS: Please do reply to this email if you have anything to add / any questions. I quite enjoy replying to comments/emails as a source of procrastination from revision.

📬 PPS: Please hit the <reply> button and let me know what you thought of this email if you have a spare few seconds. I'd love to hear your thoughts on what was useful about it and what could be changed. Thanks <3