I know you usually expect this letter on Thursdays, but I’m reaching out early to share two updates in advance of the next issue—one about the name of this newsletter and the other about an exciting platform change.| Out of Curiosity
Don't pursue something because you "want to be great". Pursue something because it fascinates you, because the pursuit itself engages and compels you.| Out of Curiosity
Don't wait for it. Create a world, your world. Alone. Stand alone. Create. And then the love will come to you, then it comes to you.| Out of Curiosity
But this isn’t really about your job. It’s about your relationship to resources and value. It’s about whether you are building a conservative nest egg along the conventional tracks or a bold empire on the frontier. This is, after all, the point of quitting your job and exploring: to find the new lands of opportunity in which you will build an empire.| Out of Curiosity
I’ve seen this with my friends, in how they are full of ideas and adventurous spirit a few months after I convince them to quit their jobs. The world is full of ideas and opportunities to explore, but it takes time outside of structure to even adjust your eyes to the landscape of possibility. You are cramped by your job, unable to make the class of investments that is necessary for a life beyond the existing tracks.| Out of Curiosity
90 percent of success is not getting distracted. The person who carefully designs their daily routine goes further than the person who negotiates with themselves every day.| Out of Curiosity
Among his various possible beings each man always finds one which is his genuine and authentic being. The voice which calls him to that authentic being is what we call ‘vocation.’| Out of Curiosity
True self-help is just that: helping yourself. It's an act ofpersonal leadership and direction. It certainly requires thatyou consider advice and contemplate the ideas of others.But being a sheep-following the newest advice as if itwill magically spur your change—is not engaging in self-help. Instead, truly helping yourself requires that youcourageously grasp the shepherd's crook in your own fiston your own journey.| Out of Curiosity
I read a book that said: "Marriage is hard. Divorce is hard. Choose your hard. Obesity is hard. Being fit is hard. Choose your hard. Being in debt is hard. Being financially disciplined is hard. Choose your hard. Starting a business is hard. Working a 9 to 5 job is hard. Choose your hard. Life will never be easy, but you can choose your hard. Choose wisely!"| Out of Curiosity
The path to a greater life is not “suffering until you achieve something,” but letting bits and pieces of joy and gratitude and meaning and purpose gradually build, bit by bit.| Out of Curiosity
I don’t really have any apocalypse theories or immortality theories or afterlife theories and right now I don’t feel like I need them. I believe in the aliveness present in all things. I want to write every day and read books and to be in love and live near all my friends and work on what I know to be true and good. For me, that’s salvation—that’s ambition.| Out of Curiosity
Looking back, however, that list was incredibly valuable because it taught me the usefulness of chasing bold ideas—even if they never materialize. The dreams that didn't happen changed shape and led me down other interesting paths.| Out of Curiosity
The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.| Out of Curiosity
Closed mouths don't get fed. If you never ask, you'll never get anything you want. That's not a risk worth taking. Ask for things, specifically when you've done the work to deserve it.| Out of Curiosity
“Maybe means no.” If you're dating somebody and it feels like a “maybe,” the answer is no. If you get an invitation to something and you’re just not sure, the answer is no. Whenever you say “yes” to something, you should say it with gusto, and say “no” to anything that doesn't feel quite right.| Out of Curiosity
Don’t look for outside validation, validate yourself. Better to get your dopamine from improving your ideas than from having them validated.| Out of Curiosity
Win or lose, the process, strategy, and ups and downs of being totally IN the game is enough. But most people never play. They work a job they hate, comfortable and bored. And they stay there.| Out of Curiosity
Reading about how to do the thing isn't doing the thing. Reading about howother people did the thing isn't doing the thing. Reading this essay isn'tdoing the thing. The only thing that is doing the thing is doing the thing.| Out of Curiosity
Whenever someone provokes you, be aware that the provocation really comes from your own judgment. Start, then, by trying not to get carried away by the impression. Once you pause and give yourself time, you will more easily control yourself.| Out of Curiosity
The tryer fixates on the difficulty of the task, and hopes for relief in the form of success. The intender fixates on success and navigates any difficulty arising on the way.| outofcuriosity.substack.com
Everything in life, including us, is in a state of flux. Change is the only constant, everything is transient, and nothing is ever complete. By practicing wabi-sabi, we are taught to be grateful and accepting and strive for excellence rather than perfection.| outofcuriosity.substack.com
Your 20s are not the best years of your life. If you live life correctly the general path should be: 20s pain and suffering, 30s tons of excitement change and income, 40s repeat 30s but your body slows down a bit and then 50s = do whatever you like.| outofcuriosity.substack.com
An initial period of concentration—conscious, directed attention—needs to be followed by some amount of unconscious processing. The key to solving a problem is to take a break from worrying, to move the problem to the back burner, to let the unwatched pot boil.| outofcuriosity.substack.com
Like an internal compass, boundaries can all start with a “gut feeling” that tells you when you have the time or energy to devote to something versus when you need to say “no.” Good boundaries free you to live life on your terms.| outofcuriosity.substack.com
The difference between seriousness and sincerity is not how involved you are in the activities of your life, but in how tightly you grip. In fact, I would go even further still: gripping less tightly can actually unlock better performance and with much less effort. Simple activities, like playing catch, floating in a pool, or balancing on a beam, require the right amount of effort, but not more. Otherwise, you start to get in your own way.| outofcuriosity.substack.com
“Time moves faster as you get older.” It doesn’t, but your perception of time absolutely moves faster. Actually, it gets scary fast.There’s nothing worse than filling your time with pointless shit to feel busy and useful, only to realize you wasted your time (and probably other people’s time as well.)| outofcuriosity.substack.com
In our anxious quest to redesign our systems to make them more humane and more accountable, we can’t either focus solely on rest or treat a life that’s dominated by career ambition as complete. We have to recognize and celebrate the basic joys of feeling driven — waking up in the morning with a hunger for life itself, wanting to pack each precious day with all of the passions and the people we love the most.| outofcuriosity.substack.com
You are on the bridge and you are going to be on the bridge until you get to this other side. And then guess what happens when you get to the other side? There's another freaking bridge. Every single episode is like its own bridge. Meaning comes from working on something with intention that has importance to you.| outofcuriosity.substack.com