Medley 63: Profiting from Chaos, Stoic Books, Funky AI Walking, Geeking out over sticky notes...
Hope you had a good weekend! It's nice to be back stateside, I missed cell service and Chipotle.
New Article : "10 Books to Read After Discovering Stoicism"
It's great how much Tim Ferriss and others have done to promote practical philosophy via stoicism, but a lot of people stop reading after Seneca and Aurelius. Here are 10 books you're guaranteed to love if you enjoy reading the Stoics.
New Episode : "How to Profit from Chaos: Lessons from Antifragile by Nassim Taleb"
This has been the most popular Nat Chat episode ever so far (!!). Neil Soni, who joined for episode 7, came back to break down Antifragile by Nassim Taleb with me. Specifically, how can you use its lessons to improve your life and avoid being vulnerable to surprises? Why should we intervene less and let bad things happen? What's wrong with going to the doctor? This was my favorite episode I've done, so definitely check it out.
New Lessons : This week I added my lessons from "The Book of Five Rings" by Miyamoto Musashi (8/10), "The Art of Non-Conformity" by Chris Guillebeau (7/10), and "Escape from Cubicle Nation" by Pamela Slim (3/10).
Thank you to Jimmy Soni for sending me an advance copy of "A Mind at Play." I'm excited to read it, and will share my notes on it once I do. For a preview, check out Jimmy's article on "How A Genius Thinks, Works, and Lives."
Google's DeepMind taught itself to walk, in an amusing but slightly terrifying digital demonstration.
I read through Steven Pressfield's new book, "Nobody Wants to Read Your Shit" on the plane back to NYC. It's quite good, if skimmable at times. I'd recommend it to any writer or person who enjoyed The War of Art.
If you haven't already booked a place to go for the solar eclipse, you should. Here's what you need to know from the WaPost.
For a bit of humor: "Welcome to our startup where everyone is 23 years old..."
Has anyone done Jordan Peterson's "Self-Authoring" program? Thinking of giving it a go.
This might seem completely trivial to you, but I switched from Post It colored tabs for taking notes in my physical books to these "Stickies" from Staples. The Staples ones are far superior. Sticky back so you can keep them attached to the back of the book while you're reading, nicer colors, and they feel better. I'm sure I'm one of maybe a dozen people in the world who cares about this, but, there you go!
I've seen a few people criticize green tea recently, and it's true that green tea is bitter and not great if you buy cheap tea and don't know how to steep it, BUT, good green tea is delicious. If you want some ideas for getting started, check out my tea recommendations.
Have a great week,
Nat