The Art of Less Doing: One Entrepreneur’s Formula for a Beautiful Life

I listened to the audiobook of this title and was pleasantly surprised. It was included in the Amazon Audible plus catalogue which is free for members so I thought I would give it a go even though I’d not heard anything about it. I’ve not had a great experience so far with the books in the plus catalogue so I wasn’t holding out much hope for this one. However, It was a great book with some interesting ideas and well worth a listen considering it didn’t cost anything.

The main point of the book is to do less by being more effective and efficient at what you do. There are 3 ways to do this: optimize, automate and outsource

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Optimize

We should not try to do the most possible but try to do the least necessary to achieve our goals.

Track what you want to improve: what you eat, how often you work out, what you do with your spare time etc

Have a second brain. Use a notetaking app to record your ideas and notes.

Hour of Power: Find the time in the day which you are most productive. (the author has an app to help with this) and do your focused work during this time. Protect this time. This is when you will be most effective. An hour of focused work here will achieve more than hours of unfocused work later in the day.

Likewise, have an hour when you know most of your mental energy will be spent and have a list of things you can get done here were less focus is needed eg cooking, reading / research, blogging / social media.

For every task or every email think:

• Deal with or delegate
• defer
• delete / dump

Automate

If there is a task which you do regularly you should automate it. Use the IFTT website to make certain tasks happen automatically based on previous actions.

multi-platform re-use: What can you make once and use on different platforms? Can you turn your blog into a YouTube video or your video into a podcast?

Use Hassleme website to set up reminders

Batching: do all your similar tasks at the same time. Cook all your meals in one day or reply to all your emails in one hour of the day

Outsource

get a virtual assistant.

Outsource simple jobs that will take up time or whole projects.

Let people who are experts in their thing do the job rather than trying to do everything eg video editing, design, proofreading.

Summery in 3 points

• Optimize your time so you are only spending time on work that is most important to you
• Automate the things that you do every day that don’t require your personal skills or attention
• Outsource jobs and let them be done by experts rather than trying to learn and do everything yourself

David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants By Malcolm Gladwell

Who should read this book: entrepreneurs and underdogs

Unfortunately I lost the first part of my notes on this book. The book consists of a collection of stories that illustrate how we’re often wrong in the way we thing about underdogs and the powerful. I haven’t attempted to summarise any of the stories because Malcolm does such a good job at telling them, it’s just worth reading them the way he presents them. Malcolm is a great storyteller and clearly a deep thinker. David and Goliath was a joy to read.

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We are often mislead about the nature of advantages

The best most prestigious institutions may leave you as a small fish in a big pond. You might feel like you’re not very good and could leave you with less chance of achieving your goals, despite the institution being bigger and better.

We’re often mislead about the nature of disadvantages.

Making something harder can slow down the thought process and make it easier to solve a problem where the intuitive answer is wrong.

By making a question harder to read by using a unclear font people have to spend more time and resource on the problem and are more likely to get it right.

There are times and places where struggles can be desirable.

A surprisingly large number of entrepreneurs are dyslexic.

Not being able to read well can be an advantage if you develop skills and shortcuts to deal with that. To become better at listening and asking questions for example.

For a dyslexic, by the time you finish school your ability to feel with failure is very highly developed.

Although overcoming difficulties like dyslexia caused some people to be successful, the price was high. They wouldn’t wish dyslexia on their own children.

The underdog has the freedom that comes with having nothing to lose.

A limitation of power is that it must be seen as legitimate. If it’s not it will have the opposite effect.

Summery in three points:

1. Having power, authority and lots of resources can give you an advantage but can also leave you with blind spots and weaknesses you can’t anticipate.
2. Overcoming seemingly impossible obstacles can leave you with confidence and resilience. But not everyone facing huge obstacles will be able to overcome them.
3. The underdog had nothing to lose so will fight harder and smarter and do everything it takes. Those with power may be complacent or arrogant, which will leave them at a disadvantage.

date read: 18/2/21

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear

Who should read this: Anybody who wants to make improvements in their life.

I’ve had this on my to-read list for quite a while and it didn’t disappoint. I’ve heard James Clear on a few podcasts so I was aware of some of his ideas. I’m a strong believer in the power of habits so I was very much on board with James throughout the book. There was some crossover with stuff I’d heard on podcasts and in books like 12 Rules For Life and The Talent Code but also plenty of ideas and techniques that were new to me. Well worth a read.

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Changes that feel small and unremarkable at first compound into significant changes if you’re willing to stick with them for years.

Habits are the compound interest of self improvement.

You should be more concerned with your current trajectory than with you current results.

If you want to find out where you’ll end up in life, just follow the trend of your tiny gains or losses and see how your daily habits will compound 10 years down the line.

Time magnifies the margin between success and failure. It will multiply whatever you feed it.

The effects of these small changes don’t seem to make any difference until at done point there is a noticeable change. This leads people to give up on habits before they see any change.

Don’t focus on goals, focus on systems.

Winners and losers have the same goals. It’s the system, not the goal they leads to success.

If you can’t stick to your habits it’s not your fault, it’s the fault of the systems you are using.

You do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.

Changing habits: there are 3 layers of habits

1. Changing outcomes eg writing a book, running a marathon.
2. Changing your process: implementing new habits and routines
3. Changing your identity. Changing your world view, your beliefs, your assumptions about yourself and others.

Most people try to change their habits by focusing on outcomes but it’s more effective to start by focusing on identity. Don’t want to run a marathon, be a runner. Don’t try and quit smoking, be a non-smoker.

If our identities don’t match our desired outcome, our habits won’t stick.

The more pride you have in a particular aspect of your identity, the more effort you will put in to maintaining those habits.

Our identity comes from what we do. If we work out every day, we have evidence that we are athletic etc. The more we do something the more it becomes part of our identity, for both good and bad habits.

Habits are the path to changing your identity.

It’s a two step process:

1. Decide the person that you want to be
2. Prove it to yourself

Habits are reliable solutions to recurring problems.

Habits reduce mental load and free up your attention by automating decision.

He process of building a habit can be decided into 4 steps: Cue, craving, response and reward.

Cues trigger your brain to initiate a behaviour. It predicts a reward.

Cravings are the motivational force behind all our habits. You don’t crave the habit itself but the change in state which it delivers. You don’t want to turn in the TV, you want to be entertained. Every craving is linked to a desire to change your internal state.

The response is the actual habit you perform, which can take the form of a thought or an action.

The reward satisfies your cravings. Reward also tell our brain which actions are worth remembering for the future.

Whether an action occurs depends on how motivated you are and how much friction there is to perform the action.

4 laws of behaviour change:

1. Cue: make it obvious
2. Craving: make it attractive
3. Response: make it easy
4. Reward: make it satisfying

Revert these laws to eliminate bad habits.

Our habits are automatic and unconscious. Before we build new habits we need to become aware of them.

If a habit remains mindless you can’t expect to improve it.

Habit scorecard:

Make a list of all your habits in a day in minute detail. Mark beside them off they’re positive, negative or neutral.

Ask yourself if the habit moves you towards being the kind of person you want to be.

Implementation intentions: saying you will do something at a certain time on a certain date. This makes you much more likely to do it. Time and place are common cues for habits.

You should say when and where you will perform your habit when you are trying to build new habits.

You often decide what to do next based on what you’ve just done.

One of the best ways to build a new habit of to stack it into a habit they you already do.

Many of our decisions are not based on our drive or choice but because they’re the most obvious option: the environment shapes our behaviour and habits.

What we see day to day has a big impact on what we’ll do. Creating obvious visual cues can draw your attention towards a desired habit.

Create a separate space for relaxing, working, cooking, sleeping etc.

One of the best ways to cut out a bad habit of to eliminate exposure to the cue that causes it.

Self control is a short term strategy. It may work once or twice but in the long run you should change the environment and context in which the habits take place.

People with high self control trend to spend less time in tempting situations. It’s easier to avoid temptation than resist it.

Habits are a dopamine driven feedback loop. All habits require dopamine to form.

Dopamine is experienced not just when you experience pleasure but also when you anticipate it.

Temptation bundling: bundling an action that you want to do with one that you need to do eg listening to a good audiobook at the gym or going on your exercise bike while watching Netflix.

Proximity is important:

We pick up habits from the people around us.

The closer we are to someone the more likely we are to imitate their habits.

One of the best things you can do to build better habits is join a culture where your desired behaviour is the norm.

When we are unsure how to act we look to the group to guide our behaviour.

Reframe your habits to highlight their benefits. Say I get to … not I have to… Cook dinner, go to work, etc.

Create a routine before doing something you love eg take three deep breaths and smile before you stroke your dog. Your actions will become associated with positive feelings. You can then do that action before the habit to associated it with positive feelings.

Reframe your mindset: highlight the benefits of avoiding your bad habits.

To master behaviour change the key is repetition not perfection. Don’t spend too long planning, just start doing.

Putting in the repetitions is one of the most critical steps you can take to encoding a new habit.

Don’t try and increase your motivation to do the hard things in your life, make the barrier to entry easier.

Reduce the friction in getting a habit done to make that habit easier. Pick a gym that is on your route home.

Automate, eliminate or simplify to reduce friction.

When you start a new habit it should take less than two minutes to do.

A new habit shouldn’t feel like a challenge. What follows can be challenging but the gateway in should be easy.

Use a commitment device or Ulysses pact. Do something in advance that makes it more difficult to avoid doing your chosen behaviour. Schedule and pay for your yoga lesson in advance. Arrange to do your work with a friend at a certain time.

Positive emotions cultivate habits, negative emotions destroy them. What feels good is repeated.

Our brains evolved to prefer quick payoffs to long term ones.

The cost of your bad habits are in the future, the cost of your good habits are in the present and the rewards in the future. That’s why bad habits are easier to pick up than good ones.

To work with human nature you should add a bit of immediate gratification to habits which pay off in the long run. And a bit of immediate pain to the ones they don’t.

The trick is to feel successful. If you feel successful you’ll feel like your habit paid off.

Reinforcement ties the end of your habit to an immediate reward. Eg if saving money transfer it into an account labelled holiday.

The more a habit becomes part of your identity the less important external rewards become.

Reinforcement helps maintain motivation white you’re waiting for the long term benefits to arrive.

Progress is satisfying. Make visual representation of your progress eg food journal, workout log habit tracker.

A habit tracker is the best way to measure progress.

Never miss twice. Perfection is not possible but you can aim to never miss your habit twice in a row.

It’s important to show up even when you don’t feel like it. small is better than nothing.

The danger of tracking is you can be driven by the number and not the behaviour behind it.

Adding a cost or pain is a good way to reduce a behaviour. The bigger the cost the faster we learn…

A habit contract can add a cost to unwanted behaviour.

You decide what the consequence of not doing your habit is and get an accountability partner to sign off on it.

Even if there aren’t any formal consequences having an accountability partner is a good idea.

You should direct your energy to areas that both excite you and match your natural skills.

Choose the habits that suit your personality.

Creating an environment where the odds are in your favour is crucial for maintaining motivation and feeling successful.

Pick the right habit and progress is easy, pick the wrong habit and life is a struggle.

Explore/exploit:

At first spend a lot of time exploring all options and do the ones that your best at while spending a small amount of time exploring new options.

To find out what to exploit you can ask:

• What feels like fun to me but work to others?
• What makes me lose track of time?
• Where do I get greater returns then the average person?
• What feels natural to me?

When you can’t win by being better you can win by being different. You can combine your skills to get a unique advantage. You can be the person good at writing and programming and creative thinking.

Specialisation: even if you’re not naturally gifted you can often win by being the best in a very narrow category.

The upside of habits is that you can do them without thinking. The downside is that you can stop paying attention to what your doing and let little errors slide.

To master a skill you need a combination of automatic habits and deliberate practice.

Use your new habits to advance to the next level of difficulty.

Each habit unlocks the next level of performance.

Do a yearly reflection and review.

Identity is important but the more we cling to it the harder it is to grow beyond it.

You should avoid making any individual aspect of your identity so important that it completely defines you.

Summery in three points:

1. It is small habits done consistently which create drastic change in your life, not one of big life changes.
2. In order for habits to stick you should start small and make it rewarding.
3. Real change comes from changing the way you see yourself and recognising that your positive habits count as evidence towards your new identity

Date read: 06/02/21

Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence By Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans and Avi Goldfarb

Who should read this: Economists, Businesspeople, Entrepreneurs, AI Engineers

The book is an economist’s perspective on AI, which they refer to as prediction machines. It mainly takes a business perspective on the use of AI (as you would expect from a book about economics) but they also explore the impacts of the technology on the individual and on society. It doesn’t go into much detail about the technology itself but instead talks about the economic implications of having powerful prediction machines. Unless your thing is the business and economic impact of AI you might not find it a page turner but there are still plenty of interesting insights for those outside the business world.

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AI does not bring intelligence but a critical component of intelligence: prediction.

As the price of using AI drops it will become more and more prominent in products and services. The same way the internet changed the market by making things like search cheap, AI will make prediction cheap.

When the cost of something drops it can change the world. Think about the cost of artificial light. It’s so cheap you don’t have to think twice about using it, the implications of which are massive.

Prediction takes information you have (data) and uses it to create information you don’t have.

Machine Learning allows predictions based on unanticipated correlations. It can take into account unexpected connections between variables to make predictions more accurate.

While statistics emphasis being correct on average, the goal of machine learning is operational effectiveness.

Prediction machines rely on data. More and better data means better predictions.

Data becomes more valuable as prediction becomes cheaper.

If you can collect data on outcomes then your prediction machine can learn through feedback.

From a statistical perspective data has a diminishing value. Each new bit of data adds less to the collective pool of information. However small improvements from extra data in some circumstances can give a competitive advantage. Adding more data will not always add value.

Generally people don’t do well at predictions because they can overweight salient information and not take account of counter-intuitive statistics.

People do better than AI when there’s little data.

For best results humans and machines should work together.

Prediction is a key component in decision making but it is not the only component. Judgment and action is also important.

Judgment requires specifying the objectives you are perusing. Something that can only be done by humans and a skill that will increase in value with the increase of prediction machines.

In some cases you can hard code the judgment into AI. So when certain criteria are met a certain judgment will be followed. However, for less common events which occur when there are many potential options it is more efficient to get a human to provide a judgment after a prediction had been made.

A job is augmented when some but not all of it’s tasks are taken over by technology. The availability of spreadsheets augmented the work of bookkeepers.

The automation of tasks does not necessarily mean the automation of jobs. With the example of a schoolbus driver, when the bus can drive itself there will still need to be an adult on board to supervise the children.

Better predictions increase the value of human judgment, so the value of an employee will be to provide judgment on predictions.

Experience is a scarce resource, some of which must be allocated to humans to avoid de-skilling. Eg if a self driving car only hands back control to humans in unusual / emergency situations the driver must have enough experience to deal with the situation. There is a trade off between allocating experience to humans and to AI in order to improve predictions.

Summery in three points:

1. Artificial intelligence is a prediction machine. The better we get at AI the better, cheaper and more widespread prediction will be in our society.
2. As prediction becomes cheaper and more widespread the compliments to prediction, things like data and human judgment, increase in value with the proliferation of machine prediction.
3. The value of human prediction will decrease as machines will do it cheaper, faster and more accurately.

Date read: 30/01/21

Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life By Nir Eyal

Who should read this: remote workers / self employed, students, parents, content creators

When I started this book I didn’t realise it was written by the author of Hooked: the infamous book on designing addictive technology. I was pleased that the scope of the book went beyond tech while still having lots to say about how to control tech distractions. The book is a good mixture of some thoughts on why we get distracted as well as practical advice on how change ourselves and the world around us to make us less distractable. One of the ideas I really liked is that you have to know what you want to be doing in order to know what is a distraction: if you plan to spend the evening catching up on a series on Netflix but you end up working, you are being distracted because you’re not doing what you set out to do. Nir puts a lot of emphasis on managing your time (a method he uses is called time-boxing) and being clear about what it is you want to be doing — so you can tell weather or not you are being distracted. He’s also got a website with lots of resources.

The antidote to impulsiveness is forethought. Planning ahead insures you’ll follow through.

Traction moves us towards our goals and distraction away from them. All actions whether towards traction or distraction are prompted by triggers: internal or external.

Internal triggers come from us, we feel hungry, tired etc. External triggers come from cues in our environment: ping of an email, phone ringing etc.

Being indistractable means striving to do what you say you’ll do and being honest with yourself.

Distraction is any action that moves you away from your goals.

Motivation: even when we think we are seeing pleasure we are often doing something to free ourselves from the pain of wanting.

The drive to relieve discomfort is the root cause of all our behaviour.

The power of distraction is not in the distracting thing itself but how we respond to it.

The proximate cause of distraction might be the phone or the TV but the underlying cause may be stress or anxiety.

Distraction is always an unhealthy escape from reality.

To overcome our distraction we must focus on the real form of discomfort in our life.

Anything that stops discomfort is potentially addictive.

Our satisfaction is always only temporary. This is because of:

1. Boredom
2. Negativity bias: where negative events are more salient and demand more attention than positive ones.
3. Rumination: our tenancy to keep thinking about bad experiences.
4. Hedonic adaptation: quickly returning to a base line level of happiness after a positive change in fortunes.

Although we cannot escape dissatisfaction it can drive us. We have to get rid of the feeling that if we’re not happy we’re not normal.

Time management is pain management: distractions cost is time and are caused by wanting to escape pain.

Resisting an urge can make the desire stronger. If you have an urge don’t try and stop thinking about it, instead:

• Look for the discomfort that precedes the action, focusing on the internal trigger
• Write down the trigger with info such as time of day, what you were doing …
• Explore that sensation

Beware of liminal moments: the moments of transition in your day: waiting at a traffic light, for the kettle to boiled etc. These are the times it’s easy to pick up your phone and before you know it you’ve spent half and hour scrolling.

How to focus on the work you do want to do:

• Focus on new challenges in the work that can create a sense of fun.
• Pay really close attention to what your task involves so you can find what’s new in it.
• Operating under constraints is the key to creativity and fun.

There is no limit to our willpower. Willpower acts like an emotion and ebbs and flows depending on what’s around us and how we feel.

If you believe you don’t have the willpower to overcome a certain temptation, you are much more likely to give in to it.

People who have more self compassion are more resilient. Speak to yourself as of you were speaking to a friend or loved one.

Our most precious asset is our time. If we don’t plan our days, someone else will.

To live or our values for ourselves, our family and at work, we need to have time in our schedules for each of these.

The most effective way to make time for traction is through time boxing (deciding on advance what you’re going to do and when you’re going to do it.)

It doesn’t matter what you do as long as you do what you planned to do.

Time boxing: decide how much time you want to spend on each domain of your life: work, family, yourself.

Book 15 minutes on your calendar each week to reflect and refine by asking:

• When in my schedule did I do what I say I would do and when did I get distracted?
• Was the distraction from a trigger or a planning issue.
• Are there changes I can make to my calendar that can better help me live out my values.

Does your calendar reflect who you want to be? You have to make time to live your values.

Schedule time for yourself first. If you are not happy and healthy everything else suffers.

If someone is important to you, make regular time for them on your calendar. Make time for your family and friends!

Schedule syncing with your boss or partner and aligning your expectations of time spent can be really useful.

Receiving a phone notification and not looking at it can be as distracting as looking at it. By having your phone in view, your brain had to work harder to focus on the task at hand.

Signal when you don’t want to be disturbed. Use a screen sign or other unambiguous cue.

Hack back your phone:

• Ask yourself if the apps serve you. If they don’t, delete them.
• Delete unused apps.
• Delete social media apps and instead view them on the web at a time you’ve set aside to do so.
• Sort your apps into 3 categories. Primary tools, aspirations and slot machines.
• Primary tools help you accomplished defined task that you rely on frequently. There shouldn’t be more then five it six.
• Aspiration is the things you want to spend time doing. Reading, meditating, yoga, podcasts.
• Slot machines are the apps you open and get lost in. Facebook Instagram etc.
• Only have primary tools and aspirations on your home screen.

If you need to read online articles, don’t do so in your browser. Save them for a time you’ve got allocated to reading articles. You can use the pocket app to save articles to your phone.

Pre commitments:

You can set a pact that will limit what you can do in the future.

Effort pact: increase the amount of effort required to perform an undesirable task. This can be locking yourself out of social media for a limited time.

Focus mate: a website to create focus pacts with another person. You work together via video link so you both have some accountability.

Price pact: where you put money on the line to do what you say you’ll do. It moves the pain of losing to the present moment and not further down the line in the future.

Rituals can be a good way of creating a behaviour which you’ll stick to. Even if it’s just a made up ritual for the sake of it. Ritual can reinforce your identity.

Work environments with high expectations and low control lead to depression like symptoms in employees. They will then engage in behaviour that distracts them from that pain.

Summery in three points:

1. We have to learn to deal with what makes us uncomfortable so we don’t reach for things to distract us from our discomfort.
2. We need to find a way to control the external triggers that lead to distraction: things like phone notifications
3. Creating an identity for yourself as “indistractable” and letting other people know about it will help you become indistractable.

Date read: 19/01/21

Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Gunaratana

Who should read this: Anyone interested in meditation or mindfulness

The first few chapters had some theological elements to it which I found a bit off putting. The rest of the book, however, contained some pretty good advice about meditation and mindfulness. It was a bit more prescriptive than other books and apps that I’ve used (I’ve used the Waking Up app for meditation for the last couple of years), but it’s also interesting to hear another perspective on mindfulness. Particularly about mindfulness “off the cushion”.

We feel like we’ll be happy “if only” such and such happens: we get a new job / boyfriend / car…

Change is the only thing that can be relied upon. This is the nature of the universe. Yet humans try to categorise everything as good bad or neutral. If something is good we try to extend it, and once it has past we try and repeat it. If bad we try to avoid it and if neutral we ignore it.

Meditate creates changes that are small and incremental, with larger changes only happening years down the line. Don’t look for big changes in the day to day practice.

Unlike in other traditions, in Buddhism meditation is not just about developing concentration but also awareness.

People behave as if impermanent things are permanent. In the end there is nothing that is permanent.

Through meditation we can watch ourselves reacting without getting caught up in the reaction.

The longer you meditate the more still your mind can become.

You should approach meditation with an attitude of experimentation. See what works and what doesn’t in your life and on the cushion.

Your posture should be chosen to try to avoid pain, muscular tension and falling asleep. Most important is a straight back.

Paying attention to the breath: fix your attention to a single point on the tip of the nostrils. Don’t try and follow or find the breath, just focus on feeling it at that point.

Difficulties are an important part of meditation practice. They are too be used not avoided

Dealing with pain: at first get rid of as much of the pain as possible, then use the pain as an object of your meditation.

If feeling drowsy apply mindfulness to the sensation of drowsiness.

When something distracts you from the object of your meditation, briefly make that the object of your meditation.

Mindfulness is not an intellectual endeavour, it’s just awareness

Mindfulness is pre symbolic. It is difficult to describe in words. It is not experienced in words or concepts.

In mindfulness meditation you develop concentration and mindfulness side by side. They need to be developed together. They are distinctly different but both have a role to play in meditation.

Difficulties in achieving concentration can come from environments with distractions both internally and externally. Things like greed and lust can hinder your ability to concentrate. Mindfulness on the other hand can take the distraction as the object of mindfulness. It makes no difference.

Unlike concentration, mindfulness cannot be developed by force.

If you find yourself getting frantic emphasize concentration, if you find yourself going into a stupor emphasize mindfulness.

A difficult but important part of developing meditation is moving from sitting meditation to meditating all the time. Some tools for practising this skill are:

1. Walking meditation
2. Posture: check in on your body and it’s physical sensations throughout the day
3. Breathing: mindfully focus on the breath throughout the day
4. Activities: be mindful of your activities throughout the day. Break your day into parts and concentrate on specific activities during that time

Summery in three points:

1. Sitting meditation is like piano scales or batting practice: it’s something that needs to be practised by novices and experienced meditators in order to develop mindfulness.
2. The solution to distractions and hindrances is to pay mindful attention to these things.
3. Mindfulness is something that can be experienced all the time and not just when meditating

Date read: 15/1/2021

Why We Get the Wrong Politicians By Isabel Hardman

Who should read this: Politicians, Journalists, Politics geeks

As a politics geek I really enjoyed this. Isabell Hardman is a lobby journalist who is well placed to peer into the mysteries of the UK parliamentary processes. Although the book is called How We Get the Wrong Politicians, Hardman seems very pro MPs. Her criticism is aimed at the culture and the processes which leads to poor laws and ineffective politicians. It was written in 2018 and was very current so it’s a bit out of date now but still well worth a read.

Parliament is under representative of women, disabled people, and people from “real-life” background eg not career politicians

Politicians often don’t feel comfortable in their own skin. As their career progresses they become more and more dependant on voters and more disillusioned with what they can achieve, which can leave them being brittle. Or are brittle people more likely to go into politics? Many politicians come from difficult family backgrounds, which may spur them on to want success and achievements.

Candidates are chosen by a selectorate: a narrow group of people within the party who decide who the parliamentary candidate will be for that area.

Party members get to choose their constituency candidate, and in safe seats this means they get to choose their MP. The MPs that they choose then make up the selectorate that choose their party leader and therefore the prime minister

Party members, like politicians are not representative of the wider community

Local government is the next step towards parliament. Council work is part time but takes part in normal work hours which makes it difficult to juggle with a normal job. This leads to people who are retired or privileged being better able to take these positions.

To become elected you must work hard for free for a number of years and spend thousands of pounds of your own money. And without a guaranteed job at the end of it. Not something most people could do.

Campaigning to win an election costs tens of thousands of pounds of candidates own money. It’s prohibitively expensive for people in lower paying jobs.

The demand on time while campaigning means the candidates careers will often go slow for a few years or they will have to give them up completely

Many candidates feel bullied from those within and outside their own party

New MPs, once elected, are left feeling disoriented, with little information on how to actually be an MP once they start the job.

Politicians spend more time than you might think meeting with their constituents and many derive a lot of value from doing so.

The abuse, death threats and credible threats of violence MPs receive is a strong disincentive for anyone joining politics.

MPs often find there is no time or incentive to scrutinise legislation. Amending a government bill or voting against the government can end any chance of promotion.

The culture at Westminster rewards those who want to climb up the career ladder not your who want to make better laws

To be seen as an effective minister you need to cultivate a media profile. Time spent wooing lobby journalists is time not spent working on their brief. They can also be seen as effective by making sweeping changes even if there’s nothing that needs fixing.

MPs have to split their time between London and their constituencies which can have a detrimental effect on their family lives and their relationships

There is a culture of drinking in parliament that puts some MPs at risk of developing an addiction.

taking the politics out: when politicians say they are taking the politics out of an issue and passing it on to experts or commissions, they are trying to avoid taking responsibility for difficult political issues.

Politicians are stuck between wanting to be seen as effective and active, but they don’t want to make any difficult decisions so also don’t want to do anything.

On political changes in the welfare system: “…this is because welfare is a potent combination of fiendishly complicated and politically salient, which means the incentive to get policies right are often outweighed by the incentive to sound as though you’re saying the right thing”

Potential solutions:

Having a separation of MPs and ministers, like in the American system the PM would elect ministers not from his MPs but anyone with expertise or experience on the field. This could stop MPs from having their focus solely on joining the executive.

Having select committees that could be a legislative powerhouse and offer MPs a pay raise would be an alternative to for them to just want to be a minister or a constituency “social worker” and would be an incentive to properly scrutinise legislation.

Summery in three points:

1. It takes a lot of money and dedication to even get the chance to becoming an MP. This limits the pool of people who will be able to put themselves forward for the job.
2. Politicians aren’t bad but the culture of Westminster incentivises the wrong things: becoming a minister or being a constituency MP and not being a great legislator.
3. Most politicians have very similar backgrounds which leave them with blind spots when creating new laws. This is one reason why a diversity of backgrounds is important.

Date read: 2/1/2021

The Confidence Game: The Psychology of the Con and Why We Fall for it Every Time By Maria Konnikova

Who should read this: Those interested in crime, psychology and conmen

This is the second book I’ve read by Konnikova, the first one being The Biggest Bluff where she goes from novice to pro poker player with some interesting insights luck chance and probability. The thing that sticks out with bother these books is how well written they are. They’re not fact heavy but easy and enjoyable to read as well as informative. This book is about confidence men, or con-men as they’re better known. Konnikova takes us through the various stages of “the con” interweaving the psychology of the cons, and why we fall for them, with stories of some of the most audacious cons, and how they were pulled off.

Con artists take advantage of our desire for a good story and our dislike of ambiguity. Give someone a compelling story and it will overcome their scepticism.

Top internet scams

1 fake weight loss product

2 prize promotions

3 buyers clubs

4 unauthorized internet billing

5 work at home programs

In the best cons the mark never knows they’ve been conned. They chalk their loss up to bad luck. Even if they know they’ve been conned many people are too embarrassed to admit it, so the con men never get prosecuted.

Most people have evolved to be generally altruistic, con artists don’t have this and perhaps have an evolutionary niche to take advantage of the rest of us. This nonchalance may be an alternative evolutionary strategy. It only works if done by a minority and most people feel they can trust one another.

The con artist has many traits in common with the psychopath. They also exhibit behaviour from the other “dark triad” of personality traits: that is narcissism and machiavellianism. Machiavellian may be a better descriptor of the con artist than psychopath. They are someone who will mislead and manipulate the people around them to get what they want. You can however posses all the traits of the dark triad and still not turn to being a con artist. They are overrepresented in the con artist community, but also in plenty of other areas of society.

For people with the propensity to con in a an organization eg insider trading, the culture in the organization makes a bit difference as to whether they will act on their desire to do so. If we think people might frown on our actions, we’re less likely to do it.

Although con artists are more likely to have dark triad traits they are still difficult to classify. This may be because we all have the capacity for deception, which we have at one time or another used.

We’re all pre-disposed to trust others. Those who trust more often do better, yet they’re also more vulnerable to being conned

We have bad intuitions on what makes people vulnerable to scams or what sort of people are likely to fall for scams.

People who are scammed often:

• Give away personal information on social media and “check in” to places on social media
• Click on pop ups
• Open email from senders they don’t know
• use online auction sites
• sign up for free limited trial offers
• download unfamiliar apps
• use online payment sites (particularly with broken secure connection)

If you’re feeling isolated or lonely or going through major life change your particularly vulnerable.

Impulsive and appetite for risk are the biggest predictors of vulnerability to being conned.

Non con artists are quite bad at reading other people. This may be adaptive for us. It’s often better if we don’t pick up on other’s signals that they don’t like us or have a different opinion than us. We tend to think people are much more like us. That is the base point that we start from. This protects our feeling of self worth. For the Con artists, accuracy is more important than self worth. We get better at reading other people when we have a motivation to do so, financial or otherwise. Con artists also have a lot of practice at it.

Con artists fake similarity and familiarity with their marks to build up trust. The most effective way to build up familiarity is personal contact, whether offline or online. Previous personal contact with someone through calls or emails makes you more vulnerable to doing what that person asks of you. Just seeing someone more than once will build familiarity. Even better is to have a conversation and better yet to be able to recall elements of that conversation to them later. Even just remembering their name.

To make the mark less able to tell what is going on, con artists put them under pressure and /or makes them feel powerful. Both these things make people less good at picking up signals from other people. Thoughts of money also detract from our ability to read other people.

The first thing a conman does after choosing a mark is to create emotion. People who are emotional are not rational. Feeling precedes thinking. We have a reaction based on how we feel and our thoughts are based on that, not the other way around.

People accept stories much more readily than facts. How a story starts is important. The con man will say: I’m not trying to sell you anything, or something to that effect and once you’re engaged in the story, it changes.

The more likely people are to buy a product / donate to charity after an advert is affected by how dramatic the storyline in that advert is.

A successful story does 2 things. It relies on the narrative, not on facts or arguments and it makes us identify with it’s characters.

Emotion:

Con artists will look for people who are sad. Recent break up, death of a loved one.

Fear is a con artists best friend.

The most persuadable are those who have been made to feel fear or anxiety then had that relieved, next are those who have unrelieved fear / anxiety, then those with no fear.

6 principals that given most persuasive relationships:

1. Reciprocity
2. Consistency
3. Social validation
4. Friendship or being liked
5. Scarcity
6. Authority

Foot in the door: if asked for a small favour you become more willing to grant a larger favour later on. The act of doing something for someone else makes you more, not less likely to do something else for them. We see ourselves doing a favour for someone and conclude subconsciously that we must like that person and we’re the type of person that would do them a favour. We like seeing ourselves as a good person. It feels good so we’re more likely to repeat the behaviour.

Door in the face: A big ask that we refuse leaves is feeling rude and guilty. When that person then asks for something smaller, we are more likely to say yes.

Disrupt then reframe:

The con artist disrupts your understanding of their attempt to influence you, then reframe it to make you more vulnerable being influenced.

We first understand the world then analyse it. The con artist tries to disrupt you before you have a chance to move on to analysis.

to sell a £3 card

It’s 300 pennies : disrupt. Takes time to think about and understand.

That’s 3 pounds. : Reframe

That’s a bargain: reframe again.

The con artist gains your trust be being the person they think you aspire to or want to be associated with.

Information priming: Giving subtle cues to make someone think of something then bringing it up explicitly, then they think you’re on the same wavelength. They might say, I was just thinking about that. The concept already seems familiar and so is preferred. We are more likely to think something is true if it’s already familiar.

When we are overtaxed with information we are more likely to do what we want not what we should.

We all think we are above average and con artists play on this. We don’t see things as too good to be true for ourselves because we think we’re not like most other people.

We remember interrupted tasks unless we feel we did badly on them. If we’re conned and we feel like a fool, we’re more likely to forget the experience and be vulnerable to being conned again.

Hindsight bias makes people who are conned believe that they knew it all along or had a sense that something wasn’t right. This makes them vulnerable to being conned again.

Gamblers fallacy: If something happens over and over again, eg heads in a coin toss, we expect something else to happen soon: tails to come up. If you’re being conned and you start loosing, you expect your luck to change and you must be due a win.

Once we’ve invested money time and reputation into something, we’re less likely to cut out losses when things start to go wrong.

Best way to avoid a con is to know yourself and know your limits. Pay attention if you’re going beyond your normal limits, borrowing money etc.

Before any venture ask questions ahead of time: how much risk am I willing to take, how much am I willing to lose, how far am I willing to go.

Know how to exit a situation. Have an escape clause or other way of exiting a situation with your dignity intact.

Note on narrative: Konnikova splits up the personal stories with information about specific scams or psychology. This is a great technique, leaving you wanting more and circling back to half finished stories.

Summery in three points:

1. Anyone can be conned: everyone has stages in their life when they’re vulnerable: during a break up, financial difficulty etc. They’re not stupid, just vulnerable at that particular time.
2. We overestimate our own ability not to be conned. Something which con artists often use against us.
3. Once we’re being conned we convince ourselves more and more that were not. We often double down when things start to go wrong rather than back away.

Date read: 15/12/20

Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World Class Performers by Tim Ferris

Who should read this: anyone interested in health, performance or business.

The book is split into three sections: Healthy Wealth and Wise. Each section has advice given from people who have knowledge in that particular area. I’m not sure the notes will be particularly useful because I’ve often just got one or two sentences for any particular person Tim talks to, on any particular issue. These are essentially my notes on Tim’s notes that he’s made while speaking to these people and as such they are a bit limited. On the whole I thought this book was interesting, however, I think it’s worth being careful attributing too much importance to the routines of successfully people; there are probably many people with the same routines, after all, who weren’t successful, they just didn’t get to write books or go on podcasts to talk about it.

Tim Ferris:

Note taking:

Notes are my recipe for life. Learn things once and use them forever.

Success is achievable if you collect the right field tested beliefs and habits.

How to win the morning:

Make your bed

Meditate

Hang: to decompress spine and develop strength

Tea: Pu-erh, turmeric, ginger and green tea. In mug with oils eg coconut oil.

Journal.

Lack of time is lack of priority

Stop before things become to stressful or unpleasant. You can still achieve 90% before you hit that point.

Treat life like a series of tests.

Book recommendation: Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert

8 step process for maximizing efficacy:

1 wake up an hour before you go on the computer

2 make a cup of tea

3 write down the 3 to 5 things that are making you anxious or uncomfortable

4 for each item ask yourself, if this is the only thing I accomplished today, will I be satisfied with my day

5 look only at the items you’ve answered yes to for at least one of these questions

6 Block out 2 to 3 hours to focus on one of them for today.

7 it must be one solid block of time and only one thing

8 If you get distracted or procrastinate don’t worry come back to your one thing

Being busy is a form of laziness. It’s a way to avoid the one or two big things you should do.

Morning pages:

Are like spiritual windscreen wipers.

Once we get all our scrambled thoughts on the page we can start our day with clear eyes

Should be stream of consciousness, just getting your thoughts on paper

Morning pages don’t need to solve your problems. They just need to get them out of your head.

Article recommendation: 1000 true fans by Kevin Kelly.

Book recommendation: Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big

Great works of creativity aren’t possible with 30 minutes here and 45 minutes there. You’ve got to commit to 4 to 5 hours.

My biggest wins have come from leveraging strengths not fixing weaknesses.

Saying no often trades popularity for respect.

It’s not giving up by putting your life as it is now on indefinite pause and trying something new. It’s likely you will be able to go back to where you were if things don’t work out.

Fear Setting:

Conquering fear = defining fear

1. Write down your fears towards a particular project or course of action without overthinking or editing:

   
   

   Define your nightmare. The worst case scenario for whatever you are considering. Imagine them in painstaking detail

   
   

   Would it be the end of you life? What would be the permanent impact, if any, on a scale of 1 to 10? Are they really permanent? What is the likely hood that they will actually happen?

   
   

2. What steps could you take to repair the damage or get things back on the upswing, even temporarily. It’s probably easier than you imagine.

   
   

3. What are the outcomes and benefits of more probable scenarios? What are the more probable or definite positive outcomes? Internal or external: confidence, self esteem etc. What are the probability of these on a scale of 1 to 10. How likely is it that you could produce a moderately good outcome.

   
   

4. If you were fired today, what would you do to get things under financial control. Picture this scenario and run through questions 1-3 again. If you quit your job to try other options, how could you get back on the same career tract if you absolutely had to.

   
   

5. What are you putting off out of fear. Usually what we are putting off out of fear is the thing we most need to do: that phone call, or difficult conversation.
6. What is it costing you to postpone action? Financially, emotionally and physically. Don’t just measure the downside of inaction but also the benefits which you may be missing out on.

   
   

7. What are you waiting

Measure the cost of inaction

Realize the unlikelihood and repairability of most missteps

And develop the most important habit of those who succeed: ACTION

A person’s success can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortably conversations he is willing to have.
Resolve to do one thing every day that you fear

Fear rehearsal:

Practice the worst case scenario so you know you can handle it and don’t need to be scared of it.

Sleep in a sleeping bag on the floor.

Wear cheap clothes.

Use coachserfing.com

Drink only water and eat just rice and beans and oatmeal.

Fasting

Access internet only at library.

You may find yourself happier after this and will know you can be content if the worst happens.

Questions for thinking about / journaling:

What if I did the opposite (of what I’m doing or what everyone else is doing )

What would I do if money were not an object. And what is my target monthly income.

If I could only work 2 hours a week in my business, what would I do?

Do I need to earn it back the way I lost it. Eg if house is empty do I need to rent it out to cover loss from mortgage repayment if there is an easier way to make that income from somewhere else.

Could it be that everything is fine and complete as it is.

What would this look like if it were easy.

How can I spend money to save time.

Healthy

Amelia Boone: Rehearsing the worst case scenario to become more resistant. She like to run in the rain and cold. Gives her a competitive advantage.

Christopher Sommer: You’re not responsible for the hand of cards you were dealt, you’re responsible for maxing out what you were given.

Peter Attia

4 bullets to dodge:

If you’re over 40 and don’t smoke there’s a 70 to 80% chance you’ll die from:

1. Heart disease
2. Cerebrovascular disease
3. Cancer
4. Neurodegenerative disease

Defensive strategy = prevent the above diseases. Offensive = enhancing life

Increasing refined carbohydrates and sugars can lead to increased insulin which can lead to a rise in Insulin-like growth factor, which can raise risk of some cancers

Peter doesn’t take multivitamins.

To lose weight you don’t need to do lots of running. Best exercise to get “bang for your buck” is heigh intensity heavy weight training.

Charles Poliquin: To increase testosterone to reduce cortisol

Paval Tsatsouline: Anything more than 5 reps is for body building. If you want to be strong keep it at 5 reps

James Fadiman on psychedelics:

The first time I used Psilocybin at sufficient dose the anxiety reducing effect lasted 3-6 months. However the result is not guaranteed.

Don’t rush the experience, don’t cheapen the experience.

Sitters: a good sitter is someone you trust, a great sitter is someone you love and trust.

Pre and post work.

When you get the message you need, stop asking questions (stop taking the drugs) and do “the work” that the insights have allowed you to do. Don’t use them as a crutch or antidepressant.

Prepare before and work on it afterwards.

flotation tanks:

Flotation tanks can be used like a psychedelic.

If you can’t handle an hour in a flotation tank your not ready for psychedelics

It can be good “training” for psychedelics because you can make it stop.

You can get more benefits from 2 hours than 1 one hour.

Start with 2 to 3 (1 hour) floats within a month -Tim

Following a healing experience with psychedelics “hold the gold” keep that experience really close and private

Jane McGonigal: Never publicly criticise anyone or anything unless it’s a matter of morals or ethics

Documentary recommendation: Suffering is Optional

Wealthy

Chris Sacca: Are you playing offense or defense: which of the challenges in your life do you assign yourself and which are set by other people.

Go to all the meetings that you can and figure out how to be helpful. Make yourself useful.

Marc Andreessen: Raise your prices! You can end up “too hungry to eat” where you’re not earning enough to properly invest in and market your product

Derek Sivers:

How to thrive in an unknowable future? Follow the path with the most options.

Be expensive

Expect disaster

Own as little as possible

Think long term. You can do one thing for a few years, then do another. You don’t have to do everything all at once. Focus on one thing and get good at it. You can do everything you want to do you just need foresight and patience

At the beginning say yes to everything

Once you have some success, if it’s not a hell yes, it’s a no.

Busy means out of control. Lack of time is lack of priority

Stop before things become too stressful or unpleasant. You can stillachieve 90% before you hit that point.

Treat life like a series of tests

Book recommendation:

Stumbling on Happiness

Show Your Work

Tony Robbins: Investing in yourself is the most important investment you’ll make. If you develop more skill, ability, insight: that will provide economic freedom.

On making money:

Cap the down side. Be obsessive about not losing money. Make sure your risks are hedged.

Asymmetrical risk and reward: Look for the least amount of risk for the most reward

Diversify your investments

Peter Thiel: If you’ve got a 10 year plan, ask why you can’t do it in 6 months.

Seth Godin: We keep track of the wrong things: times we’ve been rejected, who’s been rude to us etc. We should keep track of who we’ve made smile, the risks we’ve taken etc.

Find the smallest audience for what you want to do

audiobook recommendations:

The Secret of Closing the Sale and Goals

Leap First

The Art of Possibility

The Art of War

Just Kids

Debt

James Altucher:

Write down 10 ideas every morning. This develops your “idea muscle”

If you can’t come up with 10 ideas, come up with 20 ideas — you’re putting too much pressure on yourself.

Next to the idea write the first step. Just the first and keep it simple.

Don’t worry if the idea is bad, it’s just practice.

Have systems rather than goals.

Create projects and habits that even if they result in failure in the eyes of the outside world, give you transferable skills or relationships. You choose options that allow you to succeed in the long term.

Ramit Sethi:

Free or ultra premium. I give most of my stuff away for free but when I don’t it’s at a premium price. With limited availability. You then have to over deliver.

Book recommendation: The Checklist Manifesto

Noah Kagan: Don’t find time. Schedule time. For anything important you must schedule when you’re going to do it.

Peter Diamandis: Before bed review your 3 wins of the day

Some of Peter’s Rules:

When given a choice, take both

Multiple projects lead to multiple successes

When forced to compromise, ask for more

If you can’t win, change the rules. If you can’t change the rules, ignore them

When in doubt, think!

The faster you move, the slower time passes, the longer you live.

The best way to predict the future is to create it

You get what you incentivise

If you can’t measure it you can’t improve it

Wise

Joko Willink: If you want to be tougher mentally, be tougher. Don’t meditate on it, just do it. It’s a decision you can always take.

You can’t blame your boss for your problems. It’s your fault for not educating your boss on what you need or creating the opportunity to do it yourself.

General Stanley McChrystal & Chris Fussell:

You should have a list of 3 people that you’re watching. Someone senior that you want to emulate. A peer who you think is better at the job than you and who you respect and someone subordinate who’s doing the job you did a few years ago and who’s doing it better. If you’re constantly learning from them you can be exponentially better.

Naval Ravikant: If you want to be successful, surround yourself with people who are more successful than you. If you want to be happy, surround yourself with people who are less successful than you.

Handling conflict: don’t hang around people who are engaging in conflict. People who regularly fight with other will end up fighting with you.

Make yourself accountable. Tell your friends you’re doing something so you have to live up to whatever you said you’d do. Tell your friends you’re a happy person, then to remain consistent you’ll need to be / act happy.

Quotes to live by

Desire is suffering – Buddha

Learning is the ultimate meta skill and can be traded for anything else

All real benefits in life come from compound interest

Earn with your mind not your time

99% of all effort is wasted

Total honesty at all times

Love is given not received

Josh Waizkin: Learning the macro from the micro. Josh will focus on learning really small specific things as a way to get an understanding of the thing as a whole.

Brené Brown: Lean into discomfort

Good evening journal question: today, did I choose courage over comfort

“If I’m not a little bit nauseous when I’m done, I probably didn’t show up like I should have shown up”

Date read: 24/11/20

The Talent Code: Greatness isn’t born. It’s grown By Daniel Coyle

Who should read this: Teachers, Coaches, Parents.

You can read reviews or buy the book from here

I wasn’t expecting to read a book about the microscopic insulating coating around the neurons in our brain but that is essentially what this book is. I guess it may not have sold as well if the title was “Neurotransmitter Insulation”. It was interesting to read about the science of this brain insulation and it’s role in talent. It wasn’t all science however, and there was also solid advice about how to apply these principles to your life in order to give yourself the best chance of developing talent.

Myelin a neurotransmitter thought to be used in developing skill. Myelin wraps the nerve fibres stopping the electrical signal leaking out. When we practice right our brain responds by wrapping myelin around that neural circuit.

To improve, purposely operate at the edge of your ability.

Deep practice: practice where you make errors, and slow down and correct them. You make errors in targeted ways in areas you need to improve. Choose a goal just beyond your ability. Have instant feedback through mistakes.

Every movement, thought or feeling is an electric signal travelling through a chain of neurons. Myelin is the insulation which wraps these nerve fibres and increase signal strength speed and accuracy. The more we use a circuit, the more myelin optimizes the circuit.

The story of skill and talent is the story of myelin

Every time we deeply practice a skill we are slowing installing “broadband” in our brains.

Firing the brain circuits is crucial to myelin. Therefore you actually need to DO whatever you’re trying to learn. It responds to urgent repetition.

Age matters. We get most benefits as children. We continue to receive a net gain of myelin until about 50 where the balance tips towards loss.

Myelin can be build like muscle.

The 3 rules of deep practice:

• Try again
• Fail again
• Fail better

— Samuel Beckett

Deep practice involves slowing down. Seeing a problem and taking a slow and methodical approach to fixing that problem before moving on.

Chunking:

Look at the task as a whole. Break it into it’s smallest possible chunks. Play with time, slowing the action down then speeding it up “to learn is architecture”. Zoom in and out from the micro to the macro.

We’re pre wired to imitate. First spend time looking at how it should be done and appreciate the task as a whole.

Slowing down when learning something new creates better precision and makes you more in tune to the errors that can build myelin.

Daily practice matters, particularly as we get older. Myelin is a living thing and needs to be constantly rebuilt through practice.

Spending more time is important but only if you’re still practising at the edge of your ability.

Coaching:

Only a small part of good coaching is positive or negative feedback. Most of it is just giving information. Target information aimed at individual students. In the first stage of teaching a good coach teaches a love of the subject as much as the subject itself.

Master coaches want to know about each student and treat them individually and deliver information in short shall high definition bursts.

Albert Ellis wrote books on overcoming shyness. His approach in connotation with others became Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. His ideas came from stoic philosophy

Date read: 16/11/20