0:10

I'm Cal Newport and this

0:12

is Questions. The show show about

0:15

cultivating a deep life

0:17

in a distracted world. world.

0:20

All right so I'm here in

0:22

my Deep Work HQ All right, so

0:24

I'm here in my always by my joined

0:27

as always by my producer, Happy

0:29

New Year. This happy new year.

0:31

fifth year. This is the in

0:33

which the Deep year. in

0:35

which the has has

0:37

broadcast. That's That's impressive. So we go. we This

0:39

has been a a term part of my

0:42

life than I guess my life than I to

0:44

go back now. It's starting for

0:46

a while. back now. We've been out for show

0:48

as I have been recently doing the as

0:50

I corner. I try to find something to

0:52

brag about the new brag productivity. I was trying to

0:54

we're starting to, you know, it's been a little while since the book came

0:56

out. So we're starting to run out of things, but we got We're

0:59

starting to, you know, it's been a

1:01

This is while since the book came out. So

1:03

we're that was started by

1:05

Gladwell and Adam Grant and

1:07

Dan Pink big idea club. They named

1:09

Slow Productivity as one of

1:11

their best books of 2024.

1:13

2024. There are are 24 best

1:15

parts of 2024. There was there's

1:17

something else. wasn't the Pulitzer

1:20

wasn't It didn't win the Nobel

1:22

Prize. There was something else. It win the

1:24

Nobel that. And then it was something else

1:26

so selected for that and then it

1:28

was selected for something don't know. Good know

1:30

stuff. So, you know, definitely check

1:32

it out. out. All right, so we got

1:35

a good show show. You You know,

1:37

we're back in action. We're in the new year. year, we're rolling

1:39

with the sort with the sort of course

1:41

correction, self We got a great We got

1:43

a great that today to the ties back to

1:45

the holiday period we just ended. I

1:47

think which I think you'll enjoy. Then we

1:49

got a bunch of good questions from our

1:51

listeners our in the final segment, because it's our

1:53

first episode of episode of the first episode of

1:55

January of We'll do the books

1:57

I read in December. in December. Remember, Remember,

1:59

Thriller, So you'll hear about the thrillers. I

2:02

read during read during last December. A

2:04

couple of notes about fans. They're very

2:06

curious about the thrillers. And also they've been

2:08

emailing me asking about what your next

2:10

book book after the Deep is gonna be. going

2:12

I haven't figured that one out yet. that

2:15

one out yet. I think eruption to a

2:17

sequel to Michael Crichton and James sequel to Michael

2:19

Crichton and James just book, and explains

2:21

just goes back and explains who

2:23

the characters are because I could

2:25

not follow. All right, enough nonsense.

2:27

Let's get started with our deep

2:29

dive. deep dive. So this Christmas

2:31

was just really for the first

2:33

time I found myself watching

2:35

multiple Hallmark and Netflix

2:38

Christmas movies. This all transpired

2:40

because I came across an interesting article transpired

2:42

because I came across an interesting

2:44

article written by the New York Times

2:46

cultural critic titled How I The article was

2:48

titled How I It the Bad Christmas

2:50

Movie. It was which interesting discussion which

2:53

piqued my interest, so I interest, decided

2:55

to go go some of these movies

2:57

over the break. And what I

2:59

want to argue today today. is is that

3:01

in watching these movies I identified an

3:03

unexpected but interesting connection connection

3:05

to to one of the major ideas

3:07

we talked about on the show the show that

3:09

is very relevant to the relevant we are New York

3:11

now. we are right start with this article.

3:13

I'll pull it up on the screen here for

3:15

those who are watching for those of just listening. Here

3:18

is the article from the New York Here How

3:20

I Aged Into the Bad. the New York Times, how

3:22

I aged into the bad by Amanda by

3:24

Amanda So So to start to

3:26

those who who are like I was

3:28

until recently uninitiated with these

3:30

movies. these movies. What are they about? So

3:32

So I'm gonna read from this article

3:34

up here on the screen. This is

3:36

Amanda This is Amanda Hess's summary of the

3:39

of the typical

3:41

Hallmark Christmas quote, the protagonist A

3:43

quote. a pastry chef will be a

3:45

pastry chef or gift wrap shop

3:47

owner or a CEO. will acquire She will

3:49

acquire an or she will she

3:51

will inherit a Scottish or her her flight will

3:53

be diverted to a Christmas themed town. town.

3:56

By the the way, Jesse, I watched both both of...

3:58

Both the Scottish Castle movie. and

4:00

the flight being diverted to the Christmas-themed

4:02

town. I saw both those movies. She

4:04

will become a recent widower. She will

4:06

meet a recent widower. I'll be a

4:09

lot more dark if early in the

4:11

movie she becomes a widower. She will

4:13

meet a recent widower or a handsome

4:15

woodworker or a charming Earl. His home

4:18

will be aggressively bedecked with Christmas lights

4:20

and decorative bowls of frosted pine cones.

4:22

He will wear a scarf. He will

4:24

wear another scarf. He will wear another

4:27

scarf. He will wear another scarf. He

4:29

will wear another scarf. He will wear

4:31

another scarf. Together they will be forced

4:34

to put on a strutle fest or

4:36

locate a missing antique netcracker. In the

4:38

end, she will abandon her professional ambitions

4:40

in order to join him in his

4:43

small town. Or in a more recent

4:45

plot reversal, he will for Gore, his

4:47

small town life to join her in

4:49

the big city. It will snow and

4:52

they will kiss. So that's kind of

4:54

the plot of most of these movies.

4:56

A few observations with my cinematic hat

4:58

on. The production values are not great.

5:01

I think at their worst, it's sort

5:03

of... network TV show quality. They're shooting

5:05

fast and quick. It's like a Clint

5:07

Eastwood movie. The writing is very bad

5:10

in these movies. I will say that.

5:12

No one's really caring much about the

5:14

dialogue. The acting also tends to be

5:16

very bad as well. No one really

5:19

seems to care about this. The Netflix

5:21

movies, they try to be more funny.

5:23

They're like more ironic and then the

5:25

Hallmark movies are much more earnest. And

5:28

a lot of the Hallmark movies are

5:30

on Netflix that's kind of confusing. All

5:32

right, so why are these movies popular?

5:34

Well, again, I'm going to go back

5:37

to Amanda Hess explaining her conversion from

5:39

someone cynical about these films and to

5:41

someone who grew to like them. Or

5:43

so here's what Amanda said. When I

5:46

first discovered the existence of made-for-television Christmas

5:48

movies maybe 15 years ago, they struck

5:50

me as sentimental and anti-feminist. Recently, I

5:52

have felt so pummeled by stress and

5:55

responsibility. But I have found it difficult

5:57

to turn on a compelling new television

5:59

show at the end of the day.

6:01

I have no extra energy to... spin

6:04

familiarizing myself with unknown characters, deciphering twist

6:06

or even absorbing scenes of visual interest.

6:08

What I've been looking for instead is

6:10

a totally uncompelling new television show, one

6:13

that expects nothing from me and that

6:15

gives me little in return. The bad

6:17

Christmas movie's beats are so consistent, its

6:19

twists so predictable, its actors and props

6:22

so loyally reused, it's easy to relax

6:24

drowsily into its rhythms. The genre is

6:26

formulaic, which makes for a kind of

6:28

tradition. Now it plays through the winter

6:31

like a crackling fireplace in my living

6:33

room. This is clearly a big part

6:35

of the appeal you watch for six

6:37

weeks or so It's traditional. It's escape

6:40

So look you wouldn't be able to

6:42

keep this up for full year because

6:44

these movies aren't very good But this

6:46

idea she's saying that it's something that

6:49

you look forward to in the season.

6:51

It's supposed to be corny. It doesn't

6:53

make much demands from you that makes

6:55

sense She then Amanda then elaborated in

6:58

a podcast I listened to on she

7:00

did a daily episode She talked about

7:02

this article and she elaborated the, she

7:04

was pummeled by stress and responsibility in

7:07

part because a friend had gotten a

7:09

potentially very scary medical diagnosis and they

7:11

were sort of fearing the worst that

7:13

it ended up okay but it was

7:16

a stressful time so you can kind

7:18

of set that context. All right, that's

7:20

what these movies are. That is why

7:22

Amanda Hess came around to them. What

7:25

I want to add today is that

7:27

I think there is another reason for

7:29

the appeal of these movies, especially to

7:31

people of our generation. that is not

7:34

only relevant to us but underscores one

7:36

of the big lessons we talk about

7:38

on this show. So what is this

7:40

hidden lesson in these movies? Well look

7:43

there's this funny S&L skit I remembered

7:45

it vaguely and I found it earlier

7:47

today it was from five years ago

7:49

that made fun of Hallmark movies and

7:52

it set up was it was a

7:54

dating game where the it was the

7:56

sort of the female protagonist and dating

7:58

the sort of classic characters from these

8:01

movies. and the dating game was titled

8:03

A Winter Boyfriend for Holiday Christmas. And

8:05

toward the end the host named... Kringle

8:07

delivers sort of the joke line, the

8:10

true reason for Christmas is husband. And

8:12

I think that matches a curve of

8:14

common misunderstanding about these movies, that they're

8:16

basically visual romance novels, where the thrill

8:19

is an imagining sort of finding true

8:21

love and giving up everything for it.

8:23

This is sort of the original understanding

8:25

that led Amanda Hess to think like,

8:28

hey, these movies are anti-feminists. I want

8:30

to argue for millennial viewers, this is

8:32

not why these movies are largely appealing.

8:34

A lot of these viewers already are

8:37

married, already have families. It's not the

8:39

fantasy of the Christmas tree lot owner

8:41

that captures them. The real value I

8:43

think these movies have, the real aspiration,

8:46

is in their portrayal of lifestyle-centric planning.

8:48

So yes, Jesse, I brought this all

8:50

back to my favorite deep life topic,

8:52

lifestyle-centric planning. All right, so hear me

8:55

out. The most common plot for these

8:57

movies, think about this, is a lead

8:59

that has a stressful job in the

9:01

big city. They end up in a

9:04

small town where they do not have

9:06

the stresses of that job. They connect

9:08

with the community, which tends to be

9:10

like tightly knit around. They all are

9:13

coming together around a holiday, the holiday

9:15

itself. gives them exposure to sort of

9:17

escapism and fantasy. The town is beautifully

9:19

lit up and they just sort of

9:22

appreciate the way it looks. They appreciate

9:24

the people in the town. The pace

9:26

is slower. The days are unpredictable. There's

9:28

adventure going on. They're hunting down an

9:31

antique Nutcracker trying to put on the

9:33

Strutelfest. The escapism in here, therefore, is

9:35

not, hey, maybe I can find a

9:37

husband who owns a Christmas tree farm.

9:40

But instead the idea that you might

9:42

be able to reduce your work hours,

9:44

spend more time outside, walk down the

9:46

street through the snow to the coffee

9:49

shop that has the quirky owner who

9:51

knows you, and get lost that evening

9:53

in some like town tradition or they

9:55

like light up the tree in a

9:58

way that is really over the top.

10:00

attractive. So one way to recast way

10:02

to recast these movies then is

10:04

the struggle between two approaches. trying to They're

10:06

trying to cultivate a meaningful life. The

10:08

protagonists at the beginning of these movies of these are

10:11

often implicitly deploying what here

10:13

on the show here on the show

10:15

we call the strategy. strategy, which is where

10:17

you pursue a single big and impressive goal

10:19

that you hope that you hope will make everything

10:21

in your life good. life good. Right? so

10:23

in the movies, as it is for many people. people.

10:26

That ambitious goal is usually

10:28

some sort of focused of focused, impressive trying

10:30

to get the They're trying to get

10:32

whatever it is. It's there, whatever

10:34

job ambition. job ambition. By the By

10:37

the end, the protagonist has found happiness

10:39

to play in something more like the

10:41

more like the approach. approach, which it's

10:43

not a singular goal that's gonna

10:45

make their life better, but they're identifying

10:47

the properties of an ideal lifestyle

10:49

and then finding ways to move closer

10:51

to it. ways often what they are

10:53

discovering is that this new life

10:55

that is presented to them this this new

10:58

town, which is usually called them in you know

11:00

the town which something. called new

11:02

life hits a lot of beats

11:04

of a lifestyle that's more

11:06

attractive. of beats no one thing about

11:08

the new lifestyle. attractive so it's no

11:10

a lifestyle it's day to day. lifestyle

11:12

that day-to-day has more

11:14

value. value then the the pursuit and accomplishment

11:16

of a single grand goal. single grand goal. So

11:18

let's recap then lifestyle -centric planning,

11:20

since these movies are implicitly

11:22

endorsing it, let's recap how

11:25

this actually works. To do To

11:27

do lifestyle -centric planning, you begin by imagining

11:29

a typical day, like what it's like, It's

11:31

not It's not specific, I'm in this town,

11:33

I have this job, but what's it

11:35

like? Are you walking to the coffee store?

11:38

you going through a trail walk through the

11:40

woods? Are you in a busy city and

11:42

it's like this really active scene. You kind

11:44

of get a sense of a what are

11:46

the rhythms? How does this resonate? How You

11:48

use specific imagery that imagery that resonates. You

11:50

imagine yourself in this scene or that scene.

11:52

You're really playing with these internal playing with these

11:54

internal resonance, trying of like a day in an

11:56

ideal lifestyle. lifestyle. You then and isolate

11:58

the properties. the properties. that make these images,

12:01

that make these scenes, resonate? So what

12:03

is it about the sort of day

12:05

I've constructed in my head that makes

12:07

it resonate so much for me? You

12:10

can then survey your full landscape of

12:12

opportunities and obstacles to figure out what's

12:14

your best bet for moving towards those

12:16

properties in your life. And it's here

12:19

where like really interesting options come up.

12:21

We're just giving all the obstacles I

12:23

have and opportunities I have, how can

12:25

I move closer to these particular properties?

12:28

You're able to explore. a wide range

12:30

of options. What you do this with

12:32

my job, I move this work to

12:35

this work, we move here, I start

12:37

doing this, if I move this over

12:39

here, if you begin to come up

12:41

with these interesting configurations, which you probably

12:44

never would have thought of from scratch.

12:46

It's not necessarily like, oh, here's the

12:48

obvious big thing to do. But it

12:50

ends up in the end having the

12:53

effect of making your lifestyle overall more

12:55

congruent with things that actually resonate. So

12:57

I think that's what... That's one of

12:59

the true messages of these movies. Lifestyle-centric

13:02

planning. They're happy because in the end,

13:04

they better align their lifestyle with stuff

13:06

that matters. And I've realized that the

13:08

pursuit of the singular grand goal wasn't

13:11

making them happy. And so we're seeing,

13:13

I think, millennials in particular, because they're

13:15

at that stage of life or saying,

13:17

huh, there's something here. And so that's

13:20

where I think we have our... are

13:22

hidden value of these movies. So yes,

13:24

you know, somehow in the end, as

13:26

I always do, I've made the leap

13:29

from Hallmark movies to Lifestyle Center Planning,

13:31

like one of my favorite topics. And

13:33

as I always argue, all the stuff

13:35

comes back to the modern digital landscape,

13:38

the modern digital environment, one way or

13:40

the other. And one of the reasons

13:42

why Lifestyle Center Planning is so important

13:44

is because in our current digital environment,

13:47

work has become more abstract. able to

13:49

sort of directly provide us a sense

13:51

of concrete meeting. Work can follow us

13:53

everywhere. So these sort of modern symbolic

13:56

knowledge jobs now have the way of

13:58

sort of infusing more and more of

14:00

our life and therefore bleaching from those

14:02

parts for our lives are things that

14:05

are meaningful so this helps create a

14:07

meeting crisis so we have that going

14:09

on. We also have all of this

14:11

sort of electronic distraction that subverts our

14:14

deeper instincts for meaning so we sort

14:16

of feel connection and wonder and all

14:18

this type of stuff we get a

14:20

very attenuated form of this through social

14:23

media in our forum. I'm kind of

14:25

like talking to people on Twitter or

14:27

I'm seeing these tic-tocks that are kind

14:29

of pressing the button of like, whoa,

14:32

that was kind of cool to see.

14:34

And it subverts those instincts just enough

14:36

that the drive doesn't push us to

14:38

actually like change our lives in meaningful

14:41

ways to get there. So the modern

14:43

digital environment did help set up this

14:45

sort of meeting crisis that we have

14:47

right now. persist the sort of you're

14:50

just on a screen moving symbols can

14:52

be pretty portable. It can give you

14:54

a lot of autonomy. It's something you

14:57

can, that's compatible with a much greater

14:59

variety of day-to-day lifestyles than maybe work

15:01

would have been 40 years ago, where

15:03

it would have been 40 years ago,

15:06

where it's like where's your office building

15:08

you need to be within 10 miles,

15:10

and that's just what your day is

15:12

going to be. So all of this

15:15

comes back to the modern digital environment,

15:17

but that's the lesson I think is

15:19

done. So, I don't

15:21

know, have you ever seen these

15:23

movies, Jesse? Yeah, a long time

15:25

ago, though. A long time ago.

15:27

Yeah. I watched several. I would

15:30

say my, I think the best

15:32

example this year of this year's

15:34

crop to kind of hit my

15:36

theory and just the best production

15:38

values was Christmas Island. Which has

15:40

a no-nonsense plot, a very ambitious

15:42

young pilot. And this doesn't quite

15:44

track if you look at the

15:46

plot line. This very ambitious young

15:48

pilot, she wants to be a

15:50

very successful pilot, but she's flying

15:52

just the regional routes and gets

15:54

hired to be a pilot of

15:56

a private plane for like a

15:58

writ. couple. Now for some

16:00

some reason first flight first

16:02

flight she's given on the private plane is to

16:04

.A. to Switzerland. So So she's been doing regional

16:06

flights and now she's flying for L .A.

16:09

to Switzerland, whatever. for As things go, the flight

16:11

gets diverted to. the flight Christmas diverted

16:13

to which is like a small which off

16:15

the coast of island off the coast of Christmas.

16:17

that's really the air traffic controller the

16:19

was sort of snippy with her

16:21

was the air snippy with some reason she

16:23

on Christmas the air, also for some reason lives on

16:26

classic movie, Classic know, you up

16:28

up... falling in love with like becoming

16:30

less blah becoming less blah blah had

16:32

good I liked it. It had of the the of the

16:34

island and they a really good good It

16:37

often comes like how It they can decorate

16:39

the sets. So that was a good

16:41

one I watched another one where they

16:43

were in a good one. I watched another

16:45

maybe, or Scotland. were in Ireland maybe Scotland

16:48

and Scott Wolf. It was Scott

16:50

Scott and Lucy was her name her name, were both in

16:52

were both in five five are like the

16:54

siblings and they find out their mom.

16:56

their mom. I guess owns guess a a castle or

16:58

something. But they have a newspaper

17:00

clip. These are a newspaper clip. have

17:02

a are things I clip They have a

17:05

newspaper clip. It was the mom

17:07

being born. It was like has a baby or something.

17:09

They show that clip you know, guess the has a

17:11

baby or something. the that clip of I

17:13

guess the actress liked the idea of

17:15

like whatever age that was she wanted

17:17

to be. The problem is Wolf is playing

17:19

her son and Scott Wolf was born

17:22

in like 1967. like 1967. So like for this to

17:24

actually work, she would she been five years old

17:26

when she had Scott been I think that's

17:28

more Scott when to play 20 years younger than

17:30

the mom trying to play Scott Wolf I don't

17:32

think I'll be watching a lot of these

17:34

movies now that are in the new year,

17:36

but I think that's what's going on. Anyways, I

17:38

don't think I'll in a movie. a

17:40

I did see the red one that are

17:42

in the new year, but I think was that

17:44

movie for? going on. a PG

17:46

Center planning captured in a movie.

17:50

Who's it for that's a good a good

17:52

like a Santa Santa movie with Santa Santa

17:55

movie with cursing. Oh, usually

17:57

PG? Yeah, because, you PG. Yeah, because

17:59

you know it It seems like it's aimed

18:01

more like a teenage crowd, but teenagers

18:03

don't want to watch a Santa movie.

18:05

And was it good? It was entertaining.

18:08

Yeah, I'm gonna watch it. All right,

18:10

I might watch it. I watched Kerry

18:12

on. That was another good new one,

18:14

Jason Bateman. Oh, that was horrible. I

18:16

couldn't see it. You didn't like it?

18:18

Yeah, I mean, let's say the plot

18:20

didn't completely check out. Didn't completely check

18:23

out. You like that movie? It was

18:25

fun. I didn't completely understand the plan.

18:27

But it was good, it was fun.

18:29

They spent some money on that. They

18:31

filled out the airport. Have you seen

18:33

the new Dylan movie? Yeah, I do,

18:36

I do want to see that though.

18:38

A complete unknown. It won't hold a

18:40

candle in an Oscar competition perspective. Probably

18:42

a complete unknown will probably struggle to

18:44

beat out for Best Picture Christmas Island,

18:46

which I think is going to make

18:49

a big push. All right, after that,

18:51

we got cool questions, but first, let's

18:53

here. from a sponsor. So here we

18:55

are, it's a new year of 2025

18:57

and you're probably thinking, how am I

18:59

going to make this year different? What

19:01

am I going to do to move

19:04

closer to my ideal lifestyle? You know,

19:06

maybe you're dying to be your own

19:08

boss or you have some business idea

19:10

that you want to get up and

19:12

running. This is the time to make

19:14

it in a reality, but you don't

19:17

know how to get started. Let's get

19:19

Shopify involved. because it could help you

19:21

make this happen. The best time to

19:23

start your new business is right now

19:25

and Shopify will make it simple to

19:27

create your brand, open your business and

19:30

get that first sale so you can

19:32

focus on producing the best possible stuff

19:34

and let Shopify take care of the

19:36

details of actually getting that stuff to

19:38

your customers and getting money back in

19:40

return. So you can get your store

19:42

up and running easily with thousands of

19:45

customizable templates. You have no coding needed,

19:47

no design skills required. All you're doing

19:49

is drag and dropping. They're powerful social

19:51

media tools that you connect to all

19:53

your channels and create shopable posts and

19:55

help you sell everywhere that people are

19:58

scrolling. Shopify makes it easy to... You

20:00

manage your growing business. They help with

20:02

the details like shipping, like taxes, like

20:04

payments, all from one single dashboard, allowing

20:06

you to focus on the important stuff

20:08

like growing your business. And what happens

20:11

if you don't act now? Will you

20:13

regret it? What if someone beats you

20:15

to your ideas? Don't kick yourself when

20:17

you hear this again in a year

20:19

because you didn't do anything. The Shopify

20:21

your first sale is closer than you

20:24

think. So I think established in 2025

20:26

has a nice ring to it. So

20:28

sign up for your $1 per month

20:30

trial at shopify.com/deep type that in all

20:32

lower case that shopify.com/deep to start selling

20:34

with shopify today shopify.com/deep. I also want

20:36

to talk about our friends at Element,

20:39

L-M-N-T, a zero sugar electrolyte drink mix

20:41

and sparkling electrolyte water born from the

20:43

growing body of research revealing that optimal

20:45

health outcomes occur at sodium levels two

20:47

to three times government recommendations. You can

20:49

either get the stick pack, so it's

20:52

a stick of powder you add to

20:54

your water bottle, or you can get

20:56

the can of sparkling water that already

20:58

has the electrolytes in it, so you

21:00

can grab it cold straight from the

21:02

fridge to get meaningful doses of electrolytes.

21:05

Why I like element is that it

21:07

is free of sugar. It is free

21:09

of artificial colors or other dodgy ingredients.

21:11

I never feel bad about using it.

21:13

Don't let winter trick you. You get

21:15

just as dehydrated if not more in

21:17

the dry air of winter than you

21:20

do in sort of the wet heat

21:22

of summer when you're Talking all day

21:24

on Zoom in a meeting in that

21:26

dry room when you're out shoveling snow

21:28

when you're doing your normal exercise But

21:30

it's incredibly dry out there. You just

21:33

don't realize you're as dehydrated Because you

21:35

don't feel that typical cues of heat,

21:37

but you do and the best way

21:39

to get hydrated again is with element

21:41

I use the stick packs I have

21:43

a big box of it. We keep

21:46

it in the kitchen. I'll have it

21:48

in the morning if I wake up

21:50

dehydrated I'll have it after working out

21:52

and I'll do it after long

21:54

of podcasting or lecturing. to

21:56

I wanted to

21:58

mention briefly they have

22:01

the new new chocolate

22:03

medley that includes

22:05

chocolate mint includes chocolate

22:07

raspberry which you can

22:09

enjoy chocolate raspberry, which you

22:11

can enjoy been outside exercising. been

22:14

outside some to some hot water

22:16

to both warm hot water to both warm up

22:18

and at the same time. time. I

22:20

have a nice offer here. You'll receive

22:22

a free element within your order. within

22:25

When you when you the

22:27

URL, the URL,.com slash deep,

22:29

that's drink element lmt.com.com slash deep

22:31

to get that free

22:33

sample pack with any

22:35

orders. in mind that in mind

22:37

that is as a no questions has to be

22:39

from policy is totally risk free if you don't you

22:41

don't like give away away to friend

22:43

they'll give your money back

22:45

no questions you your money back no drinkelement.com

22:47

that's drink All

22:49

right, slash let's do some questions. Jesse let's do

22:51

some questions. First First questions

22:53

from Michael. I just I just

22:56

finished reading where Good Ideas Come from.

22:58

by Johnson. Johnson talks about talks about

23:00

the a notebook to record interesting

23:02

ideas. interesting that

23:04

you can revisit this book to examine

23:06

incomplete ideas. book to keep a commonplace book?

23:08

And if so, what form does it

23:10

take? commonplace book? And if so, what form does

23:12

it I take? I like Stephen. I'm not. I

23:15

was training ago. with some not that long ago.

23:17

one of the writer, one writers who

23:19

came up in the idea and early

23:21

2000s the a lot of cool

23:23

books. and written a lot of cool books. Okay, so

23:25

if I remember. I remember. was

23:27

really really early to these ideas. to

23:30

help using technology to help manage

23:32

partial ideas. He was big

23:35

on a tool called and would help make

23:37

that you could enter in ideas

23:39

and would help make connections. Zettlecast

23:41

think that's now since been more subsumed by these

23:43

storing specific techniques that are all about know what to do

23:45

with ideas, even when you don't know what to

23:48

do with them in a way that like in

23:50

can can work and excavated and the tool can

23:52

work with your ideas to help you come up

23:54

with new connections. He was really excited about

23:56

that right now. lot A lot of other people

23:58

are excited about that as well. as well. I don't

24:00

tend to do that, so I don't

24:02

keep any sort of digital equivalent of

24:04

a commonplace book, at least with that

24:07

type of rigor. My problem is not

24:09

coming up with an idea when it

24:11

comes to writing. It's having too many

24:13

ideas, right? It takes a long time

24:16

to write something. There's only so many

24:18

things I can write, and the limiting

24:20

factor is almost always time to write

24:22

for me. not scarcity of ideas. So

24:25

I actually tend to just use my

24:27

brain as a commonplace book informally speaking.

24:29

I read lots of stuff, I talk

24:31

to lots of people, I listen to

24:34

lots of stuff. What I look for,

24:36

for ideas, is something that becomes insistent.

24:38

It kind of sticks around in my

24:40

mind. I'm using my brain as its

24:43

own informal filter. Idea really sticks around

24:45

in my mind, then it keeps coming

24:47

back. And I'm like, yeah, I like

24:50

that. Oh, I just heard this new

24:52

thing, what seems like that supports what

24:54

I was thinking about before. Oh, listen

24:56

to that interview over there, my idea

24:59

would be very relevant there. If an

25:01

idea has really stuck around, then that's

25:03

usually when I'll write about it. Now

25:05

once I'm writing on an idea, like,

25:08

okay, I'm going to do an article

25:10

on this. I'm going to write a

25:12

book chapter. for that particular writing objective.

25:14

So I don't have a separate system.

25:17

I'm writing an article. The research folder

25:19

of the Scribner Project for that article

25:21

is where I'll start throwing any sort

25:23

of ideas I have, any sort of

25:26

links, clips, movies. So once I'm specifically

25:28

working on something, I do collect everything,

25:30

but not in a highly structured way.

25:32

I just throw them all into some

25:35

folder. So I lean more into my

25:37

mind's informal ability to sort through ideas.

25:39

I lean into that quite a bit

25:41

and don't really use... outside structures to

25:44

help me structure my information. Stephen Johnson.

25:46

Hidden op-ed The New York Times this

25:48

morning. Oh, he did? Yeah. There we

25:50

go. All right, who got next? Next

25:53

questions from Mark. I'm looking for some

25:55

advice on a weekly template. I'm a

25:57

high school. teacher to set

25:59

aside time for prep.

26:02

I'm I'm also learning web design with view of

26:04

just starting a side business. I I train

26:06

the times per week and run two times

26:08

per week. per week. I I train in the gym

26:10

in the mornings before school. At the moment, I

26:12

get some school prep done at school, but most

26:14

in the evenings. I would like to use the

26:16

mornings more for cognitive work. more for cognitive

26:18

let's just remember real quick what's meant

26:20

by a weekly template. We talked about

26:23

this earlier in the in an episode. in

26:25

the fall a weekly template is where you've

26:27

set aside certain times. certain times. of the

26:29

of the week of work of work on certain things

26:31

on a regular basis. So when you make

26:33

your you make your weekly plan for a

26:35

week, you apply the template first. I Oh yeah,

26:37

Monday mornings I always work on this. I

26:39

always go to the gym in the afternoons. On

26:41

Thursdays just when when I work on this. So

26:43

when you're making your weekly plan, you start with

26:46

that template, then you can fill in the

26:48

rest. You get some regularity to your work. And

26:50

I always argue if you have stuff, you're work.

26:52

And do on a regular basis. things.

26:54

Have a have a weekly template and then

26:56

that can change season to season. And

26:58

you know, I change my weekly template

27:00

every semester. template every semester on

27:02

my teaching schedule. on my teaching schedule

27:04

The times the the days and times I want

27:06

to do certain work is going to

27:08

change. going to change. constructing a weekly template now. for

27:11

the upcoming now for semester. spring

27:14

winter semester Okay, the good

27:16

thing about designing a template

27:18

template is that that it forces you to

27:21

use terminology from earlier in the show

27:23

to in productivity face to That's the

27:25

situation I think Mark is in. I

27:27

think Mark says in. want to learn web design. I

27:29

want to learn web design, I a side business. a

27:31

want to train at the gym. I want to

27:33

train at the gym, I want to run, and

27:35

have a bunch of prep to do. to do. Setting

27:38

up a weekly template for all those

27:40

regular occurring activities. will

27:42

We'll help you figure out is it even possible. even Like,

27:44

time is time. is time. So you might

27:46

might as well go through this exercise of of

27:48

am I I actually make this happen? happen? And if

27:51

And if you're hitting up against hard constraints, like

27:53

like I don't have enough time. mean, so much

27:55

of my day is spent in the classroom

27:57

and then prepping takes a lot of time and

27:59

I'm not. seen enough time unless I wake

28:01

up at like four in the morning,

28:03

that's an important signal. Time is time

28:06

you don't have it. Some sort of

28:08

change has to be made. And maybe

28:10

that change is dropping something from this

28:12

ambition or it's alternation or it's finding

28:14

a way to like mix cardio with

28:16

strength training in a more intense way

28:18

or whatever it is, right? It might

28:20

look different or be more effective about

28:23

prep. The time is time and that

28:25

signal is going to force you to

28:27

be sort of innovative. I can't tell

28:29

you a specific template because I don't

28:31

know your exact details of your schedule,

28:33

but I think coming up with the

28:35

template is important because it's a way

28:37

for you to actually just move your

28:40

time around like chess pieces. If you

28:42

are just going to take each day

28:44

as it came, say what do I

28:46

want to work on today? Just imagine

28:48

how much less you would get done.

28:50

You'd have such a lower probability of

28:52

actually fitting these various things into your

28:54

life. The weekly template. We can see

28:57

an example like this as like really

28:59

important for figuring out the puzzle that

29:01

is your week and is really can

29:03

be really important as a reality check.

29:05

I mean I'm just starting that now

29:07

I mean we're recording this on the

29:09

January 2nd and so like a week

29:12

until the semester starts so I'm working

29:14

on my weekly template now Monday Wednesday

29:16

teaching and so I'll work around like

29:18

I'm doing Monday Wednesday teaching. probably going

29:20

to use the space in between the

29:22

classes as office hours like I'm trying

29:24

to like piece together and then like

29:26

what day we're going to podcast and

29:29

versus like what days I often like

29:31

to have a meeting afternoon I'm a

29:33

weekly template on campus meeting afternoon like

29:35

I'm still trying to figure out where

29:37

that's all going to fit. In terms

29:39

of Mike in terms of the question

29:41

in terms of cognitive work in the

29:43

mornings and going to the gym in

29:46

the mornings. Do you think that? Working

29:48

out in the afternoon would be better

29:51

and doing all the stuff in the

29:53

morning? I think more people should work

29:55

out in the afternoon. Yeah, I think

29:57

for most people the natural rhythm, all

29:59

things being equal, cognitive work in the

30:01

morning. exercise is a transition from work

30:03

to non-work. That might not be logistically

30:05

possible for everyone, but just from like

30:07

a physiological standpoint, I would say for

30:09

probably the majority of people, that's best.

30:11

Get up, I mean you could stretch

30:14

or do some things in the morning,

30:16

but take advantage of like that first

30:18

Russia coffee and have good thoughts. And

30:20

then like serious exercise used that to

30:22

transition. I mean that's what I try

30:24

to do. I think that works well

30:26

for a lot of people. Some people

30:28

really do swear by like the early

30:30

morning run, but cognitive work in the

30:32

afternoon is hard for a lot of

30:35

people. I mean when you hear about

30:37

writers who are night owls, the reality

30:39

is typically what they mean is not

30:41

four o'clock, but you know, ten p.m.

30:43

the three a.m. or something like that

30:45

where they find this like completely blank

30:47

bit of time, but for most people.

30:49

Afternoon is hard, early evening. I sometimes

30:51

do early evening writing sessions. I call

30:53

them happy hour sessions because it falls

30:56

like in the time that you normally

30:58

have happy hour at a bar. And

31:00

it sometimes works. I'll often come here

31:02

to the HQ. So it's like a

31:04

definitive break from home. It feels different.

31:06

I work, I'm done, I come home.

31:08

And I'll use that sometimes. But it's

31:10

always a stretch. It's always much harder

31:12

than just coming over in the morning

31:14

and writing. But what do we got?

31:16

Next questions from Gonzalo. Are the five

31:19

books you read every month separate from

31:21

the reading you do for book and

31:23

article research? Yeah, it's a good question.

31:25

If I finish a book in its

31:27

entirety, I will count it on my

31:29

list of books read. So you will

31:31

see, you'll notice, the astute listener will

31:33

notice, that in my monthly book collection,

31:35

You can often pull out like, oh,

31:37

I think these books were being read

31:40

for something he's working on. It'll be

31:42

kind of one off. You'll see a

31:44

couple books on similar themes that I

31:46

read like one after another. But when

31:48

I'm researching a book or an article,

31:50

oftentimes I'm not reading an entire book.

31:52

I'm reading certain chapters of a book

31:54

or I'm skimming a book. trying

31:56

to get out

31:58

of it, what's important.

32:01

of it, what's And that's a lot of

32:03

research and those don't get counted. of research, and

32:05

those don't I will count the book

32:07

if I finish it, regardless of the cause. I

32:09

finish But when it comes to of the cause. There's

32:11

a lot less. comes to research, books

32:13

that you might imagine. You get very good

32:15

at, like, a chapter is what's important of this

32:17

book. Let me read these 10 articles. Oh, I

32:19

remember reading this book 10 years ago and

32:21

this section 10 section that's relevant to what I'm

32:23

doing. reading I'll give you an example. ago,

32:25

and the section is I'm

32:27

working on now. I'm doing. The first part

32:29

of the book, and especially the first chapter, the

32:32

first part the book, the I'm drawing some from

32:34

the history of monasticism. the I'm actually sort of using

32:36

the history of monasticism. We've talked about this on

32:38

the show before. the history of using

32:40

that as a show before.

32:42

I'm like an analogy for understanding, understanding,

32:44

for the deep life. The idea The

32:46

the history of monasticism, just very,

32:48

very briefly, you see

32:51

very early on, you see very

32:53

monasticism was kicked off, it's

32:55

precursors were the so the so-called desert

32:57

fathers. the the hermits that went

32:59

out into the desert and and

33:01

led lives. I'm going to going to just

33:04

be in a cave. ask you everything and

33:06

have these everything and have

33:08

these religious experiences. is, okay,

33:10

And what they discovered is, okay,

33:12

this and just go out there and everything out and

33:14

just go out there and be and and try

33:16

not to die. And you'll eventually have religious experience.

33:18

Wasn't very It So the monastic system

33:20

was built up where I said, okay, we have

33:22

to have structure. was built up, right? We Right, we

33:24

have to kind of help people prepare. prepare. the

33:27

the monks prepare to have these religious experiences

33:29

with some structure. some structure. Here's how we

33:31

run our days and here's our rules.

33:33

And we have these short term goals

33:35

and structures to help get you ready

33:37

for the big with as with

33:39

just like opposed to go for just go

33:41

for it. in the I have this

33:43

whole analogy in the first part of the book, the same

33:45

is the same when it comes to overhauling your

33:47

life and the overhauling a deep life. Don't just just... Do

33:49

the the equivalent of going to the desert. Don't just

33:51

make the big changes. You make actually need short -term

33:53

goals and goals and you ready, prepare you for making that

33:55

that change. And so the first part of the book

33:57

is about about like yourself and practicing to get ready. to get

33:59

ready. or Big Changes. Okay. I wanted

34:01

the poll from Jamie Krenner's book, The

34:04

Distracted Mind, which is just like great

34:06

book. She's a medievalist. I think she

34:08

might be at Imri. I might have

34:10

that wrong, but a medievalist that studies

34:12

monks and wrote this good book. I

34:14

think I blurbed it. So I had

34:17

read it years ago. And I said,

34:19

this book is, she's a great sort

34:21

of history about monks and how they

34:23

think about distraction. But I didn't read

34:25

that whole book. I read selected chapters

34:27

that really had what I needed. Like

34:29

that book didn't show up. I wrote

34:32

this in July. That book did not

34:34

show up on my July books I

34:36

read, but I got really good information

34:38

out of it. So a lot of

34:40

research for books and articles is like

34:42

that. You've heard of a book, you've

34:45

read it a long time ago, and

34:47

you're pulling out what you need. On

34:49

the other hand, there are some books,

34:51

I think, was it last month or

34:53

the month or the month before, or

34:55

is it this month? What books are

34:58

we reading this month? I don't know.

35:00

I can't remember when I read what.

35:02

But there's been a couple of these

35:04

memoirs I've been reading recently. Like Zena

35:06

Hurts is the, what was that book

35:08

called? Not the intellectual life, that's search

35:11

allergies, but whatever, Lost in Thought, I

35:13

think her book was called. And that

35:15

was like a memoir of like an

35:17

intellectual life. I reread Rich rolls, memoir

35:19

recently, and that might be in the

35:21

January books. I don't remember where these

35:24

things are, but. I finished, you'll see

35:26

there's like a bunch of memoirs that

35:28

are coming up soon, and that's because

35:30

I was preemptively like I'm reading these

35:32

various memoirs that have particular properties because

35:34

I might want to pull something from

35:37

them for my book. So what I'm

35:39

trying to say, my peek inside the

35:41

writing process here is a lot of

35:43

times when researching stuff, you're not reading

35:45

full books. And then sometimes you are.

35:47

And I only report them when I

35:50

do. And I only report them when

35:52

I do. Monk, most of that monk

35:54

riding was, were up in the mountains

35:56

and... at the house

35:58

that had the that

36:00

had the writing shed, cool like really cool Again,

36:02

in the morning were my the hours. I

36:05

would go down to that writing show with

36:07

my coffee and I was to that that book.

36:09

I have very strong connections with that book

36:11

and that place that book. I have very strong then I

36:13

was largely reading that book and that hours. I would

36:15

be there with my laptop. reading in I would

36:17

read a chapter and underline it and then

36:19

pull from it and write a little bit

36:21

and read. Like it was really intertwined with

36:23

the pull from and Other books, if I'm like. read like

36:25

it. It in thought that book, that was just

36:27

reading during my normal reading hours. hours. Yeah. Good

36:29

question. I haven't really thought really thought. so

36:32

systematically about. I read. So that's when

36:34

I read. who we cool. next? Next

36:36

question is All right, who do we got next? a third grade

36:39

question is from I'm a third year mechanical

36:41

engineering a a student at Georgia engineering student at

36:43

Georgia Tech and I've failed I calculus

36:45

twice. the I spend over 30 hours in

36:47

the library every week trying to study

36:49

and never seem to get the results

36:51

that one would expect from that effort.

36:53

from that I bought how to become like

36:55

a straight A student but appreciate

36:57

an overview overview. the best strategies to

36:59

learn high level math. high-level

37:02

math. right, right, integral

37:04

calculus. I Let's just read about

37:06

that in that math class that yeah.

37:09

math class to remember

37:11

I had to remember multivariate

37:14

Okay, so Heath. so heath, When

37:16

I see. you say I You say, spend

37:19

over 30 hours in the

37:21

library every week trying to study.

37:23

study, that's That's meaningless to me. me.

37:25

And I think the I think the fact

37:27

that that's meaningless is important because this really

37:29

is one of the key messages I had

37:31

for students in books like how to become

37:33

a straight -A student student. The is meaningless It can

37:35

mean all sorts of things many things which

37:37

aren't very useful at all when it comes

37:39

to learning information it comes to learning is not a

37:42

self -evident activity that you either do or

37:44

don't do either do or don't do. A And a lot

37:46

of students get into similar trouble like

37:48

you get into get into. by quote unquote for hour

37:50

after hour, but what they're really doing is

37:52

actually very ineffective when it comes to

37:54

cementing in their mind, understanding of knowledge. of

37:57

knowledge. So a lot lot of people just have this

37:59

mindset of like, of like a I spent

38:01

a ton of time in the library

38:03

the weekend before the exam. And that

38:05

this is like penance. The pain of

38:07

being in the library for 30 hours

38:09

should transmute into a better grade. But

38:11

your exam doesn't care like how painful

38:13

your weekend was or how many hours

38:15

you spent in the library. It cares

38:17

how much you understand the material. And

38:20

so all that really matters is activity

38:22

that submits your understanding of the material.

38:24

And as it turns out, the activities

38:26

that best cement understanding the material. don't

38:28

tend to be extremely time-consuming. The very

38:30

best students don't tend to be the

38:32

students who quote unquote study the most,

38:34

but they can be unpleasant because they're

38:36

demanding. So for example, in your case,

38:38

integral calculus, I write about this in

38:40

the book, How To Become a Straightie

38:43

Student, I also wrote a blog post

38:45

you can find on my blog from

38:47

way back when it's titled something like

38:49

how I got the highest grade in

38:51

my discrete mathematics course. And I wrote

38:53

this not long after I graduated from

38:55

college, so I remembered. getting the highest

38:57

grade in my discrete math class, which

38:59

was 50 or 60 students. My number

39:01

one tool for studying in that class

39:03

was a big stack of white printer

39:06

paper. And what I would do, I

39:08

had written down, and this this method

39:10

is in how to become a straight

39:12

student, I had for every topic we

39:14

covered, sort of sample problems taken from

39:16

lectures and or problem sets, and I

39:18

would copy one of the problems without

39:20

the answer onto a sheet of white

39:22

paper and then solve it on that

39:24

paper. while solving it and annotating it

39:27

as if I was lecturing to a

39:29

class. All right, so next we're going

39:31

to do this. Well, hey, if we're

39:33

doing this integration, what we're looking for

39:35

here is the anti-derivative. And notice when

39:37

doing the anti-derivative here that we can

39:39

sort of ignore those terms because those

39:41

would be constant, etc. etc. etc. If

39:43

I could do that, I could get

39:45

the answer right, show the proof, get

39:47

to the right answer without looking at

39:50

my notes, explaining, explaining my steps, that

39:52

topic is done I don't come back

39:54

to it. If I struggle I go

39:56

back and review it and try again

39:58

later. Once I can actually teach... from

40:00

scratch, sample problems from every topic I

40:02

need to know, need then I know it and I'm ready to

40:04

take the class. And that got me the highest grade in

40:06

my math class. me the highest grade in my Now

40:08

the problem you might be having you you try

40:10

this approach is that you might find that you're

40:12

not able to answer many of the questions might a

40:15

lot of people do, and this is a huge

40:17

problem I think with undergraduate education in general. to answer

40:19

A lot of people don't attend lectures or

40:21

sort of tune out in lectures of then

40:23

sort of implicitly hope that in tune days before

40:25

the exam that they can not only study,

40:27

but teach themselves all the material from scratch.

40:29

scratch. This is going is

40:31

going to be the trap that I think

40:33

really captures people. guess, the If I had to

40:35

guess, the problem with your 30 hours is partially

40:38

that what you're doing is ineffective, you're probably

40:40

reading notes silently to yourself as opposed to trying

40:42

to recreate problems from scratch scratch. partially you're spending

40:44

most of that time trying to teach yourself

40:46

the material. teach But the the is hard to teach,

40:48

that's why they pay us professors the big teach.

40:50

That's why they pay not obvious how to teach yourself

40:52

this stuff. So the other thing you have to

40:54

do, So the other thing you have 48 is rule.

40:57

rule. And again, this comes from how to

40:59

become a straight A student. But the idea is

41:01

this, you go to lecture, you lecture, pay attention in

41:03

lecture, you take notes. In a math class, you

41:05

wanna capture every sample problem, every step to the

41:07

solution and annotate those steps to the best of

41:09

your ability. When you don't understand something. step to the

41:11

This step in this integration problem, I to the understand how

41:13

they did that. You put a question mark and

41:16

you circle it. something, the

41:18

clock is ticking. this You got 48

41:20

hours to replace that question mark with understanding. how

41:22

they did that. You deferring it until the

41:24

day before the exam. You got 48 hours.

41:26

48 hours. to fill in that question mark

41:28

right then. then, you have 40 hours from right right then.

41:30

Now you you have various circles of concentric

41:32

sort of concentric circles of time to

41:34

stretch out that you can work with

41:37

here. circle very away, circle is right away,

41:39

raise your hand. Hey, I don't understand

41:41

what you just did. The The next tightest

41:43

circle is right after class. class. Go up to

41:45

up to the professor. Hey, I I understand what was happening here

41:47

and here. Can you explain this to me? here. Can

41:49

you The next tightest circle would be

41:51

office hours. would be office is the

41:53

next time that there's office hours

41:55

with either with either a TA the the professor.

41:58

Also in between those circles as like

42:00

talking to a friend or looking at the

42:02

textbook to try to figure it out. So

42:04

typically why we call it the 48 hours

42:07

rules is that you're no more than 48

42:09

hours away from all of those circles being

42:11

done. But you're no more than 40 hours

42:13

away from probably the next office hours and

42:16

all these other things can happen quicker. So

42:18

by that point you should have resolved those

42:20

question marks. Now when you do this, when

42:23

it comes time to quote unquote study for

42:25

the exam. You already at some point understood

42:27

all of the techniques. You actually went through

42:29

the mental effort of grogging the technique already.

42:32

There's nothing you're learning from scratch for the

42:34

first time. You might have to review it,

42:36

but there's a huge difference between remembering something

42:38

you actually did the mental activity of learning,

42:41

then there is actually learning it from scratch.

42:43

The effort to learn from scratch is intense.

42:45

So you want to spread that out over

42:48

the semester, so you're not doing too much

42:50

of it at once. And so study now

42:52

you're reviewing. And then when you're reviewing, you

42:54

want to use the white paper method of

42:57

just, I'm recreating things from scratch. If I

42:59

can, I understand that. If I can't, I

43:01

don't go back and review again. That's how

43:03

you study for math class. It's all about

43:06

distributing the understanding of the material as you

43:08

learn it. And then you're reviewing being all

43:10

what we call active recall, as that's the

43:12

most effective way to actually see met knowledge.

43:15

But I think what's happening is you're kind

43:17

of teaching yourself this you're probably trying to

43:19

teach yourself this material from scratch like a

43:22

couple days before the exam All right, what

43:24

do we got what we got next? We

43:26

have our corner. Hey slow productivity corner question.

43:28

We like to have one question every week

43:31

that is related to my new book slow

43:33

productivity the lost art of a confident without

43:35

burnout We mainly do this corner because we

43:37

have theme music which we're going to hear

43:40

right now What's

43:47

our slow productivity corner question of the

43:50

week? It's from Dylan. In addition to

43:52

your books, do you have any book

43:54

recommendations for cultivating a deep life or

43:57

to embrace slow productivity? What I often

43:59

Like if you're interested broadly in the

44:01

deep life or more specifically in more

44:04

of a slow productivity approach, find real

44:06

stories that resonate. And usually this means

44:08

memoir. Look for memoir that resonates because

44:11

what happens is the written form, when

44:13

you're reading a nonfiction book like a

44:15

memoir, the written form can put you

44:18

inside the head and experience of someone

44:20

else. You get a sort of step

44:22

into another life. And when you're in

44:25

that life, you've stepped into someone else's

44:27

shoes, you really get a visceral sense

44:29

of what resonates and what doesn't. And

44:32

it's really informative. There's a lot of

44:34

self-discovery to be made. There's a lot

44:36

of motivation or inspiration to be made

44:38

about what's important to you, what's not.

44:41

So a big believer of finding memoirs

44:43

where the life of the person being

44:45

lived in the memoir speaks to you

44:48

in some way. And it might not

44:50

be, when I say memoir I use

44:52

that broadly. I mean, it could be

44:55

a book that is specifically a memoir,

44:57

but sometimes it could be like a

44:59

nonfiction book where it's a certain part

45:02

of a person's life and they're doing

45:04

some adventure or something like that. But

45:06

that's anything that's actually like about someone's

45:09

life that resonates, I often think that's

45:11

the right way to better understand yourself

45:13

and what you're looking for, what the

45:16

possibilities are for pursuing it, as opposed

45:18

to just straight up advice. The obvious

45:20

exception of course being my books, which

45:22

you need to buy many, many, many,

45:25

many copies of. All right,

45:27

do we have a call this week? We

45:29

do. Oh wait, should we hear the music

45:31

one more time? Do we play ourselves out

45:33

with the music? We do it half the

45:35

time. I think in 2025 we should commit

45:37

the playing ourselves out of the slow productivity

45:39

corner by hearing the music one more time.

45:41

Are we going to have a slow productivity

45:43

for the whole year? That's a good question.

45:45

At least for the next couple months. I

45:47

want to get to the one year mark

45:49

of the book. How about that? Oh, that's

45:51

fair. That's only three months. The book came

45:53

out of March. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So we're

45:55

going to keep the corner alive until we

45:57

get to the one-year anniversary. of of

45:59

the book. and in 2025 and

46:02

the three in the three months that are or

46:04

between now and that anniversary, we're gonna play the music twice.

46:06

So let's hear it one more time. music

46:08

twice. So let's hear it one

46:10

more time. All right she said

46:12

we have a call this week

46:14

Jesse? Yes All right, so we have a call

46:16

this week, Jesse? hear we do. All right, let's hear it.

46:19

this is Trevor. I'm a digital

46:21

this is Trevor. manager I'm a

46:23

digital product manager I earlier this year,

46:25

I left my full -time position

46:27

and started my own business. own I'm

46:29

I'm offering Consulting and fractional

46:31

product management. Where

46:34

I'm where I'm struggling is applying

46:36

multi -scale planning to the growth

46:38

of my own business. Previously

46:40

as an employee, employee, I've I've

46:42

gotten pretty good at the

46:45

principles and prioritizing

46:47

and time blocking our

46:49

company goals. goals. And even

46:51

now, I feel like I'm feel like I'm

46:53

doing a decent job applying that

46:56

to my client work and helping

46:58

them achieve theirs. theirs. Last week

47:00

has been a day day to

47:02

work on work -scale for

47:04

my own business. own business I

47:06

was able to was able to

47:09

the values the want to...

47:11

which I want to develop

47:13

my lifestyle you

47:15

know, plan around. putting putting

47:18

together that career strategic

47:20

plan. I kept banging

47:22

my head head against the wall.

47:24

wall. So I'm I'm curious if

47:26

you could share more

47:28

details in terms of what

47:30

kinds of things are

47:32

in your career strategic plan.

47:35

strategic plan Because it's that

47:37

Middle piece between the

47:40

the values and

47:42

principles. Into the weekly and

47:44

daily into the weekly and

47:46

daily planning in struggling with in

47:48

terms of growing my own. and

47:51

career career capital now as

47:53

a solo printer Thanks always.

47:56

All right, so in Alright, so in

47:58

multi -scale planning, we have three levels.

48:00

There's that strategic plan which is maybe covering

48:02

the next season. Then you have weekly planning

48:04

and then you have daily planning. So the

48:07

color today is talking about that biggest scale,

48:09

thinking thinking through that more strategic plan that's

48:11

maybe existing at the scope of something like

48:13

season. And it sounds like if I'm understanding

48:16

him properly, he's not sure what to put

48:18

in there. Right he's like what what what

48:20

is like what am I what are my

48:22

strategic goals? What am I working on more

48:24

specifically? You know if you're writing this plan

48:27

right now for the winter in the spring

48:29

like what am I trying to get done

48:31

by June? Where do I want to steer

48:33

this ship? Well, I think there's there's two

48:36

things that are relevant here that hopefully under

48:38

specified if you're doing something new In particular,

48:40

it is sometimes not even clear what the

48:42

potential opportunities to pursue are. What like you

48:44

should put the pedal down on and what

48:47

you should put the brake pedal down on.

48:49

Sometimes this is not even clear yet when

48:51

something is relatively new. You're still feeling out

48:53

your client base and what's working and what

48:55

the opportunities are. So it's completely fine. I

48:58

feel like I don't have this crystal clear.

49:00

We need to try to, this is our

49:02

goal for the next four months is to

49:04

try to. to introduce this product or move

49:07

this, you might actually be very sensically gathering

49:09

data on this new setup and trying to

49:11

just look for your moments, look for your

49:13

spots. So that's completely fine to be unders

49:15

specified, especially when something is new and you're

49:18

still feeling yourself around. So your strategic plan,

49:20

let's say for this upcoming semester season, for

49:22

something new like you're talking about, might really

49:24

be, seem very mundane, you know, it's continuing

49:27

to polish your client. management set up and

49:29

to get your some sort of logistical pieces

49:31

that you're using to bill or deliver assets.

49:33

And it's like get those who's

49:35

cleaned up and operating

49:38

smoother. It might seem

49:40

very mundane, and that's

49:42

fine. That doesn't mean

49:44

your ambitions are mundane.

49:46

It means you're waiting

49:49

to choose your spot

49:51

to make a bigger

49:53

move. The other thing

49:55

I would say when

49:58

it comes to these

50:00

plans, the key is

50:02

working backwards, especially when

50:04

you're doing something like

50:06

you're doing, which really

50:09

is a lifestyle play

50:11

for actual project management.

50:13

For example, like clearly

50:15

you're looking for autonomy,

50:18

you're looking for more

50:20

flexibility. You really wanna

50:22

have this clarity about

50:24

the properties of the

50:26

ideal lifestyle that you're

50:29

aiming towards, and you

50:31

can keep coming back

50:33

to that and

50:36

asking the question, which,

50:38

what's gonna move me closer towards those? What's

50:41

gonna move me farther away? And this can

50:43

lead you to some objectives that you might

50:45

not otherwise come up with if you're just

50:47

trying to say like, what's good for this

50:49

business, or what's a big idea I can

50:51

pursue. So one of the analyses you might

50:53

be doing the new year, for example, is

50:55

you have these properties identified that you're looking

50:57

for in your ideal lifestyle? And be saying,

50:59

is there any big disconnects right now? Is

51:02

there like one of these properties I'm really

51:04

far away from, or one that I seem

51:06

to be moving farther away from? What changes

51:08

could I imagine that could stop that erosion

51:10

or move me closer to it? So when

51:12

you're specifically working backwards from properties of ideal

51:14

lifestyle, specific changes can emerge that wouldn't normally

51:16

show up if you were just taking an

51:18

approach of, hey, me what's something good to

51:20

do with my business, or what's the natural

51:22

next step to take with this, right? So

51:25

those are my two answers. If you're doing

51:27

something new, it's okay to, don't feel underspecified,

51:29

that's okay. Sometimes you're just trying to like

51:31

get the lights on and the invoice is

51:33

sent out. And once you really get to

51:35

know what you're doing, then the opportunities will

51:37

become clear six months a year down the

51:39

line. And number two, work backwards from the

51:41

properties of ideal lifestyle, and just keep asking

51:43

the question, am I on track towards getting

51:46

closer to these? And in the places where

51:48

I'm not, do I yet see a change

51:50

I could make that would correct that? And

51:52

the answer might be not yet, but at

51:54

least I have it in the top of

51:56

my mind. Or the answer might be, you

51:58

know what? I could do this completely unexpected. thing.

52:00

It makes no It makes no sense financially, makes no

52:02

sense strategically, but from the point of view of

52:04

like, it's really important to me. point of that I

52:07

can, you know, day. to

52:09

me makes a lot of sense. know, I'm working day,

52:11

my lifestyle image, of this But making makes a lot

52:13

of sense. So those are the two things I

52:15

would say keep in mind. this change

52:17

on making a lot right, well, we have a case study

52:19

here. on This is where people send in

52:21

a description of how they've applied the type

52:23

of advice we talked about on the show into

52:25

their own life. So we can see the advice

52:27

I would action. in action. If you You have a

52:30

case study you can send it to can

52:32

send it.com. right, today's case study comes from

52:34

case study comes from Holden. longtime

52:36

listener, first -time writer. first time writer,

52:38

I'm 28 years old a gardener

52:40

by trade. of high school, I fell Out

52:42

of high school, I fell for the fallier

52:44

passion narrative. I At the time, I was not

52:46

ready to pursue a degree. elected and elected to

52:48

move across the country and pursue my

52:51

dream of working in the mountain bike

52:53

industry. industry. I I graduated from a

52:55

certification program related to the mountain bike

52:57

industry, got my foot in the door got my

52:59

foot dreams I and industry by the time

53:01

I was 22. the industry by the time I was 22. I

53:03

became embittered by the industry and

53:05

that regardless of one's passion,

53:07

work eventually becomes just that. just

53:09

that. left the bike industry at 23 and having

53:11

established connections and friendships in a town that

53:14

I love. in a town that I I took the

53:16

best job available to me at the time. time.

53:18

This was a landscape gardening job where I

53:20

could leverage the trail the and construction skills that

53:22

I had gained over the preceding years. over the preceding

53:24

years. In In the five years since leaving the

53:26

mountain bike industry, I started my own landscaping company

53:28

and enjoyed some success at that. For the last

53:30

year and a half or so, I began to

53:32

feel unfulfilled in my business venture. unfulfilled in and unhappy

53:34

with the path I was on and had set

53:36

for myself the past decade. the past decade. The

53:38

This sense of unfulfillment as well as

53:40

economic circumstances motivated me to begin to my

53:43

business and take a job with the

53:45

local government as a as a gardener. I had

53:47

fun in in my early but I'm but I'm with where with

53:49

where that has left me in my late 20s.

53:51

I found that I enjoyed being a business owner

53:53

but but did not like my future in the

53:55

particular industry I was in. I was in. I I

53:57

began doing Center career planning for a

53:59

few months. or a few months ago. I've

54:01

taken your advice and started a single-purpose

54:03

notebook to jout down anything that resonates

54:05

with me as it pertains to my

54:08

ideal lifestyle. These things that inform my

54:10

lifestyle center career plan. I have found

54:12

the career path that I have been

54:14

on since high school is not an

54:16

since high school is not an alignment

54:18

with where I want to be in

54:20

life. I am called the more intellectual

54:22

pursuits and work in which my mind

54:24

as opposed to my body is the

54:27

main tool I use to produce to

54:29

produce value to produce value. I do

54:31

feel ready to pursue a degree now,

54:33

but I have trouble determining what I

54:35

may study as I have an embarrassment

54:37

of intellectual interest. I also cannot shake

54:39

the small calumice shoulder telling me that

54:41

I'm falling for the trap of grand

54:44

goals, but I really enjoy studying for

54:46

studying a knowledge of sake and do

54:48

believe a degree would set me up

54:50

better for professional life where my mind

54:52

is the main producer of value. All

54:54

right, olden, we see a pretty realistic

54:56

case study here of lifestyle design in

54:58

both its positives and negatives. in action.

55:00

I'm going to zoom in early on

55:03

this story, where we talked about my

55:05

quote, dream of working in the mountain

55:07

bike industry, end quote. That's like a

55:09

classic passion trap type move, as Holden

55:11

correctly identifies. The interest was in mountain

55:13

biking. And our mind tricks us into

55:15

thinking, well, if I had a job

55:17

related to this thing I like, that

55:19

must be my dream. And as Holden

55:22

quickly learned, a job is a job,

55:24

what matters for a job are the

55:26

properties of the job, not the content,

55:28

not like the subject of that job.

55:30

So the fact that your job is

55:32

related to mountain biking probably doesn't matter

55:34

so much as like what are the

55:36

properties of that job? Engagement, autonomy, connection,

55:39

this mastery, etc. Right. So kind of

55:41

a classic passion trap. All right. So

55:43

he fell out of that went into

55:45

gardening where he could start his own

55:47

business, use skills that he had built

55:49

up, you have some rare invaluable skills,

55:51

now you have. something you can put

55:53

in the marketplace and you seem to

55:55

do well with that. The government job

55:58

doing gardening simplified probably. his

56:00

life. got rid rid of some autonomy, but

56:02

simplified his life. Like I can just sort

56:04

of do the work that I'm work that I'm given,

56:06

And now he's he's doing life planning and realizing there's parts of

56:08

his life. Like if he really sits and says, well,

56:10

what is it that I'm looking for in my life?

56:12

He feels like there's a lack. that I'm All

56:14

right, so now there's the complicated piece there's a lack.

56:17

do the small now on your shoulder. the complicated

56:19

piece, because a point on I

56:21

do, the small cal on your to be careful

56:23

here of being like, You maybe what I'm missing

56:25

is intellectual work. like, let me just make a

56:27

big swing a like go get a degree and

56:29

like go that this somehow leads to something that this somehow

56:32

leads is better. I would be way more

56:34

specific about this. I would really try to

56:36

clarify what your ideal day. this. I would really

56:38

like. clarify what your it

56:40

sitting in an office? like. Like is it it,

56:42

an know? Is it, you know, writing

56:44

poetry by the pond? being it

56:46

being outside, but having like a

56:49

lot of flexibility with your

56:51

hands? hands? could be that the the

56:53

gardening job job. is this very

56:55

stable base on top of which

56:57

you are a writer. teach that

56:59

you like teach yourself to be a which which

57:01

doesn't involve you like quitting everything and spending

57:03

years going back for a degree. Or maybe really

57:05

it's like you're tired of working with your

57:07

hands and it's like you're tired be very happy to

57:10

have and a exhausting, you in my backyard that I

57:12

convert into an office that I can go

57:14

to and like work on a laptop in like

57:16

five hours a day. And it's like kind

57:18

of engaging that I can be done and go

57:20

mountain biking. to Okay, great. That's a very specific

57:22

other vision. You mountain can start asking, what's the

57:24

quickest way to get there? What are skills

57:26

I can learn? effectively and efficiently that allow me to try

57:28

to find a job that can do that So I would

57:30

get very specific about what you want your day to be

57:32

like very and then figure

57:34

out what are your opportunities and obstacles. to be like,

57:36

and I'm concerned that you might just say I'll just

57:38

go get a degree and then maybe this will all work

57:40

out. You should be way ahead on your planning than that. you

57:43

might just say, want to know how to do this.

57:45

a degree, then I could do this type of

57:47

work which allows my data to unfold in this type of

57:49

way and that's what I'm really looking for. You need

57:51

to sort out, like what is this will all work. this This

57:53

appeal of the intellectual, what does this really

57:55

mean? Is it it really related to your related to

57:57

your actual day -to -day work? it related

57:59

to you... doing your time outside of work.

58:02

What are you actually looking for

58:04

in work in terms of like

58:06

how it feels and the autonomy

58:08

or the financial remuneration? You need

58:10

to keep thinking about your career

58:12

capital. You're starting from scratch with

58:14

career capital is very hard to

58:16

compete in the marketplace with people

58:18

that have more, etc. So this

58:20

is a time not to get

58:22

caught up in like a singular

58:24

move because it can be seducing

58:26

the move itself, right? You'll feel

58:28

good if you do something big

58:30

for a little while. Go back

58:32

to school, you'll feel good because

58:34

you made a big change. That's

58:36

exciting. There's opportunity. Then that goodness

58:38

wears off. And you're still pursuing

58:40

that change. And it doesn't necessarily

58:42

lead you to somewhere better. So

58:44

this is the time to do

58:46

careful, lifestyle-centric planning. Don't be seduced

58:48

by any one particular change or

58:50

move. That's a

58:52

complicated case study there Jesse. Yeah,

58:54

I love the reference. There's a

58:56

little cow on the shoulder That's

58:58

that's what we're gonna sell in

59:00

our Shopify store Little cows you

59:02

place on your shoulder That basically

59:04

just testizes you for looking at

59:06

Instagram and says don't go to

59:08

don't get a master's degree and

59:10

don't make grand goals stuff like

59:12

in an Instagram Couldn't you be

59:15

reading right now? Oh, it's so

59:17

well. That would sell well. All

59:19

right. Well, we got a speaking

59:21

of books. We got a final

59:23

segment coming up where I talked

59:25

about the books I read in

59:27

December, but first, another brief word

59:29

for sponsors. When I talk about

59:31

in particular, our sponsor, defender, we

59:33

have the multiple defenders, the 90,

59:35

the defender 110, the defender 130,

59:37

which can seat up to eight.

59:39

These are very slick looking vehicles.

59:41

They have that. classic sort of

59:43

durability, you can drive these things

59:45

wherever, go seek out adventure with

59:47

them, they're gonna hold up, but

59:50

they're gonna take you where you

59:52

wanna go, but they also look

59:54

great. that timeless lines as well.

59:56

Very nice looking brand of vehicle.

59:58

What I want to briefly mention

1:00:00

today is that that like famous

1:00:02

durability on the outside is now

1:00:04

matched on the inside with the

1:00:06

type of technology features that makes

1:00:08

the modern driving comfortable. Talking about

1:00:10

3D surround cameras, including clear sight

1:00:12

ground view, which lets you see

1:00:14

underneath the vehicle and anticipate. obstacles

1:00:16

and rough terrain. It has a

1:00:18

clear sight rear view mirror. You've

1:00:20

got a bunch of stuff in

1:00:22

the back of your car that's

1:00:24

blocking your rear view mirror. You

1:00:27

can still see in your mirror

1:00:29

using a camera on the back

1:00:31

of the car what is behind

1:00:33

you. It has driver aid technologies

1:00:35

to make driving and even parking

1:00:37

much simpler. You got intuitive driver

1:00:39

displays and the pivot pro infotainment

1:00:41

system that's a next generation system.

1:00:43

Gets you to all that stuff.

1:00:45

So it's just like kind of

1:00:47

luxurious driving experience with a car

1:00:49

that can take you wherever you

1:00:51

need to go. The Defender is

1:00:53

a cool line of cars. Take

1:00:55

you where you want to go

1:00:57

and try to cultivate your deep

1:00:59

life. You can visit Landrover usa.com

1:01:02

to learn more about the defender.

1:01:04

I also want to talk about

1:01:06

our friends at Rhone and in

1:01:08

particular their commuter collection. Look, starchy

1:01:10

stiff workware is not optimal when

1:01:12

you need to get through your

1:01:14

busiest most important days. With Rhone's

1:01:16

commuter collection, your clothing looks professional.

1:01:18

but performs like active wear and

1:01:20

feels very comfortable. This is why

1:01:22

I really like the commuter collections

1:01:24

because you get that comfort and

1:01:26

performance, that breathability and flex and

1:01:28

stretch of active wear, but it

1:01:30

looks great. And you can wear

1:01:32

it like right into that median

1:01:34

or right to give that talk

1:01:37

or in my case to teach

1:01:39

that class. Roan has premium pieces

1:01:41

to elevate every occasion. We're talking

1:01:43

about the world's most comfortable pants,

1:01:45

shirts, quarterzips, polos, and blazers. all

1:01:47

boosted with functional performance properties right

1:01:49

so there's signature technical fabric stretch

1:01:51

in every direction they breathe this

1:01:53

is important for me I get

1:01:55

hot when I'm like roaming this

1:01:57

stage and giving need

1:01:59

to look good. to

1:02:01

look good, But I need to breathe. Roan run

1:02:03

commuter collection dust as well. does this well. It

1:02:06

fights odor, allows you to you to effortlessly

1:02:08

work everywhere so you can stay calm and

1:02:10

collected. collected as your day gets

1:02:12

demanding. It's time for unparalleled confidence

1:02:14

without the hassle. Each piece in without

1:02:16

the hassle is made to

1:02:18

Each piece in and collection is made to

1:02:21

coordinate look. layer for an instantly elevated this stuff.

1:02:23

a bunch of this stuff. It's all gonna

1:02:25

look good together a little colder. Put

1:02:27

on the put on the know you on the on the

1:02:29

blazer. over the quarter It all looks good together.

1:02:31

You don't have to waste time thinking

1:02:33

about that about the part I like the

1:02:35

most is I like the technology is the wrinkle release technology.

1:02:37

So this is Don't worry about dry cleaners.

1:02:39

Hang it up. worry about dry cleaners. Hang

1:02:41

no irony. Release. with it,

1:02:43

hang it up when you get to the hotel. it. Hang it up don't have

1:02:45

to worry about the wrinkles. Don't have to worry

1:02:47

made my life for sure. my life for

1:02:50

sure. It's a great collection of Head

1:02:57

to roan.com slash cal and use the

1:02:59

promo code Cal to save save 20%

1:03:01

off your entire order. That's 20%

1:03:03

off % off your entire order when

1:03:05

you head to to -O -N -E. cal and

1:03:07

use code cal. It's time to cal

1:03:09

It's time to embody your most confident self. to

1:03:12

embody your most All

1:03:14

right, let's get on to our final segment. right,

1:03:16

let's get on to so I like to report

1:03:18

in the first episode of each month I books I

1:03:20

read in in the first episode

1:03:22

of each month the books I read in I try

1:03:24

to read five books a month. month.

1:03:28

Okay, so it's January 2nd when

1:03:30

we're recording this, recording this, so

1:03:32

we're going talking about the books

1:03:34

from December from December 2024. Listeners, no, I like in

1:03:37

December because of like in December as a way the

1:03:39

holidays of a way to kind of unwind from

1:03:41

the fall to be thrillers. I love thrillers in

1:03:43

particular techno thrillers. So I call. so

1:03:45

I December thriller-December.

1:03:47

And this And this December did

1:03:49

not disappoint. Especially because I was dealing

1:03:51

with these medical, this injury I've been recovering

1:03:54

from. I've the thrillers were like, from. I I

1:03:56

went two ways with this. I read a

1:03:58

bunch of thrillers early on, and then, then... These books

1:04:00

are all going to show up in the

1:04:02

January list because I was just finishing them

1:04:04

now. I turned to books that were like

1:04:07

hardcore intellectual because I couldn't exercise. So I

1:04:09

was like, well, what can I do still?

1:04:11

I can still think. So I read a

1:04:13

bunch of math stuff, which we'll get into

1:04:16

at the next book. But I started December

1:04:18

with a bunch of thrillers. All right, here's

1:04:20

the first thriller I read was Brad Meltzer's

1:04:22

book, Midnight Ride. So Brad

1:04:24

is known, he's a Boston-based writer that's

1:04:27

known for writing these sort of narrative

1:04:29

nonfiction books. He got famous with bringing

1:04:31

down the house, which was about the

1:04:33

MIT Blackjack Club, that got made into

1:04:35

the movie 21, but he also wrote

1:04:37

the book, The Social, No, the Accidental

1:04:40

billionaires, about Mark Zuckerberg, which was in

1:04:42

the book on which the movie, The

1:04:44

Social Network, was based. So this was

1:04:46

his style. Was he wrote these... nonfiction

1:04:48

books, but he would write the nonfiction

1:04:50

books in a novelistic style like with

1:04:52

dialogue and interior thoughts. He was like,

1:04:55

he kind of just like guesses. So

1:04:57

it's like this mix of like fiction

1:04:59

and nonfiction. Anyways, during the pandemic, he

1:05:01

serialized in a Boston newspaper a thriller.

1:05:03

It's like each week, like another chapter.

1:05:05

It's kind of cool like Dickens used

1:05:08

to do. And then he collected into

1:05:10

this book The Midnight Ride. So this

1:05:12

is like a national treasure style plot

1:05:14

line. It takes place in Boston. It's

1:05:16

a Harvard professor and a Tufts professor.

1:05:18

It has to do with the colonial

1:05:20

periods. They're going to all these different

1:05:23

historical sites in Boston to try to

1:05:25

collect clues that are hidden in them.

1:05:27

One of those types of books, and

1:05:29

it was one of those types of

1:05:31

books, and it was a lot of

1:05:33

fun. It doesn't end at the end

1:05:36

of this book as part of a

1:05:38

longer series. You're going to have to

1:05:40

keep going. And I thought it was

1:05:42

well done. I mean, I mean, it's

1:05:44

the style he was writing his nonfiction.

1:05:46

in any crazy way he wants. And

1:05:48

so there's some cool Boston history in

1:05:51

there, some good villains. I don't know.

1:05:53

I think it was well done. Midnight

1:05:55

Ride. Then I went and read one

1:05:57

of the few Michael Crichton books that

1:05:59

I'd know. I haven't yet read.

1:06:01

Eaters of the Dead. Have you heard of

1:06:03

of the Dead. So, I mean, this was

1:06:06

Have you heard of this one? period So,

1:06:08

I mean, this was written in this period. really

1:06:10

before Crichton strain, but really before

1:06:12

Creighton was like a huge writer. was

1:06:15

a big was a big deal. he wasn't a

1:06:17

huge wasn't a huge away after that.

1:06:19

that. He much more much more eclectic

1:06:21

in his riding style. He was still doing

1:06:23

some. doing some, trying at cheaper

1:06:25

thrillers under nom de gers like under

1:06:27

fake names at this period.

1:06:29

And he was also going all

1:06:31

around going all around stylistically he this is when

1:06:34

when he wrote like the great train robbery

1:06:36

He was doing nonfiction he wrote a book

1:06:38

a book about of a memoir of

1:06:40

his he wrote a He wrote a biography

1:06:42

of and in And in that period, that

1:06:44

early experimental period, he wrote The he

1:06:46

of the Dead, of which is. is

1:06:48

It's a a book about Vikings, It's told,

1:06:51

it's it's written like you've discovered

1:06:53

a historical document. The whole conceit

1:06:55

is like this is a document this

1:06:57

is a written by by someone who is who

1:06:59

is part of this. with these Vikings, with

1:07:01

these in the year And this is like

1:07:03

in the year and or something. And

1:07:05

we've translated this from the Arabic and

1:07:07

you're you're reading a historical document, right?

1:07:09

Like that's the conceit. the He actually.

1:07:11

He actually built it off of a real

1:07:13

document that talked about the travel of

1:07:15

someone from like... I don't know, know,

1:07:18

some court in the Middle East all the

1:07:20

way all the Scandinavia. And then

1:07:22

once they actually get

1:07:24

to Scandinavia, it's it's basically There's

1:07:26

like grindles in there. So in there.

1:07:28

it becomes full out out fantastical. So he

1:07:30

kind of of in the style of

1:07:32

like a real. real historical account that

1:07:34

existed of with Vikings with that

1:07:36

turns into that turns into Beowulf monsters,

1:07:38

whatever it is, you know. whatever. And

1:07:40

it's, you know, it's It's weird because

1:07:42

it's like in the style like in the style

1:07:44

of translated translated. seven

1:07:47

century travel log. He wrote weird

1:07:49

stuff back stuff back then. So it was okay.

1:07:51

It was okay. Then following this following

1:07:53

this theme, I the third thriller I wrote was

1:07:55

The Adromeda Evolution. A follow up to A

1:07:58

follow -up to Michael breakout

1:08:00

book. Adjorama strain written after Michael Crichton

1:08:02

died by Daniel Wilson. That's a pretty

1:08:04

good thriller. Pretty good straight up thriller.

1:08:06

Man, it gets a little crazy. You

1:08:08

know, it makes me respect early Crichton

1:08:11

more. The Adronma strain had some like

1:08:13

big, big, high concept ideas in it,

1:08:15

but it still felt very grounded. Like

1:08:17

you're. reading like a cool New Yorker

1:08:19

piece. This thing, it gets pretty crazy.

1:08:21

It's an outer space, like it gets

1:08:24

pretty crazy. Like it's pretty high octane.

1:08:26

The biggest issue I had with it

1:08:28

is the, not everything is well motivated.

1:08:30

There's this like mission to go investigate

1:08:32

this thing. And it's unclear like why

1:08:34

these people have to do it and

1:08:37

why they have to like go through

1:08:39

the woods to do it and why

1:08:41

they can't just travel. There's some, we

1:08:43

just need these people to be in

1:08:45

the woods and so action can take

1:08:47

place and it doesn't really, there's some

1:08:49

lack of motivation that Creighton was fantastic

1:08:52

at like everything is always motivated at

1:08:54

Creighton book. You completely believe why someone

1:08:56

is doing what they're doing. They play

1:08:58

a little fast and loose with this

1:09:00

year, but it gets wild and it

1:09:02

was fun. It was pretty good. The

1:09:05

Andromeda evolution. All right, then I read,

1:09:07

leaving the thriller theme, I read open.

1:09:09

That's Andre Augustes Memoir. Tough to be

1:09:11

a professional athlete. He grew up in

1:09:13

a situation where his dad was like,

1:09:15

I'm going to make you into a

1:09:18

tennis player. And it wasn't necessarily like

1:09:20

the best childhood. And then he builds

1:09:22

these entourage where it's like very needy.

1:09:24

I don't think I guess he even

1:09:26

realizes this where he'll. He'll just glom

1:09:28

onto these people and then give these

1:09:30

big speeches of like you have to

1:09:33

be in my life and my life

1:09:35

means nothing without you and he creates

1:09:37

these like entourage as a big trainers

1:09:39

and stuff that just like follow him

1:09:41

around and it was interesting. The main

1:09:43

issue is I'm dealing with some pain

1:09:46

from an injury I'm recovering from and

1:09:48

like Augusti's whole life becomes pain after

1:09:50

a while. You know of a professional

1:09:52

athlete who plays well into their... So

1:09:54

I was like, yeah,

1:09:56

it's a little

1:09:59

close to home. And

1:10:01

it was, to home. And

1:10:03

it was, What's his face, wrote the book,

1:10:05

right? wrote Yeah, he wrote it with right? Yeah, he wrote it

1:10:07

it was the guy who wrote. Yeah.

1:10:09

Yeah. It was the guy who wrote,

1:10:12

well, header bar. Yeah. And Prince

1:10:14

Harry's. Yeah. And Prince Harry's. so it's

1:10:16

a great, good ghost run, because he kind of

1:10:18

takes on his voice. Yeah. That was a good

1:10:20

story though. Yeah. So you really learn about

1:10:22

the world of professional tennis. I mean, sports It's

1:10:24

a problem with all these sports memoirs as

1:10:26

they sometimes have a hard time really capturing.

1:10:28

capturing. at at that level. what makes you

1:10:30

so makes you so good? this book

1:10:33

had the issue of there's a lot

1:10:35

of this book had the issue of there's a

1:10:37

lot of like and so I beat peace was

1:10:39

feeling it today. then other days, like, I

1:10:41

so I beat peace feeling it that day. They

1:10:43

just wasn't feeling it that day. in these books

1:10:45

make it seem like in these books

1:10:47

that winning at this level is like

1:10:49

a matter of just. really extra extra

1:10:51

commit. then, you know, you then

1:10:54

you in it on and like

1:10:56

some sort of abstract sense

1:10:58

sense. And I'm more interested interested, like to

1:11:00

give hints, like no, he had like,

1:11:02

I guess he had like the serve his

1:11:04

dad his dad had forced into him

1:11:06

that like this was his advantage or his

1:11:08

quickness or it's like you know I really love

1:11:10

when a you know, I gets to that. a book

1:11:12

gets to makes a great athlete great.

1:11:14

So if you look at levels of

1:11:16

the game, by contrast, John of book by

1:11:19

tennis, U .S. Open. McPhee's book much better.

1:11:21

US Open. That's much better at

1:11:23

Like what made the tennis

1:11:25

player? player. Good like what they did what

1:11:27

the other player did what that cat and

1:11:29

mouse game was like how this all cat was

1:11:31

a much better book game was like how this

1:11:33

what makes you good at the sport. A lot of times was a

1:11:35

don't get there. Well, you

1:11:37

still have to be like what? What?

1:11:39

right? you good at the the

1:11:42

level where it gets of times you at

1:11:44

that level, like why, don't did he have you

1:11:46

when he's like a little bit older to be

1:11:48

on the in could turn it on and beat

1:11:50

so many of these other people? still have it

1:11:52

up, had eight majors. I didn't realize he had so many.

1:11:54

Yeah. right? Yeah, he was he was good. good. I mean,

1:11:56

the was good. I mean, the other book is

1:11:58

the book, it's the book, but about... tennis like most

1:12:01

of the time he's losing is most

1:12:03

the time you lose you know there's

1:12:05

like these whole long sweats you just

1:12:07

lose lose lose lose lose lose because

1:12:09

it's so minor that little edge you're

1:12:11

required to win that you can just

1:12:14

lose for a year yeah I guess

1:12:16

in individual sports is you lose a

1:12:18

lot like golf you lose a lot

1:12:20

like if you read a memoir of

1:12:22

golf like you lose most of the

1:12:24

matches or tournaments whatever they're called yeah

1:12:26

so he was good he was not

1:12:29

the since I got is like The,

1:12:31

he's a great, but like the super

1:12:33

grates were more, not organized, but like

1:12:35

their life was much more structured around.

1:12:37

He was more fast and loose, right?

1:12:39

It's like Pete Sampras was more just

1:12:42

regimented, like his life was much more

1:12:44

carefully built around what you need to

1:12:46

do to do well at tennis, what

1:12:48

do you need to do with like

1:12:50

your body and your recovery and then

1:12:52

they was very like locked in and

1:12:54

August he was sort of all over

1:12:57

the place. And there's a part in

1:12:59

this book. Or he's he's taking meth.

1:13:01

They're talking about his hair. Yeah, he

1:13:03

has hair fell out early and then

1:13:05

he would wear who's wearing wigs and

1:13:07

stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting.

1:13:10

The final book I read in December

1:13:12

is called The Future was Now by

1:13:14

Chris Nashawati. This is from this genre

1:13:16

book that I like that there's a

1:13:18

lot of similarity to it. It's a

1:13:20

movie book where it'll be about a

1:13:23

movie or a group of movies and

1:13:25

it's kind of basically oral history. I

1:13:27

discovered there's a whole genre of these

1:13:29

I've been reading, where we're going to

1:13:31

talk about this movie year or this

1:13:33

particular movie. And it's just like an

1:13:35

oral history. Like here's what happened. They

1:13:38

collect quotes from like a lot of

1:13:40

other sources and pull it together. But

1:13:42

I find them comforting. The future was

1:13:44

now is about the sci-fi movies from

1:13:46

1989. So there's like all of these

1:13:48

big sci-fi movies came out in the

1:13:51

same year. This is like ET. This

1:13:53

is the year that Blade Runner came

1:13:55

out. Conan, the barbarian, came out and

1:13:57

Tran came out. So all

1:13:59

of these. of these big sci-fi,

1:14:01

like the idea of the big sci-fi movie

1:14:03

of the big sci -fi movie. year. And

1:14:05

so he a thing in this one year. of And so

1:14:07

he kind of tells the stories of all these movies or how

1:14:09

they came about or whatever. So it was interesting. You

1:14:11

learn, you hear about you hear about the directors and

1:14:14

what was happening. And then this was sort

1:14:16

of the year that changed movies. It was like,

1:14:18

that these like big sci -fi movies can be

1:14:20

like huge box office movies can be like of helped and

1:14:22

that idea. So it was great. If you like

1:14:24

movies and like these sort of oral history if

1:14:26

movie books. like, like, This one one was good.

1:14:28

I I to this one instead of Reddit. one instead

1:14:30

of read it. So it's good. it. So

1:14:32

it's good. All right, All right, that's

1:14:34

what I got. Those Those are my books

1:14:36

December. And at the end of January, I'll

1:14:39

report the end of January, I'll report what

1:14:41

I read in January. As I mentioned, it's a lot

1:14:43

more lot more mathy. So was sort of. of Unless

1:14:45

she and myself, I don't know. Trying to I'm trying

1:14:47

to for lack of physical activity

1:14:49

with more intellectual activity. So more on

1:14:51

that, but let's just say. So more

1:14:53

on that, but I can tell you

1:14:55

now about how support vector machines

1:14:58

and machine learning are really using, using.

1:15:00

Curnels to help kernels to help do

1:15:02

multi products to help figure help figure out

1:15:04

optimal margin in multi- dimensions without the the computational

1:15:06

power. can talk to you about

1:15:08

infinite dimension calculus and why why you want

1:15:10

to use this on vector representations

1:15:12

of functions as a dual way

1:15:14

of thinking about function function cetera.

1:15:16

All stuff I learned after Thriller December to

1:15:18

try to compensate for my body,

1:15:21

not doing what I wanted to

1:15:23

do. to do. learn. all about that in a

1:15:25

few weeks a we'll be back next week with

1:15:27

just a normal episode just a until then, as always,

1:15:29

then, as always, stay deep. Hi,

1:15:32

it's it's Cal here. One One

1:15:34

more thing before you go.

1:15:37

you go. If If you like Questions

1:15:39

you will love my email

1:15:41

newsletter, which you can sign

1:15:43

up for at sign up.com. Each

1:15:46

week, I send out

1:15:48

a new essay about the

1:15:50

theory or practice of living

1:15:52

deeply. I've been

1:15:54

writing this newsletter since 2007, and

1:15:56

over 70 ,000 subscribers get it

1:15:58

sent to their end. each week. So

1:16:00

week. serious So if you are

1:16:02

serious about resisting the forces

1:16:04

of distraction and to the afflict our

1:16:06

world, you you've got to sign

1:16:08

up for my newsletter at

1:16:10

CalNewport.com and get some deep wisdom

1:16:12

delivered to your inbox. to your inbox

1:16:15

each week.