14 Lessons I Learned in 2019

Hey friends,

One of the most joyful parts of the holiday season is that I don’t have to come up with some novel wisdom for this newsletter. I can just title it ’14 Lessons I learned in 2019′ and link to the newsletter issues where I first discussed these. So here we go 😊

14 Lessons I Learned in 2019

1. Daily highlight
2. If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is
3. Window openers vs door knockers
4. Obvious to you, amazing to others
5. Flywheel concept
6. Master boring fundamentals
7. Type 1 vs type 2 fun
8. Fast Bad Wrong
9. The Reitoff Principle
10. The Mundanity of Excellence
11. The go first rule
12. High leverage housekeeping
13. The inbox for your brain
14. The power of project lists

Have a great week!

Ali

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This week’s podcast episode

Not Overthinking is the weekly podcast hosted by me and my brother. If you enjoy these emails, you’ll hopefully like that too. You can listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Castro (my favourite podcast app) or any other podcast app – just search for ‘Not Overthinking’.

Social Interactions – Comfort, Messaging and Life Enjoyment | Not Overthinking

In this episode, we discuss our favourite topic – Social Interaction – from the lenses of (1) comfort, (2) etiquettes of messaging and (3) the pinnacle of the human condition. We wonder about the value of a minimalist messaging policy, and try and figure out why we find it easier to get on with non-white people.

My Favourite Things this week

1 – Podcast – I enjoyed Tim Ferriss’ interview with Gary Keller. Other than some general life wisdom, there was some good stuff about how to say no to things, how to manufacture a productive environment and how to think about making gains in health, habits and relationships.

2 – Board Game – I played Articulate with some cousins last night, until around 4am. It’s been a while since I last played it, but the sesh reminded me of how great a board game it is. If you’re hanging out with friends or family this holiday season, introduce them to Articulate – it’ll be the best decision you’ll make in 2019.

Kindle Highlight of the Week

“I think a lot of people, myself included, can sometimes get stuck. Like ‘They haven’t called me, so I’m not going to call them.’ If you want to talk to your friend just call them. You don’t have to play chicken about who’s going to take the first step.”

From How Friends Become Closer by Julie Beck. Resurfaced with Readwise.

This week’s videos