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Never Fully Read #6
"Social media has made ‘perfect’ look normal so now ‘good’ has become disposable." - Steven Bartlett
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Share this -> Link with anyone & everyone you think might find this interesting. 🚀
🧠 Quotes that make you think:
"Social media has made ‘perfect’ look normal so now ‘good’ has become disposable."
"Most of the ‘New Age’ techniques that aim to improve your mental health are based upon ‘Old Age’ principles of how life was 10,000 years ago. We took a wrong turn and filled our lives with overstimulation, alcohol, caffeine, poor nutrition, loneliness. It’s time to turn back”
Steven Bartlett
“Problems that remain persistently insoluble should always be suspected as questions asked in the wrong way.”
“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.”
Alan Watts
"The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same." - Colin R. Davis
"Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do. Don't wish it were easier; wish you were better." - Jim Rohn
"Don't let the fear of losing be greater than the excitement of winning." - Robert Kiyosaki
📈 Trends of the week:
“The Eco-Friendly Scene Gets Luxe”
“Startups are designing high-end products that leverage the eco-friendly trend -- and some are barely keeping up with demand.”
“Conscious consumption is in vogue.Younger generations in particular are driving up demand for products like compostable bamboo toothbrushes (this set cleans up with $89k/mo. on Amazon, per Jungle Scout) and luxury secondhand fashion.”
“3 Areas of opportunity”
Reusable containers
Raising the Bar: Some personal care startups are eliminating plastic completely by developing luxury shampoo bars
Recycled Textiles: Waste like leftover fruit pulp and old wetsuits can now be turned into anything from luxury purses (e.g., this mango-based wallet for ~$200) to high-end yoga mats.”
“Adventure Foods Are Climbing”
“Interest in lightweight, easy meals for camping, hiking, and trail running is growing.
The r/trailmeals subreddit (“a community devoted to recipes you can cook while backpacking and camping”) has doubled in the past 2 years from ~47k in August 2019 to ~100k today.”
🤖 Tech News:
🕶 Facebook’s next Product will be it’s long awaited Ray Ban smart glasses
“The glasses have their iconic form factor, and they let you do some pretty neat things,” the Facebook co-founder said. “So I’m excited to get those into people’s hands and to continue to make progress on the journey toward full augmented reality glasses in the future.”
📸 YouTube’s $100M shorts fund to challenge TikTok goes live.
“YouTube earlier this year announced its plans to significantly invest in original creator content for its TikTok competitor, YouTube Shorts, with the introduction of a $100 million YouTube Shorts Fund. The fund will reward creators for their most engaging and most viewed short-form videos over the course of 2021 to 2022, with the goal of quickly scaling creator activity on YouTube’s new short-form video platform, Shorts, to better rival TikTok.”
💸 Reddit is raising up to $700M in Series F funding
“These efforts require us to grow our teams and make smart bets on how to make Reddit better, faster, easier to use, and more empowering for communities,” Reddit writes. “We are also evolving as a business, maturing, and building the operational structures that will help propel us into the future with transparency, values and integrity.”
🚙 Moove raises $23M to create flexible options for drivers to own cars in Africa
“In Nigeria, owning a car is a luxury very few people can afford. It is a similar case across Africa, where car owners often recycle used cars between themselves because of the difficulty of accessing new ones. Moove, an African mobility company with a fintech play, wants to change that, and is raising $23 million in Series A to scale rapidly across the continent.”
⛓ Crypto hacker offered reward after $600m Heist
“A hacker who stole just over $600m (£433m) worth of cryptocurrency was offered $500,000 and immunity as a reward for returning the money.Poly Network made the controversial offer after the hacker pledged to send back the money.The attack was uncovered on Tuesday when Poly Network publicly pleaded with the hacker to help.”
“Fanatics is seeking new opportunities like sports gambling and this move explains why it has been hiring new executives. Last month, Fanatics hired former IAC chief financial officer Glenn Schiffman to play a critical role in expanding into new sectors like gaming and new ticketing models. The company oversees a blockchain tied to its nonfungible token company, Candy Digital. “
🎤 Podcast Recommendations:
Get Uncomfortable & Reclaim Your Wild, Happy & Healthy Self | Michael Easter | Impact Theory
"Michael Easter, joins me today to discuss his journey and share the lessons and insights he’s gained from spending a month in the Arctic surviving. Hunting his own food, carrying heavy loads, and sitting with absolute boredom are just part of his story. As you listen to his story, it is my hope you will consider ways you step out of your comfort zone. There is something very freeing about being able to shake things up and break your routines and habits to improve the quality of your life in unconventional ways."
How To Stop Abusing Yourself | Peter Crone & Aubrey Marcus
"This podcast will change your life! It changed mine. In one of my best podcasts of 2020 I drop in for a second episode with the mind architect, Peter Crone. I have never known a master of performance psychology more impactful than Peter. We discuss the many ways we abusively to ourself, and all of the tools and techniques to liberate ourselves from this inner oppressor."
📚 Book I’m reading:
“The Tao De Ching is a fundamental text for both philosophical and religious Taoism. It also strongly influenced other schools of Chinese philosophy and religion, including Legalism, Confucianism, and Buddhism, which was largely interpreted through the use of Taoist words and concepts when it was originally introduced to China.
Tao Te Ching translates very roughly as "the way of integrity". In its 81 verses it delivers a treatise on how to live in the world with goodness and integrity: an important kind of wisdom in a world where many people believe such a thing to be impossible.”
Interesting quotes:
"The flame that burns Twice as bright burns half as long.”
"A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving."
“He who knows, does not speak. He who speaks, does not know.”
“Trying to understand is like straining through muddy water. Have the patience to wait! Be still and allow the mud to settle.”
"Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.”
“If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold on to. If you are not afraid of dying, there is nothing you cannot achieve.”
“Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”
10 themes from the book:
TAO - The Tap is the infinite, common source; eternally present within you. No beginning, no end. The essence of wisdom. Just be.
Centeredness - Balance and reside at the center of the circle within the Tao for peace in your heart, natural rhythms, and universal harmony
No Self - Don’t live life, let life live you. You will be truly yourself and perfectly fulfilled. This leaves nothing to fear, not even death
Look Inside - Embrace solitude and trust your inner vision to see your oneness with the whole universe. Go deep instead of living on the surface.
Desire Non - Desire - Remove all expectations and stop seeking to realise the mystery of life and be at peace in the present
Not - Knowing Mind - Know that you don’t know. This is true knowledge. Observe your mind to understand. Stop thinking, and end your problems.
Non-Action Mind - Through “non-action”practicing using “not-doing” you will do everything that needs to be done. The Tao will act through you.
Non-Resitance, Non-Judgement, & Non-Attachment - Let things come and go, have without possessing act without expecting
Contentment & Simplicity - When you realize you have enough, you are rich. The whole world belongs to you. Simplicity returns you to the source.
Paradoxes - The paradox is the way. When the Tao is forgotten, humanity goes off course. The world is sacred as-is. We only need to trust in the Tao
Next week I will be reading :
5 Regrets of the Dying - Bronnie Ware
⏰ Timeless Insight:
"Juggling is part of our history. There are Egyptian paintings of people juggling balls that date back as much as 4,000 years. Juggling relies on a variety of limiting factors: hand speed, accuracy, aerial space and the size of the human hand (You need to be able to grasp x number of balls).
On top of this, the more balls you juggle, the higher you've got to throw them to create the space needed to avoid mid air collisions - which requires even more accuracy, speed, and, ideally, an even larger hand. Because of these limiting factors, physicists estimate that it's almost impossible for an adult human to juggle more than 14 balls - the current undisputed world record. Anyone that has tried to juggle more than that has failed.
To me this has always been a beautiful metaphor for life. There is a fundamental limit to how many balls you're able to juggle. So you have to choose which balls you want to juggle and which are the most meaningful to hold. The foolish endeavour to juggle them all will only result in failure. And the balls you do choose to juggle will feel significantly more valuake, because they were chosen at the expense of all the other balls you simply couldn't hold."
Steven Bartlett (Link to book)