Problems constrain thinking. When defined too early, they limit potential solutions. Innovators reframe problems to unlock creativity. Don't take the problem at face value. Question assumptions. Challenge existing constraints. Broaden the problem statement to reveal unseen opportunities. The right question is more important than the right answer.Frame problems as opportunities to explore many possible solutions.

The Problem with Problems

Prototyping is more important than brainstorming. Instead of only thinking of ideas, we must make ideas tangible as early as possible in order to learn faster.

Assumptions hold creativity hostage. They anchor thinking to existing paradigms and assumed constraints. Release assumptions to unlock fresh perspectives. Be brutally honest about current beliefs. Ask "What if?" <ul><li>Identify orthodoxies. </li><li>Challenge sacred cows. </li><li>Question everything. </li></ul>Assumptions hide in plain sight. Expose them through reversal - assume the opposite. Reversing assumptions shakes loose hidden insights.

Release Your Assumptions

Prototyping accelerates learning. Don't wait for perfection. Move quickly from idea to prototype. <ul><li>Test concepts early with customers. </li><li>Prototypes expose flaws and opportunities. </li><li>They help fail fast and cheaply. </li><li>Making an idea tangible reveals insights theory misses</li></ul>

Prototype to Learn Fast

Customers are innovation allies, not passive recipients. Include them early and often. Collaboration unlocks insights. Customer immersion builds empathy and sparks ideas. <ul><li>Ask for feedback on prototypes. </li><li>Observe behavior.</li><li>Co-create with lead users who live in the future. </li><li>Leverage user communities to accelerate innovation.</li></ul>

Customers Speak Through Actions, Not Words

Seek stimulus from analogous worlds. Adjacent spaces reveal needs and ideas. Connecting disparate domains cross-pollinates creativity.   Zoom out and zoom in perspectives. Import ideas from other industries and contexts. Explore adjacencies beyond physical products into services, experiences and business models.

Speed trumps size. Get to market quickly with a basic offering. Launch small experiments to validate and improve. Think minimum viable product, not maximum product. Test elements individually vs. bundled. Pursue incremental innovation once core product performs.

Launch Fast and Small


Structure impacts culture. To thrive, innovation needs its own space. Protect creative teams from rigid corporate systems.  Enable innovation through independent units or teams with different processes. Maintain connections to tap company assets. Celebrate failure as learning. Structure follows strategy - organize accordingly.

Organize for Innovation: Autonomy feeds Experimentation

<ul><li>The future favors the bold. </li><li>Make future-focused innovation part of strategy and culture. Develop foresight. </li><li>Explore trends and scenarios. </li><li>Form a predictions database to guide innovation. </li><li>Consider diverse global perspectives. </li><li>Monitor the periphery for weak signals. </li><li>Craft 10-year visions. </li><li>Make futures tangible with models and experiential scenarios. Prepare for change. </li><li>Shape the future or be shaped.</li></ul>

Create a Future Focus 


In "Better and Faster", Jeremy Gutsche shares his insights and strategies for thriving in today's fast-paced and constantly changing world. Drawing on his experiences as a successful entrepreneur, business consultant, and founder of the innovation hub TrendHunter.com, Gutsche offers practical tools and frameworks for innovation, change management, adaptation, and disruption strategy.

Out-innovate, outsmart and outmaneuver your competitors with tactics from the CEO of TrendHunter.com, Jeremy Gutsche. In our world of chaos and change, what are you overlooking? If you knew the answer, you’d be a better innovator, better manager, and better investor. This book will make you better by teaching you how to overcome neurological traps that block successful people, like you, from realizing your full potential. Then, it will make you faster by teaching you 6 patterns of opportunity: Convergence, Divergence, Cyclicality, Redirection, Reduction and Acceleration. Each pattern you’ll learn is a repeatable shortcut that has created fortunes for ex-criminals, reclusive billionaires, disruptive CEOs and ordinary people who unexpectedly made it big.  In an unparalleled study of 250,000 ideas, Jeremy and his TrendHunter.com team have leveraged their 100,000,000 person audience to study what actually causes opportunity: data-driven research that was never before possible. The result is a series of frameworks battle-tested with several hundred brands, and top executives at some of the most successful companies in the world who rely on Jeremy to accelerate their hunt for ideas. Better and Faster will help you learn to see patterns and clues wherever you look that will put you on the smarter, easier path to finding those breakthrough ideas, faster.

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

books

Books

product

Product & Design

Jeremy Gutsche

Better and Faster

When we're unproductive or wasting our time, we like to tell ourselves we're missing motivation.  We intuitively think that we need this motivation to give us the spark to get started.  However, we can reframe and restructure our lives so that we never need to worry about motivation again.

When motivation doesn't move you to action

Jeff Haden, author of The Motivation Myth: How High Achievers Really Set Themselves Up to Win,  explains why we misunderstand motivation.  Motivation is something you can create yourself. When you put in the effort, you will improve. Improvement feels good and motivates you to do what is on your list.

You can't create motivation yourself

The ultimate motivation myth is that we all need motivation to get something done. But instead, we gain motivation when we see ourselves making progress. It is not motivation that leads to action. It's action that leads to success, which leads to motivation, which leads to more action, which generates more success and motivation. This creates a positive dopamine feedback loop.

Why motivation is not the spark

We are often told that to get motivation to do something, we should set some kind of goal to motivate us to get started. This theory is misguided.  While there's nothing wrong with setting a goal, a goal isn't enough.  Having a goal to run a marathon will not get you across the finish line. Instead, success depends on the process. When we focus on process, we build the foundations for success and the momentum and positive feedback loop to sustain motivation.

Processes over goals

Conventional wisdom says we should try and be specialised. We should get really good at one thing. Instead, we should be thinking like generalists. There are so many different skills we can learn that will synergise. Innovation doesn't come from being very specialised in one field but from combining innovation from multiple areas in interesting ways. We don't have to study all fields at once. You can become very good at almost anything in five to seven years, then move on to the next thing.

Becoming serial achievers

Debunking some of the popular myths around motivation.

Get FREE access to my Productivity Masterclass here: https://skl.sh/aliabdaal11 In this episode of book club we're talking about The Motivation Myth by Jeff Haden. We look at how most people understand (or misunderstand) motivation, whether too much emphasis is placed on it and how to get started without needing any. Get the book here: (UK) https://amzn.to/38caRQf (US) https://amzn.to/3igE6pK -------- MY FREE ONLINE COURSES: 🚀 Productivity Masterclass - Principles and Tools to Boost Your Productivity - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/productivity 🎬 Video Editing with Final Cut Pro X - From Beginner to YouTuber - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/video-editing 🎓 How to Study for Exams - An Evidence-Based Masterclass - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/studying 😃 How to be Happier - Stoicism Masterclass - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/stoicism TOOLS OF THE TRADE: 🎥 My YouTube Camera Gear - https://kit.co/AliAbdaal ⌨️ My Keyboard - Wireless Coral mechanical keyboard (Cherry Blue) - https://go.aliabdaal.com/keyboard 📝 My favourite iPad Screen Protector - Paperlike - https://go.aliabdaal.com/paperlike 🎒 My Desk Accessories + Todo List - Ugmonk - https://go.aliabdaal.com/ugmonk 📚 How I remember what I read - Readwise - https://go.aliabdaal.com/readwise 🎵 Where I get my Music (amazing for YouTubers) - https://go.aliabdaal.com/epidemicsound 👻 Where I get my Website Themes from - https://go.aliabdaal.com/ghost-themes 👻 My personal Ghost Website Theme - https://go.aliabdaal.com/ghost-theme-ali What I Use For Analytics - https://go.aliabdaal.com/tubebuddy 🌐 My website platform (Ghost) - https://go.aliabdaal.com/ghost OTHER RECOMMENDED COURSES 📔 Effortless Output with Roam Research - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/roam 📓 Building a Second Brain - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/basb 🎙My weekly podcast - https://www.youtube.com/c/notoverthinking My brother and I host a weekly podcast where we discuss happiness, creativity and the human condition. You can find it by searching “Not Overthinking” on any podcast app (eg: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts etc). BE MY FRIEND: 💌 Sign up to my weekly email newsletter - https://aliabdaal.com/newsletter/ 🌍 My website / blog - https://www.aliabdaal.com 📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/aliabdaal 🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/aliabdaal 🎮 Twitch - https://twitch.tv/aliabdaal WHO AM I: I'm Ali, a junior doctor working in Cambridge, UK. I make videos about medicine, technology, productivity and lifestyle design. I also have a weekly podcast with my brother (https://www.youtube.com/c/notoverthinking), and I write a weekly email newsletter that contains some quick thoughts + links to interesting things (https://aliabdaal.com/newsletter/). 🌍 My website / blog - https://www.aliabdaal.com GET IN TOUCH: If you’d like to talk, I’d love to hear from you. Tweeting @AliAbdaal directly will be the quickest way to get a response, but if your question is very long, feel free to email me at hi@aliabdaal.com. I try my best to reply to things but there sadly aren't enough hours in the day to respond to everyone 😭 PS: Some of the links in this description are affiliate links that I get a kickback from 😜

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

videos

Videos

Get FREE access to my Productivity Masterclass here: https://skl.sh/aliabdaal11

In this episode of book club we're talking about The Motivation Myth by Jeff Haden. We look at how most people understand (or misunderstand) motivation, whether too much emphasis is placed on it and how to get started without needing any.

Get the book here:
(UK) https://amzn.to/38caRQf
(US) https://amzn.to/3igE6pK

--------

MY FREE ONLINE COURSES:
🚀  Productivity Masterclass - Principles and Tools to Boost Your Productivity - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/productivity
🎬  Video Editing with Final Cut Pro X - From Beginner to YouTuber - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/video-editing
🎓  How to Study for Exams - An Evidence-Based Masterclass - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/studying
😃  How to be Happier - Stoicism Masterclass - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/stoicism

TOOLS OF THE TRADE:
🎥  My YouTube Camera Gear - https://kit.co/AliAbdaal
⌨️  My Keyboard - Wireless Coral mechanical keyboard (Cherry Blue) - https://go.aliabdaal.com/keyboard 
📝  My favourite iPad Screen Protector - Paperlike - https://go.aliabdaal.com/paperlike 
🎒 My Desk Accessories + Todo List - Ugmonk - https://go.aliabdaal.com/ugmonk
📚  How I remember what I read - Readwise - https://go.aliabdaal.com/readwise 
🎵  Where I get my Music (amazing for YouTubers) - https://go.aliabdaal.com/epidemicsound
👻 Where I get my Website Themes from - https://go.aliabdaal.com/ghost-themes
👻 My personal Ghost Website Theme - https://go.aliabdaal.com/ghost-theme-ali
What I Use For Analytics - https://go.aliabdaal.com/tubebuddy
🌐 My website platform (Ghost) - https://go.aliabdaal.com/ghost

OTHER RECOMMENDED COURSES
📔 Effortless Output with Roam Research - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/roam
📓 Building a Second Brain - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/basb

🎙My weekly podcast - https://www.youtube.com/c/notoverthinking
My brother and I host a weekly podcast where we discuss happiness, creativity and the human condition. You can find it by searching “Not Overthinking” on any podcast app (eg: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts etc). 

BE MY FRIEND:
💌 Sign up to my weekly email newsletter - https://aliabdaal.com/newsletter/
🌍 My website / blog - https://www.aliabdaal.com 
 
📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/aliabdaal
🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/aliabdaal
🎮 Twitch - https://twitch.tv/aliabdaal

WHO AM I:
I'm Ali, a junior doctor working in Cambridge, UK. I make videos about medicine, technology, productivity and lifestyle design. I also have a weekly podcast with my brother (https://www.youtube.com/c/notoverthinking), and I write a weekly email newsletter that contains some quick thoughts + links to interesting things (https://aliabdaal.com/newsletter/).

🌍 My website / blog - https://www.aliabdaal.com 

GET IN TOUCH:
If you’d like to talk, I’d love to hear from you. Tweeting @AliAbdaal directly will be the quickest way to get a response, but if your question is very long, feel free to email me at hi@aliabdaal.com. I try my best to reply to things but there sadly aren't enough hours in the day to respond to everyone 😭

PS: Some of the links in this description are affiliate links that I get a kickback from 😜

📚 Check out my first book Feel-Good Productivity here: https://www.feelgoodproductivity.com/

Hey, I'm Ali, a doctor turned entrepreneur, and the world’s most followed productivity expert 😜 

On this channel, we explore evidence-based strategies and tools that can help us be more productive, and build a life that we love. 

If that sounds interesting, consider subscribing! See you in the next video x

Ali Abdaal

Why Motivation is a Myth

Material possessions can be powerfully alluring – whether it’s buying new stuff we don’t need or can’t afford, or holding on to things for way too long. At the extremes, these inclinations can become highly problematic. Compulsive buying-shopping disorder is characterised by an insatiable desire to buy more things, and hoarding disorder, which involves a seemingly boundless desire to keep and accumulate possessions. Even if your own situation is not so extreme, you might be struggling to feel in control of your stuff.

Compulsive Shopping Of Stuff We Don't Need

Material possessions can be powerfully alluring - whether it's buying new stuff we don't need or can't afford, or holding on to things for way too long. At the extremes, these inclinations can become highly problematic.<ul><li>Our relationship to our things has deep psychological roots, which starts during early childhood and continually gets reinforced throughout the lifespan.</li><li>Children learn that a teddy bear or blanket provides them with comfort when they are separated from their parents</li><li>Teenagers learn what is cool from their peers and typically want what they have.</li></ul>

Wanting More Possessions

Triggers: Being in a shopping centre; being with friends in a shopping centre; seeing something that fits with my style and is on sale; wanting to look good for an upcoming special event; believing I’ve earned it because I’ve worked hard.Behaviour: Buying clothes that I think I need, but really just want.Consequences: Enjoyment while shopping; feeling happy when shopping with friends.

Buying Stuff: Triggers, Behaviour And Consequences

<ul><li>Make a concrete commitment to change your buying and storing habits.</li><li>Put your goals in writing - this will prevent you from forgetting or changing your goals along the way.</li><li>Identify what triggers and reinforces your buying & storing behavior.</li><li>People are motivated to buy and store possessions for many reasons, only one of which is a functional need for an object.</li></ul>To figure out what maintains your behavior, ask yourself: Why you buy and keep hold of things you do not use?What prompts these desires? How do you feel right after you have acquired an item or made the decision to keep something?

What To Do

<ul><li>Make a concrete commitment to change your buying and storing habits.</li><li>Identify the environmental and emotional causes and consequences of your behavior.</li><li>Develop a plan to resist buying items you don't need.</li><li>Use a one-minute rule when making purchasing or discarding decisions: allow yourself only one minute to decide.</li><li>Track what you buy, store, and discard.</li><li>Reward yourself for meeting your goals.</li></ul>

How to Have Less Stuff

Consider what your recipients really want and need. The best way to do that is to ask them.If you'd like to gift something to a person who has stated that they prefer others make a charity donation, then, by all means, donate to that charity if you agree with its values.

The Stuff We Buy For Others

Do your possessions hold too much power over you? Learn to regain control – and benefit your wallet and the planet

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

moneyandinvestments

Money & Investments

How to have less stuff | Psyche Guides

Crypto wallets store your private keys, keeping your crypto safe and accessible. They also allow you to send, receive, and spend cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
They come in many forms, from hardware wallets like Ledger (which looks like a USB stick) to mobile apps like Coinbase Wallet, which makes using crypto as easy as shopping with a credit card online.

The Crypto Wallet

Unlike a normal wallet, which can hold actual cash, crypto wallets technically don’t store your crypto. Your holdings live on the blockchain, but can only be accessed using a private key. Your keys prove your ownership of your digital money and allow you to make transactions. 
If you lose your private keys, you lose access to your money. That’s why it’s important to keep your hardware wallet safe, or use a trusted wallet provider like Coinbase.

Importance Of Crypto Wallets

Crypto wallets range from simple-to-use apps to more complex security solutions. The main types of wallets you can choose from include:<ul><li>Paper wallets: Keys are written on a physical medium like paper and stored in a safe place. </li><li>Hardware wallets: Keys are stored in a thumb-drive device that is kept in a safe place and only connected to a computer when you want to use your crypto.</li><li>Online wallets: Keys are stored in an app or other software – look for one that is protected by two-step encryption.</li></ul>

Using A Crypto Wallet

Paper and hardware wallets are harder for malicious users to access because they are stored offline, but they are limited in function and risk being lost or destroyed. Online wallets offered by a major exchange like Coinbase are the simplest way to get started in crypto and offer a balance of security and easy access. 
(Because your private info is online, your protection against hackers is only as good as your wallet provider's security – so make sure you look for features like two-factor verification.)

Pros And Cons Of The Various Formats

Using an app like Coinbase Wallet or Exodus gives you easy access to your crypto holdings. You can:<ul><li>Manage all your digital assets in one secure place </li><li>Control your own private keys </li><li>Send and receive cryptocurrency to and from anywhere in the world </li><li>Interact with usernames rather than long, hexadecimal “public key” addresses </li><li>Browse dapps (decentralized finance apps) </li><li>Shop at stores that accept cryptocurrency</li></ul>

Using A Crypto App

<ul><li>The main Coinbase app (or Coinbase.com) allows you to buy and sell crypto or exchange it for fiat currency and transfer it to a bank account. If you just want to invest in Bitcoin or another digital currency it’s all you need. The Coinbase app will securely manage the rights to your private keys.</li><li>Coinbase Wallet is a separate app that allows you to store your private keys and to send, receive, and spend digital money; browse and use DeFi applications, and more. You don’t need a Coinbase account to use Coinbase Wallet.</li></ul>

Difference Between Coinbase App and Coinbase Wallet

Crypto? Blockchain? NFTs? Let us decrypt..

crypto

Cryptocurrency

Getting started with Cryptocurrency

What is a crypto wallet?

Cryptocurrency is digital money that is used to buy and sell online. <ul><li>It's not based on an asset like gold. </li><li>It doesn't go through traditional institutions like banks.</li></ul>It is an entirely decentralised system that uses blockchain technology to track transactions.

Cryptocurrency definition

Say you want to buy a bike from a friend using, for example, Bitcoin.  <ul><li>You will log into your Bitcoin wallet with a private key.</li><li>Instead of a bank recording the money that is subtracted from one side and added to another, your transaction is shared with everyone in the Bitcoin network.</li><li>The networked computers add your transaction to a shared list of recent transactions (known as a block).</li><li>Every 10 minutes, the newest block of transactions is chained to all the previous blocks. (known as a blockchain.)</li></ul>

Example of using a cryptocurrency

To ensure that every block of transactions on the chain is verified, a subset of Bitcoin's network tries to solve the complex puzzle. The first one to succeed is rewarded with Bitcoins of their own. The network then adds the new block on the chain.  This process is known as mining. The Bitcoin protocol states that mining will continue until there are 21 million Bitcoins in existence. That will happen around 2140.

Bitcoin mining

From Bitcoin to Litecoin to Ethereum, we explain how cryptocurrency transactions work. More from The New York Times Video: Subscribe: http://bit.ly/U8Ys7n Watch all of our videos here: http://nytimes.com/video Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nytvideo Twitter: https://twitter.com/nytvideo ---------- Whether it's reporting on conflicts abroad and political divisions at home, or covering the latest style trends and scientific developments, New York Times video journalists provide a revealing and unforgettable view of the world. It's all the news that's fit to watch.

From Bitcoin to Litecoin to Ethereum, we explain how cryptocurrency transactions work.

More from The New York Times Video: 
Subscribe: http://bit.ly/U8Ys7n
Watch all of our videos here: http://nytimes.com/video
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nytvideo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nytvideo

----------

Whether it's reporting on conflicts abroad and political divisions at home, or covering the latest style trends and scientific developments, New York Times video journalists provide a revealing and unforgettable view of the world. It's all the news that's fit to watch.

The New York Times is the most powerful engine for independent, boots-on-the-ground and deeply reported journalism. We set the standard for the most ambitious and innovative storytelling across features, news and investigations. Because we’re journalists, we’re excited to report the news as quickly as possible, use new technological resources to uncover the truth, and unearth new cultural phenomenons with our critics. The internet didn’t plant these ideas in our heads. We’ve always been this way.  It's all the news that's fit to watch. On YouTube.

The New York Times

How Cryptocurrency Works | NYT

<ol><li>Make a cryptocurrency brokerage account. Coinbase, Gemini and eToro are good crypto brokerages. </li><li>Fund your account. Connect it to your bank account. Most crypto brokerages offer bank funding through debit cards and wire transfers. </li><li>Pick crypto to invest in. Most active cryptocurrency traders use Bitcoin and Ethereum but they also allocate a part to smaller altcoins.</li><li>Choose a strategy. Some choices to teach you how to invest in foreign currency are Asia Forex Mentor and One Core Program.</li><li>Consider automated crypto trading with a platform like Coinrule.</li><li>Store your funds in a cryptocurrency wallet.</li></ol>

5 steps to trading cryptocurrency

Coinbase is a good option for new investors as it has a free cryptocurrency conversion feature where you can trade your crypto for any other token that Coinbase supports. Other solid crypto brokerages are eToro, Binance and Gemini. Robinhood supports certain cryptos and only supports trading for 5 altcoins.

Best cryptocurrency brokers

<ol><li>Learn how to read the charts. The best way is through price action - a technique used by most professional traders.</li><li>Trade with a proven trading strategy or a combination of strategies.</li><li>Have a solid trading system. Use one that is defined by the technical aspects and the business behind trading.</li></ol>

How to trade crypto successfully

Ensure to invest in cryptocurrencies that have a solid team backing the project.Decentralized finance (DeFi) cryptocurrencies are some of the hottest altcoins of 2021. Altcoins are a general term for any cryptocurrency that is not Bitcoin. DeFi tokens are usually built on Ethereum's blockchain.The top 5 DeFi tokens ranked by market capitalization:<ol><li>Uniswap (UNI)</li><li>Aave (AAVE)</li><li>Synthetix (SNX)</li><li>Maker (MKR)</li><li>Solana (SOL)</li></ol>

Choosing a cryptocurrency

A cryptocurrency's price can fluctuate over 10% in one day. It is great if you're looking for high returns, but not for the risk-averse investor. There is always a risk of losing your money to the market. If you believe in the future of cryptocurrency, holding on to your crypto assets long term may be more valuable.

Investing in Cryptocurrencies

Learn how to trade cryptocurrency whether you're a beginner or advanced trader. Our how-to guide provides simple instructions.

How to Trade Cryptocurrency: Beginner Guide • Benzinga

Always Be Closing (ABC) is a motivational phrase used to describe a <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sale.asp">sales strategy</a>. It implies that a salesperson following the regimen should continuously look for new <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sales-lead.asp">prospects</a>, pitch products or services to those prospects, and ultimately complete a sale.As a strategy, ABC requires that the salesperson be persistent, but also that they know when to cut their losses and move on to another prospect.

Always Be Closing

<ul><li>Always Be Closing is a mantra used in the sales world meaning a seller must always be in the mindset of closing deals, using whatever tactics are necessary.</li><li>The phrase's origins are the 1992 David Mamet-scripted film "Glengarry Glen Ross," which is based on his Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name.</li><li>In the modern age, studies show lead generation, customer follow-up, and strategy sessions comprise a greater part of a salesperson's day than "closing."</li></ul>

The Always Closing Sales Mantra

Always Be Closing (ABC) is retail jargon used to describe a sales strategy in which the salesperson should constantly look to complete the sale. It derives from the 1992 movie, "Glengarry Glen Ross."

career

Career

Always Be Closing Sales Strategy

I’m going to tell you about 10 books that changed my life, which is tricky for me, right now. Most of the books that changed my life are not currently in my possession. My library is in storage in the United States, the last 1000 books I could not bear to part with when we <a href="https://caelanhuntress.com/tag/moving-to-new-zealand/" target="_self">moved to New Zealand, </a>so the interesting part of this exercise is — I have to see what really sticks.&nbsp;

10 Books That Changed My Life

Finding this book gave me a rare glimpse into who I was as a boy, and reminded me of moments I had lost, memories buried under the trauma and fear of my teenage years. Underneath those layers of repression, there is a deep history of many long hours spent reading this book, using these stories to educate me on right and wrong.This edition with its faulty translation and 70s illustrations is a rare relic of my childhood that symbolizes the foundation of my character.

Aesops Fables

While I was leafing through this book, looking for evidence of another heresy attributable to a fault of the translation, I realized that my behaviour was the absolute opposite of the monk. I was not directing my mental faculties to understand God, and instead, I was completely and overwhelmingly preoccupied with what Man had done with him.That was when I saw my way out of this tangled maze — I had to look for God elsewhere because I had learned too much here. The very depth of my knowledge had blinded me to the divine light of understanding.

The Interlinear KJV New Testament

If God is an eternal, unchanging entity, this is impossible — but as any student of stories can tell, God does change as he progresses through this story. Throughout my life, I’ve read the Bible cover-to-cover three times, with plenty of additional readings of my favourite books. I knew this character, and I knew he changed, and here was an author devoting an entire book to exploring why.Jack Miles was the first author who gave a thorough investigation into the consequences of those changes, and provides a book-by-book examination of the evolutions of his character.

God: A Biography by Jack Miles

When Albert Einstein was asked by a rabbi if he believed in God, he replied, “I believe in Spinoza’s God, who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings.”This was the God I had been searching for, the power and consciousness behind all things. When I became rationally convinced of its existence, I was free to discover the most direct path into its divine embrace.

Theological-Political Treatise by Baruch Spinoza

This beautiful complication of ideas was perfect for occupying all the branches of my mortal conscious mind, keeping me mentally engaged to my maximum capacity, and freeing my spirit to engage with these mystical ideas and sense for itself what felt like home.Studying the Qabalah has been endlessly rewarding. Out of all the books that I am sharing with you, this one is by far my favourite.

 The Mystical Qabalah by Dion Fortune

My younger mind was full of anger and conflict, and it was soothed by her gentle, motherly voice reciting powerful and uplifting thoughts in the first person. Listening to this recording allowed me to think these powerful thoughts, as often as I pressed play.By thinking these thoughts, and feeling these feelings, I was able to turn away from the angry dominant mindset I possessed when I was younger, and replace it with a default mindset of calmness and love.

 101 Power Thoughts by Louise Hay

This book gave me a plethora of exercises and practices to keep my mindset sharp, my body toned, and my work productive. If there was one book I had to give to a young boy to guide his growth into manhood, it would be this book.

Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss

I opened The Greatest Salesman In The World, a parable about a salesman in ancient times who was gifted with ten scrolls of wisdom, and was told to read one scroll aloud, three times a day, for thirty days before moving on to the next scroll:<ol><li>I will Form Good Habits and Become their Slave</li><li>Greet Each Day With Love In Your Heart</li><li>I Will Persist Until I Succeed</li><li>I am Nature’s Greatest Miracle</li><li>Live Each Day as if it Were Your Last</li><li>Master Your Emotions</li><li>The Power of Laughter</li><li>Multiply Your Value Every Day</li><li>All is Worthless Without Action</li><li>Pray to God for Guidance</li></ol>

The Greatest Salesman In The World by Og Mandino

This was what made the book so practical to read and study throughout my day — I didn’t need to trudge through lengthy blocks of text from end to end, I could open randomly and read a story and a cartoon, ponder his big bold quotes, and apply the lesson to something that had *just* happened in my sales career.Being able to apply my charisma to my income generation was something I had been searching for during the first few years of my career, and reading this book gave me a practical method to make that happen.

The Little Black Book of Connections by Jeffrey Gitomer

Each chapter opened with a story hook, drawing me in deeply, and engaging me as I used the story the author just told to understand the philosophical principles underlying a stoic lesson. By using this formula, he was able to describe very abstract principles by pointing to the particulars of his opening anecdote.After I read this book, I finally understood the <a href="https://medium.com/@caelanmac/open-with-a-story-hook-dd29291ca031">power of story hooks,</a> and it dramatically improved my craft as a writer.

The Obstacle Is The Way by Ryan Holiday

I’m going to tell you about 10 books that changed my life, which is tricky for me, right now. Most of the books that changed my life are not currently in my possession. My library is in storage in…

You’ve probably heard the quote, “You’re the average of the five people spend the most time with.” There’s also the “show me your friends and I’ll show you your future” derivative. The intent of these messages is the same: Audit the people you spend time with. Ensure they are in line with what you want. While it sounds compelling, it isn't entirely true. Influence is far more dispersed and includes people you haven't even met yet.

You are influenced by people you don't even know

You are not just the average of the five people you surround yourself with. You're the average of all the extended people who surround you. One major study found that if a friend of yours becomes obese, you are 45 percent more likely to gain weight over the next two to four years. If a friend of your friend becomes obese, your probability of gaining weight increases by 20 percent, even if you never meet the friend of a friend.A similar relationship is found with happiness. Happy friends make you happier, and happy friends' friends also increase your happiness.

The cause-and-effect relationship and weight gains

You’ve probably heard it more times than you can count. “You’re the average of the five people spend the most time with,” a quote attributed most often to motivational speaker Jim Rohn. There’s also…

productivity

Productivity

You’re NOT The Average Of The Five People You Surround Yourself With

Popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have caught the imagination of the world, even as they remain highly volatile.Many think of these emerging technologies like crypto coins and Blockchain as the ultimate solution to end the corporatization of the internet, along with being the means to end government intervention on liberty, currency and privacy.

Blockchain Will Save The World

Today, any kind of financial service, like an insurance claim, loan, asset management, or even stock trading requires the go-ahead from banking institutions and other middlemen who can seize your assets if you default even slightly.Decentralized Finance(DeFi) cuts the middleman and puts everyone on the same platform, with no need for any bank loan officer if one needs to borrow some money. To run this transparent and secure Blockchain system, there are Stablecoins, cryptocurrency tokens tied to Gold or US Dollars to help avoid volatility.

Decentralized Finance

Blockchain transactions are flexible, transparent, automated and highly efficient. They make no distinction between wealthy people and normal, ordinary customers, and run on open-source software.This explains the crypto market value of 69 billion USD as of August 2021, all in less than two years. As the total global financial sector hovers around USD 20 trillion, there is a lot of room for crypto growth.

The New World Order

While Decentralized Finance is hot, there are next-level risks due to the highly volatile and instant nature of the digital world. Example: There is no banker or auditor to reverse transactions made in error.Financial regulators and other entities are moving fast to contain the ‘damage’ on their existing infrastructure with new laws that may be overreaching and controversial.

The Risks Of DeFi

Decentralized finance makes it easier for virtually anyone to take advantage of financial markets without the need for a bank, but there are new risks as well.

Better and Faster

Why Motivation is a Myth

How to have less stuff | Psyche Guides

What is a crypto wallet?

How Cryptocurrency Works | NYT

Elizabeth Lowery