Old Knowledge, New Insights
This Week's Thoughts:
Re-Examining Knowledge for New Insights
Book Notes: The 4-Hour Body
Photo of the Week
Is there a book you've read multiple times and each time leaves you with new insights?
The reason is that learning happens as a new branch grows on a tree. Just as that branch needs to connect to the tree, we need to connect new learning with prior knowledge or it floats away. This leads to two interesting points:
The more we learn, the more we're able to learn. Learning compounds just like our retirement investments.
The more you know, the more you realize you don’t know (and weren’t even aware of). We don’t even realize we’re missing all these details and nuances the first, second, or fourth time through. We also fail to comprehend previous learning as well as we might believe.
Instead of searching out new knowledge, sometimes our greatest gains come from re-examining previous learning knowledge against new experiences and perspectives.
The biggest mistake that most of us make is that we try to consume more information. We do this because we feel like we’re missing something. While we can all learn and improve our understanding of something, the constant search for what we don’t have and what we’re missing is also the natural response of someone who doesn’t truly understand what matters and what doesn’t.
As I retake Building a Second Brain for the 5th time, I'm reminded of how much more I have to learn.
Today’s epiphany: Don't do random acts of productivity. The amount of time you spend on design should increase as you advance in your career, life, etc. For example, a CEO spends 99% of their time designing rather than executing.
I'm often guilty of getting myself motivated to work without a clear definition of done. The result is a lot of wasted energy or another incomplete project added to a stack of daunting failures.
This was a good reminder to practice what I preach: be intentional. Slow down at the start to speed up later. What am I trying to achieve? What does “done” look like?
Do you have a specific book or activity that keeps providing new lessons?
Book Notes: The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss
Overall Satisfaction (1-5): 5
🚀 Summary
In The 4-Hour Body, @tferriss shares his lessons as a human lab rat to 10x our diet, exercise, sleep, prevent or recover injuries, and have better sex.
While his science might be wrong; his experience shows these strategies work.
Now, it's time to start your experiment of one…
🙋 Who Should Read It?
Anyone interested in understanding how their body works and how to manipulate it to achieve desired health changes. It's a hard read straight-through. Even Tim suggests reading it more like a reference book, focusing on the relevant chapters for your goals, but it's packed full of useful insights.
☘️ How the Book Changed Me
I have a better understanding of how my body interacts and responds to different inputs. Following Tim's "slow-carb diet" led to a 15-pound weight loss (thus far) and a re-examination of how I exercise. It motivated me to explore different forms of strength training including an emphasis on functional movement and kettlebells.
✍️ My Top 3 Takeaways
Identify the minimum effective dose to produce the desired effect and aim for that. Anything beyond is wasted and often counterproductive.
Take adherence seriously: will you actually stick with this change until you hit your goal? If not, find another method, even if it’s less effective and less efficient. The imperfect method you follow is better than the perfect method you quit.
No consistent tracking = no awareness = no behavioral change. Consistent tracking, even if you have no knowledge of fat loss or exercise, will often beat advice from world-class trainers.
🤔Questions
What is the minimum effective dose to produce the desired result?
How do I make this repeatable?
Can I measure it? How?
Can I do this for a week?
Photo of the Week:
Have a great week,
Scott