Michael Brooks

@mike

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When to Do What You Love

‘Follow your passion’ is advice that doesn’t work most people. It’s far more nuanced than thought. In most cases, we’re better off trying to understand what we like, staying curious about those things, and see where we can do great work.

A helpful prompt when using AI:

Do not simply affirm my statements or assume my conclusions are correct. Your goal is to be an intellectual sparring partner, not just an agreeable assistant. Every time I present an idea, do the following:

1. Analyze my assumptions. What am I taking for granted that might not be true?

2. Provide counterpoints. What wou

The mathematical genius Alexander Grothendieck once had a metaphor for solving problems. He suggested that instead of forcing open an impossibly hard kernel with a hammer and chisel, one should simply let it sit in water and wait. Over time, the shell softens and opens with ease. This is also true in writing; time is the only non-substitutable ingr... See more

Epiphanies Come From Waiting

on writing

Are You an Exhausted Parent of Small Children or a Common Raccoon?

Kristen Mulrooney mcsweeneys.net

Indeed the Oak tree King of Limbs, in Britain is over 1,000 years old. It has been growing quietly in place since before the Norman Conquest. The King doesn’t much care about one iPhone model to the next.

Millennia long scales of engagement with the world around us are almost unimaginable when contrasted with the 2 week long Agile sprints popular i... See more

Growth Without Goals | Editorials

joincolossus.com joincolossus.com

6666 tips on how I reached 6666 subscribers on Substack

Alex Dobrenko`open.substack.com

“Yego’s rise was enabled by YouTube. Yet since its founding, popular consensus has been that the video service is making people dumber. Indeed, modern video media may shorten attention spans and distract from longer-form means of communication, such as written articles or books. But critically overlooked is its unlocking a form of mass-scale tacit

YouTube: The Learning Machine

consumption

If the proximate purpose of technology is to reduce scarcity, the ultimate purpose of technology is to eliminate mortality.