Supritha S

One thing that’s taking its place is speculation.

A much less sexy approach to getting better at something is a “gentle ramping” sort of approach. You get yourself on a regimen where you do a little of the thing in question—writing, running, meditating, whatever—then a little more, and so on, always pushing the performance level slightly, without ever clobbering yourself with challenge. You... See more

Like any other insight, it’s one thing to nod your head while you think about it and something else to turn it into a real advantage in your life. There are two tricks that I can see to doing it in real-time:

Approximately 2,700 years ago, the Greek poet Archilochus wrote that “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” Isaiah Berlin’s 1953 essay “The Fox and the Hedgehog” contrasts hedgehogs that “relate everything to a single, central vision” with foxes who “pursue many ends connected…if at all, only in some de facto way.” It’s... See more

There is real pleasure in potato chips, Turtles and gossip too—of an intense, costly, and quickly-fading sort. If you pay attention, the life span of this pleasure can often be measured in seconds, while the costs last much longer. Developing a taste for the subtle sweetness of renunciation makes it progressively easier to take pleasure in the... See more

Leaving something unfinished works best when you’re executing downhill. The nuance, then, is to only use this trick when you’re sure of success.

Or you can just say you’re fine, and know that there will be no further interrogation, because it’s always okay to feel okay.

By comparison, doing things like trying to beat the stock market or become a professional gambler are very inconsistent. They can provide big wins, but they can also provide big losses at any time. The pain isn't necessarily in the beginning. Because of this, these experiences are less likely to make you happy over the long-run.