Notes from reading in Spring 2020
- This was not the intriguing novel laced with introspection I thought it would be. More like a collection of self-enlightened letters—still useful, but highly “preachy.” Also, the age-old problem of way too much advice that tries to teach by saying as opposed to us learning by doing.
- On Energy: “Do you know why most people sleep so much? Because they really don’t have anything else to do.”
- Be driven by a purpose and set of priorities—when they are pure, it’s not unhealthy or workaholic-ness, it’s being vibrant and truly alive.
- Fatigue is, for the most part, a mental illusion. Tiredness is something you can train to weed out or not allow by circumstances (always create situations of flow or interest).
- True nobility is when you are superior to your former self. Claiming any kind of superiority against others is toxic and futile, plus a bad habit—not to mention you become more of a douche.
- “Thinking about someone else’s dreams = taking time away from thinking of your own.”
- Beyond luck, life also favors the prepared mind. Making a written inventory of weaknesses makes them addressable, and then when those checklists get hit, the journey on the infinite road gets further.
- The idea is that fixing foundational problems is so fulfilling and automatically catalyzes your life to be perpetually self-improving.
- Being truly fearless = being truly free. You can train yourself (like you subconsciously were trained through being raised/life while growing up) to reallocate or eliminate fears altogether. Our internal state is limitless, so we can apply that to every avenue as well.
- The “major problems” we all face are also (by sheer numbers) those that have been faced in some capacity before. So, read the “right books.”
- More importantly, reduce your fundamental needs. Don’t take all of them out (then what’s the point of life?) —> personally, need to be hyper-activity seeking? Versus hyper-learning.
- Those overlapped OFTEN, but not even a high majority. So, lose the former for the latter, and fill in the void of new time gained with more base, fulfilling needs—friends, dates, life.
- We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. The world is in me, not the other way around.
- The world is full of unhappy millionaires. Making money ≠ making life. There are far more assets than those monetary or purchasable.