Edge Newsletter #3 - Mental grit and patience to achieving your goals

Another Saturday, the days are getting longer here's another weekly edition of the Edge Newsletter, a list of my best resources and latest thoughts.

What I'm Reading

Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall is by far the most eye opening book I've read when it comes to geopolitics, an area that I've always found hard to follow. It's a Sunday Times bestseller and I still think it deserves more recognition. Having had this book recommended to me by a friend prior to the events unfolding in Ukraine, I feel this book shines a light on some of the thousands of factors that leaders face, when much is lost in propaganda and misinformation when reading the news. It systemically looks at 10 different maps and how the landscapes play a key strategic role in decision making, the micro dependencies.  

If I may share an extract from the intro:

"The land on which we live has always shaped us. It has shaped the wars, the power, politics and social development of the peoples that now inhabit nearly every part of the earth. Technology may seem to overcome the distances between us in both mental and physical space, but it is easy to forget that the land where we live, work and raise our children is hugely important, and that the choices of those who lead the 7.5 billion inhabitants of this planet will to some degree always be shaped by the rivers, mountains, deserts, lakes and seas that constrain us all - as they always have."

Resource of the week

Since discovering the Readwise app, it has transformed the way I comsume books in terms of learning and retaining what I read. Essentially, it's able to pull in highlights from a tonne of apps direct (Kindle, Apple Books, Goodreads), store it in your personal library and periodically resurface your own highlights to you at random intervals.

For me it really is a game changer, because it employs a powerful evidence based learning technique called spaced repetition. I've always loved reading but find that within just a few short weeks after finishing a book, I would have forgotten many of the finer nuances. In fact it's a well documented phoenomeon called the forgetting curve. In that when we first learn a new concept, our memory of it declines at the sharpest rate. To prevent this from happening, if we are periodically re-exposed to it at regular spaced intervals, it interrupts that curve and slows the subsquent rates so that we retain far more of what we read making it available to us when we need.

In the past I've devised a system whereby I would manually take notes and set review dates. It works, but it takes a lot of effort and is a very heavy lift. When using Readwise it makes the whole process seamless and enjoyable, if you have a kindle you don't even need to do anything, it just pulls in your highlights direct. Everything stored against each book, and ready to resurface. No more manual note taking, no more review dates. Or if you're old fashioned like me, and like a hard copy, it has a nifty OCR feature using your smartphone camera to import highlights as you read.

Reading a book is a big investment on time and this makes me feel like I'm getting so much more value.

As with all the resources recommended I don't get any financial incentive just what I've found helpful, if you choose to sign up with my link, we both get an extra free month (that's 60 days free trial btw!). Definitely give it a try!

Quote

Not to feel exasperated, or defeated, or despondent because our days aren’t packed with wise and moral actions. But to get back up when you fail, to celebrate behaving like a human - however imperfectly - and fully embrace the pursuit that you’ve embarked on.

Marcus Aurelius

Thoughts

A consequence of this technology driven day and age, we are conditioned to expect instant results. Sometimes we take it for granted. I still remember having to plan a trip to the library the next day when I wanted some stats for my Geography homework as a child, and spending the morning. Now that info is available in seconds. Social media gives us far more dopamine hits than ever before.

It's not without drawback. When starting a new venture or learning a new skill we expect this same level of feedback when nothing can replace the graft to hone our skills. As with anything worth striving for, this is a tough process with setbacks, plateaus and frustrations. Our dopamine numbed brains are more predisposed to give up, which is natural, as it is a difficult process. During times like this I try to remind myself of 'The Plateau of Latent Potential' graph presented by James Clear.

In the early phases of a new undertaking, be it learning a language or a new business venture, there is a gap between the expected and actual results. It creates this valley of disappointment, but notice the results follow an exponential response. There will come a point when things click and it becomes natural to build upon all of your previous efforts.

At the start of any new venture I always like to define how long I'll stick at something for before I take a single step. For content creation I'll set myself x number of videos, y number of posts, 18 months of going to the gym. Before that is over, I don't allow myself to give up.

What's tragic is people I see constantly coming up with new ideas, make some progress but always give up in the valley. It's important to do research, set a gameplan and stick to it, otherwise life can pull you in so many directions.

Hope this brought you some value, let me know what your favourite point was, thoughts, even criticism welcome! Just hit reply, I read all emails.

Thanks have a good weekend.

Hans