Brain Food: The Science of Doing Your Best Work

FS | BRAIN FOOD

Welcome to Brain Food, your weekly signal in a world full of noise.

Tiny Thoughts

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Action produces the very information inaction waits for.

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Being smart helps once you start. Before that, it often just makes your excuses more convincing.

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Spite makes you work harder. Curiosity makes you work longer. Discipline is what you need when you have neither.

Insights

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Michael Jordan on eliminating fear:*

“I never feared my skills because I put in the work. Work ethic eliminates fear.”

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Gerry Spence on an underappreciated aspect of how we win:

"Winning is getting what we want, which often includes assisting others in getting what they want."

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Paul Graham on hitting the center of problems:

"Many problems have a hard core at the center, surrounded by easier stuff at the edges. Working hard means aiming toward the center to the extent you can. Some days you may not be able to; some days you'll only be able to work on the easier, peripheral stuff. But you should always be aiming as close to the center as you can without stalling.”

The Knowledge Project

Steven Kotler and I sat down to talk about the science of doing your best work.

Kotler is a bestselling author and the executive director of the Flow Research Collective, where he studies the science of peak performance.

This episode is for anyone who wants to focus better, learn faster, or perform better. Check out the episode trailer.

Listen on YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts

+ Members have access to an extended version of this episode and a hand-edited transcript.

Etcetera

• I updated this Charlie Munger conversation to the actual audio of his talk with Todd Combs. It was hard to clean up, but we did our best. You can find a transcript of it here. (This is published with permission.)

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Thanks for reading. I'll see you next week.

— Shane Parrish

P.S. The unique athleticism of a panda.

* Slightly modified for readability.

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