A few ideas I can't stop thinking about: “Go positive and go first, and be constant in doing it.”

— Peter Kaufman

Often success is nothing more than putting yourself in a position to take advantage of unexpected opportunities.

A lot of people waste time trying to accurately predict the future when they could ensure success by positioning themselves for multiple possible futures. This came with the kids.

They can't predict what they want to do when they grow up, but they can position themselves to have more options by taking harder courses.

They can't predict what they will need money for in the future, but they can spend less than they make.

One of the most beneficial skills you can learn in life is how to consistently put yourself in a good position. The person who finds themselves in a strong position can take advantage of circumstances while others are forced into a series of poor choices.

Strong positions are not an accident. Weak positions aren’t bad luck.

The person who carefully designs their daily routine goes further than the person that negotiates with themselves every day. Entropy dominates life. Consider your garden. Without regular effort to pick the weeds, your garden eventually reaches a point where it’s mostly weeds.

The same is true of us.

Ten of my top tweets of the year:

https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish/status/1379103204831551499

My top ten tweets of the year.

👇👇👇

https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish/status/1315634321647046659

Here’s the difference between amateurs and professionals.

👇👇👇 Amateurs solve the symptom. Professionals solve the problem.

First principles thinking is one of the most effective mental tools you can have in your toolbox. It also explains why some people are far more innovative than others.

Here’s what it is, why it matters, and three lessons.

👇👇👇 Think of first principles as individual LEGO pieces. While they come in different shapes and colors, two things are important. First, they can’t be reduced further. Second, They can be combined in new and interesting ways to create something new.

My uncle ran a small business. He taught me 3 things as a teen that I've never forgotten. 1. Use money to create wealth.

* Trade money for things that make you money while you sleep.

* Arbitrage your time. Buy time from someone else if you can earn more.

Most people trade money for things that make them feel good about themselves. That's why they're never wealthy.

The Kindle Copy of The Great Mental Models: General Thinking Concepts came out this week.

And ... you can now pre-order the HARDCOVER thanks to our partnership with @photomatt and @automattic.

amazon.com/gp/product/199… The physical book is BEAUTIFULLY designed.

We asked ourselves two guiding questions: (1) What would the intersection of design and content look like in a physical form? (2) What does the last book on your bookshelf that you want to get rid of look like?

That feeling when you give it all you have and life still kicks your ass. My old high school football coach used to say ... If you give it everything you have and you fail you’ll have one night of bad sleep but if you don’t give it everything you have and you fail you will think about how you should have for the rest of your life.

Social media is full of people that say look how amazing my life is ... but that's not real. No one's life is amazing all the time. The more time you spend online the more inclined you are to think that other people's lives are amazing and in comparison, yours just doesn't measure up. But you don't see ...

Name one idea that has changed your life. Inversion: Sometimes you can get to a good outcome by avoiding bad outcomes. fs.blog/2013/10/invers…

We don’t tell ourselves the truth because it’s easier to protect our view of ourselves and the world than it is to change our minds. The easy path is to rationalize our actions and make excuses for our shortcomings. The smarter you are the more creative the stories and explanations we are capable of telling ourselves.

"Why is your email list shrinking?" Ok this one will require a few tweets to explain. We don’t want the biggest email list, just the best email list so we regularly remove people that are not engaging with the content. Usually, if you’re inactive for 90 days and don’t respond to us telling you we’re removing you from the list, then we remove you. It’s automatic.

How to avoid being stupid. We're irrational. The odds of thinking and acting irrational increase when we’re tired, overly focused on a goal, rushing, distracted, interrupted, operating in a group, or are under the direction of an expert.

I've been testing a new response to whenever the kids complain.

The formula is [acknowledge], [opportunity].

It’s incredible how well it works. Works on adults too. Didn't get that promotion: all right. What do we need to do to get it next time? Book didn’t sell: Great. How can we make the proposal better?
Doing something hard and want to quit: Good. Most people would give up, keep going. Flight canceled: No problem. What can we work on?

Some heuristics to make decisions. Please add your own and challenge these. 1. Schedule time to think.

(Thread) Heuristics for deciding on meetings. Please feel free to add yours / challenge mine. 1. If you wouldn’t do it right now, say no.

Optimizing for nothing ensures mediocrity. Optimizing for one variable means you better know what really matters because you move away from mediocrity and toward success or failure. Optimizing for distance per unit of energy in your car means high tire pressure, which increases the distance needed to break. Conversely, lower tire pressure (reduced breaking distance), also reduces distance travelled per unit of energy.

On habits ... You need to consciously arrange your time. the biggest leverage point here is picking what to work on. A good way to do this is to ruthlessly eliminate low-value tasks. Focus on tiny gains, not exponential ones. Tiny gains over time compound over time. Focusing on day one exponential leaps is a recipe for disaster.