Every Sunday, I write a quick newsletter to share some thoughts, things I’ve learned, and a few of my favorite things from the week. Enjoy!

Hey friends,

Hope everyone is doing well. I’ve been thinking about how reflecting in terms of arbitrary time scales (T0, T+1, T+N, etc.) is handy for developing mental models. One example is the “spending now (T0) to achieve greater at T+1” mental framework that I mentioned in a prior newsletter. Another framework I’ve been thinking about is the notion that not only is it important to always be building your career and working towards a greater future (at T+1), but also to acknowledge, be grateful for, and not dismiss the current moment (T0).

One thing I’ve been incorporating into my morning routine is reading a hardcover book for 20 minutes and taking notes on it before starting the day. I’ve found that it gets the day started on the right foot and adds some nice perspective. I think in our increasingly digital world, it’s easy to become reliant on our digital interfaces and read exclusively digital text. But there will always be something missing in that experience, and the feeling of holding a hardcover book in your hands, highlighting a passage that resonates with you, and taking notes in the margins - it’s such an enjoyable way to read and take notes on your books.

Another thing I’ve been doing, which I’d suggest to anyone that wants to take control of his or her book notes, is using Scannable to import my notes from hardcover books into a database in Notion. It’s a great way to organize them in a centralized fashion. Other tools like Instapaper and Readwise are also useful for saving your highlights of text, but they’re more geared to digital use cases. Happy reading!

Have a great week!
Daniel


Things that resonated with me this week

  1. I enjoyed reading about this iconic restaurant in Woodside, CA called Buck’s. Entrepreneurs and VCs in the area often conduct their deal negotiations over meals at Buck’s. And it was interesting to hear how the restaurant owner could get a sense of the state of the venture capital landscape, based on how many people were coming into his restaurant to execute venture deals. Netscape, Tesla, and PayPal all executed some of their early funding rounds there. If the restaurant was buzzing, so was the early-stage tech economy, with startups raising funds and venture firms deploying capital - all while sitting down at a table at Buck’s.
  2. This was a great piece by Nikhil Basu Trivedi, who is also a Princeton alum and investor in early-stage tech. He shares his thoughts on the venture landscape.

Things I’m trying out

  • For my morning reading sessions, I’ve been picking books from my bookshelf with an element of spontaneity and selecting based on how I’m feeling that morning. It’s nice to read chapters from different books simultaneously - I find that it leads to a cross-pollination of ideas, and that a more comprehensive perspective is gained. I also feel that I’m able to pull new insights and unique mental models from this process.

Stuff that’s on my mind

  • It’s important to aim for a holistic approach to health; I think people often focus on dietary health or muscular strength, which are undoubtedly important areas and tend to capture our attention because their impacts are the most readily apparent. But it’s also vital to maintain healthy and high quality sleep, mental health through meditation and having the right mindsets, heart/lung health through aerobics, and generally have a comprehensive approach to protect every aspect of our wellbeing. There is a positive reinforcing that occurs when taking care of all of these areas, so let’s maximize them all.

Quote of the week

“One only sees what one looks for. One only looks for what one knows.” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe