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,

It’s getting brisk out there so hope everyone is layering up! I’ve always valued character, and I’ve been thinking recently about character as a broad concept and had some thoughts about it that I wanted to share. It’s such a vital guide for how we should behave in our day to day lives, and I think it has multiple branches that are equally important. Some of the major facets of character in my mind are:

  • Honesty, honor, and integrity in our actions, decisions, and work
  • Perseverance in adversity; for example - Ben Chilwell using the word “character” when describing how Leicester had to play with 10 men the entire game, away from home, and still managed to get the win
  • And as a broad notion to describe what you’re all about and your overall nature

I love thinking about character as this comprehensive concept, because I believe each and every one of its branches is hugely important. I hope you do too.

Have a great week!
Daniel


Things that resonated with me this week

  1. Enjoyed this overview of how Ben Franklin structured his day. Hope you enjoy and take something from it. I personally have a similar daily planning ritual, which I write out in Notion. I’m obviously a productivity enthusiast, and Ben Franklin was probably one of the most productive individuals ever - he was a writer, scientist, politician, inventor, and philosopher. And I think even that does not fully capture his contributions to society. While I value productivity greatly, it’s important to maintain one’s health at the same time, and so I like to think of myself as both a productivity and health fanatic. Achieving both at the same time is entirely doable, and often colinear and positively reinforcing.
  2. I love the leadership qualities of Patrick Mahomes, which he showcases here. Although one of the youngest on the team, he is the clear leader and isn’t afraid to serve in that role. I love that fearlessness to lead, in addition to the resolve he displays during the particularly long drives. He doesn’t dislike adversity either - he embraces challenges, hard tackles, 3rd downs, and sees them as opportunities to prove himself and burst through. I think there are a lot of important life lessons to take from sports (which is why I think participating in youth sports is so vital to a child’s development and eventual flourishing), many of which were showcased throughout the game and described by the players:
    • Bend but don’t break
    • Respect authority - the players always respect the coaches’ decisions, and work together with them
    • Don’t put yourself in holes if you can avoid it - but remain resolute if setbacks occur (the Chiefs’ running backs talking when they first concede a field goal)
    • I love how important morale is in sports - mentality can dictate everything and make or break a result - and it’s a team effort. That’s why I’ve always loved team sports - don’t get me wrong, the internal psychological determination involved in individual sports like tennis is fascinating, but there’s something special about the psychology and tenets of maintaining team morale that I resonate with. I think it’s because you get those elements of internal drive and determination as an individual within a team (especially a large team like football, soccer, or lacrosse), but you also get the unique and invigorating interpersonal aspects of maintaining team spirit, encouraging your teammates, and sustaining the overall psyche of the team.
  3. I think the Feynman technique is one of the core tenets of learning anything. Teaching provides a litmus test for how much you genuinely understand a concept, which is why I think teaching is a key step to learning. Learning to teaching is the most obvious ordering but teaching is also a useful component of learning in itself.

Things I’m trying out

  • I regularly meditate using Headspace, but I’ve also been experimenting with Calm and meditation podcasts. I’ve found meditation to be an amorphous thing, and the optimal meditation approach to be not only different for everybody but also different depending on your given physical/mental profile at that particular moment. Try to listen to yourself and how you’re doing at that given moment, and choose your meditation option from there.
  • I created a playlist for my “writing” brain state. I wrote in a prior newsletter about the power, utility, and reliability of leveraging music as a cognitive trigger, and curating specific playlists based on particular brain states that I want to trigger myself into. My “writing” playlist so far is a lot of 90’s music and whatever genre Lifehouse is (alternative rock?).

Stuff that’s on my mind

  • Work hard, and be kind.
  • Practice gratitude.
  • Embrace impermanence. I recently listened to a great lecture by Eric Schmidt that expounded on this. I’ll share it later.

Quote of the week

“Intelligence plus character, is the goal of a true education.” - Martin Luther King Jr.