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 having a great lead-up to the Thanksgiving holiday. I’ve been thinking a lot more about the “creativity faucet” from a prior newsletter, which is a useful mental model for any creative field - this could be music composition, scientific research, company-building, or even writing. The idea came from Ed Sheeran, when he described his songwriting process as a “creativity faucet” - he talked about how he’s been able to be so prolific in songwriting by just focusing on volume. He writes and writes and writes, and he notes that the bad songs kind of “get out of his system” and then good ones start arriving. The important thing is to not restrict yourself and just let yourself create freely. It goes back to a quote by Alfred Nobel when he said, “If I come up with 300 ideas in a year, and only one of them is useful, I am content,” which I reference in my conversation with Professor Mike Kosterlitz, a Nobel laureate.

Don’t overthink and just start creating if you have an interest in any creative field - and don’t be discouraged by any bad bits at the beginning. You figure it out along the way, and the good output starts to come before you know it - and finally reaching your creative goals ends up being worth all of the work that leads up to it. I’m a firm believer in learning by doing.

Have a great week!
Daniel


Things that resonated with me this week

  1. This was a great tweet by David Perrell. Business writing should be succinct and efficient. The purpose of email writing in business is get things done and convey things efficiently, to optimize time and maximize output - this means short sentences and simple words. Being able to boil down an idea into simple terms is an underrated skill. In your email (especially in a business context) is not the place to start writing a Russian novel.
  2. I agree with this tweet. Integrity and kindness should be the focus, not surface-level things.
  3. I’ve been thinking about this notion of setting your intentions and sticking to them, and not getting swept away by the natural entropy of the world. Being able to iterate and having a dedication to stick to your principles and initial intentions, throughout all the volatility in the world, is so key to not only success but also mental wellbeing. I call this having sturdiness in your mental resolve.

Things I’m trying out

  • There are so many great calendar options out there - from Fantastical, to Google, to Calendly - but I think I’ve finally landed on Apple Calendar as my favorite. I’m able to send calendar invites directly from inside the app, and I can shift the event type across all accounts - with all of this being reflected in other platforms in a fully integrated fashion. I love it.

Stuff that’s on my mind

  • I think as humans we tend to overcomplicate things, and sometimes we start to reevaluate our internal frameworks and question things. But I think we need to detach from all the craziness and refrain from letting the actions of others impact how we think we should behave. For me, one framework has never changed, and I think we ought to always keep this one in mind: Work hard, and be kind to others. That’s it.

Quote of the week

“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” - Norman Vincent Peale