Every other 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’s had a great January. I had a great conversation this past week with two founders from Cambridge, MA that are building tech for the nonprofit space, an area that hasn’t seen much innovation or technological adoption over the years. When I asked one of them for a core principle that he lives by, he said “balance”. I liked his answer, and I think balance is a quiet, subtle, underlying principle that is so essential to longevity, sustained success, and life in general. We talked about the importance of balance in life and how it’s vital in so many different verticals. This could be in regards to productivity, social, or health contexts. We ought to not go to extremes, in regards to anything. We should actually pursue the converse - maximize on moderation, temperance, balance. It goes back to this podcast episode with Bruce Springsteen and Conan O’Brien, where Springsteen notes that we should never go to extremes with things, and that it’s possible to hold two seemingly contradictory ideas at the same time. In fact, we often see that in scientific research such as in reconciling two seemingly disparate ideas in cosmology with algebraic geometry.

Have a great week!
Dan

P.S. I’ll be making the newsletter biweekly-ish (twice monthly) from now on and writing it more on an ad hoc basis. Thanks for reading!


Things that resonated with me this week

  1. This was a super interesting talk from cognitive scientist Lera Boroditsky about how much language varies in a structural sense from population to population and how differences in language structure actually have different effects on how people think and shape their perspectives in a fundamental and shockingly comprehensive way.
  2. This was a great thread on some core principles that I resonated with, and that I think many people resonate with. A few that stuck out were: “When you’re facing the right direction, all you need to do is keep walking,” “Forgiveness benefits two people: the giver and receiver,” and “Do it, or miss out on it.”
  3. I enjoyed reading this piece by Paul Graham on different productivity modes.

Things I’m trying out

  • It’s not really something I’m trying out and more something I’ve been actively trying to integrate into my day - writing more. This usually comes in the form of writing a piece of some sort first thing in the morning with my breakfast, usually on topics like frontier technology, venture capital, new markets, or even what we can learn from history.

Stuff that’s on my mind

  • Our nation has incurred an unimaginable loss of life from the COVID-19 pandemic, and while we are seeing promising signs of a reduction in cases and new vaccines entering the market, we need a concerted effort from a lot of different sectors in society for us to minimize the negative impacts of this crisis and overcome it. Let’s stay strong and resolute.

Quote of the week

“There is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it; if only we’re brave enough to be it.” - Amanda Gorman