âIf you want a routine or structure, try to impose a constraint. I always struggled writing all my essays on Saturday but that led to arguments and losing valuable leisure time. But Iâve just hired a personal assistant and so my constraint now is that I have to get my email newsletter done by Thursday evening. Another way you can impose a constraint is to plan something on Sunday nights so that you force yourself to write it beforehandâ
âThe more self-aware you become; you will begin to KNOW intrinsically what makes you happyâ.
âIf there was no-one else in the world, would you still want the car? First define your values and then make sure your spending aligns with your values. I push people to spend more money IF it aligns with their valuesâ.
âI optimise for joy as long as itâs the intrinsic joy that you are optimising for. Spend money on things that really align with your values and your intrinsic joyâ
âAsk yourself if it would truly make you happier rather than think about the potential benefits to your content creationâ
âThe whole issue with status is that it requires someone else to impart it on youâ
âWhat if you were asked to write an article and at the end told to press delete rather than publish? For me, it felt wrong and horrible and that made me realise that I donât just only love the craft but I love the response and the reaction as well. Just asking myself that question made me realise that I do get value from that validation".
âSeeking validation is not necessarily a bad thing â trying to create a legacy or trying to succeed in a certain area of content for example are not bad things. The key is to be honest with yourself about why you are doing itâ.
âThereâs a moment with kids â theyâre born and for a few short years, you and your partner are the most important people in their lives but one day they will wake up and you wonât be the most important person. But that window is so short and it made me think why would I distract myself with any blogs or work to take my attention away from that small window?â
âWe become prisoners of our own expectationsâ
âIf oneâs self-worth is driven by what you accomplish, itâs a very slippery slope because you only derive your self-worth through achievements but that comes at the expense of leisure, love etcâ
âI donât think achieving is bad, but I think achieving just because itâs filling an emptiness within you, then that needs to be explored moreâ
âWe have it all backward. We go on vacation or meditate in order to be well-rested in order to be better at work - that's all wrongâ
âCulturally weâve said that leisure is not virtuous â watching Netflix is not seen as productive. For the Romans the amount of leisure time was a show of wealth. Today a lot of people view leisure in a patronising way and busyness is a measure of importance and statusâ.
âOne question I ask is do you feel at peace? If I was to open up your brain and there was a representation of noise level and disturbance, would there be a wind storm over the Pacific ocean or would it be a still lake? That's always a good question to ask yourselfâ.
âThe scarcity mindset is âthis is too good to be true, this canât lastâ. Itâs a really debilitating feeling because what happens from that is that there is never enough. I think the first thing to do is accept that itâs a natural feelingâ.
âThere is always a question of whatâs enough. I do 4 Notion courses a year â there is demand for 8. But I recognise that with four I can do everything that I want to do and donât need to make myself that busy and have to have employees etcâ.
âBeing ok with what is enough for you. Just because other people can do it doesnât mean that you have to do it as well. The thing to know is â do you derive your confidence and happiness from within or do I derive my happiness from other people?â
âI wasnât a cool kid â I had a very good childhood, but I never felt like I belonged. A lot of what I did in my late teens and twenties was to try and make that feeling go away. My very naĂŻve mind was just âif you make a lot of money then the other aspects will fall into placeâ â so that was a big motivator. I also said to myself that I never want to be in a position where I have to ask someone else for money to buy the things that I wantâ.
âFinance is a very easy way to get you out of the bottom but once you get there the feeling that you belonged or accepted isnât long lasting and any feeling of success is short-lived. I call it the pebble in my shoe â I often tell younger people be alert to those pebbles because they donât go away - they actually become harder to dislodge".
"When I was on Wall Street, I knew I wanted to leave but I knew I need something. Thatâs when I started an anonymous blog and I created a couple of CRMs. When I left I had no entrepreneurial plan and I gave myself 18 months to experiment and see what happened".
âMy newsletter was the catalyst for every business opportunity. I was asked to do some coaching by a hedge fund manager, I was asked to do a TEDx talk â all these things happened because I was putting myself out there and sharing things that were kind of cool. You do it for 6 straight years and opportunities will find youâ.
âI sent 5 articles to 36 people from vacation and they just loved it. What is cool about it is that I genuinely enjoy reading, curating and writing.
âIf you can make it out of 25 weeks, you can beat 98% of the competition. Once you have crossed the âI donât want to do itâ phase, it becomes so much easierâ.
âOne of my life philosophies is to be a fast tortoise and my email newsletter has adopted that fast tortoise approachâ.
Khe been called âOprah for Millennialsâ by CNN and the âWall Street Guruâ by Bloomberg. He is deeply passionate about communities centred around generosity - both enabled by technology but also embracing in-person serendipity.
đĽRadReads / đĽNotion courses / đ¤Twitter / đ¸Instagram / âLinkedIn
Ali is a doctor, YouTuber and podcaster. His day job involves saving lives, but in the evenings he makes videos about productivity, tech, education and lifestyle stuff.
đŹYouTube / đPodcast / đť Website / đ¤Twitter / đ¸Instagram
Storyworthy by Matthew Dicks
The Elephant in the Brain by Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson
01:00 Khe's Introduction
03:30 Email Newsletters (+Entrepreneurship)
11:30 Motivations + Experience on Wall Street
18:30 Meaning + The Scarcity Mindset
31:30 On What's Enough
34:20 Ambition vs Leisure, Total Work + Self-Worth
45:20 Legacy + Valuing Activities
47:25 Prisoners of Our Own Expectations
49:45 Parental Realisations
53:10 Storyworthy by Matthew Dicks
55:15 Living for the Present vs Future Rewards/Validation
59:20 The Elephant in the Brain + The Status Game
01:05:40 Buying A Tesla + Personal Spending
01:15:10 Writing, Routines and Structure
01:24:20 Relationships and Dating