What I'm Reading...

Rohan Rajiv, in A Learning a Day:

Enthusiasm flows from optimism. And optimism is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

From Atomic Habits, by James Clear:

The greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom. As habits become routine, they become less interesting and less satisfying. We get bored. Anyone can work hard when they feel motivated. It’s the ability to keep going when work isn’t exciting that makes the difference. Professionals stick to the schedule; amateurs let life get in the way.

The only way to become excellent is to be endlessly fascinated by doing the same thing over and over. You have to fall in love with boredom.

Have a point of view. Every day. Online of offline.

Happy Ruckusmaker Day.

When we see things from the “supply side” instead of from the “demand side”.

The education system is caught up in the process of teaching and not the process of learning. They believe their job is to supply knowledge as opposed to helping people learn. Why? They’re not seeing the whole picture, and therefore they focus on the wrong things. They want students to learn—the effect—but what causes that to happen? They focus on making the teacher better but fail to understand how the student learns. If the teacher improves but the student still fails, is the system any more useful?

Innovators and entrepreneurs skilled at causal structures see the many layers to the problem—empathetic perspective—and they have a framework to see cause and effect which allows them to connect the dots between teachers, students, administrators, and parents. Causal structures are about seeing supply and demand, understanding the different perspectives, and connecting the dots into a causal framework.

— Bob Moesta, Learning to Build: The 5 Bedrock Skills of Innovators and Entrepreneurs, p. 109

Do external things distract you? Then make time for yourself to learn something worthwhile; stop letting yourself be pulled in all directions. But make sure you guard against the other kind of confusion. People who labor all their lives but have no purpose to direct every thought and impulse toward are wasting their time—even when hard at work.

— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 2, n. 7