BOOK - Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss (My summary) - An incredible book on negotiation that is really a book about empathy, emotions, and self-awareness in disguise.

BLOG POST - Wait But Why: A Story of Stories by Tim Urban - A long, beautiful, thoughtful, imaginative, and fun blog post that does an absolutely wonderful job walking through the importance and power of stories in our lives.

MUSIC - Shimmy Shimmy Ya by Ol' Dirty Bastard - Raw, unadulterated, classic hip-hop gold.

"One can only be an exceptional negotiator, and a great person, by both listening and speaking clearly and empathetically; by treating counterparts—and oneself—with dignity and respect; and most of all by being honest about what one wants and what one can—and cannot—do." ~ Chris Voss

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ARTICLE - Farnam Street: The Four Tools of Discipline by Shane Parrish - Shane's short and sweet summary of the primary tools to embolden our discipline, which he positions as a crucial tool for solving problems.

VIDEO - Black Mirror: White Christmas by Carl Tibbets - A double whammy thought experiment about both the nature of consciousness and self-hood in hypothetical A.I. copies of us, as well as the consequences of 'blocking' other people completely from our lives.

"It is through the pain of confronting and resolving problems that we learn." ~ Shane Parrish

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BOOK - Chasing My Cure: A Doctor's Race to Turn Hope into Action by Dr. David Fajgenbaum - David suffers from a rare disease that put him on the brink of death multiple times, and he responded by building and leading the infrastructure to research, treat, and cure the very thing that is trying to kill him (and many others).

KILL MY CONFIRMATION BIAS - DEPLATFORMING - What resources can you share to help sharpen perspective on deplatforming?

BLOG POST - A Guide to Getting Unstuck by Chris Sparks - Chris' piece does a wonderful job highlighting the different opportunities for getting unstuck, along with a large variety of tactics to experiment with.

ARTICLE - Aeon: If work dominated your every moment would life be worth living? by Andrew Taggart - An intriguing thought experiment that shines a bright, interrogating spotlight on the impact of prioritizing productivity throughout our lives.

BLOG POST - Farnam Street: In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed by Shane Parrish - When we stop to think about it (heresy!), the first-order benefits of speed are vastly outweighed by the second- and third-order costs.

"Fast is busy, controlling, aggressive, hurried, analytical, stressed, superficial, impatient, active, quantity-over-quality. Slow is the opposite: calm, careful, receptive, still, intuitive, unhurried, patient, reflective, quality-over-quantity. It is about making real and meaningful connections— with people, culture, work, food, everything. The paradox is that Slow does not always mean slow." ~ Shane Parrish

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TOPIC OF INTEREST - TRIP TO SCANDINAVIA (My favorite photos)

BOOK - Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi (My full Kindle notes) - A vivid, inspirational, and fun story about a WW2-eta Japanese school with a very different methodology for educating children, focused on developing autonomy and individual self-respect.

BOOK - Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career by Scott Young (My summary notes) - A concrete and highly tangible guide to learning new skills with incredible velocity.

MUSIC - Gnpwdr by Spark Master Tape - Really dirty, really Trappy, and, for whatever reason, really resonated with me in Copenhagen.

"Having eyes, but not seeing beauty; having ears, but not hearing music; having minds, but not perceiving truth; having hearts that are never moved and therefore never set on fire. These are the things to fear." ~ Tetsuko Kuroyanagi

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BOOK - Conscious: A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind by Annaka Harris (My full Kindle notes) - A short and fun primer on the latest from science and philosophy on the what, how, and where of consciousness.

MOVIE - Ex Machina by Alex Garland - An exciting and thought-provoking story blending the moral and ethical questions of creating general AI with a vivid example of the "hard problem" of when consciousness truly arises.

BOOK - The Mind’s I by Douglas Hofstadter and Daniel Dennett - A collection of classic works on the nature of consciousness, complemented by thoughtful, insightful critiques from Doug and Dan.

"All matter, so far as we know it, is a mental condition" ~ Will Durant

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BOOK - Seveneves by Neal Stephenson (My full Kindle notes) - Sci-fi novel offering a beautiful, vivid, and fun portrait of human social dynamics in the face of imminent extinction.

ARTICLE - Aeon: To be resilient, face tragedy with humour and flexibility by Steven Southwick - Our resilience can be strengthened with known and proven processes and tools, as well as with experimentation and personalization for our various contexts.

BLOG POST - First Round Review: Our 6 Must Reads for Cutting Through Conflict and Tough Conversations - A thoughtful summary piece with plenty of specific recommendations for resolving conflict and ensuring tough conversations are productive.

MUSIC - Borne On The FM Waves Of The Heart by Against Me! - One of my favorite punk rock love songs, as it evocatively reminds me of the difficulty of having crucial conversations with the people we care about the most.

"The consequences of not identifying and addressing conflicts and corrosive team dynamics are always dire." ~ Laura Gates

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ARTICLE - Aeon: A Theory of Jerks by Eric Schwitzgebel - A delightful essay on jerkitude, including what it is, how one can slip into it, and how one can resolve it.

PODCAST - The Knowledge Project #62: Cracking the Code of Love: My Interview with Psychologist and EFT Pioneer, Dr. Sue Johnson by Shane Parrish - You can shape your love relationships with known psychological and biological principles.

MOVIE - Inglourious Basterds by Quentin Tarantino - Even in the worst of situations with the worst of people, we have the opportunity to empathize with them to better understand the world, and to be more effective in the service of our goals.

"The best recipe for a great sex life, throughout your life, is safe emotional connection." ~ Dr. Sue Johnson

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TOPIC OF INTEREST - PRINCIPLES FOR STRATEGIC DECISIONS - I am creating a one-stop resource for anyone making strategic decisions (at work, in life, etc.) and would greatly appreciate your feedback!

ARTICLE - The Point: Spoiled Rich Kids by Agnes Callard - Our perceptions of injustice seem to be based on our individual normative equations, i.e., what we each subjectively deem to be 'fair'.

VIDEO - Cleveland Clinic: Empathy: The Human Connection to Patient Care - "Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?" ~ Henry David Thoreau

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BLOG POST - Farnam Street: Our Yearning for Immortality: Alan Lightman on one of the most Profound Contradictions of Human Existence by Shane Parrish - Eloquent essays expounding on the multitudinous scientific evidence that argues for the impermanence of everything, despite our longing for permanence.

ARTICLE - MIT Sloan Management Review: With Goals, FAST Beats SMARTby Donald Sull and Charles Sull - "[L]eaders must set ambitious targets, translate them into specific metrics and milestones, make them transparent throughout the organization, and discuss progress frequently."

BOOK - The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron (My full Kindle notes) - Julia's seminal work proffers an incredible blend of emotional inspiration and concrete actions and tools that will add joy to your life, and give you a powerful toolkit to unleash your potential in any realm.

BLOG POST - Mindfulness Hack: How To Use 4th of July Consumer Explosives to Augment Your Meditation Practice by Nikki Campo - "Pause for a moment to recall why you’re meditating with consumer explosives today. Recognize and release any desires, say for safety or well-being, you’ve brought along."

"The quality of life is in proportion, always, to the capacity for delight. The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention." ~ Julia Cameron

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ARTICLE - Psychology Today: How to Stop Comparing Yourself to Others by Susan Biali Haas - Understanding our envy triggers, and designing gratefulness and appreciation into our days, can help us bolster our contentedness and avoid comparison traps.

ARTICLE - New York Times: You Are Doing Something Important When You Aren’t Doing Anything by Bonnie Tsui - Create space within your work periods, work days, work weeks, and work years for meaningful idle time, to refuel and replenish yourself.

BLOG POST - How to Be Great? Just Be Good, Repeatably by Steph Smith - Leverage the powers of compounding, diligence, and experimentation to boost your odds of greatness in anything you set out to achieve.

ESSAY - Heterodox Academy: All Minus One - John Stuart Mill’s Ideas on Free Speech by Richard Reeves and Jonathan Haidt - "All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility."

"No person is free who is not master of himself." ~ Pythagoras

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