Medley 68: Why Mental Models, Becoming Sovereign, Stoic Comics, Google’s Censorship…
This is a copy of this week’s email that I sent to my newsletter, which you can join here.
Happy Monday! If you’re reading this, you didn’t go blind from the eclipse. Nice work everyone.
New Article: “The Incredible Value of Mental Models in a World of Infomania”
I’ve been thinking about why mental models are getting so much attention now, and why I value them so much, and I think I’ve figured it out. I cover why you should focus on learning more of them instead of specific “facts,” and break down how knowing ~5 mental models can substitute for almost all productivity advice.
New Episode: “Turning a Love of Sports into an Exciting Career with Chris Chaney”
If you feel like you have a hard time picking one thing and sticking to it, like I do, Chris is a perfect example of someone who has taken that extremely diverse set of interests and built it into a company and lifestyle that’s successful and exciting for him.
Suzanne Dixon reached out about my article on not eating for five days to explain that I didn’t get the explanation of refeeding symptom quite right. Her explanation was really interesting so I encouraged her to post her info about fasting and breaking a fast safely online, and she did! Definitely check it out if you’re thinking of trying longer fasts.
I read a 10/10 book called “The Sovereign Individual” last week, I don’t think one has made me think quite so much since Antifragile or Sapiens. Definitely check it out.
Apparently, young Chinese men are too fat and masturbate too much to join the army.
Google’s censorship is getting more extreme. Jordan Peterson, for example, is getting removed from other people’s playlists for his discussions of religion and gender. I really hope this doesn’t spill over to search results.
Speaking of scary, this story on how the NSA found Satoshi Nakomoto (the creator of Bitcoin) is insane if it’s true. I don’t see any proof, though.
If you want a bit of Stoic humor, check out this comic and this one. Thanks Grey!
The way maps are laid out, Africa looks artificially small since it’s in the center and everything else is stretched out around it from being flattened. It’s actually huge.
Apple’s early AR prototypes are looking sweeeeeet.
Have a great week!
Nat
