RadReads 137
This Week: RadJobs launches, Creativity as an act of rebellion and what we can learn from how we judge others
Happy weekend everybody and welcome to our new subscribers from the Delivering Alpha conference. The average worker gets 147 emails a day, so it’s a privilege to be welcomed into that crowded field. And sorry we’re a bit late today, this new phenomenon, two kids, seems to have gotten in the way.
Guess what — the new RadJobs is LIVE with roles at Google X, Bain Capital Ventures and the Infatuation. A huge s/o to @patricksouth for the herculean effort. (Sign-up for the newsletter.)
And thank you to our amazing new patron Jay S. 🙌 for your support of the RadReads community. Click here or the green button below to support the #RadFam.
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🎙 Creativity is an act of Rebellion — Mark Pollard
Rad Awakenings Podcast | Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Stitcher | RSS
You may recognize Mark Pollard from the post How to explain an idea (one of our most read stories ever). He’s a straight up OG, having created Australia’s first Hip Hop zine to designing web sites during the early days of Geocities. He’s the founder of Mighty Jungle, where he helps founders make their brands make sense — through brand strategy and mental workouts.
Mark really sees the world thru a unique lens: he’s fiercely analytical and left-brained, but also a “rebelliously creative” right brain and has a strong sense of self. We first reminisce about the 90s (Air Maxes, Sergio Tachini and Guru), then talk about the chaos of his teenage years, which really influenced how he thinks about masculinity and its toxic elements. Mark’ s got a phrase “We know men through their deeds and ideas” which launches us into an impromptu coaching session where Mark helps me work thru my own personal issues of disentangling achievement and identity. And finally, Mark shares the Mighty Jungle playbook, conducting a master class in storytelling, ideation, and writing.
When you judge someone, what does it say about you?
Tweetstorm | 1 minute
With age, I’ve learned that when I judge someone, that judgement is rich with information content. And for me, what that information reveals is that 99% of the time, it’s a manifestation of a part of myself that I don’t like, feel insecure about, or am trying to deny about myself. The two that really hit-hard for me are “lazy unambitious people” (#6) and “pushy salespeople” (#8). More on this in the postscript.
The practical unsexy steps it takes to actually become a millionaire
6 Minutes | Quartz
While a bit obvious (i.e. power of compounding 🙄) there were a few gems in this piece: Buffett was worth $1mm at age 30 (vs $73 Bn today), Billionaires write everything down (“the dullest pencil will always remember more than the sharpest mind”) and pick your life partner wisely (“A couple cannot accumulate wealth if one of its members is a hyper consumer.”)
Over nearly 80 years Harvard study has been showing how to live a healthy and happy life
5 Minutes | Harvard Gazette
You’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with, is a little life maxim that I try to abide by. But oftentimes we can get caught up in drive, transactions, and ambition — at the expense of our relationships. I rediscovered this story when a friend (who’s a psychiatrist for college students) told me that college students are suffering from an epidemic of loneliness. Another friend from a Top 3 MBA program said that in an anonymous survey of their graduating class, loneliness (and failure) were the graduates’ two greatest fears. And what’s even crazier is that this study doesn’t use self-reported data, instead opting for physiological markers (i.e. MRIs, DNA testing, and organ analysis).
Why Competition in the Politics Arena is Failing America
80 Pages | Harvard Business School
I apologize in advance for including an 80 page PDF on politics. But I have a valid reason (that extends beyond my frustration with the current climate): this was written by Michael Porter, from Harvard Business School (famous for his Five Forces analysis on competition). I’ve only read the exec summary, but Porter points to root cause of the gridlock being poor competition arising from the duopoly of the two party system. I’m keen to read section 6 “Reinvigorating our Democracy,” especially the part on reducing the barriers of entry to encourage independent and more moderate candidates.
Below the Fold
LONG READS
🐻 The Bear Case for Crypto (12 mins, Preston Byrne): Interesting perspective from a technically-minded lawyer.
🎵 How a Hit Happens Now (11 mins, Vulture): With 2.2 million followers, Spotify’s Rap Caviar playlist has changed how hip hop is created. (And why do all rappers’ names now start with Lil?)
📖 Why Men Should Read Fiction (12 mins, The Art of Manliness): Many of our male readers (including myself) have eschewed fiction for (large) chunks of their lives.
ICYMI
💼 RadJobs: Sick new roles at Infatuation, CERN, Bain Capital Ventures, and Google X. Sign-up for updates.
👸 The benefits of reintroducing discomfort into our lives (Rad Awakenings, 57 mins): Cara Thomas on the constant need for personal experimentation.
LAST WEEK’S MOST READ
🎧 This 15-Minute Habit Will Make Your Boss Love You (LeadX, 15 min) — Here’s the original article, transcript on HuffPo, and presentation I gave on this favorite topic of mine.
PostScript:
I’d like to take you down my personal memory lane of judgement. And not judgement of the “discerning” kind, but the kind when you draw opinions or conclusions about others in a negative fashion.
Leading up to my twenties, I felt like I was on the receiving end of judgement. Probably because I was an angsty teenager, not fully comfortable in my own skin (and wholeheartedly incapable of landing a date). In my twenties, as my career excelled and my confidence grew, I became the judger. Usually, it involved me over indexing on my work ethic and judging those who didn’t share my intensity. (Childish behavior ensued, such as bragging about the ability to take red-eyes.)
I think I hit “peak judgement” in my early 30s. When you work in the finance industry, that’s when the pack begins to separate. At times, I’d even find myself rooting against my friends. New fund launch? “yeah, but they probably never see their kids”; Spectacular exit? “good timing.” All fueled by envy and the sadder realization that maybe I wasn’t winning the game of life?
I’m still judgmental, I think it’s a part of human nature. But I now use a quick test when I feel it coming on. It’s a simple question: Is this a manifestation of my own issues? 99%, the answer is a hell yeah it is.
But it’s not all grim. In letting go of the judgement, you drop the hot coal that you’ve been carrying in your hand waiting to throw at somebody — the burning sensation goes away and you feel a lightness in your step.
As Harper Lee says: “There are just some kind of men who — who’re so busy worrying about the next world they’ve never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results.”
