Hello family. 🤗
Welcome to v4 of Move Fast, Think Slow. A newsletter focusing on cultural trends and meditations. Think of it as a cultural/business party upfront and philosophy/meditations after-party in the back.
In the last briefing, there were two book reviews and interesting thoughts from experts on the future of Web3/Crypto. The first book is called the Revolt of the Public by Martin Gurri, a societal analysis from a former CIA operative. The second book explores meditation guidance in Miracles of Mindfulness by Thích Nhất Hạnh.
This week’s briefing is focusing on mining insights. There are two smart blokes who are always surfacing smart trends and research and are always helping me identify the things that matter. Mining for insights. Mining for gold.
As always there will be stoic wisdom to jumpstart the week. And lastly, photography by yours truly.
If you’re digging this chili but are not yet subscribed, jot down an email below so you can keep up with future briefings. Without further ado, here’s v4.
Two smart blokes | Faris & Ethan | Cultural (and Business) Trends
Photo by Jaredd Craig
I like to mine for gold. Not gold per se but golden nuggets in the form of trends, human behaviors, and creative wisdom. Not only am I fascinated by qualitative and quantitative research, but it’s also core to my job. Two gents who always surface thought-provoking findings around culture, behavior, brand advertising and more are Faris Yakob (@Faris) and Ethan Mollick (@EMollick).
Faris is a wizard who has been been an excellent miner of gold for as long as I’ve read/followed his chili online (Remember Blogs? Faris had a kickass one back when and now he has a kickass Newsletter). Faris knows how to identify and write to the trends of our times in a clear-cohesive style. Not only great at surfacing key trends but also terrific at telling us what makes for a rich creative culture that makes great ideas. For example smart advertising nuggets like measuring what really matters (the business). Or reminding us of what should be the only focus when it comes to creativity or surfacing cultural insights from music legends on what is “real genius.” There’s also that great constant throughout time in all things creative - “genius steals” and Faris is one to always remind us of that fundamental truth in life.
Ethan, is a Professor at Penn’s Wharton studying innovation and entrepreneurship. I heard of him after reading a Dense Discovery interview a few months back and have not been disappointed in following him since. Ethan tweets out summaries of academic papers on innovation and human behavior. To me, as someone who is low-key obsessed with how winning teams form and function, these research paper’s findings are super interesting. I love to know what the best areas of focus are when it comes to getting high-achieving individuals to thrive as a team.
Below are some of my favorite recent reports surfaced by Ethan:
Here’s a paper on how brainstorms should start before the meeting - leads to better results
This research of 65,000 founders found the impact of emotional intelligence is twice as big as that of general mental acuity re: positive outcomes for startup businesses
Want to know the secret heart of academia and the internet? Wikipedia.
Teaching young people entrepreneurship in developing countries leads to better outcomes
Hat tip and thanks to these guys for always bringing hot-qualitative-quantitative-fire. Keep the heat coming lads. 😊
This week in Daily Stoic | Philosophy + Meditations
“Get in where you fit in.” “Know your lane.” “Don’t take it all too seriously.” “Hit your mark.”
These are adages older guys use to tell me a lot when I was younger. And it would often frustrate me in hearing it. I didn’t fully understand. Yet, as I have aged I have learned to embrace life for what it is and to hit the mark the gods are giving me on the grand stage. There’s a mark on the stage you need to hit and much of one’s success is typically about focusing on that mark and hitting it in the way expected. There’s great power in that. No matter where the mark sits. When one focuses on that and nothing else, good things tend to happen.
Sure, the role you might be asked to play might not be the one you like. But it’s the one you got at this very moment and it’s the best you got. When you focus on other things. The things out of your control. That’s when clouds can form. That’s when the madness can set in.
Accepting what is and what is not. Who you are and who you are not. Know thyself. This is often the clarity one needs to be at peace within versus at war without.
Random visuals shot by yours truly
I have not had much time to shoot photos as of late but here are a few. Have a great week! 😊