Active Recall!

Podcasts, videos, and iPad art

Jason Calcanis: Read the last two chapters first (Podcast Note)

  • Podcast
    This Week in Startups
  • Episode Title
    E1028: Laura Huang, author of “Edge: Turning Adversity into Advantage” shares insights on overcoming disadvantages to create an edge, being bitter vs. getting better, structural bias in tech & more
  • Episode links
    Apple Podcasts • Google Podcasts • Spotify • YouTube • This Week in Startups

Lately I’ve been thinking about how to make the most of audiobooks and have been re-reading How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler. This part of the conversation between Laura Huang and Jason Calcanis resonated with my current focus on becoming more deliberate with my reading.

Jason: I always start with the last two chapters… it’s my strategy for guests on the show. I listen… I start with the last two chapters. Because I feel like they sumize what they’ve said in the book. Then I go back and read, listen to the entire book.

Laura: Interesting.

Jason: So that I get to hear the end twice.

Laura: That’s some good BS-ing, Jason.

Jason: That’s the god’s honest truth, actually. If you actually—ever want to do it on a book, your retention will go way up.

Laura: Alright, interesting.

Jason: Because you’ve listened to the summary twice. At the beginning in the end. And good authors will a lot of time, sort of, tell you upfront: here’s what we’re going to do in the book. But there’s nothing like that summary.

The full episode is really worth listening to and reading this excerpt after typing it out gives it a court transcript sort of feel. It’s really a playful back and forth. That feeling is lost in the fidelity shift from audio to text.

In other words, I love podcasts.

Walter and Francis, talking about returns, talking about books

Wally and finally recorded an episode together. We talk about…

  • Returns — Wally mentions the Super Bowl halftime show. I mention The Rock returning in 20111 (Here’s WWE’s 20 best returns of the 2010s
  • Goals — We do a quick review of 2019 goals and talk about some of the things we want to do in 2020. For me, the main thing is really getting consistent with the podcast, videos and blog. I want to aim for the schedule that Thomas Frank kept up with College Info Geek. I wish I could find a post where it’s referenced, but I think he mentioned on the College Info Geek podcast that the schedule was one blog post, one video, and one podcast episode each week for years. (James Clear wrote a post on Monday and Thursday every week for three years to build a massive audience.) Captain Sinbad does two videos each week (one comedy, one self-development). Most podcasts are weekly and some are daily. I’m trying to get Active Recall to have a same Bat time, same Bat place consistency.
  • Books – We talked about the books we’ve ben reading recently. Wally mentions my 2019 reading list. I need to clean it up a bit and start the 2020 reading list.

Here’s a screenshot from Ulysses of my writing from a weekend that I mentioned in the podcast. Planes really can be great for focusing. Same with hotel rooms and days without any plans.

Nearly 10,000 words in a weekend

Mid-January I flew to San Diego and wrote a lot on the plane and a lot at the hotel. I tried to have a mini think-week. A couple days instead of a full week. But then the rest of the weekend happened, I got back to New York, and just never finished. A common pattern that I want to get out of this year.

And some podcasting about podcasting notes:

  • We started recording on Zoom — The goal was to simplify the process and get rid of having multiple local recordings. The quality definitely took a hit. It’s noticeable to me but it also seemed pretty listenable.
  • I recorded with the MacBook Pro microphone — The 16” is supposed to be pretty solid. Again, I think it’s listenable but it clearly took a hit compared to the Blue Snowball. It might be worth trying Zoom but using a better mic. I’m trying to be more creative ready.

“Creative ready” is a concept from Chase Jarvis’s Creative Calling: Establish a Daily Practice, Infuse Your World with Meaning, and Succeed in Work + Life: 

Think about modifications or purchases you might make to become “creative ready” in as many environments as possible. This might mean carrying a sketch pad in your bag at all times, investing in a mobile audio rig or a digital tablet, or renting a spot at the local work-sharing space. Instead of wishing for a twenty-fifth hour in the day, ask how a relatively small investment of money might make it easier to get work done when you actually have the time to work.

I saw something recently that talked about flexibility over fidelity and that’s something I want to aim for. It’s pretty much the same philosophy as “the best camera is the one you have with you”. The best anything is the one you can have with you. I’d love to be able to just bring my laptop and be able to record an episode with Wally from anywhere with an internet connection.

Anyway, that’s another episode.

Book Log: “Next” by Michael Lewis

Check out the full notes for “Next: The Future Just Happened” by Michael Lewis

I started reading “Next: The Future Just Happened” by Michael Lewis. I’m listening to the audiobook version—tonight primarily while shooting around. (I need to dig up the Brian Koppelman and JJ Redick conversation where they talk about the calm that shooting a basketball can bring. I can shoot around and listen to audiobooks and podcasts for hours without getting bored.)

Next really captures the late 90s/early 2000s and how people just really didn’t know what to think about the internet. People were discovering it was a place where you could be come an expert, anonymously. And it seemed like kids were figuring this out a lot earlier than their parents were.

  • Becoming a stock expert — The first part talks about a high school stock expert and laws that were broken (or not, depending on who you ask). He would basically invest in some stock then make a bunch of Yahoo accounts and post in finance message boards that he recommends people buy that stock. It’d go up. He’d make money.

Around that time, I remember a couple friends whose parents would day trade. They’d lose or gain thousands of dollars in a day and it just seemed like impossible amounts of money. I was definitely one of those kids addicted to the internet but never had an interest in stocks. It seemed so mysterious. (And still does, in many ways. Though reading Michael Lewis books makes me think that it’s a mystery to plenty of experts also.)

This part cracked me up, where Jonathan (the 15-year-old trader) talks about the writing style of his posts in the message boards. From Next: The Future Just Happened:

At any rate, through much trial and error, Jonathan learned that some messages had more effect on the stock market than others. “I definitely refined it,” he said of his Internet persona. “In the beginning I would write, like, very professionally. But then I started putting stuff in caps and using exclamation points and making it sound more exciting. That worked better. When it’s more exciting it draws people’s attention to it, compared to when you write, like, dull or something.”

  • Becoming a law expert (without becoming a lawyer) — The second part has a similar thread of someone really young becoming an expert without other people knowing just how young he is. Instead of playing the market, he focuses on the performance of his profile on askme.com. He answers dozens of law questions a day. I don’t remember askme.com but it sounds like someone answering a bunch of law questions on Quora today. Except without a real profile or a real name. But he does get the answers right. Which, in some cases, is all that matters. (In life, there are many cases where having the right answer doesn’t matter at all.)

Excited to continue reading the book. Also, I finished Moneyball a few days ago. I was thinking of writing some kind of mega post. Which almost guarantees you’ll never see any kind of mega post from me.

One thing from that book, though, is the idea of figuring out the right metric and optimizing for it. In baseball, when it comes to value, the As found a market inefficiency with on base percentage.

So what’s the metric for writing a blog? My hunch: consistency. So I’ll keep working on that.

How I use my iPad Pro (January 2020) — Getting back to it

I’ve been using my iPad Pro a lot in 2020.

The iPad Pro’s signature strength has always been using the Apple Pencil. I can do a lot of things better on a MacBook. But I can’t do the things I do with the Pencil at all on the MacBook. I could get a tablet to plug into the MacBook but it wouldn’t be as direct as drawing on the screen. I could get a tablet display but the experience wouldn’t be as good as the iPad and Pencil’s.

So I set things up to be able to play toward that strength and have been using my iPad just about every day this month.

I got a cover (and stopped using the Smart Keyboard)

It’s always bugged me that the Smart Keyboard’s keys stick out the back when put into reading mode. It also doesn’t have a good way to have the raised drawing setup. So I got a cover. Just a generic one but I like the experience enough that I’ll probably shell out the dough to get Apple’s cover with the next generation.

I started using a foldable keyboard (that I’ve had for years)

I’ve been trying a setup where the iPad is in the slightly raised mode with the foldable keyboard below it. The slight raise makes it easier to draw on and keep the iPad in place. It’s easier to get over the keyboard to draw something here and there when doing things that are a little more keyboard focused.

I’ve also remembered that the on-screen keyboard is good. I wouldn’t want to write 1000 words on it but it’s great for a few sentences here and there.

I started doing some longhand writing daily on it

I’ve been starting my mornings doing some longhand writing on it.

This is one of the most enjoyable experience I’ve had with technology. I get the sense that this is the feeling people get with adult coloring books. I lose track of time easily when writing longhand in it. I’ll usually start by writing a couple pages with a sketch of where I’m at. Doodle might be more accurate.

Then I’ll open up some of the templates that I’ve made for more structured longhand writing.

Some templates I’ve been using

3×3

One I’ve been making a few iterations of this week has been the 3×3 exercise. I see this as a daily planning exercise. I’ll do a separate video about that system specifically.

The gist: I write 3 sources down the left side. I write 3 mental models across the top. (Each 1 corresponding to 1 of the sources on the left.) Then in the 9 boxes I write specific stories from the sources that match up with the theme.

Book Notes

I have a book notes template that I fill out as I read a book and am trying to make it a habit to fill out when I finish a book.

Topic Outline

I have a template for outlining a topic—here’s one I used for this video. I wrote down some quotes I could use here as well.

Weekly Plan

This is just something where I write down one AM thing and one PM thing for the upcoming week to get a sense of what blocks of time I have free. I also have a grid of 15 habits I want to cross off that week. Its…. sort of worked. Mostly as a way to see that I’m not doing a great job with habits.

Anyway, those are the templates I’ve been using and I’m planning to continue making more. Because it’s fun to do a little bit of design thinking on them. For example, I definitely want to do one that’s to track decisions each week.

Thanks for checking this out!

I’ll be doing more of these iPad journal videos, so let me know what topics you’d like to see.

Jocko Willink: Detach

Check out the full notes for “Leadership Strategy and Tactics: Field Manual” by Jocko Willink

Tool: Plan from the bottom up and reviewed from the top

In Leadership Strategy and Tactics: Field Manual, Jocko Willink compares two of his Platoon Commanders early in his career as a SEAL. One of them wanted complete ownership over planning. The other allowed his reports to do the planning but he would review it.

The leader that wanted complete ownership over planning couldn’t detach from his own plans. He couldn’t take a higher level look at it. He would blame others when things went wrong: the plan was poorly executed or there were outside factors.

The second leader allowed his reports to plan missions. From Leadership Strategy and Tactics: Field Manual:

I was always impressed that we could spend four or five hours poring over the presumptive operation, staring at the map, discussing and poking holes in our ideas, and when we would finally present the plan to Delta Charlie, he would quickly assess it and point out a few problems. It was amazing. He seemed like a tactical genius. But what I realized later was that he was detached from the planning process, so he could see it from altitude and easily see where the holes were.

Because they did the planning, the reports felt ownership over it and were more motivated to execute it properly during mission.

Find a way to detach from your plan. Step away from your drafts. Have someone else review your outlines. If you’re leading others, remember that their feeling of ownership is important. You’ll always have that feeling, because you have other people looking to you to lead. Find opportunities for them to reinforce their own feelings of ownership.

Warming up the gear (and top 10 books of 2019)


Alright so I’m getting back to podcasting. I’m going to try taking time to write up some show notes or at least some thoughts on the episode as a supplement. Here are the different sections of the episode.

Start, stop, continue (with the podcast)

I talked about getting back to podcasting. Because there were multiple months between basically every episode last year, I feel like a broken record at this point talking about how I’m going to get back into podcasting.

But mayyyyybe this time will be different.

Anyway I did write some notes about what I want to start, stop, and continue with the podcast. I think it’s a useful exercise that’s really flexible.

It’s flexible in time. You can look at a day of work and ask yourself what went well that you should continue doing (maybe you tried working out at a different time today and felt better for whatever reason), what you should stop doing (maybe you went too long without eating in the afternoon and ended up overeating at dinner), and what you want to experiment and start doing tomorrow (pre-plan a mid-afternoon snack).

You can expand it from a day to a month to do a monthly review.

It’s flexible in that you can use it to review different aspects of things in your life. Some of the examples above were for fitness and nutrition. But you can do it to review your writing habits.

You’re pausing to reflect and build awareness around what’s working and what’s not.

3 book quotes from some of my favorite books in 2019

Okay so I think that I can just put books and the quotes here. (I’m also realizing I can just write these posts out straight into WordPress and I can save the draft page as a PDF to use as my outline while recording the podcast episode.)

Oh yeah the books and quotes.

There was no method to picking these three books to pull quotes from except that they’re from my top 10 books from 2019. (Which I’ll get into in the next section.)

Alchemy by Rory Sutherland

“This book is intended as a provocation, and is only accidentally a work of philosophy. It is about how you and other humans make decisions, and why these decisions may differ from what might be considered ‘rationality’. My word to describe the way we make decisions – to distinguish it from the artificial concepts of ‘logic’ and ‘rationality’ – is ‘psycho-logic’. It often diverges dramatically from the kind of logic you’ll have been taught in high school maths lessons or in Economics 101. Rather than being designed to be optimal, it has evolved to be useful.”

It was great to read basically example after example of how we behave irrationally. And how you can use that knowledge (without abusing it) in work you create. If you’ve ever thought “oh so that’s why…” when someone points out elevator lobbies have mirrors or reflective surfaces to give people something to do while waiting (to make the wait seem shorter) then you’ll like this book because it has a bunch of stories like that.

Linchpin by Seth Godin

“Tom Peters, corporate gadfly and writer, is an artist, even though his readers are businesspeople. He’s an artist because he takes a stand, he takes the work personally, and he doesn’t care of someone disagrees. His art is part of him, and he feels compelled to share it with you because it’s important, not because he expects you to pay him for it.”

I have a bunch of weaknesses. I want to get back into leaning into strengths this year. One of them being that I do know how to make podcasts, make videos, and make blog posts. (Not make them well, mind you, but just that I understand the logistics which might be the least important thing in reality.)
This was a weakness when combined with the idea that you should focus on one thing at a time. (Which I very much believe in, but will put on hold for a bit.) Because, well, let me put it in a couple bullets.
  • What I probably should do that I think would work: focus on either the podcast, videos, or blog (but only one of the three!) for 6 or 12 weeks and then see how that goes, then switch to one of the remaining mediums. By the end of, say, 18 weeks, I’ll have a good idea of which one I’d probably want to focus on for the longer term.
  • What I would do instead: commit to podcasting for 6 weeks, podcast for mayyyybe 2 weeks, then decide to commit to videos for 6 weeks, make 1 video, then decide I should commit to daily IG stories for 6 weeks…

Instead, I’m going to just try doing a weekly mix for a longer term. And I’ll try to centralize everything to this blog. (At least writing up notes for podcasts and videos. Spread the surface area and all that)

Anyway. The reason I mention all that is that I think that might be how I can be a linchpin, by just rotating between mediums I know how to do. If anything, I think it’ll keep me interested in making things.

And for the third quote.

Work Clean by Dan Charnas
Me and Wally are going to talk about this book in our first episode back. It’s one of the best books I’ve read, particularly if you value books that change your behavior. Here’s a list of major principles presented in the book.
Charnas spells out the 10 major principles of mise-en-place for chefs and non chefs alike: (1) planning is prime; (2) arranging spaces and perfecting movements; (3) cleaning as you go; (4) making first moves; (5) finishing actions; (6) slowing down to speed up; (7) call and callback; (8) open ears and eyes; (9) inspect and correct; (10) total utilization.
There’s surprisingly no Kindle version. I read the audiobook and recently picked up a hardcover to re-read. I really just love this book.
I think me and Wally will split the 5 principles and go over each in our next episode. Maybe make it a 2 parter or something like that.

The top-10 books I read in 2019 (here’s the full, unranked list of 52-ish books)

I have some drafts of about books from this ranking (and, of course, some navel gazing about my reading process), but here’s the list.

  1. Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality
  2. Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don’t Make Sense
  3. Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
  4. Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
  5. Work Clean: The life-changing power of mise-en-place to organize your life, work, and mind
  6. Liar’s Poker
  7. Creative Calling
  8. Recursion
  9. Stillness is the Key
  10. The Algebra of Happiness: Notes on the Pursuit of Success, Love, and Meaning