BC LIFE
Saved by @Jacobtldr

Standing on the cusp of 2021, life can be exhausting.

No matter where we look on social media, we will find people who seem wealthier, luckier, prettier, healthier, more popular, smarter, happier than us.

As highly ambitious people, what are we to do?

A solution to consider👇🏾

 The solution, in three words:

Aim for Mediocrity
Here’s what I’ve done for years now:

1) Aim to be mediocre at most things.

2) Celebrate this mediocrity.

3) Then focus on excellence at a few things.

4) Make sure those few things align with my passions, my strengths, and what the world needs.

contd.👇🏾
5) Work hard at those few things for long periods of time.

6) Find rewards in the act of getting better, not in immediate external feedback.

7) Get clarity on what rewards really matter.

8) Trust that those rewards will come.

9) Tweak my approach as I learn more.
An acceptance of our mediocrity is a ticket to freedom.

Very few smart & ambitious people recognize this.

This isn’t about giving up or "being a loser".

It’s about recognizing that very few of the things that bring us lifelong anxiety actually matter, when all is said & done.
Alright, so how might we go about executing on this?

My answer:
Life principles.

I’ll leave you with some of my life principles below.

They are always work in progress, but the ones below have stayed stable for the past 3-4 years.
Note:

I am not saying these should be YOUR life principles or ANYONE’s life principles. Examples are useful for clear writing, so view them as merely an example of what’s worked/working for one person. If something resonates, consider adopting it. If something repels, ignore it
Principle 1:

I don’t wish to be remembered after I die. By anyone.
Principle 2:

I don’t wish to be famous while I am alive.
Principle 3:

I want to be wealthy, but I do not seek to be the wealthiest person I personally know.
Principle 4:

I do want to be the wisest person I personally know. To do this, I want to learn from everyone I come in contact with. Everyone.
Principle 5:

I do not want to do anything that’s mainly aimed at impressing others.
Principle 6:

I do want to be the best parent I possibly can.
Principle 7:

I want to continue learning my craft as best as I possibly can.

(in my case, this craft is mainly product management)

(this principle has lasted the longest in my list, approximately the past 15 years)
And finally, the principle that enables me to follow these 7 principles as faithfully as I can:

I accept mediocrity in other aspects of my life.
Sometimes I’ll do better than mediocre (great)
Other times, I’ll do worse (not great, but fine)
Just be good-enough to avoid disaster.
Back to the top of this thread:
https://t.co/caZwkypKAw

More from Shreyas Doshi

Shreyas Doshi
Shreyas Doshi
@shreyas
@david_perell @readwiseio save thread
MENTAL
Shreyas Doshi
Shreyas Doshi
@shreyas
Listening, *really* listening, is a rare superpower.

I was a bad listener most of my life.

Then I fixed that a few years ago.

Night & day difference in my leadership ability.

I learned that we can learn to listen well.

A thread on listening (and learning it from movies🎞️)
👇🏾

First, why is listening hard?

It’s because we have:
- the fear of being wrong
- an inability to be present
- a desire for validation
- a lack of curiosity
- the urge to impress
- a feeling of superiority

For an example of *bad* listening, let’s learn from this epic scene from the movie, The Darkest Hour.

The setup: World War II. There are disagreements among British leadership about whether they should pursue peace talks with Germany or an all out war.

Go on, watch the scene.


Really, watch the scene before proceeding to the next tweet.

So what can we learn from this scene about listening?

The superficial lesson is not to interrupt others.

But the deeper lesson is that most of us are like Churchill w.r.t. listening.

How so?

While we may not interrupt vocally, *we are interrupting others with our thoughts*
LIFE
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Shreyas Doshi
Shreyas Doshi
@shreyas
A B2B Product Management Story: on discovering problems that customers actually care about

Very visual story thread👇🏾


Our story starts with a new product idea

PM diligently talks to customers about whether this product will solve their problems


Customers say yes!


PM reports findings to the executive team

There's excitement

Staffing obtained 🙌🏾


🎉🎊
ALL , PRODUCT
Shreyas Doshi
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@shreyas
A thread of resources for aspiring & new Product Managers:

(should also be useful for Eng, Design, Data Science, Mktg, Ops folks who want to get better at PM work or want to build more empathy for your PM friends ☺️)

(oh, and pls also share *your* favorite resources below)

👇🏾

1/

Product Management - Start Here by @cagan
(hard to go wrong if you start with Marty Cagan’s

2/

Tips for Breaking into PM by @sriramk
(I’ve recommended this thread in my DMs more often than any other thread, by a pretty wide


3/

Top 100 Product Management Resources by @sachinrekhi
(well-categorized index so you can focus on whatever’s most useful right

4/

Brief interruption.

It’s important to understand your preferred learning style and go all in on that learning style (vs. struggling / procrastinating as you force a non-preferred learning
INTERNET
Shreyas Doshi
Shreyas Doshi
@shreyas
A surprisingly high % of stupid arguments & fights on Twitter are rooted in a tiny number of fairly obvious fallacies.

Stupid arguments & the fallacies that feed them, a thread:

Fallacy 1/

Just because it’s true that all squares are rectangles, you argued that all rectangles must be squares. (And you did it with so much swagger.)

Example of Fallacy 1

X says: Successful people aren’t afraid of hard work.

Y argues: That’s BS. I work 90 hours a week at Tech Co and am still stuck in this dead-end job.

Fallacy 2/

Just because you found an exception to a general pattern, you argued that the entire pattern is false.

Example of Fallacy 2

X says: Venture capital is useful for startups.

Y argues: Not true. Foo’s startup took VC money and they crashed & burned.

Z piles on: I agree with Y. In fact, Bar’s startup did not take VC money and it’s worth a bajillion.
ARGUMENT

More from Life

Brother Eddy\u26a1
Brother Eddy⚡
@waronweakness
THE TRUTH BEHIND WHY ONLY 2% OF PEOPLE SUCCEED AND 98% OF PEOPLE FAIL

(Plus a 30 minute exercise to get you into the top 2%)

//Thread//

Quick PSA: If you get value from this thread, please share some Knowledge Karma and retweet the first tweet 👆

Thank you.

Now let's upgrade your life..

I'll start by addressing the elephant in the room.

This is not another thread about "positive thinking" and us ing affirmations to get what you want.

You will need to take action for this to work.

If you are willing to do that

Read on 👇

Psychological Fact #1 : Reality = What you experience in your mind.

Reality is not objective.

This is why a man with a million dollars can say he's "depressed"

While a man with nothing in his pocket can say he's "happy"

and they can both be right at the same time.

A plastic surgeon noticed a pattern in his patients.

Even though a patient underwent transformative surgery and OBJECTIVELY looked more beautiful

Many came out of surgery and still saw an ugly person in the mirror.

How is this possible?

It all boils down to self belief.
LIFE
LCTempleton
LCTempleton
@LCTempleton
My highlighted passages from The Psychology of Money by @morganhousel. Thread below

1. The 401k - the backbone savings vehicle of American retirement - did not exist until 1978. The Roth Ira was not born until 1998. If it were a person it would be barely old enough to drink

2. NYU professor Scott Galloway has a related idea that is so important to remember when judging success - both your own and others': "Nothing is as good or as bad as it seems."

3. Margin of safety - you can call it room for error or redundancy

4. "Every job looks easy when you're not the one doing it because the challenges faced by someone in the arena are often invisible to those in the crowd."

5. "The average equity fund investor underperformed the funds they invested in by half a percent per year, according to Morningstar - the result of buying and selling when they should have just bought and held."
LIFE
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ArmaniTalks \U0001f399\U0001f525
ArmaniTalks 🎙🔥...
@ArmaniTalks
Shy people are either overthinking or highly observant of the social setting.

And in many cases it can be both.

'So what do I do?'

You learn the 75/25 law.

'What is that?'

The law of charisma...👇

Let's address the over thinkers first.

Do you have any idea why you overthink?

'Yea. Because others are judging how shy I am.'

Incorrect.

Others are thinking about themselves, not you.

But the fact that you think they are thinking about you, you fuck up the interaction.

Now you stay in your head too much & avoid the present moment.

A major no no in the social world.

Your tendency to think that others are judging you for being shy, coincidentally makes you more shy.

And that's when you start giving off a strange vibration to the social setting.

This is when you begin attracting comments like 'why are you so quiet?'
LIFE
Dragon Inve$tor.
Dragon Inve$tor.
@Dragon_Investor
5 Problem-solving Skills From a Chess Grandmaster You Must Learn and Teach Your Children.


How do I solve my problems? Does everyone know how to solve all their problems?

At times, it happens that the principles of games like chess and poker help us solve most of our problems.

Which principles are we really talk about?


1. Working backwards - By looking back, you have past experiences of most problems, or have seen someone solve the same problem in the past, this provides solutions to present problems.

Look back and find the best possible solutions.


2. Have a realistic view - it happens, when we're doing something, some steps that come at later stages are rushed up or ignored. As a result, we get stuck because we give too much attention to the beginning instead of the journey to the end.


3. Simplify - Simplify a situation and narrow down the things you need to do because too many choices create confusion. It becomes difficult to make decisions.

Try to make things as simple as possible.
LIFE
\U0001f934EZE_IMO\xa9\ufe0f\U0001f451
🤴EZE_IMO©️👑...
@AkiMarlin
After several calls & she didn’t pick ...about an hour later she called back to inform me that her parents didn’t let her leave the house,I screamed but babe you told me you got this that you know how to convince them, you assured me 😫

She just said sorry Baby I can’t come out

This was actually happening on 14th Febuary (lovers day) , all my friends were already out with their babes waiting for us to come join them in the park ..
I didn’t save this cash for three months just so I can be able to afford our luxury only to be disappointed by Nnenna 💔💔

My friends were calling to ask my location;the last I replied was a text saying”We are on the way”

I tried calling Nnenna back her cellphone rang without her picking up,on the 69th time I got the “number you’re calling is currently switched off please try again later response”😭

I was already heart broken not to notice I had a low battery, instead of crying in my room as Nepa was unfortunate to have cut our light the previous day I decided to go and grieve in the Mall alone.

I left my Change for the Keke man when i got to the mall & was just ..

While walking around aimlessly in the mall watching people in relationship takin photos & LOL like they are trying to make mockery of my situation.. One idiot & his babe had the mind to ask I please help take them some photo shots (in my mind , I wished their r/shp would scatter)
LIFE

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(MAJOR NOTE) The reason Manafort took over Trump's campaign in just 3 weeks despite being hired as a mere delegate counter is that ROGER STONE initiated a whisper campaign against Corey Lewandowski. That campaign started...days after Manafort returned from meeting with WikiLeaks.

2/ Stone and Manafort are longtime business partners; we'd expect Manafort to tell Stone what Assange told him, and for him to expect Stone to then pressure the campaign not only to hire him but quickly elevate him.

And who was Stone in touch with at the campaign? Trump himself.

3/ I bet you Manafort's late March emails are very interesting and that some of them are to/from his longtime business associate Roger Stone. And I bet Roger Stone's late March phone calls are very interesting and that some of them are to/from his longtime friend Donald Trump.

4/ At the end of March 2016, Trump suddenly convenes a NatSec meeting. At that meeting he directs his NatSec team to change the RNC platform in July to benefit Putin. Who later takes credit for that change?

Paul Manafort's business associate, Kremlin agent Konstantin Kilimnick.

5/ Why did Donald Trump suddenly convene a NatSec meeting 3 days after he finally hired Manafort? Why did he issue a pro-Kremlin directive at that meeting that Manafort's camp would later take credit for? What did Manafort tell Trump in the days leading up to that NatSec meeting?
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1/ Thread: "A Silicon Valley Ponzi Scheme"

Thanks to @chamath for laying this out in Social Capital's 2018 annual letter.

I've always appreciated his outspokenness.

2/ The hardest thing for most startups today is the path to market: first finding product-market fit & a way to reach customers, then building a ruthless machine to acquire, monetize & retain them.

3/ Because of this, when the VC industry invests capital into fast growing startups today, the plurality (if not majority) of invested capital will go into user acquisition and ad spending, for better or worse— usually worse.

4/ Todays massive venture-backed advertising, sales, and user acquisition playbook has morphed into one that champions growth at any cost.

This is creating a big bill that will soon come due...

5/ Ad impressions and click-throughs are bid up to outrageous prices by startups flush with venture money, and prospective users demand more and more subsidized products to gain their initial attention.
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[THREAD: HISTORY OF THE HINDU TEMPLE]
1/102
Four hours south of Aswan in Lower Nubia, right by the Nile, is a region dotted with temple complexes built more than 3,000 years ago. Some like the temples of Amada, Derr, and Beit el-Wali go as far back as 1500 BC.


2/102
A little further south, not far from the border with Sudan, is another complex dedicated to Ramses II, Hathor, and Nefertari in the village of Ipsambul, better known locally as Abu Sunbul and internationally as Abu Simbel. These go back to the 13th century BC.


3/102
Djeser-Djeseru, also known as the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut in Upper Egypt also dates to 1400 BC. Over 500 years older is the nearby Mentuhotep II, also a mortuary temple. Both were dedicated to the cult of Amun Ra, besides their respective pharaohs.


4/102
Far older is the Ġgantija complex of Malta. Going as far back as 3600 BC, this one comprises of two temples entirely made of stone and enclosed in a stone wall. From the figures therein, it's understood to be a site of some kind of a fertility cult worship.


5/102
Dating from the same period are the limestone megaliths of Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra, both said to have once hosted ritualistic sacrifices as part of the same fertility cult worship as found in the Ġgantija complex. Malta has some of the oldest temple complexes in Europe.
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Some thoughts on episode 54 of #Hercai

If you ever cross the distance and come to me, come with love that blooms in your heart.
~ Şems-i Tebrizi

#Reyyan #Miran #ReyMir #EbruŞahin #AkınAkınözü
#HercaiThoughts


1
I have to make a note before writing about this episode. I was the person (still am) who thinks that bringing back D. was a bad idea. I repeat it that for me the writing of S1 and S2 is like tossed into the bin with that plot evolution, but they had to invent something+
#Hercai

2
+ to be able to continue to prolong the general story after Aslan’s story did not work out. All the suffering of M., all the crying seems for “nothing” for two seasons and we viewers are also kind of fed up in seeing him cry all the time when with the upcoming episodes+
#Hercai

3
+he is justified the most to cry. With her resurrection now the attention shifts back to Miran’s storyline and I don’t know if I like this to be honest. This said, Dilsha is here and we have to deal with her.
#Hercai

4
So, my comments are going to be how I find they wrote her into the story, the details we get to know, the flashbacks we get to see, the way it was filmed and directed, with leaving out if I agree on it or not but describing along the way what I saw.
#Hercai
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@Impregnable007
#Thread - 1/21

A story of a brave woman who let her "breast" cut to protect the life of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose!

Neera Arya was born on March 5 1902 in Khekra Nagar, Uttar Pradesh in a distinguished & eminent businessman Seth Chhajumal's family. Since her childhood,


2/21
She was a true nationalist & always had a vision of becoming a part of the freedom fighter movement. She was also reportedly accused as an undercover by the British Govt.

That was the time when her father's business was flourishing in Calcutta, though his business was..

3/21
spread across the country but Calcutta was the center of his business and that was one of the reasons why her education was done in Calcutta. During that period of time, she had learned quite a few languages along with Bengali, Hindi, English.

4/21
Her father got her married to a CID Inspector "Shrikant Jairanjan Das" in British India but they were two different individuals, Neera Arya was a true nationalist but her husband was a true British servant. She was highly motivated & she had an urge of getting us freedom..

5/21
so she ended up joining the Jhansi Regiment in Azad Hind Fauz after the marriage. It was the regiment that the British always accused them of spying on British Govt.

It was the time when Neera's husband Jairanjan Das was given the responsibility to spy on Netaji Subhash..
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