The most powerful paradoxes of life:

The Persuasion Paradox

Have you noticed that the most argumentative people rarely persuade anyone?

The most persuasive people don’t argue—they observe, listen, and ask questions.

Argue less, persuade more.

Persuasion is an art that requires a paintbrush, not a sledgehammer.

The Effort Paradox

You have to put in more effort to make something appear effortless.

Effortless, elegant performances are often the result of a large volume of effortful, gritty practice.

Small things become big things. Simple is not simple.

The Wisdom Paradox

“The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.” — Albert Einstein

The more you learn, the more you are exposed to the immense unknown.

This should be empowering, not frightening.

Embrace your own ignorance. Embrace lifelong learning.

The Growth Paradox

Growth takes a much longer time coming than you think, and then it happens much faster than you ever would have thought.

Growth happens gradually, then suddenly.

When you realize this, you start to do things differently.

I recently found out I'm going to be a father.

Here are the principles I want to teach my child to live by:

Be Interested

Talent is overrated—interest is not.

Interested people are prone to giving their deep attention to something to discover more about it.

They ask questions, listen, & observe. They open up to the world around them.

Being interested is a key to a fulfilling life.

Different is Beautiful

Growing up, I feared being different—I desperately wanted to fit in.

I made bad decisions grounded in insecurity.

I only realized later: being different is your edge—your ultimate competitive advantage.

No one can compete with you, at being you.

Work Hard

If you want to accomplish anything in life, you have to work hard.

Don't believe the hype. Hard work isn't the sexy, flashy Instagram posts saying "rise & grind”—it's the ugly, painful effort in the dark, when no one is watching.

If you want something, go get it.

Show Up in the Darkest Hour

It's easy to be there for people to celebrate their wins.

It takes character to show up for them in their darkest hour.

People never forget who supported them when the chips were down.

Be the friend who is always there—in good times and bad.

21 lessons learned in 2021:

Engineered Serendipity

I believe that some of what we call "luck" is actually the macro result of 1,000s of micro actions.

Your daily habits can put you in a position where "luck" is more likely to strike.

Increase your serendipity surface area.

Engineer your own serendipity.

Pessimists Sound Smart, Optimists Get Rich

Pessimists look at the future and see the doors that are closed.

Optimists look at the future and see the doors that are open—and probably kick down the closed doors, too.

Surround yourself with optimists. The future is bright.

The Exponential Growth Challenge

Human brains cannot fathom the insane power of exponential growth. We consistently underestimate its impact.

When you're on an exponential growth curve—stop trying to set specific goals.

Strap in, keep your head back, and enjoy the ride.

Work Like a Lion

Most people are not wired to work 9-5.

Modern work culture is a remnant of the Industrial Age—long periods of steady, monotonous work.

If your goal is to do inspired, creative work, you have to work like a lion.

Sprint when inspired. Rest. Repeat.

Frameworks provide clarity in complex situations.

Here are 20 useful frameworks (on startups, investing, writing, & life):

The Feynman Technique

To learn anything:

Step 1: Identify a topic.
Step 2: Try to explain it to a 5-year-old.
Step 3: Study to fill in knowledge gaps.
Step 4: Organize, convey, and review.

True genius is the ability to simplify, not complicate.

Simple is beautiful.

Directional Arrow of Progress

"Study the undeniable arrows of progress." - @wolfejosh

The future is extremely difficult to predict—but there are clues.

Look at the trend line of progress and where it's pointing—directionally, not precisely.

Invest (or build) accordingly.

The Eisenhower Decision Matrix

Place all of your tasks on a 2x2 matrix of urgency and importance.

(1) Important & Urgent
(2) Important & Not Urgent
(3) Not Important & Urgent
(4) Not Important & Not Urgent

Prioritize, delegate, or delete accordingly.

The Regret Minimization Framework

The goal is to minimize the number of regrets in life.

When faced with a difficult decision:
(1) Project yourself into the future.
(2) Look back on the decision.
(3) Ask "Will I regret not doing this?"
(4) Take action.

If you use it right, your Twitter account is worth more than your degree.

But 98.8% suck at it.

Here are 9 unique ways to turn Twitter into a crazy valuable asset:

Highly Curate Your Following

99% of users follow real-time news on Twitter.

That's okay. But you won't make Twitter an asset then.

To make it an asset, build a high-signal information diet.

You'll see it as a whole new opportunity.

Let me show you...

Use Twitter Lists

I find way too much news, drama and irrelevant ideas on the Twitter timeline.

I use Twitter lists to cut the noise and amplify the signal.

Bonus: Lists aren't affected by the algorithm.

Here's a video to get started on Lists:

Use Advanced Search

Scrape the internet to find what you want:

"(from:aaditsh) min_faves:1000 marketing"

Tweets with "marketing" from @aaditsh with more than 1000 likes.

Another favorite:

"(from:aaditsh) until:2021-09-01 since:2021-05-01"

Between May and September.

Mute Trolls

Trust me. They're not worth your time.

Click on a profile that annoys you.

Click "more" → "mute profile".

You won't "block" them but their content will become hidden on your timeline.

It's so peaceful.

7 Books that Changed My Life:

- Winning
- Atomic Habits
- The Behavior Gap
- The Millionaire Mind
- How to Become a Rainmaker
- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck
- Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

What books changed your life?

I asked, "What book created the biggest mental shift in your life?"

I received 275+ responses.

Here are 20 books that might just change your life forever:

1/

The Almanack of Naval Ravikant

by @naval

2/

The Choice

by @DrEdithEger1

3/

Atomic Habits

by @JamesClear

4/

The 48 Laws of Power

@RobertGreene

Top 10 Personal Finance Books

⚡️Book Thread⚡️

+ Best quotes

These ten books have ten different and powerful approaches to accumulating personal wealth.

1. Think and Grow Rich

”The object is to want money, and to be so determined to have it that you convince yourself that you will have it.”

2. Secrets of the Millionaire Mind

"The vast majority of people simply do not have the internal capacity to create and hold on to large amounts of money and the increased challenges that go with more money and success."

3. The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous & Broke

"You picked up this book because you are broke. Keep reading and you will discover what you need to know--and do--so you will not be broke forever."

What is the best book you read in 2021?

Will compile every response and rank them by number of recommendations!

Going out to everyone subscribed to my

McKinsey makes $500,000+ on a single presentation.

You can learn their simple framework below (for free):

The secret? Story, flow, and structured arguments.

Every fresh analyst is taught this blueprint:
• Introduction & context on one slide
• Always lead with the conclusion
• Pyramid argument structure
• Title storyline & slide flow

Let's break it down, so you can apply it too:

Set the stage by using the SCQA framework.

Situation: what's the current state?
Complication: what needs to change?
Question: how can you solve the complication?
Answer: this one deserves it's own slide, up next.

This tells your audience WHY they should read on.

Example:

Next, lead with your answer.

Put your conclusion out there, and let people digest it.

Explain WHY this is the answer later on.

Example:

Break down your answer using the Pyramid principle

• Back your conclusion with 3-5 key arguments
• Support your arguments with findings & data
• 1 argument per slide, drive your point home
• Nothing overlaps, nothing is missing
• "Nice to haves" go in the appendix

Example:

Books every entrepreneur should read in 2022 (and why):

1/ Thinking Fast and Slow

Lessons:

• Probably the best book written on human behavior

• You will learn how to be aware of your own bias

• Make better decisions by understanding your blind spots

2/ The Innovator’s Dilemma

Lessons:

• Why big companies miss disruptive innovations

• Big companies demand quantification of market size

• Disruptive markets in their infancy can’t be quantified

3/ Zero to One

Lessons:

• Competition is for losers

• Monopolies are actually good

• Large TAM’s are overrated

4/ How to Win Friends and Influence People

Lessons:

• Business is about people

• You’re selling to people (customers) or hiring people (employees)

• This book helps you get better at both

The Ladders of Wealth Creation—a step-by-step roadmap to building wealth:

Making money is a skill—like playing the drums or piano—that you can get better at over time.

I wouldn’t expect to be able to sit down at a piano for the first time and play a concerto. The same is true for making money.

This is why most first companies fail.

The Ladders of Wealth Creation breaks an insanely complicated topic of building wealth into the component parts and skills to give you a roadmap of what to do first.

Look at this graphic, then we’ll break down each step.

Ladder 1: Time for Money

The first ladder is trading time for money. This is how most people you know earn a living.

It may start with an hourly job working for Starbucks, but then transition into a salaried position working at a company.

The skills for success are simple, but critical:

1. Show up consistently
2. Being reliable
3. Eager to learn

Every job requires those three things.

To climb the ladder to a salaried position you need to specialize in certain skills (design, copywriting, legal, nursing, etc).

“There is one thing stronger than all the armies of the world, and that is an idea whose time has come.”

🧵 Framework for generating high-impact ideas:

Cultivating ideas is a process.

You have to build a system to cultivate impactful ideas consistently.

I will share a 4-part framework that you can use to cultivate ideas.

1. Idea generation
2. Idea selection
3. Idea validation
4. Idea implementation

In this thread, I'll dive into "Idea Generation" & describe a simple framework that you can implement right away!

The following threads will cover the remaining 3 parts to cultivate ideas.

Lateral thinking is key - first, diverge & then converge.

Overview:

1/ PROBLEM - a question proposed for a solution, a matter stated for examination or proof.

Reframe problems into well-defined & clear "How might we.." statements.
This prioritises intention over tech/process.

But 1st, it is very important to be at the right problem level.

Example problem:
Our customers don't order pizza.

GO NARROW:
Ask "what's stopping you?" to get to the real problem.

What's stopping customers from ordering pizza?
- stale toppings?
- bad sauce?

Problem statement:
How might we ensure that the pizza toppings are fresh?

15 books you should read every year:

Think Again by Adam Grant

Lessons:
• We are most confident when we lack competence (Dunning-Kruger effect)
• Admitting that you don’t know something is a superpower

Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss

Lessons:
• Build trust through mirroring and tone of voice
• Take things slowly

1984 by George Orwell

Lessons:
• We are shaped by our circumstances
• Our past is controlled by our present

Deep Work by Cal Newport

Lessons:
• Our attention span is 8-seconds
• Stop working at the same time each day and shut everything off