Kicking off 2022

Fantastic books, article, podcasts recommendations for you to kickstart 2022.

January 07, 2022

Welcome to the first edition of Dhairya’s Newsletter.

I humbly thank the 193 people who have signed up for my newsletter despite not having read a single issue. I'll be always grateful for your early participation in my journey. One thing is certain: every time you receive one in the mail, it will be jam-packed with value.

We'll start with bite-sized summaries and lessons from two fantastic books, podcasts, and articles that you should read to kick off the new year.

2 Books:

"You don't have to understand your life. You have to live it." - Matt Haig

The Midnight Library is about Nora, a thirty-something woman who is regretful about her life and feels estranged and useless in this world. In the depths of her self-pity, she becomes more depressed and decides to end her life, when she comes across the Midnight Library.

Where time freezes at "12:00:00." In it, each book represents a portal to another variation/possibility to her life could have been. As she reads the books, they allow her to access different versions of her life. Relationships she could have stuck with, Carrer she could have perceived, and so on. All of these alternate realities were the result of small changes she could have made in her life that would have fulfilled her regret.

As she jumps in and out of these alternate realities, Nora's journey of self-discovery results in a life-affirming and reflective story about the choices we make, the paths we've chosen, and each of our places in this world.

Few amazing quotes:

Never underestimate the big importance of small things”

"If you aim to be something you are not, you will always fail. Aim to be you. Aim to look and act and think like you. Aim to be the truest version of you. Embrace that you-ness. Endorse it. Love it. Work hard at it. And don't give a second thought when people mock it or ridicule it. Most gossip is envy in disguise"

Few para from the book that will make you want to read it:

  • We all are like pawns, a queen-in-waiting, we just need to keep moving forward

  • You don’t have to understand life. You just have to live it.

When a person is dying, more often than not, their perspective on life often changes, allowing them to see what is important and what is not.

Just like in this memoir, “Tuesdays With Morrie.” The author, Mitch Albom, writes about all the lessons he received from his college professor, Morrie Schwartz, who was suffering from a life-threatening disease ALS, whose cure was not discovered then.

Mitch focused on how Morrie helped him understand some of the most complex problems of life. As Morrie had told him in the book,

“Study me in my slow and patient demise. Watch what happens to me. Learn with me..”

And he did. The author learned a lot of things from his Tuesday visits with Morrie.

Here are the 6 most valuable lessons from the book.

Forgive Not Only Others But Also Yourself

“We need to forgive ourselves. For all the things we didn’t do. All the things we should have done. You can’t get stuck on the regrets of what should have happened.”

Live Your Life As If It Is Your Last Day

“Every day, have a little bird on your shoulder that asks, ‘Is today the day? Am I ready? Am I doing all I need to do? Am I the person I want to be?”

Stop Chasing The Wrong Things

“So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they’re busy doing things they think are important. This is because they’re chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning in your life is to devote yourself to loving others. Devote yourself to your community around you and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.”

Do Things Whole-heartedly Without Expecting Something In Return

“Do the kinds of things that come from the heart. When you do, you won’t be dissatisfied. You won’t be envious, and you won’t be longing for somebody else’s things. On the contrary, you’ll be overwhelmed with what comes back.”

The Only Thing That Dies Is Our Body, Not The Relationship We Have With Others

“As long as we can love each other, and remember the feeling of the love we had, we can die without ever really going away. All the love you created is still there. All the memories are still there. You live on – in the hearts of everyone you have touched and nurtured while you were here.”

Be Compassionate and Help Others

“Whites and blacks, Catholics and Protestants, men and women. If we saw each other as more alike, we might be very eager to join in one big human family in this world. And to care about that family the way we care about our own.”

This is one of those books that I would recommend to everyone, regardless of their reading preferences; it's a short and lovely memoir.

2 Podcast’s

How to get more done and avoid distraction? Nir Eyal on TKP

Quote from the episode":

“You’re not addicted, you are disctracted.”

Addictions are not external triggers, they are internal triggers. You may find this odd but it isn’t. Think about it, you consider your addiction as an external trigger, you’re not addicted to cigarettes, you’re addicted to the urge to smoke cigarettes. As a result, the more we shame our internal triggers, the more difficult it becomes to break free from addiction.

As Plato said: “Why wouldn’t we do things if we know we need to do it.” Because it’s an internal trigger that’s causing distraction.

Rather than running away from your distraction, harness them.

Quote from the episode:

“If you are grateful for what you have, instead of envious for what you don’t have, you will always win.” — @garyvee

Three Major Takeaways:

  1. If you wanna learn something, you need to put some skin in the game.Time is valuable, and if you really wanna learn something you need to put that mental commitment, that extra effort, put skin in the game to get the best results.

  2.  It's ok to admit if you were wrongWe are terrible when it comes to admitting that we were wrong. Admitting is not only acceptable, but it also gives you a competitive advantage. “It's the willingness to just admit you don't f*cking know something and not be afraid to admit that.”

  3.  Search for counterpointsWhen we learn something new, we form a few hypotheses around it and continue to research and learn about it. Learning about its counterpoints, on the other hand, is just as important as learning about it because it makes you less vulnerable.

If you need more insights and takeaways, read the full thread I shared on Twitter 

If you’re looking for some podcast’s recommendations, you can check this thread:

2 Article’s

The Goal Setting Guide:

It’s a new year and everyone has made their new year resolutions and surprisingly only a few percent of people are able to complete and achieve the goal. Why does this happen with you and me? Why do we fail? The answer to this question is in the process we use to set the goal, either we set something that’s not even physically possible or something we don’t have a clear vision towards it.

Here is the scientific guide shared by Sahil Bloom:

This is a very useful guide, but how do we put it into practice?

Here Notion template by Naitik, which will assist you in using this framework.

Peter Theil Religion by David Perell

David was influenced by the working and philosophies of Peter, he wrote this long-form essay explaining the core principles of Peter Theil, on which he helped in founding Paypal and being an early investor in companies like Facebook(now Meta) and Uber. David describes him as: “He’s an investor who found wealth in PayPal, a student who found wisdom in Libertarian ideals, and a philosopher who found faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

Three core principles based on Mimetic Theory:

  1. Don’t copy your neighbors

  2. Time moves forward

  3. The future will be different from the present

Mimetic Theory:

“Mimetic Theory rests on the assumption that all our cultural behaviors, beginning with the acquisition of language by children are imitative. Mimetic conflict emerges when two people desire the same, scarce resource.”

In simple words, it states: of Collaboration > Competition.

Don’t Copy your Neighbor

“At first two people who share the same desire will be united by it. But if they cannot share what they both desire, their relationship will transform.”

When you imitate your neighbor, you are neither helping yourself nor them; instead, you are increasing resource scarcity, which can lead to mimetic conflict. Where neither you nor your neighbor stands to gain anything. For example, if you open a restaurant in your city where you see a lot of potential for profit, but when you enter the market, you attract some share of the audience, but the total market never rises, it remains fixed, so neither does you nor your neighbor benefit from it. ps: It's limited to the market you've chosen.

I haven’t shared the remaining two principles because I want you to read till the end of section one and understand its core value and how can you implement it in your life. Whenever you’re done with reading this essay, let’s discuss it, that makes us in collaboration > competition, reply to this mail and let’s set one Twitter space discussion it.

I need your help because this is my first time writing for an online audience. If you dislike any format, or if you prefer any format, please let me know. Please reply to the mail. I'd appreciate any feedback you could provide.

That’s it for the week folks!

If you liked this issue, do share it with your friends

Have a great week ahead!

Rooting for you ❤️

Dhairya

Reply

or to participate.