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My 7 Principles for Personal Development
Published 10 months ago • 3 min read
As you’re receiving this newsletter, my wife Lauren and I are on our way to Argentina to go on the trip of a lifetime…
We’re visiting Antarctica!
We’re joining a special 10-day voyage called Space2Sea, hosted by Future of Space and THE William Shatner.
Also on board will be a group of space luminaries like astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, journalist Ann Curry, former NASA astronauts Scott Kelly and José Hernández, filmmaker and environmentalist Céline Cousteau, and artist Stephen Wiltshire.
And the best thing is: You can take part in it, too.
They’re live-streaming the guest presentations directly from aboard the expedition ship with the help of Starlink – starting Friday, Dec. 20th.
Here are the talks you can look forward to:
Footprints & Stardust: Journey Through Time with Moonwalker Charlie Duke
Beam Us Up! Reflections from William Shatner: Reality Meets Sci-Fi
To Infinity and Beyond: Neil deGrasse Tyson on the Universe and Our Place in It
Stories That Shape Us Powerful Narratives from Journalist Ann Curry
A View from the Top: Scott Kelly’s Year in Space and Earthly Insights
Fields to Frontiers: José Hernández’s Path from Earth’s Soil to the Stars
The Blue Heartbeat: The Transformative Power of Nature with Céline Cousteau
Memory in Motion: Capturing the World in Art with Stephen Wiltshire
A common questions I hear about the PARA Method is about the R: Resources. Should you create a robust catalog of resources? How much time should you spend organizing, tagging, and refining them?
Here’s the thing: everything can be a resource, and that’s where people get stuck. If you’re trying to save everything, you’ll end up drowning in a sea of information.
Until a resource is actively put to work, it’s not an asset—it’s a debt.
Every note you take comes with a cost. You’ve invested time and energy to collect it, but you haven’t seen any return yet. This stems from the idea that “more information is better,” but in reality, more is often worse.
So, how do you avoid this trap?
Flip your approach. Instead of asking, “What else can I capture?” ask, “How can I capture less?”
Be far pickier about what you save. When you focus on quality over quantity, you’ll end up with better notes that actually serve you over time.
For lifelong learners and naturally curious people, this can be tough. But by being intentional about what you keep, you’ll get a far better return on your attention—and ultimately, your life.
Books are still my favorite source of learning. But since having kids the time I can dedicate to reading has dwindled.
So Shortform has been my go-to for diving into all the interesting nonfiction books without losing any substance.
It’s an extensive library in your pocket or desktop covering genres from education and career to psychology and leadership with books like Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle and The Prince by Machiavelli.
Shortform also provides:
Expert analysis and commentary
Connections and counter-arguments in related works
Exportable to print and audio formats
Exercises to solidify understanding
The first 500 of my subscribers to sign up get a 7-day free trial and 20% OFF an annual subscription!
Level up your productivity and life with new essays, videos, event invites, and other resources every Tuesday. Join 125k subscribers exploring the frontier of modern work, experimenting with new ways of doing more with less, and discovering what it means to fulfill our human potential. 100% free and 100% useful!
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