My Favorite Links

Society & philosophy

The Replacing Guilt blog series by Nate Soares. Especially in high school, I lived by the creed minimum effort, maximum result. Soares takes this as a starting point for a comprehensive life philosophy aimed at living for yourself instead of others. The entire series is well worth your time, but if you’re short on time I recommend starting with two entries that really struck a chord with me: Not yet gods and See the dark world.

Naval Ravikant‘s podcast, simply titled Naval. Based on his popular tweetstorm, this podcast examines Naval’s definition of wealth, and touches on life, business and philosophy in the process.

Richard Murphy on macroeconomics and money. I originally came across this in a Twitter thread by Cory Doctorow, who’s well worth following in his own right. Murphy provides a non-intuitive explainer on money creation and taxation that goes against everything I thought I knew about fiscal policy.

Business & tech

Jim Collins is one of the business greats, and his website is an absolute treasure trove of information. I especially recommend checking out the collection of insightful and actionable concepts and tools lifted from his books. All of them are tremendously helpful if understood and implemented well; start with the BHAG and First Who, Then What concepts if you want something to get you started quickly.

Charlie Munger is perhaps the most well-known proponent of using mental models to improve thinking, and his USC Law Commencement Speech from May 2007 serves as an excellent primer on his approach to mental models and decision making. If this tickles your fancy, check out Poor Charlie’s Almanack next.

Creativity, productivity & learning

Roam is the one piece of PKM software that I haven’t lost interest in after a week or two. It is currently my preferred note taking tool, as well as the backbone of my productivity system.

Atomic Habits by James Clear is the best book I read in 2020. Clear examines the ways we can help ourselves shed bad habits, and cement new habits. Best quote: “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems”.

Diggin’ in the Carts is one of my all-time favorite web documentaries. If you like Japan, music and/or videogames, you’re in for an absolute treat. In five 15-minute episodes, this Red Bull documentary explores the global cultural impact of Japanese videogame music through thoughtful interviews with both original creators and the contemporary artists they inspired.

Archipel is another documentary series on Japanese creatives. This one covers everything from music, to manga, to videogames.

Noclip is a crowdfunded series of videogame documentaries that offer an extensive look behind the scenes of some of the most popular videogames.

History, science and math

Humankind: A hopeful history by Rutger Bregman is a fascinating take on the evolution of human nature. Bregman shows plenty of evidence refuting the picture of man as an essentially selfish creature, and suggests that it is more accurate to consider people flawed, but essentially good. Guaranteed to change your perspective of other people.