The Digest Issue #21


The Five Levels Of Skill DevelopmentThe Five Levels Of Skill Development

Breaking Muscle | Daniel Tromello

We often see people succeeding at the highest levels and wonder how they got there, or what they were like when they started. Whether it be our fitness, profession, or hobby, the bottom line is that we all start from the bottom with zero experience. The bigger question is, “How do you become a master?”

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10,000 Hours With Claude Shannon: How A Genius Thinks, Works, and Lives10,000 Hours With Claude Shannon: How A Genius Thinks, Works, and Lives

The Mission | Rob Goodman & Jimmy Soni

For the last five years, we lived with one of the most brilliant people on the planet.

Sort of.

See, we just published the biography of Dr. Claude Shannon. He’s the most important genius you’ve never heard of, a man whose intellect was on par with Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton.

We spent five years with him. It’s not an exaggeration to say that, during that period, we spent more time with the deceased Claude Shannon than we have with many of our living friends. He became something like the roommate in the spare bedroom of our minds, the guy who was always hanging around and occupying our head space.

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Phys Ed: Why Exercise Makes You Less AnxiousPhys Ed: Why Exercise Makes You Less Anxious

The New York Times | Gretchen Reynolds

Researchers at Princeton University recently made a remarkable discovery about the brains of rats that exercise. Some of their neurons respond differently to stress than the neurons of slothful rats. Scientists have known for some time that exercise stimulates the creation of new brain cells (neurons) but not how, precisely, these neurons might be functionally different from other brain cells.

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Habits vs Goals : A Look at the Benefits of a Systematic Approach to LifeHabits vs Goals : A Look at the Benefits of a Systematic Approach to Life

Farnam Street Blog

Nothing will change your future trajectory like habits.

We all have goals, big or small things which we want to achieve within a certain time frame. Some people want to make a million dollars by the time they turn 30. Some want to lose 20lb before summer. Some want to write a book in the next 6 months. When we begin to chase an intangible or vague concept (success, wealth, health, happiness) making a tangible goal is often the first step.

Habits are processes operating in the background that powers our lives. Good habits help us reach our goals. Bad ones hinder us. Either way habits powerfully influence our automatic behavior.

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