Issue #12: Turning Dead Time into Alive Time, Waking Up Early, and the Genius of Dan Brown

Dead Time vs Alive Time, Waking Up Early, The Circle of Competence, The Genius of Dan Brown, and Mark Twain

Issue #12. Hard to believe it’s been 3 months that I’ve been posting this newsletter consistently every week. I want to thank you for subscribing in this early stage while I figure out my voice. It can only get better from here as I continue to get the reps in. If this is your first time reading consider subscribing and taking a look at the archive if you want. Anyway, let’s get into it.

In this week’s issue we will cover:

• Turning Dead Time into Alive Time

• Some reflections on (trying) to Wake Up Early

• The Circle of Competence by Sahil Bloom

• The Genius of Dan Brown

• A quote from Mark Twain

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Turn Your Dead Time into Alive Time

Yesterday I had to do something that I really didn't want to do.

I was picking up a shift for my former employer because they were short-staffed and reached out to me because they needed someone to do some IT work in NYC.

As soon as I got to the facility and was greeted and shown around by the person in charge, I was told that for the next 5 hours I would have the enthralling job of sifting through dusty boxes of computer cords and separating Apple, Lenovo, Ethernet, and Power Supply chords.

I was not very pleased with the notion of spending the next couple of hours mindlessly separating cords. In fact, the person who I was reporting to for the day was apologetic about it as well.

"I'm sorry for this man. I wanted to contract this out to some other company but apparently, you have to deal with this. I know it’s shitty work and I'm sorry that you have to do it," he apologized profusely.

Yeah, this kinda blows man, I said to myself, but then obviously told the manager that there was nothing to it and that if this was the job that I needed to do, then there was nothing else to be done but to do it.

I lugged three huge crates of tangled power cords and dusty ethernet cables back to my work station and decided that I might as well make the most of the situation.

I could make the next 5 hours of my life dead time or alive time as Ryan Holiday and his mentor Robert Greene often refer to it as. In the words of Ryan Holiday,

"One is when you sit around when you wait until things happen to you. The other is when you are in control when you make every second count when you are learning and improving and growing."

I very well could have completely wasted those 5 hours - listened to music or stupid YouTube videos as I untangled the dusty wires and later, sneak away for a lunch break 15-30 minutes too long to waste more of the day away.

Instead, I tried to make the most of a "shitty situation" and turned what could have been dead time into alive time.

I managed to listen to almost 8 different podcasts - some Tim Ferriss and Joe Rogan episodes that I was behind on and gained a lot from that "batching session". I listened to JRE or Tim Ferriss interviews from Naval Ravikant, Seth Godin, Jerry Seinfeld, Ryan holiday, Dan Harris, Jamie Fox, Michael Lewis, and Hala Taha's interview of Robert Greene.

I learned about the creative process of great writers like Ryan Holiday, Jerry Seinfeld, Michael Lewis, and Seth Godin and business and life advice from Naval Ravikant, Jamie Fox, and Robert Greene. Much more valuable than a Netflix binge or YouTube rabbit hole.

The value I gained from these interviews transformed what could have been dead time spent solely rearranging dusty wires, into a listening session with some of the top individuals in their field.

I was listening to these podcasts at 2x the speed - a hack that I picked up from Ali Abdaal earlier this year that has transformed the way I consume content. Most audio experiences (books and podcasts) can be comfortably understood on 2x the speed - even if the guests do seem scared and anxious as if they were at gunpoint.

It doesn't take much to have a good day or chose the alive time. All it takes is one small conscious decision, such as choosing to listen to a podcast while doing some sort of mindless activity rather than choosing to listen to music or some low effort or low return activity - even if you do have to get dust on your hands while untangling some cables.

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Waking Up Before 5 am

I've been (attempting) to get up before 5 am every morning for the first two weeks of the new year. I say attempting because there have been a few days where I've slept through the blaring alarm that goes off every morning at 4:30 am - I'm still trying to adjust to the ungodly wake-up time.

There seemed to be some people interested in waking up early when I released my last issue so I thought I'd write about some of the lessons I've learned so far:

• It really does all begin the night before. It's all about getting enough sleep the night before and going to bed at a decent time to set yourself up for the next day. I try to aim at being in bed by 10 pm every day but I really do have to get better at this (he wrote at 10:21 pm).

• Another cliche, but you do need to really get down to the big why of you really want to do something. For me, it’s because I'm often more productive in the morning and can spend the first few hours of the day doing important things before other people are awake. Also, the fact that I've posted that I'm doing it on the internet helps.

• The last thing I've found super helpful is to have a simple routine. The simple part here is key. If you try to commit to too much first off, then you burn out really fast. I've started small by using the first few hours of my day to get reading and writing done and then get a head start on any work that I need to complete that day before going to the gym or on a walk.

I will be writing/releasing a video on my full reflection on this after January so be on the lookout for that if that’s something interesting.

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The Circle of Competence

Illustration by Sahil Bloom x Jack Butcher

I loved this concept in Sahil Bloom's latest newsletter. Your Circle of Competence is basically the set of topics that align with your expertise. Topics that you have a larger competence in than most other people. People who have stuck to their circles of competency tend to experience success in doubling down on their strengths (like Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger), but you can still expand your expertise by putting in hard work. The most important thing that I took away from this article is that your circle of competence is dynamic rather than static: it can increase if you put in the effort to keep improving it, but it can very easily shrink if you don't take care to nurture it.

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The Genius of Dan Brown

This week I've been ripping through Dan Brown's novels. I finished The Da Vinci Code today and tore through it in a matter of 3 days. There's a reason Brown's books have sold over 200 million copies - he's a master of the thriller art form. Literally, every ending of a chapter in both his books I've read so far (Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code) have kept me up reading in bed at night - not something you ideally want when you've committed publicly to waking up before 5 am mind you. He pairs history and art in an exciting way that makes you feel interested in the two subjects and the exhaustive description of the beautiful cities he chooses for his books only serves to accentuate the experience. Even if you've seen the Tom Hanks movies based on his books (I've seen all three prior to reading the novels), it’s still worth committing to reading one of these gems because there are so many plots and explanations that are not in the movies. Angels and Demons is the perfect place to start with the beginning of the Robert Langdon series. A final disclaimer - just remember these books are just fun fiction thrillers.

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Quote of the Week

"It ain't what you don't know that get's you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."

Mark Twain

*Literally could not find one picture of Mark Twain smiling lol

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Thanks again for sticking around with me over the past few months! If you liked this issue consider sharing this with a friend. If this is your first time reading I hope you will consider subscribing. Until next week - stay safe!