Weekly Round Up: July 30th, 2021

This Week on Better Questions

Fast-Tracking Progress With a Quarterly Review, Part 4: The Review

We finish off our series on the Quarterly Review this week, with a deep-dive on how to perform your own.

The review process is extremely personal for me - it’s formed the cornerstone of most of my personal development over the last 4 or 5 years. I’m really happy this material is out there.

Deep Dive

There was no deep dive this week! Honestly, I'm reconsidering these weekly videos.

If you've watched them, let me know what you think: are these valuable? More so, or less, than the emails or the Weekly Roundup?

I really want your opinion. Reply to this email and let me know your thoughts.

Something On My Radar:

The Hungry Brain, by Stephan J. Guyenet

I picked up this book after I had a particularly poor experience cutting calories recently. This book is a fantastic primer on the current science of fat gain and loss. Guyenet spends a lot of time exploring why, exactly, we have such a problem with obesity today, and he lands on a nuanced and realistic explanation that involves the interplay of lifestyle shifts, extreme food palatability, and economics. Very readable, and I really appreciated the time he spent exploring the foundational studies of the field.

The very first thing I highlighted in this book is a statistic that still jumps out at me:

“In 1960, one out of seven US adults had obesity. By 2010, that number had increased to one out of three. The prevalence of extreme obesity increased even more remarkably over that time period, from one out of 111 to one out of 17. Ominously, the prevalence of obesity in children also increased nearly fivefold. Most of these changes occurred after 1978 and happened with dizzying speed.”

Five Interesting Links For The Weekend:

Blackadder - “How Did World War 1 Begin?”

World War One is my favorite war, and this video made me laugh.

24 Hours

A short, touching read on what having kids teaches you about the brevity of life. The last line has stuck in my head for days.

How to Build a Small Town in Texas

This article is about exactly what it says it’s about. I didn’t know I would think this is fascinating, but it is. There are a ton of gems in here, but this was my favorite:

“ Remember the golden rule of place making: when building anything, build on the least attractive part and improve it while keeping the views of the more beautiful parts intact.”

The invisible addiction: is it time to give up caffeine?

While I’m not giving up caffeine anytime soon, this article does an excellent job of drawing attention to a rather strange fact we all tend to ignore: caffeine is a psychoactive substance that has a profound effect on how we see the world, and we’re all on it, all the time.

Terminator Mode

If you have trouble finishing creative projects, this one is for you (and me, of course).

"The Resistance is strongest the closest you get to the finish line. When you start writing your book, it’s all fun and games. The month before the launch is when you start sweating bullets. So too with any other project. When you are about to cross the threshold, to irrevocably commit yourself to a major change and enter an unknown world is when you start coming up with all sorts of reasons why it’s actually a bad idea.

When the finish line is in sight, The Resistance knows we’re about to beat it. It hits the panic button. It marshals one last assault and slams us with everything it’s got.

Terminator Mode prevents this.”

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Got a recommendation? Something you think I'd like, or want to share with the community?

Send it to dan@nolessthan.com. You might get featured in a future email!