Sep 29, 2021Member-onlyWe wrote a book!‘The Great Mental Models: Systems and Mathematics’ is now out. — On January 1st, 2019, I woke up in my room in London, fed the cat, made coffee, then sat down to begin my first day working at FS. The first thing I did was to make a new Google Doc entitled ‘TGMM3: Systems and Mathematics.’ About two and a half…Books5 min readBooks5 min read
May 19, 2021Member-onlyA list of difficult distinctions to makeSlack vs. waste Persistence vs. delusion Costly signals vs. the fundamental attribution error Reasons vs. excuses Honesty vs. rudeness Talent vs. luck Kindness vs. manipulation Efficiency vs. effectiveness Gearing up vs. procrastination Distraction vs. subconscious processing Scrupulosity vs. compulsion Improvement vs. newness Buffer vs. overwhelm Risk appetite vs. recklessness Reinvention…Writing1 min readWriting1 min read
Mar 16, 2021Member-onlyOne Year In The FishbowlA collection of reflections on an unmistakably strange time — At the start of the pandemic, I told myself I wouldn’t write about it. I still believed the mass destabilisation was a mere blip I’d later prefer to forget. Seeing as I try to keep my writing ahistorical-ish when possible, why jump on the bandwagon of picking over what would…Covid 199 min readCovid 199 min read
Published in Writers Guild·Feb 19, 2021Member-onlyNotes on IdeationHow to have (more, creative) ideas — Over the last four years, I’ve amassed a tangled array of thousands of notes on things I find interesting or useful. They’re collected from some combination books, blog posts, songs, tweets, Wikipedia pages, news articles, forum posts, things people say, and ideas that drift into my brain. Having previously shared…Productivity9 min readProductivity9 min read
Published in Curious·Feb 15, 2021Member-only52 Lessons From 100 Books Read in 2020I read a lot of good books in 2020. Like many people, I found myself often struggling to focus last year. Contrary to my usual prioritisation of reading, I ended up probably watching more TV and reading more news each month than I would normally do in a year. …Books11 min readBooks11 min read
Published in Curious·Feb 6, 2021Member-onlyWhy You Can’t Stop Self-SabotagingSelf-sabotage is a confusing, seductive act. — Sometimes self-sabotage is obvious. We go sober for months, then binge drink every night for a week. We save up for a holiday, then blow it all on pointless crap. We meet wonderful, stable people, then push them away with an explosion of unwarranted vitriol. …Self Improvement4 min readSelf Improvement4 min read
Published in Thoughts And Ideas·Jan 28, 2021Member-only38 Ideas For One-Month Self-ExperimentsThings to try out for 30-days at a time — ‘Run experiments, place bets, say oops. Anything less is an act of self-sabotage.’ — Eliezer Yudkowsky, Inadequate Equilibria In my last post, I wrote about why I love short-term experiments as a way to learn new stuff and stress-test existing beliefs. Why you should experiment on yourself every month - Rosie Leizrowice My take is that self-experimentation is one of the most meaningful ways to learn new things about yourself, stress test…www.rosieleizrowice.comSelf Improvement18 min readSelf Improvement18 min read
Published in The Shadow·Jan 28, 2021Member-onlyEverything I Read in October, November, December, and JanuaryBooks about genetics, novel writing, mathematics, parks, and more. — I’m months overdue a book review post because my reviews have been getting too long and therefore intimidating to start writing. So I’ll keep to a few lines on each book, or it will be time to write about another month by the time I finish this one. According to…Books16 min readBooks16 min read
Published in Curious·Jan 23, 2021Member-onlyTry More Stuff: The Benefits of 30-Day Self ExperimentsWe hold too many beliefs about ourselves without evidence — Does it float? Experimental archaeology is a field of study where researchers learn more about history by recreating something people in the past did or used to see how it works. …Self Improvement6 min readSelf Improvement6 min read
Jan 5, 2021Member-onlyThe Oblivion of Obsession: a Love Letter to the BeatlesI wanted to climb inside their music and roll around — The two most intense musical obsessions I’ve experienced so far in my life have been The Beatles and Bright Eyes. It took years of angsty fumbling to write my Sort-of love letter to Bright Eyes, an attempt to convey a slither of the adoration I’ve felt (and still feel) for that band. But The Beatles came first. I’ve loved them for about 14 years now. Despite countless efforts, I’ve never…Music6 min readMusic6 min read
