MWB #13 - How The World Works
...building advantages and leverage.
Hello Friends,
Happy New Month.
Fortunately, there’s no April fool here. Lol.
But I have an important message for you below. Please read carefully and digest with good understanding what I have to share.
Understanding How The World Works Put You At An Advantage
Hello my friend,
One of the most important skills you can have is to understand how the world works. When you do, your task is to act according to how it works not to seek to change it.
It is by understanding how the world works and aligning ourselves with it that we can conquer the world.
We couldn’t fly a plane until we understood gravity. And you won't make much progress until you understand some foundational principles of how the world works.
“What the pupil must learn, if he learns anything at all, is that the world will do most of the work for you, provided you cooperate with it by identifying how it really works and aligning with those realities. If we do not let the world teach us, it teaches us a lesson.”
~ Joseph Tussman
That's it. This is one of the world's best kept secrets that I just shared with you. It's not about the amount of work you do as much as it is about the output that you get.
If you don't understand that, I suggest you read it again and again until you do.
Shane Parish noted, "the best way to identify how the world works is to find the general principles that line up with historically significant sample sizes."
And according to Peter Kaufman, those are principles that apply, “across the geological time scale of human, organic, and inorganic history.”
They are time tested. They can reliably explain the past and reasonably predict the future.
What you are looking for are principles not some quick gimmicks.
Here are two links that can get you started in learning how the world works:
Short Read - Lessons of Biological History
Long Read - Grove of Titans (PDF download)
What Are You Reading?
If it were possible for you to read all that I read, there's a high likelihood that you can 10x your output in a space of 4-6 months.
Unfortunately, you can't. My readings are driven by my curiosity, you need to allow your curiosity to drive your reading as well.
The next decade belongs to those who have learned how to learn and that are constantly learning.
In a parallel universe of 100, you want to be wealthy 90 times out of 100, not just lucky to be wealthy in 1 of it. H/T Naval
This kind of result is only achievable if your actions are guided by principles.
To know principles, is also to know how the world works.
A last thought -
The world only cares about what it can get from you. You better have a lot that you can give to it.
Best of What I Read
I have been fascinated by how much all the great and smart people that I follow talk about how reading the book “Influence: The Psychology Of Persuasion” was an important read for them and how it offers insight into how the world works. So I picked it up to read as well recently. This is despite having postponed reading it for long enough. When I picked up from my shelf, it was dusty. But you know what, the dust couldn’t erode the value in this gem. It’s a fascinating read that you should pick up to read as well.
Talking about influence, it comes under 6 principles - consistency, reciprocation, social proof, authority, liking, and scarcity.
Career Moat. What is it?
A career moat is an individual’s ability to maintain competitive advantages over your competition (say, in the job market) in order to protect your long term prospects, your employability, and your ability to generate sufficient financial returns to support the life you want to live.
Read this introductory article to understand what a career moat is.
That’s all for the week.
Cheers to a beautify second quarter.