🌱 My favorite “razor” for momentum

Here are your 3 insights freshly squeezed and compressed into 3 minutes. 

🧠 Munger’s Sharpest Razor

A “razor” is a rule of thumb to make better decisions. 

Charlie Munger has the most simple, powerful, AND convenient razor of all time… 

Follow your natural drift toward something that excites you.

Don’t overcomplicate it. 

Your natural inclination is probably right. 

⛵ Staying Upwind

One of my favorite Paul Graham essays is called What You'll Wish You'd Known  (amazing title). 

It was originally intended to be a high school graduation speech (which was vetoed).

But the lesson applies to any age group.

Rather than working backward from a goal, Graham says to “work forward from promising situations.”

This is what most high achievers actually do. 

I think you need both. 

Working forward from promising situations creates momentum.

Working backward from a goal creates direction. Valuable, but NOT as valuable as momentum today. 

I’ve also found that excitement is the quickest way to create momentum.

It’s a continuous cycle: Excitement → Momentum → Direction 

• Excitement sparks momentum

• Momentum sparks opportunity & direction

• (New direction sparks more excitement…)

Start with excitement.

🐦 Jackhammers & Hummingbirds

Elizabeth Gilbert, bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love, found her excitement through curiosity. 

At Oprah’s event years ago, Gilbert advised people to be like hummingbirds, not like jackhammers.

(Note: many comments on this video from 8 years ago say variations of “exactly what I needed” or “this helps so much”) 

What are YOU curious about this week? 

Salud,
Mitchell 

Ps. I’m finishing an essay I’ve been curious and excited about for a long time. (Hit reply if you want to give me feedback in the Google doc).