Author: Neera

A learning technique

Neera

I came across a brilliant method to learn and retain new information. It is from Shane Parrish of the blog Farnam Street. Basically, when you are learning something new, from a course or a book, take out a blank sheet of paper and write down what you already know about the topic/subject – in a mind map form.

After you finish a session (or a chapter), spend a few minutes adding to the map with a different color. Before you start the next session, review the page. When you’re finished with the course or the book, put this “mind map” into a binder that you periodically review.

I am doing a course Building A Second Brain by Tiago Forte and started doing the mind map. It’s incomplete but looks something like this:

It works well because the blank sheet primed my brain for what I was about to learn. When I put down on paper what I already knew, it forced me to search my memory. As you went through the course I added to my current knowledge. I removed things that I thought were incorrect and added new things as I learned them. The method not only improves retention but helped me connect ideas.

One caveat is, to use your own words and not that of the author. Try to connect it to something you already know — a memory or another idea. Also, make note of any unanswered questions you have while learning. And, on the side, write down the main ideas of the book/course using your own words.

Embrace the suck

Neera

When I was learning to draw, I read a phrase somewhere, that was weird but powerful. “Embrace the suck.”

I instantly knew this will be my new mantra.

In order to become good at our craft, we have to, not just accept but ’embrace’ all the weird, annoying, inconvenient emotions that come with the creative process, including fear, self-doubt, vulnerability, and shame.

Moving through fear and other negative feelings requires accepting that they are normal and a natural part of the creative process.

Fear and self-doubt are trying to protect us. But in doing so, they also stall us.

Whenever I am stalled (like I am now) I set myself a challenge and then force myself
to create, no matter how bad.

I tell myself, ‘Let me create some rubbish.’ And then force myself to draw or paint just about anything. Or to write about anything.

That gets me going. And in no time, I am producing decent quality work. Stalling is part of the creative process too.

Embrace it and keep going.

Don’t fake it till you make it

Neera

How many times we have been advised, to “fake it till you make it.”

This cliche advice is often given when we are faced with a situation that requires confidence, such as a job interview or meeting a new client. The idea is to project an air of confidence, even if you don’t feel it inside, in the hope that eventually, you will start to feel more confident.

However, I have found that this approach has negative consequences. While it may work for some people, for me it leads to a feeling of inadequacy. As if I am a fake and will remain a fake because I have cheated others into believing something which I was not.

What if, instead of “faking it”, we acknowledge and address the underlying issues causing the lack of confidence? This can involve reassessing the situation and figuring out what we already know and what we need to know to build that confidence. As our knowledge and skills will grow we will be in a better position to become more confident.

The first thing to ask when you feel emotionally conflicted is, what are my strengths? Can I use any of those in this situation? Acting from your strength makes you work from your true self. Building knowledge, skills, and experience is not hard if you know your starting point and where you need to be.

But what if you miss out on the opportunity by “not faking it”? Well, invariably honesty and desire to learn and grow weigh higher than the fake persona you build up. Nothing makes you more confident when you act from a place of integrity. Sara Blakely’s story confirms that.

Sara Blakely designed a new kind of underwear, called it Spanx and eventually became the youngest female billionaire in America.

When she was growing up in Florida, she didn’t exactly dream of designing ladies’ undergarments. She wanted to be a lawyer. But when she took her LSATs, she failed twice. She ended up selling fax machines door to door.

If anyone has done door-to-door selling, they would know how demoralizing it is. Many times she would get in her car and drive around the block multiple times, just trying to convince herself to walk through the door. And sometimes she’d walk through the door, and then turn around and go back.

During one of her depressed moments, she came up with an idea of a new kind of hosiery item that will basically tighten and then smooth everything around your butt and thighs.

She did the research to find out the market need and lack of an existing patent for any such garment, then spent the $5000 she was saving from selling fax machines, to get a patent for what was basically footless pantyhose in the form of underpants.

Then she used her door-to-door selling experience to find a manufacturer who agreed to build her a prototype. She put that prototype in a Ziploc bag from her kitchen, printed a color copy of the packaging that she created on her friend’s computer, and went to see Diane, the head of the hosiery buyer at Neiman Marcus headquarters.

In the middle of the meeting, Sara could see she was losing her. She knew it was her only shot, so she asked her, would you come to the bathroom with her?

“What?” said the impeccably dressed woman who had the power to buy millions of dollar worth of stuff from hosiery manufacturers.

“Sorry. Please excuse me. I know it’s a little weird, but I want to show you my product before and after.”

The lady agreed and walked down the hall with Sara. Sara was wearing cream pants which were showing the lines of her underwear. Sara replaces her underwear with her Spanx and Diane looked at her, and went, “Wow, I get it. It’s brilliant.” And she said, I’m going to place an order, and I’m going to put it in seven stores and see how it goes.

This is a much shorter version of Sara’s story which she narrated in an interview on How I Built This podcast, but basically, Sara didn’t hide her inexperience, overcame several hurdles using her strengths and whatever knowledge and experience she had, and in the end, her honesty landed her the contract.

Gena Gorlin, a coach of startup founders, came up with an alternate framework to “fake it, till you make it.” She calls it the “remembering what you know,” framework.

“Remembering what you know,” is the opposite of faking. It is about zooming out to examine the wider landscape of knowledge that can and ought to be brought to bear on your situation, rather than getting faked out by unwarranted (or partially warranted, or misdirected) anxiety. – Gena Gorlin

Acting on your fully considered judgment, even in the presence of conflicting emotions, is not “faking.” On the contrary, it is staying real with yourself. It is bringing your full knowledge—including but not limited to what you’re feeling—to bear on what you choose to do. It is acting with integrity.

What is holding your attention?

Neera

“Whatever you will focus your attention on will grow in your life,” a mentor once said to me.

I had almost forgotten such an important lesson.
Because my attention was distributed between different things.

As I am dropping projects one by one, I am getting my time and energy back.

But more importantly, I can focus my attention on things that matter to me the most.

Our attention is our most important resource. Even more than time and energy.

What we’re paying attention to impacts how we experience every second, minute, and hour of our lives.

Attention is the very fuel of the modern economy.

But managing our attention is becoming increasingly difficult.

When we give our attention away freely to everyone who asks for it, every company that demands it, it affects us in all areas of our lives.

One way I am taking back ownership of my attention is by building my knowledge management system.

All my insights, ideas, thoughts, and notes at one place. It is taking time and energy but I once I am done with it, my knowledge management system will enhance my productivity multiple times.

This project has my full attention at the moment.

What has got your attention at the moment?

Make something wonderful

Neera

If you haven’t come across Make Something Wonderful, a new eBook on Steve Jobs’s life, created by Jony Ive and Laurene Powell to celebrate his life, I suggest you do so. It is FREE, and it is brilliant. In creating the book, Jony and Laurene made something wonderful. I loved the format of the book, the way they have compiled excerpts from his speeches, emails, and photos, and the way the booking flow – part media part text.

The hidden treasure of old books

Neera

The two bloggers I admire most in the whole blogging world (Maria Popova and Austin Kleon) do everything against the rules. They read lots of books and then quote them in their blog posts. Whenever I need soup for my soul, I go to their blogs and read until my heart and soul id full.

I often wonder why don’t I reach for old books when I want to read something. I own quite a few of them, and I keep adding to my collection but when the time comes to choose something to read, I reach for a new title.

Why?

Perhaps, somewhere in the back of my mind, I have this belief that a new-age writer would build on the previous knowledge and would have more profound insights. Whereas quite the opposite is true. We, the new-age writers, are reinventing the wheel. We are trying to discover the same truths which our predecessors had already discovered centuries ago. With lesser distractions (no TV, internet, smartphones, and social media) they had time to go deep.

So today, I read an old book during my exploration time (I wrote about it in last week’s letter). I came across this gem from a Goodreads list.

A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy was written by Miyamoto Musashi, shortly before his death in 1645. Miyamoto Musashi was an undefeated Japanese swordsman. Toward the end of his life, he retreated to a cave to live as a hermit, there he wrote five scrolls describing the “true principles” for victory in the martial arts and on the battlefield.

What could I have learned from a seventeenth-century swordsman?

Apparently a lot.

Musashi was thirteen years old when he won his first dual and by the age of twenty-eight, he traveled from province to province dueling with the warriors from various schools. He had sixty encounters and never failed to win.

But when he reached thirty and looked back at his past, he realized his victories were not because of having mastered strategy. He reckons, “Perhaps it was natural ability, or the order of heaven, or that other school’s strategy was inferior.”

So he went on the quest to find the “true principles” and came to realize them when he was fifty.

He writes:

“There are various Ways. There is the Way of salvation by the law of Buddha, the Way of Confucius governing the Way of learning, the Way of healing as a doctor, as a poet teaching the Way of Waka, tea, archery, and many arts and skills. Each man practices as he feels inclined. .. [A] warrior’s is the twofold way, the Way of pen and sword, and he should have a taste for both Ways. Even if a man has no natural ability he can be a warrior by sticking assiduously to both divisions of the Way.”

In the book, Musashi explains the Way of Strategy. The Way of Strategy is different from the way of the warrior.

“Generally speaking,” he writes, “The Way of the warrior is resolute acceptance of death. Not only warriors but priests, women, peasants and lowlier folk have been known to die readily in the cause of duty or out of shame, this is a different thing.”

Whereas the Way of Strategy is to overcome men. It is to gain victory by crossing swords with individuals or enjoining battle with large numbers. Its aim is to win on the power of strategy. Strategy matters a lot. Immature strategy can cause defeat and even death.

Here are a few quotes from the book:

“…there is nothing outside of yourself that can ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter. Everything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of yourself.”

“All men are the same except for their belief in their own selves, regardless of what others may think of them.”

“Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world.”

“You must understand that there is more than one path to the top of the mountain”

“Whatever the Way, the master of strategy does not appear fast….Of course, slowness is bad. Really skillful people never get out of time, and are always deliberate, and never appear busy.”

“There is no one way to salvation, whatever the manner in which a man may proceed. All forms and variations are governed by the eternal intelligence of the Universe that enables a man to approach perfection. It may be in the arts of music and painting or it may be in commerce, law, or medicine. It may be in the study of war or the study of peace. Each is as important as any other. Spiritual enlightenment through religious meditation such as Zen or in any other way is as viable and functional as any “Way.”… A person should study as they see fit.”

Who could say, these insights are three hundred years old? And who could say they are relevant to swordsmen only?

The two hours I spent with Miyamoto Musashi this morning were an absolute delight. It was like sitting with him in a cave and listening to his

Contemporaneous portrait of Miyamoto Musashi. Source: Wikipedia

Miyamoto Musashi had a significant impact on Japanese culture. He is considered a Kensei, a sword-saint of Japan, a unique double-bladed swordsman, writer, strategist, and philosopher.

Later I found three-part video series which tells more about his life and explains his philosophy in much simpler terms.

A Life of Ultimate Focus

The Way of the Ronin (Dokkodo)

The Path of the Loner

I would never have found such a treasure without dwelling in old books and without a dedicated exploratory time.

Want to read lots of books but don’t have time? Watch this 7 minutes video. It will change how you read books, forever. It has changed mine.

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/AKmADdMZlIw?rel=0&autoplay=0&showinfo=0&enablejsapi=0