031 • The best of 2023
It's the last Fundamentalised issue of the year.
This makes it the perfect time to round up a few lessons from the last year and set things in order concerning 2024. I'm also going to share with you some of my favourite content from last year, from myself and others.
Enjoy!
Lessons
I'm going to start with a few lessons. I've made much progress this year but I don't think this is because I've made leaps and bounds in terms of improvement in ability. Instead, I've learned from mistakes, optimised and prioritised a lot better.
Improvement is about how you can simplify what you're doing at the moment so you can focus more attention on the things that truly matter.
And this is the first lesson that I want to bring up.
There's the idea of the law of diminishing returns - after a certain point, adding more of something will not give you as much benefit as before. So we can only push so hard at improvement, as beyond a point you stop getting better. Then we have to stop and assess.
Often, the next step to take is to simplify our lives. Subtracting complexity has been the number one needle-moving strategy from the last year. It makes it easier to focus on what matters (more on this later), less stressful, and you can be more true to yourself.
This last point brings me to the next lesson...
And this is that a sense of purpose is essential for motivation. If you don't feel the importance of what you're working on, you'll feel very little impetus to continue. Related to the above law of diminishing returns, you're not going to get very far if you continue to forge forward using willpower alone.
Figure out whether you can create a greater sense of purpose in what you're doing, or alter your mission so that your day-to-day aligns better with what you want to do.
Once you feel the purpose behind your work it's much less taxing to put effort towards your desired outcome.
The third lesson is to safeguard your attention and focus closely.
This is especially important for those who spend their time doing creative things. It would be best if you had long, unbroken periods to reach a state in which you can become truly immersed in your work and create what you are capable of.
Everything can impact your attention.
The apps on your phone and your computer, the people you spend time with, emails, social media, and advertising. The list goes on. And on. It links back to the first lesson that subtraction is often more effective for progress than addition.
Remove things from your life so that you become less distracted by them.
This is when you can start to build your focus back up again.
Content
Before this year I'd not published a single piece of writing on the internet. However, I currently stand at over 100 Medium articles, 30 newsletter issues and 1.6k tweets (I'm not one to comment for the sake of engagement either, so many of these are valuable posts).
I'm going to share with you some of the pieces of my own that I think are the most valuable to people, as well as some of the work of others. I hope you find something relevant to you in this list...
My Work
Fusing Building a Second Brain and Zettelkasten in Obsidian - An exclusive insight into how I manage knowledge and productivity…
Obsidian — An Up-to-Date Guide (November 2023) - Your one-stop location for everything new and exciting in the world of Obsidian PKM…
And…
My only two podcast appearances - I’d love to do more in 2024. In the video episode above (first podcast ever) I only got going after the first hour or so. Now I’m not saying there’s no value in the first part, but watch the second half first.
Others’ Work
Books
Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi - the book behind the cliché ideas ‘the journey is the destination’ and ‘happiness is what’s inside not outside’. This book taught me more about the peak state of human existence, known as Flow.
Ego is The Enemy by Ryan Holiday - if you feel as though it’s your mind holding you back, your ego might be the reason. This book will explain why and what you can do to change.
Articles/Essays
Write Simply by Paul Graham - a great piece about how to plant your ideas in your readers’ minds with minimal friction.
The Art and Science of Spending Money by Morgan Housel - I read this piece and straight away bought Morgan’s book The Psychology of Money. This is a great introduction to Morgan’s writing, relevant to everyone.
Podcasts
I spent most of the year listening to Huberman Lab only. Towards the end of the year, I also started to enjoy Modern Wisdom. The conversation between both hosts on the latter channel was brilliant.
Newsletters
5-Bullet Friday by Tim Ferriss - no surprises here, Tim has a lot of wisdom so it’s worth checking out his newsletter to see what he’s consuming, thinking about or doing at any time.
10 Bullets by Zach Pogrob - I only discovered this publication recently but it’s a fantastic newsletter full of inspirational quotes and ideas from across the internet and history.
Apps
Obsidian - no explanation needed. Want more from my Obsidian setup? Check out PARAZETTEL V2 which is coming on Friday 12th January.
Arc - I used to fuss over what browser I was using, flicking from Vivaldi to Brave and more. I've found Arc now and am very happy with it. It’s nice that the team are so engaged with users and that they share behind-the-scenes stories and updates for all to see.
Looking to 2024…
At the end of 2022, I had many goals that I set out to achieve over the next 365 days. I did not hit most of them, but still had a vastly successful year. That's why I'm changing tack slightly for 2024.
I'm going to be assessing where I tripped up a little in 2023, putting plans of action in place to improve upon each shortcoming. This allows me to prioritise continued progress rather than progress up to a point and then stagnation, which I feel is the effect goals can have.
There's a bit too much unnecessary emotion attached to traditional goal setting.
The spike of dopamine you get when you hit the goal. The crash and succeeding aimlessness you feel after you've hit the goal and you realise you've got to keep going. Progress is not linear. Celebrate every step towards improvement rather than the reaching of some arbitrary point.
There's much more to come from me next year, starting with PARAZETTEL V2's launch on the 12th of January. Thank you for being around to witness everything so far - it's only the beginning.
I wish you all the very best in 2024.