1, #52 - 50 things I've learned in the last year
On 1 year of 1 — Estimated Read Time: 230 seconds.
To celebrate 1 year of 1, I’m breaking the standard format for once: Here’s a recap of the 50* best insights I’ve accumulated over the last 12 months.
When you do a little bit of everything, you never do much of anything.
Unclear business language can be malevolent.
You can avoid blindspots with a network of mental models from varied sources.
Desire is often motivated by questions of identity as much as of utility.
Stories are built on relationships, so empathy is the key.
Difficult choices don’t have an obvious answer, which forces personal prioritization.
Learning doesn’t change behavior.
People generally only take one thing away from any presentation.
Everything is a remix.
Funerals are good reminders that the meaning of achievements is contextual.
AI is frightening because it threatens our identities.
Continuing down your current path means sacrificing other paths.
Is most of what you’re reading important, or just urgent?
We’re addicted to possibility, but boundaries offer peace.
In transition moments, stories are more helpful than rigid identities.
One path to a bigger idea is through smaller constraints.
We prioritize by proxy, which makes curation a generous gift.
Write with purpose—either maximalist storytelling or minimalist copywriting—to cut through the noise.
Distraction is often emotional.
A relatable narrative connects in a way that brevity doesn’t.
The other side of experience often looks like naiveté.
Projection bias leads us to make premature assumptions when we should remain curious.
Life is often a “wicked learning environment,” which is why broad experience is necessary.
Deep truth often doesn’t make sense to us until we have enough experience.
Speed in the wrong direction is worse than standing still.
We need to revisit insights, because we’re quick to forget.
“Strategy is making trade-offs … The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.”
Does information undermine human connection?
How much of what you read is to impress other people?
The arrival fallacy tricks us into perpetual motion, when what we really need is rest.
“Convenience is the most underestimated and least understood force in the world today.”
Why do we feel so compelled to be interesting?
Analogy-making is the basis of all human thought.
The market isn’t as saturated as you think and Future You will wish you’d started today.
Concepts (like “growth mindset”) often become distorted over time.
Our view of who is successful changes if we take time to consider our definition of success.
Negative examples can be instructive (and hilarious, like the Lyttle Lytton contest).
The illusion of explanatory depth means that familiarity with a topic (or object) does not mean true comprehension of how it works.
The ultimate key to great work is curiosity.
Generalized advice isn’t as valuable as we think it is.
We have to learn how to break out of our default (self-centered) mode of thinking.
Technology—or even information, itself—may not be the answer we’re looking for.
“Design answers a question. Art asks a question.”
Our obsession with convenience puts us at risk of missing our own lives.
Going to a different place doesn’t automatically improve you.
Active reading is more likely to stay with you.
The Fogg Behavioral Model reminds us that behavior is determined by more than motivation.
We long for change and also desperately avoid it.
A well-timed question is often the key to a transformative perspective shift.
Repetition is necessary (again).
You don’t need to see the entire road ahead to travel far.
* That’s 50 insights, because I learned the repetition one twice.
Thank you for reading along—and I hope you’ll join me in writing along, too! If you’ve ever considered writing a newsletter but don’t know where to start, please just steal the 1 concept—I’d love to be able to read your favorite insight every week/month/quarter. You should do it!