We are all Flat Earthers, Your First 1000, Don't Sell Saddles.
Knowledge UP↑ 0️⃣0️⃣🎱
I nearly swerved off the road when I heard these 7 words on a podcast 4 years ago.
“You can’t lose weight by exercise alone.”
Not exactly a revelation—but to me it was.
“Nah, she doesn’t have a clue,” I thought.
I had grown up with the belief that exercising is the best way to lose weight. I carried this belief into my 30s. I ate and drank whatever I wanted, exercised moderately and remained lean. To me, the best way to stay trim was exercise.
I was so stuck in my belief that I dismissed this podcast guest as unintelligent and misinformed.
Turns out she was right.
I was wrong—you probably are, too.
Tim Urban recently appeared on Infinite Loops with Jim O’Shaughnessy and discussed something that I’ve been mulling over for a while:
Most of your beliefs are probably wrong, be open to changing them. Seek the truth instead of seeking to be right all the time.
We all have internal, unconscious biases and ideas ingrained in us from an early age.
Problem is: what's "true" for you isn't always true for others. There's a reason n=1 experiments are anecdotal and not scientific.
Our life experiences either validate these ideas and biases or destroy them. And it takes so very little for our beliefs to be validated—while it takes monumental efforts for them to be changed1.
One of society's biggest struggles is the overwhelming tendency to default to rationalization when our biases are challenged.
In the Infinite Loops episode, Tim & Jim explain how Flat Earthers in the Netflix documentary 'Behind The Curve' rationalize their way out of every reasonable shred of proof that the earth is round.
The earth is flat and nothing will convince them otherwise.
If you are determined to believe something, there is absolutely no one who is going to stop you from believing it.
Of course the earth is round.
Of course we can—and have—proven it.
Of course Flat Earthers are dealing with biases, detached from reality, and obsessed with conspiracy.
But Tim's point is not about Flat Earthers—it's about us pointing the finger at them while we carry on with our own misbeliefs and faulty biases.
We are all Flat Earthers. Some of us just hide it better.
What it comes down to is: accepting you’re probably wrong is the right thing to do.
TWEET OF THE WEEK
Justin Welsh (@JustinSaaS) is a top notch follow on Twitter + LinkedIn. He’s earned millions of impressions on LinkedIn and is now bringing his tactics to Twitter. This hyper-actionable tweet thread came from his weekly newsletter 👌
GROWTH CURRENCY THIS WEEK🧠💡
📈 MARKETING
Getting Your First 1,000 Email Subscribers with Compound Writing
Want to earn an online income? You need an engaged audience. One of the best ways to do that is to grow your email list. In this step-by-step guide, Stew Fortier of Compound Writing breaks it all down, from your first 10 subs to getting to 1,000.
Learn strategies and get advice to grow…
→ from 0 to 10 subscribers
→ from 10 to 50 subscribers
→ …
→ from 500 to 1,000 subscribers
|| Follow Compound Writing on Twitter
💰 SIDE HUSTLE
Online Income Essentials by Dan Koe [FREE COURSE]
Dan has built a large following by sharing his experience freelancing and showing you how you can make some side income online. This free course covers the basics and sets you up with a foundation of how to get started. Best part is—you can take these principles and apply them to just about any skill, not just building websites.
The course pack includes…
→ 1. How To Make Your First $500 Online
→ 2. Internet Profit Starter Pack
→ 3. Land Your First Client In 30 Days
👀 PRODUCTIVITY
Avoid these 3 behavioral time traps with Khe Hy of Rad Reads
This short article packs a punch—and a lot of info. Most of us fall into one of these “time traps” making us way less productive than we can be. And than we think we actually are.
In the article, Khe covers…
→ Mere Urgency Effect
→ The Planning Fallacy
→ The Present Bias
|| Follow Khe Hy on Twitter
💳 PERSONAL FINANCE
How to Get Out of Debt Fast: 9 Proven Strategies [2021]
Debt. It’s an inevitability most of us will get into debt in our lives. And that’s not a bad thing. It’s when you can’t get out of it—that’s no bueno. Millennial Money Woman has put out a very informative post on 9 Strategies to crawl out from under Debt Mountain. What’s worked for you?
|| Follow Millennial Money Woman on Twitter
🎧 PODCAST
“Be impatient with action. Be patient with results.” — Shaan Puri on My First Million
Shaan Puri is the director of Twitch. Also a former CEO. Oh and he co-hosts a super popular podcast—he’s successful, to say the least. This episode encapsulates the frameworks he’s used to get there. These were my favorite frameworks from the episode
→ Your To-Do List is Killing You
→ Getting Un-Stuck
→ Having an Audience is Like Steroids
→ Work Like a Lion
→ Don’t Sell Saddles
→ Cold Emailing to Close Sales
|| Follow Shaan Puri on Twitter || My First Million Podcast
✏ WRITE
The Best Essays on Learning to Write via Dickie Bush (Ship 30 for 30)
There’s no ‘hack’ to becoming a better writer. It takes time and effort. Learn from the masters in this curated list from Dickie Bush. He’s created a Notion doc for you to copy and use. Here are a few of my favorites:
→ Writing Well by Julian Shapiro
→ How to Use Writing to Sharpen Your Thinking by Tim Ferriss
→ How to simplify your language with Brent Beshore (this is a single tweet!)
|| Follow Dickie Bush on Twitter
That’s it for this week! You made it to the end 👏 🙌
What was the the most useful resource for you? I’d love to know—leave a comment or reply to this email—or tweet me @growthcurrency.
What sucked the most about this newsletter? I’d love it to suck less next time and will pay you handsomely with kindness (and a shoutout!) if you let me know!
Have a killer week. Be good ✌
Adam Grant’s new book Think Again covers this entire topic of being open to changing our ideas. Highly recommended read.
Very clever with the flat earthers. Bias is such a massive blind spot for all of us human beings.
Great email this week!