A leader, a coach, and a mentor walk into a bar 💎 Issue #72

Happy Friday👋

🧐 There are these three words that we often find associated with people that want the best for us. Those words and are not “father”, “mother” and “grandparents”, but “leader”, “coach” and “mentor”. I find it fascinating how we can understand a lot of what is required of them by looking at where they are positioned in space. What? You read it right.

🎰 A leader goes first, sets the example, and is at the front. A coach looks at how are you doing things, offers techniques for improvement, all from the sidelines. A mentor was once where you are, sends you on your journey, and stays behind where you know you can always return to.

🦸‍♂️ Captain Obvious would say “different places, different perspectives” and he would be right. Every perspective offers a better view of a very specific set of properties and issues you can address, and of course, a very specific set of blind spots. To be effective at one of these roles it helps to be looking at your people and their context from the right place.

♟ We can even use this “tactical” approach to the role definition to better understand what’s most suited for us. One thing is to look at several definitions and try to come up with our own self-assessment for it. Another is to put it simply: “I have the most impact when I help people in the front lines, from the sidelines or from behind?” and knowing that the only less valuable or less honorable answer is the one that would not be honestly given.

Something to make you think.

And now, the best things I found on the Internet this week.

Tyler Cowen on reading fast, reading well, and reading widely | 4 min read

📚 “The important thing is to be ruthless with the books that are not good. Just stop reading, put them down, usually throw them away, don’t give them away – if you give them away you could be doing harm to people.”

My Side Project Does One Simple Thing & Makes $14K/Year | 8 min read

🧱 “If you have an idea, just do it. Don’t worry about how it looks, how it performs, and if it is what you had in mind. In most cases, the first version will not be anywhere close to what you had in mind, but at least you now have a platform from which you can build.”

Learning is a skill. Here's a tactical approach to learning anything. | 4 min read

📉 “Skin in the game raises the stakes of your learning. It is a behavioral trick to build deeper incentives. "Skin" can be literal (money) or metaphorical (personal public commitment). Want to learn more about a specific company? Buy a few shares of the stock.”

Little Flaws | 3 min read

⏳ “Assuming history is a guide to the future, when in reality, “things that have never happened before happen all the time,” as Scott Sagan says.”

Why You Should Watch Great Movies Twice | 5 min read

📽 “Books, movies, songs — these things don’t change. We, however, do all the time. We barely recognize ourselves year to year, let alone decade to decade. Even if you watched the same movie 365 days in a row, I bet you’d still notice different elements each time (although I’m not sure I’d recommend that experiment). But if ample time has passed, say, five years, then even rewatching a straightforward superhero movie can deliver profound new insight.”

Please help me grow this newsletter! I’d love if you shared it with your more curious friends.

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Alex Cohen@anothercohen

Elon Musk: “List out your plan to fight climate change and I’ll sell all of my Tesla shares to fund it” The plan: https://t.co/FHEfB4NAib

Bruno Maçães @MacaesBruno

World leaders toss a coin at Trevi for good luck fighting the climate emergency https://t.co/zFIDPJnVf7

3:22 PM · Nov 1, 2021

821 Reposts · 6.42K Likes

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Until next week,

Filipe