Curiosity Chronicle

A group of kindergarteners outperformed the CEOs, lawyers, and MBAs.

The way they did it has a lesson I've never been able to forget.

While in college over a decade ago, I watched a ​TED Talk​ by a famed designer named ​Peter Skillman​ about an experiment he conducted in which groups of participants were given a challenge...

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This episode brought to you by:
DeleteMe - DeleteMe makes it quick, easy, and safe to remove your personal data online. 
Origin Financial - Your personal AI Financial Advisor. Track your spending, investments, and net worth—all in one place.
Innerbody Labs - A Higher Standard. After reviewing thousands of health products, we built formulas we wished existed.
Lemon - The Al agent that turns your voice instructions into finished tasks.

My entire life changed when I realized that I would never want to trade lives with the people I read books about.

Allow me to explain with a story about the richest man who ever lived.

In the early 1500s, an enterprising German financier named Jakob Fugger rose to prominence on the European continent...

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This episode brought to you by:
DeleteMe - DeleteMe makes it quick, easy, and safe to remove your personal data online. 
Origin Financial - Your personal AI Financial Advisor. Track your spending, investments, and net worth—all in one place.
Innerbody Labs - A Higher Standard. After reviewing thousands of health products, we built formulas we wished existed.
Lemon - The Al agent that turns your voice instructions into finished tasks.

A few weeks ago, I shared a piece on my ​Anti-To-Do List​ and the general merits of using inversion to improve your life.

The idea was straightforward:
Write down what you want to avoid doing.
Avoid doing those things.
I've gotten a lot of value from using inversion like this as a tool to provide clarity on my actions and avoid painful mistakes.

As the late Charlie Munger famously said, "All I want to know is where I'm going to die, so I'll never go there."

But a few readers replied with an interesting question:

Doesn't focusing on what you don't want make you more likely to get it?

This raises an important point that I've never addressed directly...

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This episode brought to you by:
DeleteMe - DeleteMe makes it quick, easy, and safe to remove your personal data online. 
Origin Financial - Your personal AI Financial Advisor. Track your spending, investments, and net worth—all in one place.
Innerbody Labs - A Higher Standard. After reviewing thousands of health products, we built formulas we wished existed.
Lemon - The Al agent that turns your voice instructions into finished tasks.

A few years ago, I came across a beautiful story written by a woman named Pam Kearney in a local newspaper.

I set a calendar reminder to re-read it every single year.

Take 6 minutes and give this a listen. Trust me, it's worth your time...
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This episode brought to you by:
DeleteMe - DeleteMe makes it quick, easy, and safe to remove your personal data online. 
Origin Financial - Your personal AI Financial Advisor. Track your spending, investments, and net worth—all in one place.
Innerbody Labs - A Higher Standard. After reviewing thousands of health products, we built formulas we wished existed.
Lemon - The Al agent that turns your voice instructions into finished tasks.

For the last decade, I've had a recurring nightmare that I can trace back to my days as a Division 1 baseball player at Stanford...

I'm on the mound in a critical situation. All eyes are on me. The entire stadium waits for my pitch.

But as I start my motion, I realize I've completely forgotten how to throw the ball. My body moves like it's stuck in mud. Completely paralyzed.

Inevitably, I wake up in a cold sweat—thankful that it was just a dream.

While specific to my prior endeavors, as it turns out, this type of dream is a rather common one.

In fact, I'd be willing to bet that most of you have experienced some variation of it in the last few months.

All eyes on you in a big moment. And suddenly, you're completely paralyzed. Unable to perform.

It's the byproduct of a very common (and damning!) psychological phenomenon—one that has a tangible impact on the way we show up in every area of life.

It's called The Spotlight Effect...

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This episode brought to you by:
DeleteMe - DeleteMe makes it quick, easy, and safe to remove your personal data online. 
Origin Financial - Your personal AI Financial Advisor. Track your spending, investments, and net worth—all in one place.
Innerbody Labs - A Higher Standard. After reviewing thousands of health products, we built formulas we wished existed.
Lemon - The Al agent that turns your voice instructions into finished tasks.