#72 The Luck Razor, Timezone Calendering, and Negative News

Plus my favourite podcast guest, problem solving fiction reads and Spelling Bee

Happy May, and welcome to the 72nd issue of ‘How Curious!’✌️

March was quite the adventure! We covered the length of Vietnam, exploring Ho Chi Minh, Dalat, Hội An, and Hanoi. Our highlights included a three-day motorbike tour of the Ha Giang loop and a relaxing cruise in the iconic Hạ Long Bay.

We've landed in the Philippines and are settling into one of the islands, Siargao, despite a minor mishap with lost luggage. I’m looking forward to being in one place for several weeks, island life, and surfing. 🏄‍♂️

Views on the Ha Giang loop, Northern Vietnam 🏍️

💡 Quotes

The most important habit is choosing the right habit to work on. - James Clear

One should always be curious. Not a passive curiosity dependent upon information received, but an aggressive curiosity that compels one to seek things out and ascertain them for oneself. – Issey Miyake

The foolish person winds up doing at the end what the smart person does at the beginning. - Kevin Kelly

📚 Books

Several long bus journeys (12+ hours) last month provided ample time for reading. My two most gripping reads sit in a unique genre - teaching business concepts, problem-solving and critical thinking through a compelling storyline.

Turquoise Eyes: A Novel about Problem Solving & Critical Thinking
Turquoise Eyes takes you through the compelling story of Teresa García Ramírez de Arroyo, a director general in the Mexican government, who receives distressing news about a mistake in loan default calculations and reserve ratios after a bank introduces a new retail banking strategy. Loosely using logic and financial analyses in a typical McKinsey engagement, this book combines the narrative of a novel with practical problem-solving and critical thinking skills. I couldn’t put this book down.

Mavis: The Productivity Paradox
From the same author as ‘Turquoise Eyes’, this book is set in a dystopian world recovering from war. Mavis is assigned to a chemical plant to solve a productivity problem before the looming deadline for war reparations. She must navigate a treacherous landscape of industry, politics, and relationships. This dystopian novel combines science, critical thinking, heartbreak, and sisterhood to create a gripping story. I was hooked on this one too!

💫 Bonus Links

• My digital bookshelf ranks my previous reads. LINK

• My reading list tracks books I’m likely to read next. LINK

🎙️Podcasts

The Tim Ferriss Show #668: Derek Sivers
Derek Sivers is the guest I most enjoy listening to. I love all episodes he’s in, and this latest episode with Tim Ferriss didn’t disappoint.

The episode covers: Finding Paths Less Traveled, Creating Tech Independence (and Risks of the Cloud), Mentorship, Taking Giant Leaps, and Picking the Right “Game of Life” and much more!

Acquired Sessions: David Senra (Founders Podcast)
David Senra hosts the Founders Podcast, where he distils the biographies of entrepreneurs and unpacks the lessons from their lives. It’s rapidly becoming one of my favourite shows.

In this interview on the Acquired podcast, he chats about his conversations with Charlie Munger, the importance of reading, being comfortable with problems, and more.

🏆Best of the Web

📆 How to display multiple time zones in Google Calendar
Most areas of my life are highly optimised, but my calendar can be frustrating. I guard my calendar and rarely schedule calls, but aligning calendars across multiple client email addresses and time zones is complex. Hopefully, this excellent feature to display multiple timezones within Google Calendar simplifies this greatly.

Please let me know if you have any tips or tools for managing multiple calendars and time zones!

🐝Spelling Bee - How many words can you make with 7 letters?
This spelling game from the New York Times is highly addictive. My parents introduced me to it a few months ago. Marleen and I now play every day. We play the mobile app version, but it’s also available online. The subscription costs a few euros per month.

🍀The Luck Razor: When choosing between two paths, choose the path with a larger luck surface area.
Luck plays a massive role in life. Luck may seem random, but there are concrete steps we can take to increase the odds of encountering good luck. Examples include:

• Share your thoughts publicly online. Newsletters are a good option! 😉

• Stay open-minded to new possibilities and perspectives.

• Put yourself in situations where you are likely to meet new people.

🗞️Negative News

This powerful image depicts the media’s increasing negativity since 2000. More and more headlines express fear, anger, sadness, and disgust. Neutral headlines are getting rarer. LINK

I stopped watching the news and tracking current events 8 years ago, much to the amusement of my housemates then! Although others find it a little unorthodox, it works wonders for me.

My ‘Information light diet’ post captures my motivations for removing news from my life, and my approach to ensure critical topics reach my radar. LINK

⚠️Caveat: I now read legal technology related news. However, I think the media covering this topic tends to portray progress more positively than the reality I see in my day-to-day!

If you work in a law firm, or have a friend that does, please feel free to share my Legal Tech Trends fortnightly newsletter with them. They’ll be joining subscribers from the majority of top firms in the UK, US, and around the world.

- Peter Duffy