Thanks for checking out the Weekly Learning Roundup. These bite-sized, weekly posts are designed to give you a quick hit of interesting learnings and articles I came across this week.
This week, I want to highlight the importance of reading. If you’re looking to become successful or become a more well-rounded human being, reading and accumulating knowledge is an essential part of that journey. In the Quartz article below, most successful people like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates are reading at least a book or two a month. As Buffet says, reading and accumulating knowledge is like compound interest, the more that you accumulate the faster it compounds. It makes sense. If you have more tried and tested ideas from books in your mind stimulating creativity and clarity, the more successful you’ll be at connecting the dots in your own life.
I especially like reading books because I find the standard of writing to be higher than blog posts or articles. You’ll also find yourself being immersed into that book for the duration of the reading experience that you’ll start thinking about the ideas even when you’re not reading the book. In the links below, I have a quick recommendation below for a resource called Goodreads on how you can keep track of all the books you want to read and even set a goal for your reading habit.
Enjoy this week’s roundup!
Favourite links from the week:
If you want to be like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, adopt their voracious reading habits (Quartz)
America’s obsession with adult coloring is a cry for help (Quartz)
A new study suggests mindfulness isn’t quite as miraculous as we’ve been led to believe (Quartz)
People Won’t Grow If You Think They Can’t Change (Harvard Business Review)
My 10 Favorite Purchases in 10 Months (Tim Ferriss)
Productivity tip of the week:
Keeping a meditation journal
If you spend some time meditating, I recommend keeping a meditation journal. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a long-form journal but just an opportunity to jot down on a few notes on how your meditation went. I like to put down a score between 1 to 10 to give myself a sense of how my meditation session went. Eventually, I begin to identify commonalities between good meditation sessions (e.g. better focus on breathing) and be honest with myself on whether I’m putting in my best effort during my meditation. I like using Moleskin notebooks – particularly the small pocket size version – for this practice.
Free service I’m loving:
This is probably the best website I’ve found when it comes to organizing your to-read list, keeping track of books you’ve read, and discover books you want to read next. Goodreads is basically a community of book lovers that rate, comment, and organize books of all varieties. They have a pretty decent user interface to keep track of books that you want to read and even allows you to set a “Reading Challenge” for the year. I highly recommend checking it out (it’s free) and look up a few books you’d like to read next!
A podcast that I’m enjoying:
Personally, I think the team at Radiolab make some of the most entertaining and educating audio episodes available on the web. The stories are all so unique and well researched and the hosts, Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, make the topics accessible with their low-key, friendly banter. I’ve learned a lot about the world from goats in the Galapagos to a genome editing technology called CRISPR to the world of K-POP. There is no topic these guys won’t approach with curiosity. It’s a really good podcast to listen to as you’re winding your day down.
A quote that I’m pondering:
“Don’t let a bad day make you feel like you have a bad life.” —Unknown
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As always, thank you to those that liked, re-tweeted, or commented on my Tweets. See you on next week’s round up!
Peter Nakamura 