Heyo, Nik here! And just like that, Memoir May is coming to an end. It's crazy how fast the months fly, but we won't let that stop us. A quick note for this week: I dug around the internet for 3 days to find the 30 smartest, funniest, and most inspiring Elon Musk quotes (10 in each category). More on that later, but the list is already live here.
Alright, what else is in this edition?
Dear Girls by Ali Wong (a collection of letters from the world-famous comedian to her young daughters to help them (and women worldwide) succeed in life)
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson (the most in-depth and accurate biography of the man who invented the iPhone and helped usher in the personal computer age)
As an Asian-American whose parents just wanted her to get a degree and land a stable job, Ali Wong thought she had enough to worry about. But when she defied their expectations and became a stand-up comedian — an extremely competitive, white-male-dominated, stereotype-driven field — her trials really started. After years of practice, endless travel, and bombing in front of strangers, Wong finally made it. Nowadays, she stars in her own TV shows and Netflix specials. In this book, she shares the most important lessons from her journey with her two young daughters, all in typically candid, incredibly funny Wong-fashion. A great read — and not just for women!
"The answers to making it, to me, are a lot more universal than anyone's race or gender, and center on having a tolerance for delayed gratification, a passion for the craft, and a willingness to fail."
— Ali Wong
The Big 3 From the Book
1. Nothing will change your perspective like traveling the world.
2. Don't focus on your race and gender; focus on what you can give to the world.
3. To stay consistently motivated, always remember where you came from.
Last week, we featured Automate Your Busywork, a new productivity book by Aytekin Tank, founder of a bootstrapped SaaS-company with 20 million+ users.
The book offers a great mental model for automating work in order to be more productive. After developing it for decades, Tank called it "the Automation Flywheel," and it has 3 phases:
Divide & Conquer: Identify and break down tiring tasks.
Design & Implement: Visualize and set up a workflow.
Refine & Iterate: Measure and improve as you go.
If you want to look at productivity from a new angle, automate boring and recurring tasks, and master a mental model that'll be useful not just at work but in your entire life, watch this video.
The Deal
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My favorite numbers, however, are the following stats:
95% of members read significantly more than before
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This pricing is usually only available for Black Friday, and the deal comes with a 14-day money-back guarantee. So if you want to build a daily learning habit with an all-around, low-cost solution, this deal is the one to get!
I read this book right when it came out, which was shortly after Steve Jobs early death due to cancer. It is an honest, unbiased, yet still utterly fascinating look into the complicated life of a complicated man — who, ironically, gave the world some of its simplest yet most beautiful and useful products. From the Mac to the iPod to the iPhone, iPad, and even animated movies, Steve Jobs is one to remember — and learn from. In this classic summary, we picked 3 of the most underrated, interesting bits from his biography, which I'm sure will inspire you to read even more. Enjoy!
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