Farnam Street was recommended by Barbara Oakley via her mailing list which I am subscribed to (I recommend subscribing yourself). Farnam Street seems overly gilded on the home page; almost a classic ‘improve yourself’, ‘self-help’, ’21st-century money-snatch’ modernism. I urge reading between the lines and trying a few of their articles. Firstly, the writing style is splendid. Despite the journalistic brevity, the content of each post is dense and you will find yourself meandering through a labyrinth of self-referencing links which provoke reading in a more non-linear, branching style.
The site is ripe with quotes to help birth internal motivation, and that is just the purpose I will be using it for in the future. Below I list a handful of some articles which stood out to me, in addition to impactful quotes from each of the articles. Read any of these quotes when you are lost for motivation. They will clear the goalless fog and reveal your life purposes to yourself through fresh endorphins. I have not even begun to delve deep enough into what Farnam Street has to offer, therefore I am wholey suspecting to have another journal post expounding one or two of their articles in further detail.
The Surprising Power of the Long Game
“If you do what everyone else is doing, you shouldn’t be surprised to get the same results everyone else is getting.” -FS
“You have to be willing to suffer today in order to not suffer tomorrow. This is why the long game is hard to play.” - FS
A Helpful Guide to Reading Better
“In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn’t read all the time – none, zero.” - Charlie Munger
How to Read a Book: The Ultimate Guide by Mortimer Adler
“Marking a book is literally an experience of your differences or agreements with the author. It is the highest respect you can pay him.” - Edgar Allen Poe
Richard Feynman: The Difference Between Knowing the Name of Something and Knowing Something
The Work Required to Have an Opinion
“Teach thy tongue to say I do not know, and thou shalt progress.” - Moses ben Maimon
The Two Types of Knowledge: The Max Planck/Chauffeur Test
“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.” - Albert Einstein