Clear Thinking Quotes Part 2

Part 1

Here are more quotes I've saved for the book Clear Thinking by Shane Parrish who runs Farnam Street. I don't know what a LinkedIn Article is, but let's try it out and see how it compares to a post.

1.5 The Inertia Default

• Once our minds are set in a direction, they tend to continue in that direction unless acted upon by some outside force. 30-31
• Inertia keeps us in our jobs we hate and relationships that don’t make us happy, because in both cases we know what to expect and it’s comforting to have our expectations reliably met. 31
• If things were much worse, we would act, but since they’re not terrible, we stay, and hope things get better. 32
• The longer we avoid the hard thing we know we should do, the harder it becomes to do. 33

1.6 Default to Clarity

• You unconsciously adopt the habits of the people you spend time with. 36

Part 2 Building Strength

• If the status quo is sub-optimal or dysfunctional, intertia works against us. 40
• Rituals focus the mind on something other than the moment. 40
• 41: Here are the four key strengths you’ll need:
• Self-Accountability
• Self-Knowledge
• Self-Control
• Self-Confidence

2.1 Self-Accountability

• You might not have someone in your life who holds you accountable, but that doesn’t matter. 43
• …when you screw up, you should be strong enough to look in the mirror and say “This was my fault. I need to do better.” While you may never have asked for it, you’re in charge of your own life. 43-44
• You might not be able to solve the problem, but your next action will make the situation better or worse. 44
• Complaining is not a strategy. 44
• Kind people will tell you things a nice person will not. A kind person will tell you that you have spinach in your teeth. A nice person won’t because it’s uncomfortable.47
• Just because something happened that was outside of your control doesn’t mean it’s not your responsibility to deal with it the best you can. 48
• Our desire to protect ourselves prevents us from moving forward. 48
• Always focus on the next move, the one that gets you closer or further from where you want to go. 49
• Your responsibility is to play the hand as best you can. 49
• Failing to accept how the world really works puts your time and energy toward proving how right you are. 50
• …focusing on the next move, rather than how you got here in the first place, opens you up to a lot of possibilities. When you put outcome over ego, you get better results. 50
• Will this action make the future easier or harder? 51
• “Is this behavior moving you closer to what you want, or further away?”
• Too often we fight against the feedback the world gives us, to protect our beliefs. 52
• Complaining isn’t productive. It only misleads you into thinking the world should function a way that it doesn’t. 52

2.2 Self-Knowledge

• The key to successful investing is to know what you know and stick to it. 57
• When you play games where other people have the aptitude and you don’t, you’re going to lose. You have to figure out where you have an edge and stick to it. 58
• If you don’t know your vulnerabilities, your defaults will exploit them to gain control of your circumstances. 58

2.3 Self-Control

• We can’t eliminate these physiological reactions or the conditions that trigger them. We can only manage and respond to them. 59
• Self-control is about creating space for reason instead of blindly following instincts. 60
• The emotion default tries to remove any distance between you and your emotions, triggering a reaction in the absence of any deliberation. It wants to win the present moment, even if it means sabotaging the future. Self-control empowers you to keep emotion in check, though. 60
• Emotional intensity is far less important in the long run than disciplined consistency. Inspiration and excitement might get you going, but persistence and routine are what keep you going until you reach your goals. 6-61
• The most successful people have the self-control to keep going anyway. It’s not always exciting, but they still show up. 61

2.4 Self-Confidence

• You know what your abilities are and how they add value, whether other people appreciate them or not. 62
• We know how the words we say to other people impact how they feel, but we rarely think of how the words we say to ourselves impact us. 65
• Most of the time, needing to wait for the right moment to do a hard thing is just an excuse: a way to rationalize putting off what needs to be done. 66
• “They’re too focused on proving they’re right instead of being right”. 67
• Admitting you’re wrong isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. 68
• It takes courage to accept feedback that bruises your self-image. 68
• Self-confidence is the strength to focus on what’s right instead of who’s right. 70
• Outcome over ego. 70

2.6 Settings in Standards

• Champions behave like champions before they’re champions. 76
• When we accept substandard work from others, it’s for the same reason: we’re not all in. When you’re committed to excellence, you don’t let anyone on your team half-ass it. 78
• We gravitate toward being soft and complacent. We’d rather coast. That’s fine. Just realize this: if you do what everyone else does, you can expect the same results everyone else gets. If you want different results, you need to raise the bar. 79

2.7 Exemplars + Practice

• Show me your role models and I’ll show you your future. 81
• Put all of your exemplars on your “personal board of directors”. 83
• They’re the sorts of people I wouldn’t want to let down. 83
• I never allow myself to have an opinion on anything unless I know the other side’s argument better than they do. 84
• They only person you’re competing with is the person you were yesterday. Victory is being a little better today. 86
• Instead of reacting, and simply copying those around you, you think, “Here’s what the outliers do”. 86
• Strength of character result from habit. 87