Welcome to another edition of my weekly round up! Changing up the format a bit while I get back into the swing of things and tweak it until I like it.

I’m thinking I’m going to make it into a 3-2-1 Newsletter for now:

• 3 resources curated from the internet
• 2 ideas from me
• 1 story lesson

Continuing to remind myself that this is me thinking out loud as I go — and the format (and language) is still in progress. Now, onwards!

3 Gems from the Week

1. Why Do Cameras Do This? | Rolling Shutter Explained by Smarter Every Day (7 mins)
   A fascinating explanation that merges lessons in both technology and physics. Check this out if you’re curious to understand why an iPhone will capture a rapidly moving object very strange in the processed photo. (Tested and replicated by yours truly, can confirm!)I watched this years ago and can still remember the logic and reasoning why behind Destin’s explanation. This is a great example of a person explaining a complex concept through story telling and making it thoughtful / engaging.
2. How to Make Yourself Work When You Don’t Want To by Heidi Grant (6 mins)
   We all have those days when we need to do the work and just don’t feel like showing up.Heidi Grant, one of Thinkers50’s most influential management thinkers globally, emphasizes that beyond learning actionable techniques to overcome procrastination, it’s important to understand there are different underlying sources to this feeling.Figuring out which tactic to use depends largely on the reason why you are procrastinating. Read this article to understand the different reasons why and strategies to overcome them.
3. Billie Eilish: Same Interview, the Fifth Year by Vanity Fair (22 mins)
   I love, love, loved this video and series. Not only because I love Billie Eilish in general — as an artist and a person, but just the idea of doing the same interview year over year and seeing how a person changes and matures.I love that she calls out her former self on earlier answers, being like “wow, that girl right there was having an identity crisis” or “wow, clearly lying.” While we don’t get to see her progress throughout the years, you see her transformed with each interview. The honesty and growth she wears shows how she as evolved in her own hero’s journey.This video just makes me want to be her friend so we can go do cool shit together, being goofy and ourselves and embracing who we are.

 2 Ideas from me

1. The Importance of Focus.
   We all have the same 24 hours in a day.This is the same unit of measurement across every human’s life.
   We cannot increase it. We cannot improve it in any way to sustain a competitive advantage.
   We are ordinary people, we are mortals.The best ting we can do is to shift our obsession with time to an obsession with focus. Only by improving focus can we stand out from the crowd.

   Although we cannot escape the lives of ordinary people, at least we can make ourselves a little better through better focus.

2. Building Frustration Tolerance.
   There’s a lot of advice floating out there about the different skill sets we should build to become better at achieving our goals.Things like: Learned optimism, growth mindset, good communication, meaningful purpose, forming habits, etc.I challenge these assumptions and believe one of the important skillsets to prioritize is building our frustration tolerance.

   Our ability to withstand frustration has a large impact on achievement. In fact, a low ability to manage this leads to negative feelings like rage, depression, helplessness, burn out, etc.

   And most fatally, the frustration can become too much to bear where we simply give up.

1 Story Lesson: the Voyager and Courage

Voyager 1 & 2 are Earth’s farthest spacecraft. They are a a physical manifestation of human curiosity: Both have spent the past 41+ years traversing the solar system with flybys of our outer planets and moons, exploring space at the farthest reaches of our solar system.

It is the farthest man made object to explore our galaxy.

Whenever I am afraid of doing something, I think of this space probe, this voyager in microgravity.

I imagine it hurtling outwards, shrouded in blackness and enveloped in the coldness of space. It must feel incredibly lonely, being the farthest man made spacecraft.

And it must be so brave, knowing it will never return home.

Voyager will never be able to make its way back to us. This was always a one-way trip.

When they lifted off in 1977, there was no way of knowing what they would encounter, what data they might bring back.

When I decided to leave my corporate job, I was never more scared in my life. I had no idea what lay ahead.

Whenever I feel that way, I think about how Voyager is still out there somewhere beyond our solar system, going further than anyone ever thought it could.

So on days when your fear consumes you, don’t stop.

You can do this.