Welcome to another weekly roundup, filled with three resource gems from the internet, two ideas from me, and one story lesson to pass on!

3 Gems

1. The Six Thinking Hats (3 mins)
   I’ve been reading Jim Kwik’s book Limitless: Upgrade your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, and Unlock Your Exceptional Life. In his chapter on Thinking, he introduced me to the idea of “six thinking hats” to problem solve in a more organized and productive way, where you identify with six different “roles” or perspectives.

   This method allows you to look at an issue from multiple sides — the pros and the cons, as well as both parts of our brains, the rational and the emotional one. I’m looking forward to using this mental model on the  the next problem I stumble across, and following this mental model.

2. What’s the Fastest Language?
   Brilliant.org is an app that lets you practice problem solving and figuring out logic puzzles. Each exercise features a question and if solved incorrectly, a thorough explanation to learn from.

   This was a fun exercise to learn how information theory impacts how we express ourselves and communicate through language and syllables.”

   The concept of information is so fundamental that it has quietly revolutionized everything from how we decode the genome, to the learning algorithms that underlie our digital lives, to how we understand information processing by the brain.”

3. How To Never Run Out Of Things To Say In Conversation (4 mins)
   Human connection is a crucial element to our wellbeing and survival as a species.

   Therefore, it’s important to understand how to connect well with people. We can only connect well with people by spending time truly engaged with each other, hence why it’s important to learn ways to stay engaged in a conversation.

   Check out these five tips!

2 Ideas

1. There is no such thing as a history of unwritten ideas.
   Write your ideas down. Think on them — ask yourself:

   Why does it resonate?
   What unanswered questions do I have left?
   What can I expand on?

   If you don’t write them down, they won’t make their way into history.
   Instead, they disappear into the void.There is no such thing as a history of unwritten ideas.

2. Pursue the right goals.
   The great opera singer Robert Brault once said: “We are kept from our goal not by obstacles but by a clear path to a lesser goal.”

   In the end, we’ll usually follow the path that is most clear.

   Very few people have true clarity on the most important things in their life:Who they are.
   Where they’re going.
   How they’re getting there.

   As a result, most people’s lives are often a jumble of priorities and possibilities, with nothing really getting the lion’s share of your attention and focus.

   And when everything is a priority, nothing is.

1 Story Lesson

Every Monday and Thursday, my two pups go to doggy daycare as a way to let them socialize and for my partner and I to get some days of deep, focused work without interruptions.

Our doggy daycare is wonderful; it offers a Nest Cam so super attached moms (like me) can check in whenever they’re missing their pups. The other day, I watched one of my pups playing with a ball: tossing it high the air in a parabolic arc, waiting patiently as it began to fell back towards Earth into her smiling mouth.

She was having a glorious time.

But then, one of the caretakers pulled another ball from her pocket and tossed it into the crowd. Another dog leaped from the pack to snatch it in his jaws, claiming it for his own.

My Reya trotted over, sniffing the dog and the new trophy intently, before making a rush to snatch the ball from the other dog’s jaws. The other dog batted her away, while her own ball rolled away, abandoned to the side. It was clear she wanted something else now.

Unfortunately, as she locked into a new target, a smaller pup surreptitiously scooped up Reya’s original ball and, tail high and waving, walked off to another corner to play. When Reya realized the new ball wasn’t worth chasing, I saw her backtrack to her own — only to discover it was now claimed.

And so she stalked to a dog bed and plopped down, head in between her paws.

Even through the grainy Nest cam, I saw clearly it was a slump of defeat.