Newsletter › #16
Effortless | How to Keep Creating | The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
【What I've been up to】
Good morning, Reader.
How was your week?
First, a small favor:
my show is climbing the Spotify charts right now,
so I'd love you to follow my show on Spotify.
There aren't many ratings on Spotify yet,
so if you already listen there,
please leave me a five-star rating.
Thank you so much ☺️
A change to the newsletter
First, a small change.
From this issue on,
the FIRE Life Weekly will go out on Tuesdays instead of Mondays.
The reason is simple.
I want to really rest on weekends —
to spend that time on family, reading and recharging,
rather than forcing myself to keep producing.
Effortless
I've been reading Effortless,
and one story really struck me.
A Major League Baseball season has 162 games;
sometimes teams play almost every day for six weeks.
By the playoffs, many players are physically and mentally exhausted.
Then the Los Angeles Angels hired a manager, Joe Maddon.
He started something called “American Legion Week”:
for that week, no practice — just play the games.
He encouraged players to sleep in
and play almost like amateurs.
It transformed the Angels.
Later, at the Tampa Bay Rays,
he did the same,
and the Rays made the World Series within a year.
Then he brought it to the Chicago Cubs,
who had the most wins in the majors four years running
and won the World Series in 2016.
Over five years, the Cubs won
21 of their 24 American Legion Week games.
Peak performance comes from rhythm
Research shows that reaching peak physical and mental performance
requires a rhythm of effort and rest —
not just for athletes, but for musicians,
chess players and writers alike.
That's why I've decided to change when the newsletter goes out.
With this rhythm,
I hope to truly rest on weekends
and bring a better version of myself to what I create and share.
Changes to the content
The content of the newsletter is changing too. From now on it will include:
- Life experiments and reflections
Observations and thoughts from my own experiments and life. - Featured articles
Highlights from each week's blog post. - Things I like
Cool things I actually use and like (even without a sponsorship).
The book recommendations I used to include
will move to the blog,
so more people can find them through search.
I hope these changes
make the weekly feel more like a weekly,
and give you something worthwhile.
About the welcome gift
The FIRE Life reading list and toolkit
is still in the works.
Once it's finished, you'll get it too —
no need to worry.
Now,
on to the main content of this issue.
【Life notes and reflections】
Last Saturday I went to a meetup for people with multiple careers, hosted by Henry Wen in Kaohsiung.
At the meetup, Henry asked me:
“How do you keep up the motivation to keep producing and creating?”
It's a question I often ask myself.
When I first started my channel, it wasn't romantic at all.
I was a complete beginner at content creation, with no team
and no resources; I had to do everything myself.
Finding my way took a long time, and it was easy to doubt myself.
Later I started a community for podcasters.
At our first meetup, I met a fellow podcaster.
I asked why he'd started his show.
He said because he had a sponsor — NT$3,000 an episode.
I was amazed.
NT$3,000 an episode means over NT$10,000 a month in production money — what a deal.
Then I asked how it was going now.
He said he'd stopped.
I asked why.
He said: because the sponsorship ended.
Honestly, at the time I still envied him,
because my show didn't even have a sponsor.
It reminded me of a story.
Many homes abroad have lawns.
An old man kept his lawn beautifully.
A group of mischievous kids passing by started throwing stones onto it.
The old man came running out in a rage; the kids ran off, thinking it was great fun.
The next day they came back.
The day after, even more came.
The old man came up with a plan.
One day, when the kids came again, he brought out drinks and said to their ringleader:
“Tell everyone: come back tomorrow and throw stones, and I'll give each of you ten dollars.”
The kid was skeptical but passed it on.
The next day the kids came, and the old man really gave each of them ten dollars,
and said: come again tomorrow and I'll give you five dollars each.
Some kids felt the money was shrinking and didn't come.
But some kept coming.
The old man gave each of them five dollars again, then said:
“If you come back tomorrow to throw stones, there'll be no money.”
The next day, not a single kid came to throw stones.
Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation
At first the kids threw stones because it was fun —
intrinsic motivation.
But once it became about money,
when the extrinsic motivation disappeared, the behavior stopped.
My fellow podcaster was the same.
When the sponsorship stopped, the external drive disappeared,
and without enough internal drive, the show stopped too.
Honestly, if it had been me back then,
I might have made the same choice.
Later I came to feel grateful
that I didn't get a sponsor so quickly.
Otherwise my internal drive
might have been replaced by external rewards too early.
Remember why you started
So where does internal drive come from?
My answer now is simple:
find your original purpose.
Why did you start doing this in the first place?
On “why”
In Start with Why, Simon Sinek describes the Golden Circle.
Most people ask:
What should I do?
How should I do it?
But what really matters is:
why am I doing it?
My reason for making the show was never to make money.
It was:
- to spread the ideas of FIRE and help people take back control of their lives;
- to become a better person through sharing, and record my growth;
- to leave a little warm influence on others, and be a light for them.
Did it end up making money? Yes.
But that's a result, not the goal.
Henry also said that, having coached many students,
he's noticed something:
internal motivation usually lasts longer than external motivation.
Making money isn't bad.
But if money is the only reason left for doing something,
when the money doesn't come, it's hard to keep going.
If you're stuck right now,
try writing down why you started.
When you hit a low, take it out and read it again,
and you'll remember why you set out.
【Featured article】
Book notes: The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
Naval Ravikant's core ideas on wealth, choice,
leverage, happiness and wisdom.
From getting rich without luck and building long-term value
to the keys to financial freedom and happiness, with my own reflections
on putting these ideas into practice.
It covers key ideas such as why choices matter more than effort,
the power of leverage, building a good reputation and the value of meditation —
for anyone interested in financial freedom
and personal growth.
This week's episode
#62 | Can't lose weight? Obesity, metabolism and insulin resistance (with Dr. Sisi)
Why struggling with weight is often a metabolism problem, not willpower. Insulin resistance, 'thin outside, fat inside', and the daily changes that help — while it is still reversible.
Read the full show notes in English › (the episode is in Mandarin Chinese)
🍎Apple Podcasts
🎧Spotify
🎦YouTube
【Things I like】(not sponsored — just recommendations)
Here's something cool I've found really useful lately.
TickTime TK3 flip timer — a four-in-one time-management timer and smart alarm
I'd long wished there were a flip timer
so I could count down
without picking up my phone.
This product made it real.
It feels solid in the hand;
the case is plastic,
but it isn't heavy.
It has four timer settings:
5, 10, 30 and 60 minutes.
It even has a Pomodoro mode: 25 minutes on, 5 minutes off.
But I don't find its Pomodoro mode useful —
it runs four rounds at a time and can't be paused.
How do I use it?
- Before I really get into work, I set a 5-minute countdown to stand up, walk around, drink some water and zone out.
- Rather than Pomodoro's 25 on and 5 off, I prefer 30 minutes of work and 10 minutes of rest.
Overall I'm very happy with it, but the base is terrible: just a light and wireless charging, nothing useful.
Note: this link may not be the cheapest seller. I bought mine on Taobao, but found Shopee in Taiwan wasn't any more expensive.
P.S. I didn't mean to write much, and ended up writing over two thousand words again.
Group-buy deals
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🎁 Enter 【FIRE95】 at checkout for 5% off
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——
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🈹 Enter the code 【FIRE150】 for NT$150 off right away!
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——
🎓 Don't Want to Go to Work Lab (an online course, in Mandarin)
👉 Course page: eleanorfilmacademy.tw/VlRMg
⚠️ Enter the code 【FIRETW】 at checkout for a special price of NT$4,200.
My sign-up link: eleanorfilmacademy.tw/NfK0d
That's it for this issue of the FIRE Life Weekly.
If you have any questions about the show or the newsletter,
just write to me at doug@firetw.com.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Have a lovely day,
and see you next time.
Doug