The Ideas That Made Me
Lots of you are listening to my collection of book summaries. You can read or listen to these for free on Blinkist.
Paul Vahur wrote me and said he thought the collection was missing an important book, David Allen’s Getting Things Done. I couldn’t agree more. Getting Things Done is an essential book and if you haven’t read it you should.
This got me thinking, “What are the essential ideas of my life?” What ideas have become little background applications that chug along in my brain year after year?
Below is what I came up with. This is not a list of the most important ideas or the best ideas, these are the ideas that resonated with me the most deeply and changed how I think and live. With every video I’ve ever made, I tried to do the same thing in some small way. And in a different way, this remains what I aspire to do.
These are mostly listed in the order I encountered them. The links below lead to Amazon, and most of these can be found as summaries in my Blinkist collection.
Fun Fact #1: I was 34 when I started to get into nonfiction books and ideas. Before then, I was mostly into movies, music, fiction and blogs. A few years after getting into nonfiction Everything is a Remix was brewing and I don’t think that’s a coincidence.
Getting Things Done, David Allen
I discovered this book in 2006
I think Getting Things Done is the first powerful work system I ever came across. I don’t think I had any formal methods at all before this. In particular, Allen’s framing of capture was a big deal for me. I actually need to re-read this book because I’m sure it’s full of stuff that I do everyday and have forgotten I got them from Allen. (I likely found this through Merlin Mann, who was an outspoken acolyte at the time.)
Flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Discovered in 2006
Flow gave a name to something I blissfully experienced but never knew what it was or had any idea how to recreate the magic. “Flow” is a psychological state of heightened experience where you are performing at the outer boundaries of your abilities, where the activity is not too easy and not too hard. The entire book isn’t required to get the idea. The summary, which is in my Blinkist collection, will be plenty for most of you.
Fun Fact #2: If you can pronounce “Csikszentmihalyi” you are officially a card-carrying member of the intelligentsia.
The Waste Book or Commonplace Book, Various
Discovered in 2010
The “waste book” (Newton’s term) or “commonplace book” (Ben Franklin’s term) is simply your notes. It’s simply snippets of things you’ve encountered or thought: ideas, bits of writing, memorable phrases—anything that created a little spark in your mind and potentially can be used later. Tiago Forte popularized this idea most recently by calling it a “second brain.” This is actually something I was practicing for a few years before I had any idea it was a thing people did. I explain the wastebook process I used back then here. This is still a great way to work; you can do awesome shit with just that. (I think I might have discovered this idea through Steven Johnson’s Where Good Ideas Come From but I’m not totally sure. That book was a big influence on Everything is a Remix.)
Mindfulness, Various
Discovered in 2010
This is something I found in a variety of ways and through no particular practitioner. Mindfulness is basically just being aware of the present moment and your emotional state. Meditation is a key component. It’s simple and endlessly difficult. I am actually bad at practicing mindfulness. I mostly don’t do it. But I always return to it. And being bad at mindfulness is far, far, far better than not knowing mindfulness exists.
Fun Fact #3: I haven’t meditated in… years! I’m gonna break that streak this week.
Nonviolent Communication, Marshall B. Rosenberg
Discovered in 2012
Nonviolent communication is a type of communication focused on expressing feelings and communicating needs. In our personal interactions, we all have a tendency to make generalized, exaggerated declarations and then defend those statements. For instance, “You’re being inconsiderate because you never put your dishes in the dishwasher.” If this is instead expressed as something like, “I feel hurt when you don’t put your dishes in the dishwasher because I have a need to have my time respected. When you don’t put the dishes away, I have to do it for you.” It might sound kinda goofy but this shit works. This is trickier to grasp than mindfulness because it’s surprisingly hard to identify emotions and needs. And like mindfulness, it’s endlessly challenging to do and keep doing. An unusual quality of this book is that I remember finding the writing kinda hippy-dippy and corny. Whatever. Deal with it, it’s worth it.
Thinking in Systems, Donella H. Meadows
Discovered in 2012
This is a titanic book for me. It’s the most accessible introduction to systems thinking and systemic thought. It’s what really gave some detail and features to the vague, amorphous concept of the system.Thinking in Systems is what spawned my series This is Not a Conspiracy Theory. If there’s a single idea that still needs storytelling development, though, it’s systems. If you’re a storyteller and want a challenge, this is a worthy one. Thinking in Systems is great but I think somebody out there can do better and bring these ideas to more people.
Hunt Gather Parent, Michaeleen Doucleff
Discovered in 2020
I’ve not read a lot of parenting books and I make no claims to be well-read, but this one resonated with both me and Nora deeply. It basically synthesizes traditional knowledge about parenting, mostly through Mayan cultures. To me, the modern Western style, typified by “helicopter parenting,” seemed excessively managerial. I think children need as much freedom and autonomy as is age-appropriate. A lot of parenting I saw seemed to both underestimate what children can do (no chores or responsibilities) and overestimate what children can do (exhaustive negotiations about things they aren’t yet mature enough to make decisions about). This book helped to clarify and systematize my values and to validate the best parts of my own upbringing.
Fun Fact #4: One thing I’m certain of about parenting is there’s a million ways to do it. Anything can work, including helicopter parenting.
Personal Knowledge Management (PKM), Various
Discovered in 2019
This is related to the “waste book” concept. Personal Knowledge Management is essentially a systemization of this concept into a varying set of methods and tools. There’s no consensus way to do it. Zettelkasten, or Smart Notes, is the formative system. Tiago Forte uses PARA (Projects, Areas, Resources, and Archive). PKM is a social creation that belongs to nobody in particular. Forte has great storytelling on this topic, but my favorite methodology is Nick Milo’s. Nick doesn’t yet have a single, definitive work, but I would start with his Obsidian for Beginners series.
Fact #5: I’ve said the word “system” 11 times in this email! I mean 12! Systems are my thing. Make that 13.
From Strength to Strength, by Arthur Brooks
Discovered in 2022
This is the most recent book to change my life. It’s about the transition that takes place somewhere in midlife, where we lose some mental speed and agility and have to change direction in order to suit our strengths. My email about resentment and disappointment resonated with a lot of you. I’m still sending out replies to that one. (If you missed that email, search your email for “Everything is a Remix now sustainably fueled by disappointment and resentment.”) If that message connected with you, you should read this book.
Fun fact #6: Strength (along with length) is a word I have never ever gotten used to spelling. I still type it wrong constantly.
Fun fact #7: I asked ChatGPT what words end with “gth” and it helpfully suggested width, growth, fifth, eighth, twelfth, breath, depth and yes, highsmith. Thanks superintelligence!
Everything is a Remix, This is Not a Conspiracy Theory, et al, by Me
Started creating Everything is a Remix in 2009
Started creating This is Not a Conspiracy Theory in 2012
Fuck false modesty: by miles and miles and miles, the biggest influences on my life are my own stuff. Visit this newly renovated page to ogle them all. As I’ve collected them and tidied them up lately, I’ve watched some again and I’m immensely proud of the entire lot. A couple underrated ones are the Rogan Vs. Jones series, which I happened to press play on then got sucked into watching the entire 90 minutes, and The End: In Praise of Credits, which has a new level of meaning cuz, y’know, I’ve ended making videos. Every single one of these is something I wished existed and now it exists. The influence that they’ve had on my life is immeasurable, vastly beyond anything I merely read. Nothing will change you more than the thing you create yourself.
Use this link to save 50% on This is Not a Conspiracy Theory. (Offer expires June 16th!)
Things I’m into at the moment
Blinkist
Audio book summaries are one of my main media sources right now. You can listen to the books in my shared space for free.LIT Video Books
These are mini-doc versions of popular nonfiction. Really great deal right now.Tana
I’m experimenting with merging notes and project management and it’s looking very promising. For PKM nerds, Tana is kinda like a combination of Roam and Notion. It’s still early and in beta so you need to get on the waitlist. (Sorry I have no invites!)Fathom
Using this for Zoom call transcriptions and AI summaries. Works amazingly well, with only the occasional gaffe.