Weekly Mix #164 - Improving Writing, Second Thoughts, Personal Investments & Descriptions vs. Prescriptions

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Thought you might have missed this week's newsletter, so wanted to send it over below.

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Let me know if you have any thoughts, or what you did/didn't like!

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Cheers,

Graham

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Weekly Mix #164 - Improving Writing, Second Thoughts, Personal Investments & Descriptions vs. Prescriptions

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I hope you had a great weekend! I spent a lot of my weekend working on finishing touches on the motorcycle my brother and I are rebuilding.

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I also managed to get out surfing on a beautiful evening Saturday (see photo below), and played my last round of golf for the year on Sunday.

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In this week's newsletter:

Book Notes: 100 Ways to Improve Your Writing by Gary Provost​

Articles​Descriptions Aren't Prescriptions - Farnam Street​

​How we spend our time - Ryan Kulp​

​Misgivings - Seth Godin​

​Chevrolet's eCrate, an Electric Motor You Can Retrofit to Your Existing Vehicle - Core77​

Tweet: How to allocate personal investments - Jay Vasantharajah​

Photo: Last light post-surf

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Have a wonderful week!

Graham

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Book Notes I Added: 100 Ways to Improve Your Writing by Gary Provost​

This was a quick, high-impact read, with rules for writing of all types. This is also the book that the following passage comes from, which has been tweeted and shared many, many times:

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Articles:

​Descriptions Aren't Prescriptions - Farnam Street: An article I found a useful reminder of the "map is not the territory" mental model, and that reality is merely a description of the current state of things, rather than how they should/need to be. This is useful because it reminds us that we can shape reality, and not just be told how things are. Similar to a growth vs. fixed intelligence mindset.

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​How we spend our time - Ryan Kulp: I don't always like Ryan's point of view, but he often offers contradicting opinions on important topics, which is very useful. This post about how we spend our time (or should, according to him) got me thinking about how I do (and want to) spend mine.

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​Misgivings - Seth Godin: Seth reminds us that second thoughts are a marker of "carefully considering the problem at hand"...and therefore a good thing.

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​Chevrolet's eCrate, an Electric Motor You Can Retrofit to Your Existing Vehicle - Core77: "Crate engines" have long been sold by companies like Chevy, to enthusiasts and car builders who want a brand-new engine, often from a past era. Chevy has announced they will be selling an electric crate engine, which is essentially the same power plant as their Bolt electric vehicle. I would love to do a classic car build with an electric engine (Ford Bronco? Mini Cooper? Land Rover Defender?).

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Tweet of the Week: How to allocate personal investments - Jay Vasantharajah​

This is an interesting flow chart from Jay Vasantharajah on how to allocate your personal investments for maximum gain.

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He's Canadian, and lists Canadian-specific investment vehicles, but the flow chart is useful regardless, and you can swap in the appropriate American or other types easily enough. See the whole thread for details.

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Canadian investors - I made a flowchart on how I allocate personal investments across my tax-advantaged accounts (TFSA/RRSP) in order to maximize gains/minimize taxes.

(Flowchart assumes I have contribution room in my TFSA/RRSP)

Here are some more details 👇 pic.twitter.com/dQNY6AzcA1

— Jay Vasantharajah (@jayvasdigital) October 15, 2020

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Photo of the Week: Last light post-surf

Saturday was one of those days where you just couldn't help appreciate life in Nova Scotia. My brother, his girlfriend, and one of our friends went surfing, where we had the entire beach to ourselves, until two others joined, who we realized were two more of our friends.

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The entire 2.5 hours we were there was beautiful, as the sun set. This was after the surfing, when we were back at our car:

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Thank you for being part of the newsletter every week.

It means so much that you let me be part of your inbox, and I love building a community of like-minded people with you.

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