Weekly Mix #233 - Confidence Levels, Criticism, Multidisciplinary Thinking & Typing Speed

Confidence Levels, Criticism, Multidisciplinary Thinking & Typing Speed

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Happy Monday!

The theme of this week's newsletter seems to have become improvement.

One of the biggest barriers to improvement is getting feedback.

Feedback can come in many forms: criticism from other people; data about performance; more subtle signals from others that we have to detect.

Whatever aspect of our lives we want to improve, getting better feedback is one of the most important things we can do.

As humans, we have a natural bias towards assuming we are not at fault. It makes it difficult to evaluate our own judgments and get an accurate picture of the world.

Better sources of feedback are a key part of the answer to that problem.

The better the feedback, the better chance we have of reaching our improvement goals.

Have a great week.

Graham

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Links

✍️ Blog Post: How I'm Getting Better at Golf - I love posts where other people break down how they approach non-professional aspects of their lives. This post is one of those, and while it will no doubt be more interesting for those who like golf, I hope it gives some insight into my general approach to areas of my life I want to improve.

📖 Adam Robinson on Understanding - Matt Mullenweg - It's funny timing for me to come across this piece, because I told the story it describes to several colleagues this week. I was discussing it in the context of making decisions, and the processes we build around them. The experiment described in this piece showed that our confidence increases with more information. This makes sense, except for the fact that at least in this context, performance didn't increase. The reason this is important is that it changes how we build the related processes; if we know our confidence is low, we can be prepared to change course. If we don't, we may be surprised.

📖 How to Criticize Coworkers - Alex Turek - An excellent piece on how to give (and receive) feedback. When I think to the periods of the fastest learning in my life, they all involved a high amount of feedback. Sometimes I ignored it, sometimes I took it to heart, but there is always something valuable in the feedback you get from someone. People will respect you more if you give it well too.

📖 The Multidisciplinary Approach to Thinking - Farnam Street - This is the transcript and audio of a speech given by Peter Kaufman, who edited Poor Charlie's Almanack, a book about legendary investor Charlie Munger. The takeaway: "Go positive and go first, and be constant in doing it."

👨‍💻 Keybr & 10FastFingers - I came across this article from Ali Abdaal on how to type faster this week, and then tried out the tools he suggested. Typing speed isn't just a way to speed up productivity; it actually speeds up your thinking as you write. Learning keyboard shortcuts is just as important for productivity, but improving your typing speed is fun to practice. 10FastFingers is everyday words, while Keybr will identify your weaknesses by key and help you practice. I managed to get 109 WPM on the 10FastFingers test—what's your score?

​10 Tweets

​How to read income statements​

​How to find your leverage from Ali Abdaal​

​12 Gmail tips from Blake Burge​

​A beautiful visualization of S&P 500 real returns​

​The most dangerous mental errors you don't know you're making from Sahil Bloom​

Photo of the Week

The first outdoor bike ride of the year here in Montreal was a chilly one.

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