Weekly Wisdom #314 - The real source of our problems

Growth, Rational Optimism, AI & Writing, Happiness & Small Spaces

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Happy Wednesday!

This week I stumbled on this thread from Emmett Shear, who shared some of the lessons he learned building Twitch.

​This one stood out most to me:

"You think you have a morale problem; a management problem; a recruiting problem; you don't. You have a growth problem. Nothing succeeds like success."

I know this one to be true, as I've seen it happen at startups myself.

But I think the lesson extends much further than startups.

As humans we crave growth—often in very different ways—but we all want to feel like we're progressing towards whatever it is we care about.

For most people in the developed world, that means they need to feel some kind of economic progress.

Regardless of what other growth or causes you may care about, this underpins everything else.

I think it's largely a source of the political divisiveness we have today too: with inflation, rising home costs, the pandemic, etc, people have felt like they aren't progressing. They aren't able to grow.

Solving that problem would solve a lot of the others.

Have a great week!

Graham

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Links

📚 Book Notes: The Rational Optimist - Matt Ridley - Highlighting this book this week as I think the mindset of Ridley aligns with our topic of growth this week. He spends much of the book pointing out that while many things in our modern world feel bad (and are), on the whole, we're doing much, much better than we have in the past.

We've solved many problems facing humanity, and it's likely that we'll continue to do so.

🍿 How AI Is Going To Change Writing - David Perell - I've followed David Perell for a long time, and he runs one of the most successful writing courses on the internet. This is his take on how AI will change the world of writing. You can read the bullet points here if you prefer.

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🍿 Small Melbourne Terrace House - Never Too Small - From one of my favourite architecture YouTube channels, sent to me by a friend, this thoughtfully designed space shows just how much you can fit into a small living space, and the kind of development that might help us lower the cost of living in urban areas:

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Tweet of the Week

Tim's advice on what you should be looking for instead of happiness:

Tim Ferriss-->

@tferriss

Excitement is the more practical synonym for happiness, and it is precisely what you should strive to chase. It is the cure-all.

5:54 PM • Mar 18, 2025

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Read 86 replies

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