💡🧐 Curiosities | Round 1
💡🧐 Curiosities | Round 1
On the art of tracking, connection through conversation, passion, and more
Happy Friday to the 67 of us, up from 64 last time. I’m so glad you’re here.
I spend the majority of my days searching for great ideas.
I’m constantly searching for ideas that help us make sense of our lives and the world around us.
How does the world work? Why is it like that, and why did it come to be that way? How did it work in the past? How will it work in the future? How should it work? Why do humans do what we do? How do we live better? How do we feel better? Who else feels what I feel? Who else is thinking about these questions, and what do they say? Did people from a thousand years ago ask these questions? How did they respond? What’s true?
(As an aside: I search for ideas, not answers. I believe we should each, first, determine what questions matter to us. Then, I believe we should each go on our own journey to determine the answer - not simply take what others have said as gospel.)
I live for the gems of inspiration and wisdom embedded in the great ideas that we’re rewarded with when we search. These gems inject my days with jolts of energy.
This feels a bit embarrassing to admit, but I know when I’ve found these gems, because my heart rate picks up. Once I find the first glimpse of a great idea, I struggle to focus on anything else. It’s as if there’s a force like gravity that pulls me into the rabbit hole. Fighting it feels futile. Actually, I don’t even want to fight it. So, I go in.
Some of what I find is junk, but some are diamonds. And when I come out the other side, I am so excited to share the diamonds. The only thing more energizing than clutching these diamonds myself is sharing them with people who are also looking.
In my past essays, I was sharing these gems in a section at the bottom.
The challenge is, it turns out (perhaps unsurprisingly) that my writing can be quite long and dense. I don’t want these gems to go buried yet again under thousands of words.
So, I’m starting to send smaller, more digestible downloads of some of these gems separately from the more in-depth essays. I’m calling it Curiosities, and they’re for you, the curious, and this is the first round.
Curiosity is my compass, great ideas are my fuel, and these gems are what I find.
Let me know what you think.
I hope you enjoy - and if if you do, I’d be grateful if you shared this with a few people you think would also enjoy it.
Cheers,
Devin
Curiosities
Boyd Varty on the art of tracking: on the Tim Ferriss Show, on Invest Like the Best, and on the Aubrey Marcus Podcast
Look, I know about half of you have already been sent multiple podcast interviews with Boyd and have had me talk your ear off about him (sorry), but his ideas and stories have been an incredibly important part of the last year of my life
Something about his view of the world, and how much we can gain from learning from the art of tracking animals in the wild South African bush feels incredibly significant to me.
If we drop into a life more attuned to our intuition and move towards what makes us feel energized, we get closer to being on the track of the life we want. He’s also the most entertaining storyteller I’ve ever heard.
I highly encourage a listen.
Steven Bartlett (host of The Diary of a CEO podcast) on The Rich Roll Podcast
Two of my favorite conversationalists gathering to discuss questions that matter.
I particularly love the portion where they talk about the art of connection through conversation - an art they both put on display in their respective podcasts.
David Senra (host of the Founders podcast) on Invest Like the Best (the first time), and again (the second time): on passion, pain, endurance, and missions.
I talked about gems earlier. These are diamonds.
David has energy like no other. Listening to him feels like a shot of adrenaline - straight inspiration. It makes me want to run through a brick wall.
Both are fascinating discussions on stories of some of history’s most impactful people living lives of passion, on a mission, and the costs that come with it.
Vintage Packy McCormick on IRL projects
I’ve been revisiting the writing that I first came across from Packy, who now has a massive business strategy newsletter called
.His musings on IRL still resonate deeply. They were the first pieces that pulled me into the Not Boring orbit (I’m now a (small) LP in a couple of his funds as well).
I pulled them back up after I hit send on my own musings on the value of IRL.
Terrence Rohan on building more and raising less
I’ve been thinking a lot about new approaches to funding early stage projects, particularly while thinking about IRL businesses. In fact, I will likely write about it at some point soon.
In the meantime, this piece has some really valuable perspectives on the topic in my opinion.
If you enjoyed this newsletter, forward it to a curious friend and tell them which idea they'd love.
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