TSS #034 - April 7th, 2024

V1 of the AV Study

Good morning and welcome back to The Saturday Study!

Your favorite newsletter that’s jam-packed with insightful, thought-provoking content…and receive on Sunday.

---

But first, brief updates:

This past week has been filled with writing, work, and workouts.

Highlights:

• First week of the 75-medium in the books!

  • I hit ~ two workouts every day, breakfast + a protein shake every morning, and read a minimum of 10 pages every night

google sheets ftw

It feels good to look back at the week and see a buncha checked boxes.

but also…a lotta unchecked boxes.

tbh - I still have some pause staring into the next 70 days - my checkbox-laden path ahead, but we’ll reflect post-challenge and assess then. In the meantime, going to embrace this season and get’r done.

I travel for work next week - and still have not figured out my plan for maintaining workouts, etc. I plan to cross that bridge at the Holiday Inn tomorrow evening.

In the interim - here is a pic of my new dozen-egg breakfast meal-prep:

not an adept cook, but proud of this one! technical term: frittata

---

Oh! One last thing before we jump in.

I am going to be experimenting with the format of these letters over the next few months. Different titles, sections, themes, etc.

This week’s theme is audio/visual - podcasts, videos, music, etc.
Next week will be all written content - books, blogs, articles, etc.
And the week after that…I haven’t figured out yet.

Thanks to fellow friend and reader Matiss for the suggestion! If you enjoy any of these more than the others - drop a comment or hit reply!

---

---

podcasts I’ve loved:

Greg Mckeown

• Lotta purpose, relationship, and other life-type wisdom in this one.

• Ant’s Highlights:

  • Maslow updated his hierarchy of needs: self-transcendence> self-actualization

  • On attachment theory and styles: “We live in the loneliest decades ever - more surface interactions are not going to help, we must get deeper.”

  • On quality time: “Relationships are not a means to the end, it IS the end.”

  • On the courage to speak the truth: “Always speak the truth. Say what you think is true, then listen.”

Soman Chainani

• I’ve never heard of Soman before! I really liked his stories and the creative approach to this podcast format.

• Ant’s Highlights:

  • “It’s important to know what you want - then you can follow the flow. If you don’t know what you want, think of yourself as a character in a story…what are their motivations? How do they then get what they want?”

  • On the Japanese word, Misogi: “Once every year or two years, you do something that’s an “extended journey,” to grow and get out of your comfort zone. When you think you can’t find what the next thing is - ask, ‘what’s the next zone of discomfort?’”

  • On “cross-collar dating”: “In Hinduism - the balance is sky energy and earth energy. You want to have someone in the sky and have someone grounded. Find someone who has the same commitment to what they do but in another space” (then uses Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift as an example - LoL)

William Ury

• I also have not heard of this guy before listening to this podcast. If you like sales or negotiation, this one has a ton of gems and wild stories.

• Ant’s Highlights:

  • No one wants to compromise…the trick? Imagine the other person's “victory speech.” What are their dreams, what do they actually care about and how do you advance their interests?

  • Respect is the currency of connection - the easiest way to do this is by listening. Maintain the freedom and dignity for both parties. It may not mean much to you, but it’s the world to them.

  • “You must master the self before you can master the other, and then influence the whole.”

Cal Newport

• Ohhhh Cal. If you are interested in decluttering your tech dependence, reclaiming your focus, and finding clarity…this is the podcast for you.

• Ant’s Highlights:

  • On Clarity being underrated: “People don’t want responsiveness, they just want to know that their thing/problem will be handled.”

  • “If you feel like you are in a rush, you are in the wrong game.” Busyness doesn’t produce high value, it often leads to a spiral burnout of work and guilt.

  • “Would you rather try but fail to be who you are, or succeed in being someone you are not?”

  • On the “knowledge worker problem”: “The workload is too big - so overhead is too much. Too many meetings, calls, talking about work - rather than work. People talk about the stuff they do during the week, then they do the things after hours and on the weekends.”

  • “Be wary of checklist productivity - that’s not how the economy works” (I have been thinking of this one since listening! Hence, my pause above^)

Claire Hughes Johnson

• I also did not know Claire - she is/was a badass high-performing COO. This episode has some great insights and learnings from her time growing Stripe from 200 to 6,000+ employees.

• Ant’s Highlights:

  • Listen for the quiet no.

  • “Say the thing you think you cannot say…leadership comes from observing a thing and then just asking if that is what you are seeing.”

  • On mindsets: “Are you the victim or the player?”

  • How do you detoxify and give hard feedback? Be tactile and ask it in the form of a question.

  • We all have our time, treasure, talent, and testimony to give. Be aware that most people make a trade-off between money and time.

  • “People do not learn by telling them answers.” 

  • “Leadership is disappointing people at a rate they can absorb” (most of the time it’s by their time. They can’t be spread everywhere.)

  • “You aren’t going to get results without knowing yourself and what you bring to the table. You are NOT the director in every scene. You are often the extra.”

---

video content worth consuming

newsy-type stuff:

Jonathan Haidt’s take on iPad kids

• I usually do not consume the news - but I have heard of Jonathan Haidt before and I think he brings up some valid concerns. I am nowhere near having kids myself, but I have friends who are!

• Ugh. My hot-take that you didn’t ask for…I am pro no phone or social media until at LEAST high school. Personally, I think I just got very lucky with my phone/social media use early on, but I see how I could have easily spiraled into an infinite amount of negative feedback loops. No regrets — but like junk food, I’d rather not have it in the house, than rely on discipline. Hopefully, flip phones will be back in style when I raise my kids — if not, I’ll take the grief and hate on the chin and hope to be thanked later.

Mohamed Irfaan Ali - on oil, carbon, and biodiversity

(ugh, substack/twitter won’t let me embed the video - please hit the link!)

LINK: https://twitter.com/anasalhajji/status/1773754505059852529

static thumbnail due to the preview not showing

#deep-type stuff:

• Clickbaity thumbnail, but good message and perspective. Typical Mark Manson video.

danieldargan

A post shared by @danieldargan

• This was an Instagram post my friend sent to me via text. Usually not a fan of short-form content (because most of it feels like junk food for the brain) but this one did make me think.

• Trite but true: “Happiness is wanting what you already have.”

  • “Just gotta cherish the things you have or you’ll spend every minute looking to the future.”

funny-type stuff:

• SNL this past weekend was great! Highly recommend checking some of the skits out. This was my fav and made me laugh out loud — h/t to Marcello Hernandez and Ramy Youssef.

• This was probably my second favorite and its ridiculousness made me miss Kyle Mooney.

---

music i’m listening to

ALBUMS:

Bright Future - Adrianne Lenker

• want to be introspective and sad? you got it.

• Ant’s Favs:

  • Evol, Cell Phone Says, and Vampire Empire (the single version! Yes! It’s different!)

Make Ya Proud - Hovvdy

• I so desperately want to see them live. My friend Blake shared this to tide me over. Anyway, great EP.

• Ant’s Favs:

  • Forever

GAMI GANG - Origami Angel

• THIS DOUBLE LP HAS BEEN MY JAM. A TWO-PIECE BAND THAT ABSOLUTELY SHREDS.

• Ant’s Favs:

  • Tom Holland Oates and 666 Flags (diff album)

I Got Heaven - Mannequin Pussy

• First real listen-through of this band! Really dug the diversity and range of this album.

• Ant’s Favs:

  • Nothing Like and OK? OK! OK? OK!

SINGLES

Next Semester - Twenty One Pilots

• a frikin BOP. One of my favorite releases from TØP in a long while. Been on repeat and is my get-out-of-bed song ngl…

Stratosphere - Dominic Fleshman

• Dominic (of Did I Hear Dare?) Fleshman’s DEBUT SINGLE!!! I had the great honor and privilege of laying down guitar AND bass on this track. Makes me think/feel about friendship and moving away from home. Check it out :)

honorable mentions:

• Still Can’t Believe - Dr. Dog

• You’re Gonna Die - The Buttertones

(ps - lmk if you’d like to see an updated playlist of all the music I share moving forward!)

QoTW:

I like these sections in other NLs I read…so am going to keep it here.

"If you accomplish something good with hard work, the labor passes quickly, but the good endures; if you do something shameful in pursuit of pleasure, the pleasure passes quickly, but the shame endures."

-Musonius Rufus

---

If you are a part of the 0.1% of readers that actually made it to the bottom of this CHONKER of a newsletter…thank you.
Please consider leaving me some feedback OR letting me know what your favorite part was :)

Much Love,
Q2 Tony

---