What’s up legends,
Over the past few months I have become more interested in the ideas of stoics.
What is Stoicism?
Stoicism teaches the development of self-control and fortitude as a means of overcoming destructive emotions
Everyday we live our lives in abundance and comfort. Through that, we often leave out the challenges, the tough-mindedness, and the simplicity of life.
The Stoic Philosophy was born in around 300 BC. Marcus Aurelius wrote “Meditations” in around 170 AD. The point being that these ideas are far from new, yet so relevant thousands of years later. Marcus did not write “Meditations” to help the struggling young male in the comfortable 21st century. He wrote it to himself in a time where things much different. Some of the core principles that have helped me in my life are practicing discipline, embracing solitude, controlling my emotions, and keeping my ego out of the way.
If you are interested to learn more, I highly recommend the work of Ryan Holiday.
Book Recommendations:
“Ego is the Enemy”
“The Daily Stoic”
“Discipline is Destiny”
“The Obstacle Is The Way”
Before I move on, I will share one of my favorite Stoic quotes:
Specific Knowledge: Idea From Naval Ravikant ◎
When we think skills, we think things that go on a resume.
I was reading “The Almanack of Naval Ravikant” by Eric Jorgenson and Naval had an idea that I never really realized.
He said they we should be building “specific knowledge”. This is knowledge that was learned outside of a classroom and most likely something you were good at naturally as a child.
Examples of Specific Knowledge:
“Love for science fiction: you were into reading sci-fi, which means you absorb a lot of knowledge very quickly”
“Gossiping, digging into your friend network. That might make you into an interesting journalist”
This kind of blew me away because things you may have thought were unproductive or useless as kid or teen may actually be the reason you succeed in a career.
For me personally, I have always been someone who found myself well-versed in many things. Instead of just surfing, I surfed, worked out, skimboarded, mountain biked, ran, snowboarded, hiked, I could never choose one thing so I did it all. Same for reading. I do not just read self-growth books. I read self-growth plus finance, business, philosophy, fiction, nature, history, and much more. I am just eager to learn it all. I can tell you a ton about the music industry as well as the crypto industry.
Being well-versed is definitely specific knowledge I plan to hone in on.
The book overall was also great and I highly recommend.
Also I would love to hear what you think your specific knowledge may be?
Regression: Going Backwards 📉
The hardest thing to get through is regression.
What do I mean?
This clip from Rob Dyrdek sums it up well:
For a while I was riding a high of growth on my X account. Millions of impressions, great engagement, nonstop ideas, then I went backwards.
These were my analytics as of a week ago:
A lot of red. But that is ok. It is frustrating, humbling, and makes you think whether it is worth it to keep going.
Do not let regression get to you. Regroup, rethink, and trudge onward. You might get to where you want to be if you keep trying, there is at least chance. If you quit, the chance is zero.
Stay positive and in the great words of athlete Cam Hanes: “Keep Hammering”.
Podcast Recommendation:
#4 - The Winklevoss Twins and Balaji
open.spotify.com/episode/2HK0C7Bqv0xcIGrPLHY012?si=1dc61cc55e224141
This is a couple weeks old, but really solid. The Winklevoss twins cover the current state of crypto, what is going on with Gemini, and Balaji’s questions provoke great answers.
Stay Learning.
-Zach
If you enjoyed this newsletter, drop a comment, subscribe, share with a friend to keep the Digging Deep Collective growing. ❤️