4 min to read

2021 Goals and Philosophical Razors

Sidd Codes Newsletter (01/17/2021)

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Introduction

It’s been a while since I sent one of these out, and for that I apologize. I guess I just haven’t been able to properly organize my work recently. However, I’ve finally figured out a “productivity stack” (just writing the phrase makes me retch, it sounds so pretentious), that help me get things on time and prioritize my tasks, with this newsletter being somewhere towards the high end of my priorities. I’ll talk about what works for me in an upcoming article and YouTube video.

While we’re talking about being productive and prioritizing what you want to work on, I’d like to let you guys know about this very informative twitter thread I saw on Saturday (yesterday). I’ll be tweeting a lot more in the coming weeks and if you enjoy these newsletters or my other work you should follow me on twitter: https://twitter.com/sidcodes.

2021 Goals:

Before I can talk to you about Philosophical Razors and the twitter thread that covers that topic, I’d like to list my goals for 2021 (this might be considered vanity).

You could help me reach these goals by following me on all those platforms and telling your friends, family, and colleagues to join this email list: https://www.siddcodes.com/.

Philosophical Razors

Let’s get into the main subject of this week’s newsletter, philosophical razors. Simply put, razors are rules of thumb that allow for the elimination of unlikely explanations for events or to help you make decisions that benefit you. I saw a Twitter thread by George Mack (https://twitter.com/george__mack) that lists fifteen principles to help you make decisions in your own life.

I’ll be sharing the three that I found to be the most interesting.

  1. Walt Disney’s Rule: If you are struggling to think clearly about a topic, draw the topic out. This is something that always helps me achieve some clarity of mind when grappling with a topic that I find hard to think about. Drawing does not have to mean sketching (although it helps tremendously), it could mean talking through things with someone else or just writing your thoughts down until you achieve clarity of mind.

Here’s Walt Disney’s drawing of his vision for his media empire. It was drawn in 1957: Image

  1. Discomfort Razor: “The more uncomfortable the activity, the more likely it will lead to growth. The more comfortable the activity, the more likely it will lead to stagnation.” This is just a reiteration of the classic advice to get out of your comfort zone. I’ve been working on doing this myself lately by making TikToks and YouTube videos, something I’m not very comfortable with but it is helping me increase my skillset and overall life fulfillment. Truth be told, the process of writing on the internet still makes me uncomfortable, but it is undoubtedly making me a better communicator of ideas.

  2. This is actually two, but they’re related to each other so I’m counting them as one.

    1. Hofstadter’s Law: Any project you set out to do will take longer than you expect it to take.
    2. Elon’s Law: If you have a project, combat Hofstader’s Law by setting a ridiculously ambitious deadline. By working incredibly hard to achieve a deadline that you will inevitably miss, you’ll still be ahead of everyone else!

There are a lot more valuable tidbits of information in Greg’s Twitter thread and you should go read through it, it’ll only take you a minute.

With all this being said, it’s important to remember that hustling isn’t the only thing one should do in life, so go have some fun today. It is Sunday after all! Thanks for reading if you got this far, and if you enjoyed what your eyeballs saw then tell your friends to sign up for the Sunday Sidd Codes newsletter and tell them to follow Siddhant Dubey on all platforms.

Latest YouTube Video

My latest video is an animated explanation of Big O Notation and Time Complexity created with Manim a Python library created by Grant Sanderson (3blue1brown). If you’re interested in doing something mildly entertaining and very informative for 10 minutes, watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sx1fh_alAY&t=1s.

If you have any feedback about the video or want to talk about something else, shoot me a DM on Twitter @sidcodes.

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