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Dear Reader,


    Shorter reads and interesting ideas to add to your long-term knowledge vault.
    


The art of thinking. There is no real structure that you are forced to operate within unless your life depends on it. You can create your own rules if you build the right supporting systems. Our environment controls far more of our behavior than we realize. Creating better habits and opportunities begins with deliberately shaping your surroundings. The real purpose of life is to create a story in which you can constantly define what it means to be better tomorrow than you are today. That’s what we are programmed for. Happiness, productivity, presence, and fulfillment all find their roots in your ability to proactively control where you direct your mental energy. Take control of your attention. You don’t have to be an expert scientist, artist or psychologist, but you should know the fundamentals in all of the major disciplines if you want to optimize your thinking. Over a long enough timeline, if you seek to reduce uncertainty, you can optimize your exposure to luck. Success is often random, but that doesn’t mean it cant be designed.


Psychology behind plate design. Your plate size has a definitive effect on how you perceive the food contained in it, and how it affects your perception all depends on how ravenous you are. If your brain sees food on a very large plate, you won’t be satisfied when you eat it. But put the same amount of food on a small plate, and you will. When you are hungry, it is more difficult to trick the brain via illusions when food is in need.


How to be less wrong. Always being consistent makes you inconsistent with the reality around you. The ability to correct mistakes and to be less wrong over time comes down to the capacity to embrace and understand the contradictions that arise in the world when they do. The world around us is inconsistent and the way to fight this chaos is to live in a fluid and malleable way.


Fear of death. There is an idea that all of human culture has a persistent fear of death. We are the only animal that is self-conscious enough to be fully aware that it ends. The realization of our mortality is deeply embedded in our psyche, and whether or not we notice it, it does affect how we live in this world. It shapes the decisions we make, it determines how we commit our time and it creates who we become.


Keep Climbing,
          The Alchanati Campbell and Associates Team