What I Am Reading:

The U.S. Equity Market is Special
For starters, the U.S. economy is the largest in the world by GDP, and it is powered by a huge breadth of industries. It is highly developed, highly productive, and highly innovative. The U.S. also has multiple attractive conditions that provide domestic companies with competitive advantages. It’s not perfect, but we have a well-connected and reliable infrastructure and transportation system across the country. We have abundant natural resources. And we have (mostly) established legal and regulatory frameworks that make it possible to (mostly) reliably conduct business, and by extension, understand and forecast the value of those businesses.

The reason little noises drive you mad is about more than sounds
Studies estimate that more than 10 per cent of the population might experience some degree of misophonia, though the severity of symptoms can vary widely. You might get annoyed at certain sounds made by certain people, whereas someone else’s triggers might encompass a broader array of sounds and situations. Though links to other conditions aren’t yet clear, if you have misophonia, you might also be at increased risk of mental health problems, such as anxiety or depression.

I worked hard for 17 years to find 1 success
I did well enough financially in my 20s and 30s to save money, invest, look after my families expenses, start a business, get married and travel the world. At 24 I had all the basics that a middle class South Delhi boy usually has - an education, a roof over his head, plenty of food to survive and unconditional love (thank you mom and dad!).

But my bank account read 0. The days of pocket money and asking my parents to pay for me were over. I was lost after graduating from business school. I did not know what to do with my life. But I was curious. I had the entrepreneurial gene. I read a lot. And I tested many business ideas. In this process I learnt from the wisdom of others, dead or alive, and layered it with my own experiences to find my path. I slowly peeled the onion to discover what made Harsh Batra tick - my interests, my superpowers, my shortcomings, and everything in between. Each success reinforced a certain behavior. Each failure made me scratch my head while pouting. Real-life-MBA is a lot more topsy turvy than the structured curriculum of the Schulich School of Business.

Fame vs Influence
Here’s how fame works… You see someone you’ve heard of in the media or on the internet. Maybe they’re walking down the street or sitting a few tables in a restaurant. You say “I know who that person is” to yourself if you’re alone or to the people you’re with. It’s a notable thing because it doesn’t happen all the time. It produces a mildly intoxicating feeling in your brain because it shrinks the universe a little bit. It’s exciting to be in the same place as someone whom you know a lot of other people are aware of. Even if you don’t particularly care for that person’s sports career or movies or TV show or political victories.

The Life Well-Lived, part 1
We might think, to start, that to measure well-being we could survey people about their happiness or life satisfaction.2 Psychologists and economists have been doing this kind of research for decades. At any point in time, happiness scores are positively correlated with income, both between and within countries: richer countries are happier, and within each country, richer people are happier.

Dying Without Regrets (How to See Yourself Like a Writer)
The top five regrets of the dying as collected by Bronnie Ware:
1) “I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”
2) “I wish I hadn't worked so hard.”
3) “I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.”
4) “I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.”
5) “I wish I had let myself be happier.”

The brain’s twilight zone: when you’re neither awake nor asleep
Each night as you lay down to sleep, you embark on an extraordinary journey – not through space, but through the shifting terrain of your own consciousness. This transition, known as the sleep-onset period, is not a simple flick of a switch from wakefulness to slumber, but a gradual, nuanced shift that suspends you between two worlds. Long regarded as a mere prelude to sleep, recent studies suggest there is far more to this fascinating twilight period.

What I am Watching:

Seager on Mark Bell Podcast
Gary Brecka says that "there is nothing better than a cold plunge for burning fat," but he neglects to mention that compensatory metabolic mechanisms reduce core body temperature at night, allowing your body to rebuild the fat stores that were used up in the cold.

What I am Listening To:

Kenneth Stanley - Greatness Without Goals
My guest today is Ken Stanley. Ken is a Professor in Computer Science and a pioneer in the field of neuroevolution. He is also the co-author of a book called, Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned, which details a provocative idea that setting big, audacious goals can reduce the odds of achieving something great. We discuss that revelation in detail and how to apply it in our day-to-day lives. Please enjoy this great discussion with Ken Stanley.