Going Deep Blog - Writing by Aaron Watson

Digital Content Curator - New Year's Eve Edition

12/31/2015

The finest digital content, lovingly curated just for you. Please be safe tonight and do not drive drunk. Take an Uber. Have fun.

You are hyper-employed (Innovation Hub)
Tips for remote workers (Medium)
How your brain keeps you from becoming wealthy (Alan Steel)
A guide to living through the holidays (Mr Money Mustache)
Workplace drug testing is ineffective (Slate)
Twitter has exposed the reality of sex work (Motherboard)
Do it now (Thought Catalog)

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2015 Reading Review

12/30/2015

Wow, 2015 was wild. I launched a podcast and blog. I did more reading than any previous year of my life. I read A LOT of online articles/blog posts, but I also read a lot of books. Here's a list of all the books I read in 2015 and a one sentence summary of the experience.

Letter to a Young Contrarian by Christopher Hitchens
Brazen intellectual refuses to conform, give directions for how to follow his lead.

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
In search of zen and self-actualization, a young man is distracted by family and a young woman.

This Book Will Make You Think by Alain Stephen
There has been a lot of philosophizing over the years, a brief overview of the major players.

To Sell is Human by Daniel Pink. Most jobs are evolving to include a larger sales component, adjust accordingly.

On Advertising by David Ogilvy
Advertising icon got ahead through clear communication and strong ethics.

Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk
There has never been a better time to build a personal brand

The Game of Numbers by Nick Murray
Every business is built piece by piece and a strong ethical code and willingness to ask hard questions will get you far.

Purple Cow by Seth Godin
Mass marketing is over, the best products and services are there own marketing machine.

Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
KV points directly into the face of America's worst traits and areas of denial.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo
A young boy takes the adventure of a lifetime, propelled by belief in himself and the help of friends he makes along the way.

Smart People Should Build Things by Andrew Yang
We need more smart entrepreneurs and less lawyers.

ReWork by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson
Don't overthink work, keep it simple and don't waste anyone's time.

The Reason for God by Timothy Keller
Pastor starts a church in Brooklyn through a well-reasoned explanation for belief in his religion.

Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
Beautiful narrative on the history of our species.

The Big Short by Michael Lewis
A few people saw the 2008 crash coming and profited greatly.

Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk
You have to give before you ask for something.

The End of Jobs by Taylor Pearson
Entrepreneurial skills are at a premium right now and you should nurture them as soon as possible.

The Shift by Theresa Brown
A nurse battles through a workday and rides a roller coaster along with her patients.

Recommendations
For College Students & Job Hunters
The End of Jobs by Taylor Pearson
A dose of reality for anyone entering the job market.

Best Gift
The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo
A beautiful book that I've already gifted multiple times.

Extreme Intellectual Stimulation
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
Anyone with a curiosity for where we came from and who we are will love it.

2016
I'm always looking for suggestions for future reading, drop me a line if you have any recommendations. Here are my starting five for the beginning of 2016 (aiming to read 30 books total).

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson
$100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau
Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman by Richard Feynman
Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies and Why by Laurence Gonzales

What will you be reading in 2016?

Digital Content Curator 12/30/15

12/30/2015

The finest digital content, lovingly curated just for you.

Travel to make your life longer (Medium)
Lessons from $200 million (Nautilus)
Is hard work and diligence the best route to greatness? (Seth Godin)
Why does Washington DC have all the richest counties? (Cato Institute)
NYC entrepreneur juggles 6 different businesses (NYT)
Fact-checkers, and the truth, doesn’t matter in 2016 (Politico)

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The Wantrepreneur’s First Steps

12/29/2015

Wantrepreneur, n.
definition: Someone enamored with one day running their own business, owning their time, and building a cash flow machine, but is afraid, or waiting, to pull the trigger on starting.

Lots of people like the idea of being a successful entrepreneur, most of them never pull the trigger because they are waiting for the “perfect moment”. Unfortunately, there is never going to be a perfect moment.

You might as well make a move right now. But, if you don’t feel comfortable, you should at least start doing these six things to make it easier on yourself when you decide to make it happen.

Improve your credit score - While the myths of getting funded by a venture capitalist or and angel investor are well chronicled, most entrepreneurs bootstrap their business, particularly in the early days. If you are interested in getting a small business loan or increasing the credit limit of your credit card, you have to improve your credit score. For tips and fundamentals, check out this article.
Minimize your personal burn rate - cash flow is king, see your life, and personal finances, like a business. Make a personal budget and track everything you spend money on for one month. The simple act of writing down and acknowledging all your expenses will help you cut back.
Read a book per month - Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett’s partner, has been quoted saying,

“In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn't read all the time -- none, zero. You'd be amazed at how much Warren reads--and at how much I read. My children laugh at me. They think I'm a book with a couple of legs sticking out.”

Don’t do it because I said so. Do it because one of the wealthiest, humble, intelligent men in the world said so.
Master a NEW skill - You are probably talented. You probably have a few elite skills. Go build a new one from the ground up. This will benefit you for TWO very important reasons. One, you can consider the value of the skill before you choose it, increasing the likelihood that it will be applicable in the future. Second, you will learn the much more important skill of HOW to learn and master new skills. Once you’ve mastered one skill, you have a blueprint for mastering more.
Produce content - Videos, podcasts, blogs, it does not matter what. You have to get comfortable putting yourself out there and sharing something you created publicly. If you start a company, you will be doing this in a very serious way.
Pay off debt - Debt is an entrepreneur’s worst enemy. A lack of self-control leads us to spend and live beyond our means, perhaps because we have seen our parents and friends practice the same behavior. Instead of rushing to enjoy luxuries at the first possible opportunity, employ some discipline and reap the rewards of a debt-free existence.

Doing these things will not guarantee your success, but they will certainly increase your odds.

Want more insights and some book recommendations?

Digital Content Curator 12/29/15

12/29/2015

The finest digital content, lovingly curated just for you.

Donald Trump has mastered the headline porn game (Maverick)
Growth hacking your age (Medium)
58 facts about the US economy (ZeroHedge)
Bill Clinton’s reality distortion field (4HWW)
Entering the golden age of podcasting (Wired)
Lessons from the founder of Patagonia (Wealth of Common Sense)

Please support the blog by shopping through my Amazon Link.

P.S. - Today's my mom's birthday. Love you mom :)

Digital Content Curator 12/28/15

12/28/2015

The finest digital content, lovingly curated just for you.

Paulo Coelho on writing (Medium)
A guide to 2016 election polls (fivethirtyeight)
TSA agents behind the scenes (Mental Floss)
The gun lobby is using a 50 year old playbook (Bloomberg)
How to get rich in tech, guaranteed (Startup Jackson)
Your 2 week mission trip was pointless (The Almost Doctor’s Channel)

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Acknowledging Our Biases

12/27/2015

In reading Burton Malkiel’s Random Walk Down Wall Street, I came across an important insight that I felt obligated to share.

“Psychologists have long identified a tendency for individuals to be fooled by the illusion that they have some control over situations where, in fact, none exists.”

Malkiel goes on to explain multiple experiments where average humans were consistently tricked into thinking they had control over completely arbitrary outcomes.

Malkiel explains, “It is this illusion of control that can lead investors to see trends that do not exist or to believe that they can spot a stock-price pattern that will predict future prices.”

Long story short, most people do not even begin to understand probability or their own intellectual shortcomings. Our egos trick us into thinking we are above average investors, when all statistics point to that probably not being the case.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There are countless other cognitive biases plaguing your decision-making on a daily basis. I could probably exclusively blog about this phenomenon for all of 2016 and still not cover all of them.

So what can you do? There are two very basic steps.

Learn the Subject - Dedicate some time to regularly study the most common cognitive biases and challenge yourself to acknowledge an example of your guilt. It shouldn’t be an exercise in putting yourself down, rather an opportunity to improve your communication and decision-making skills. While at times tedious, it can pay dividends across many subjects.
Practice Humility - You will never become an unbiased, unfeeling robot, so don’t act like you’re anywhere close. When you first start to study cognitive biases, you’ll first identify them in others. This can lead to an inflated sense of self, which can be dangerous from a social perspective. A humble manner will allow you to take a fair view of yourself and endear you to others.

It’s a constant battle, but worth the fight.

Did you like this? Want to make sure you never miss one of my best articles?

Digital Content Curator 12/27/15

12/27/2015

The finest digital content, lovingly curated just for you.

You should always buy the men’s version of almost everything (Washington Post)
VICE’s fraudulent media kit (Medium)
Hard truths about startup equity (While West)
Friends do not sell friends overpriced investment products or expensive insurance that they do not need (Tony Isola)
What “The Big Short” get right and wrong (NYT)
Solar’s Christmas miracle (Slate)

Please support the blog by shopping through my Amazon Link.

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind - Book Review

12/26/2015

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
By: Yuval Noah Harari

Life Skills: 5 out of 5

Entertaining: 4 out of 5

This is my favorite thing that I read in 2015. I can hardly believe that I got through over 400 pages of relatively dense anthropological explanations in a month. It is a testament the author Yuval Harrari’s beautiful writing and engaging pace.

Harrari writes a compelling narrative about our species and how we managed to decouple from our common ancestors and eventually conquer the world. There is too much wisdom and insight baked into this book for me to possibly dispel in a few paragraphs.

Read it. Seriously. You will better understand yourself. You will better understand your fellow man. And you will better understand the history of our species

Who should read this; Everyone. It’s been translated into languages for a reason.

Major lesson learned; Humankind has traveled a long and complicated road to where we currently stand. Most everything that has propelled us stemmed from our unique and unbridled imagination.

Interesting tidbit; The book has been translated in 26 languages and is an international bestseller.

Buy it here and you’ll support the blog!

Digital Content Curator - Saturday Longform Links

12/26/2015

Read for a good laugh (Cards Against Humanity)
How a bunch of AT&T execs screwed up Red Cross (ProPublica)
Famous and broke YouTubers (Fusion)
One woman’s positive experience in tech (Lea Verou)
Man’s best friend goes on an adventure (imgur)
Master hacker is challenging Tesla and Google’s self-driving cars (Bloomberg)
Architects and dealing with your many midlife crises (Ribbon Farm)

Be sure to share your favorite links and do your holiday through my Amazon Link.