Shane Parrish: “Few things are more important in life than avoiding the wrong people. It’s tempting to think that we are strong enough to avoid adopting the worst of others, but that’s not how it typically works. We unconsciously become what we’re near. If you work for a jerk, sooner or later, you’ll become one yourself. If your colleagues are selfish, sooner or later, you become selfish. If you hang around someone who’s unkind, you’ll slowly become unkind. Little by little, you adopt the thoughts and feelings, the attitudes and standards of the people around you. The changes are too gradual to notice until they’re too large to address.”
Inquisitive Bird: “West Europe experienced a major transformation between 1000 and 1500. Their incomes increased, they established institutions of higher learning across the continent, they became more urbanized, more technologically developed, produced vastly more books, literacy and numeracy increased, violence greatly decreased, and they produced many more notable scientists, mathematicians, philosophers, inventors, and engineers. In terms of overall development, West Europe had surpassed that of other big civilizations (China, India, and the Middle East) by 1500. Not only that, the rate of advancement was accelerating. The other major civilizations instead went into cultural stagnation.” [via Arnold Kling]
Business Standard: “Consumption, investment, and government spending are all facing a difficult environment. The dynamic sector in India, the source of hope, is services exports…Overall exports grew at a compound annual rate of 2.9 per cent (in inflation-adjusted USD). If this rate holds, exports will double in 23 years. Goods exports grew at a compound annual rate of 1.2 per cent, and at this rate they will double in 56 years. Services are where the dynamism lies. Overall services exports grew at a compound annual rate of 5.7 per cent, and they will double in 12 years at this rate…In the services export story, the rate-determining step lies in human capital. All elements of this workforce are struggling on the problem of adequacy of knowledge. Individuals, services employers, and knowledge organisations need to push on obtaining and disseminating knowledge, so that a significant chunk of persons in India can become peers to the upper end of workers in advanced economies in engineering and in user areas.”
David Perell: “We don’t choose our gifts. They choose us. A mark of maturity is surrendering to the person you actually are instead of the one you wish you were. Most people never get such clarity, and they’re stunted for life. The decision to surrender to your gifts is more painful than you’d think. You can’t really choose what you’re able to be excellent at because nobody has a say over the hand that nature deals. (Unfortunately, I’ll never become a professional golfer.) Instead, if you’re going to be world-class, you have to align yourself with your fingerprint. In our insanely competitive world, surrendering to your talents is your only chance at becoming world-class at what you do.”
