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Our Heroes are Normal People, Too
It’s comfortable to believe that our heroes are cut from a different cloth. They can appear to be like humanoid aliens from another planet– similar in a lot of ways, but totally different in a few fundamental ones. Consciously we all know that this isn’t true, but feeling like it is true allows us to…
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You Have to Create Your Own Challenges
Last night I was reading Ender’s Game, which means that I’m way behind the times, since everyone else seemed to read it in high school. In the book, at least as far as I’ve gotten, the military leaders set up an increasing ladder of challenges for Ender. Each one is designed to be the exact…
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Four Modern Competitive Advantages You Can Build Now
If you perform at an average rate, you’ll probably have an average life. Yes, there are exceptions, but counting on an exception is a weak plan. If you want an above-average life, you’re going to have to perform above at an above average rate. You don’t need to be above average in every single respect.…
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Moving from Net-Negative to Net-Positive
When you live in a world with a million different things you could be doing at any time, the decision on how to spend your time is difficult. Ignoring the infinite suboptions in each category, you could be connecting with people, working, organizing, or planning. At any given time there are things you could do…
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What About Learning?
Right now I’m staying up with my cousin who’s a senior in high school. It’s midnight on Sunday, and she’s busy finishing up her homework for the weekend. There’s a roll of tape on the coffee table, along with pink ribbons, a glue stick, cutout pictures from glamour magazines, and a bunch of construction paper.…
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How Can a Minimalist Buy an Island?
Considering the island story has eclipsed my next most popular story on this blog by almost 4x, maybe a follow-up is in order. At this point I should admit that I have no idea what the public likes. I wrote that last post thinking that my regular readers would really get a kick out of…
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My Friends and I Bought an Island
As long as I’ve remembered, I’ve wanted to buy a private island. Having a random patch of land somewhere holds almost no appeal, but an island is totally different. An island is like your own little country, with complete control of everything within its borders. I’d looked at getting an island before. As it turns…
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On The Importance of Facing the Truth
The list of problems that don’t have their roots in a fundamental misunderstanding of how things actually are is a short one. The other night I was playing poker, and one of the guys at the table was a really bad player who thought that he was really good. He and I played a hand…
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Broadening Your Focus to Improve Your Mood
When I renewed the registration on my motorcycle six months ago, I was asked to provide proof of insurance. I tried to do the online insurance validator, but it didn’t work, so I emailed my policy to the prescribed email address and went back on with my life. I never got confirmation back, or, more…
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How to Recalibrate Yourself To Change Habits and Reach Goals
Doing anything that’s not normal is difficult. You have to move past your automatic patterns and rely on conscious action to move forward. We’re wired to rely on our subconscious, so this is legitimately difficult. That’s why people eat crappy food, watch crappy TV, and stay in crappy relationships. Today my motorcycle got impounded (for…
