📪 Hello again my stoical existential impressionist friends! Your Sunday medicine is here.
(I think I had a small problem with the email delivery, if you got the email twice in your inbox, please forgive me)
📯 My book “Yine de Mutlu” is finally out. It is in Turkish for now, English version is on the roadmap for early 2023. You can get it by donating to a charity, an amount you find suitable. A screenshot of payment page will be enough for me to send you the book. Reach out to me via Instagram or mail, you can find the addresses below.
You can look at the details from this Instagram post.
If you would like to buy it directly, here is the link.
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As always, I will make sure that there is not a second wasted here. Before we continue, I am adding and deleting some parts of my post structure, so if you ever want to share your thoughts and/or suggestions for me please leave a comment, shoot me an email, or a DM on LinkedIn.
🐦2 Tweet Threads
Jacob Espinoza put together a list of the best books on change.
My favs:
Blake Burge is always my go-to resource for quality tweets. He asked “What's one product–under $250–that's changed your life?” Answers poured in.
Some Bialetti moka pots
A pair of Sony active noise canceling earphones
A Blue Yeti microphone (I want one of those for my podcast, anyone selling second-hand ? :))
A kindle
A manual veggie-chopper
What is yours ? What are some cheap products that make you feel awesome ?
📘 1 Book:
100 Tricks to Appear Smart in the Meetings
This book was so much fun to read through. You definitely will se some of your coworkers or bosses who try to pull the same trick in the meetings.
Encourage everyone to take a step back. When the meeting is overheated and a lot of points are discussed at the same time, just jump in and say: Guys, can we take a step back here ? I think we are missing the objective. What problem are we really trying to solve ?
Ask the presenter to go back a slide. This one is my favorite. You show you listen, you care, you judge the ideas mentioned, you found a problem in the slide and you want to discuss it. You sneaky white-collar-starbucks-latte-lover-you. Use this tactic. Go back a slide, or go back to a point.
Step out for an important phone call. You have to have someone in mind who is always late to the meeting, always has so much to do, and never finds enough time to prepare anything. However, he always gets an important call and he speaks like he is giving the codes to nuclear bombs. Yeah, I am talking about you, that guy.
Nod continuously while pretending to take notes. Guys, do I even have to say this? I do not think there is a soul who is not doing this.
Ask if we’re asking the right questions. Questions are more important than answers. Ask everyone if we are asking the right questions? Hmm so smart. You do not have any different questions but you do not like the questions asked. I like you.
When an idea has potential, challenge it by playing devil’s advocate. This is my number 1 play. When an idea has potential and everyone seems to like it, that’s a good time to play devil’s advocate. Devil’s advocate is a good exercise to use while thinking about something. Turn that assumption everyone seems to agree with on its head. Then say you’re just playing devil’s advocate.
Visit this blog post of author Sarah Cooper for more.
📝 2 Articles:
Here is an article written by Oliver Burkeman, author of Four Thousand Weeks. There are some gems throughout the article:
“When stumped by a life choice, choose “enlargement” over happiness.
Ask “Will this make me happy?”, but “Will this choice enlarge me or diminish me?” We’re terrible at predicting what will make us happy: the question swiftly gets bogged down in our narrow preferences for security and control. But the enlargement question elicits a deeper, intuitive response.”
“The future will never provide the reassurance you seek from it. As the ancient Greek and Roman Stoics understood, much of our suffering arises from attempting to control what is not in our control. And the main thing we try but fail to control – the seasoned worriers among us, anyway – is the future. We want to know, from our vantage point in the present, that things will be OK later on. But we never can. “
Feedback is really important in our life. We do not just need it in our work life but in our private life too. This article masterfully summarizes how to give feedback that works and not hurts.
Use the Situation-Behavior-Impact model to guide you. You have to be very specific about the time, place and context of the event.
Don’t give the “feedback sandwich”. Please run away from this. You do not have to kiss my ass before you give me a feedback. We should get used to hearing negative feedbacks about us and not take it personal. Everyone is different. Everyone has millions mile of way to go. Also, I said negative feedback but there is no negative feedback unless you make it so.
Instead, use radical candor. You show you care before you criticize someone. You have to make them believe you are not having bad motives behind what you are saying.
If you see a problem, offer feedback immediately or shortly thereafter, This is the best piece of advice. If you spot an issue, give the feedback immediately. Do not postpone it.
If at all possible, deliver any negative feedback in private rather than in public. If you want to give some feedback and it is mostly on the negative side, make them private. No other person has to know.
📺 1 Video:
There is just so much information that you would like to write down from this podcast.
In the podcast Naval talks about Agrippa’s Trilemma, also known as the Munchhausen trilemma.
Some big questions have to end up in the Trilemma because of the following flaws:
Circular Reasoning: This is a logical fallacy where you circle back and forth between your arguments. “A is true because B is true; B is true because A is true.” Bible is true because God wrote it. how do you know it is written by God because it is written in the Bible.
Infinite Regress: This is like an endless “why” question. You can always ask why to an answer. There is simply no end to it.
Axiomatic Statements: This is a statement put in a way that does not deserve any proof. “Why do you think so? Because my mom told me so.”
So when you ask what is the meaning of life? It is a trilemma. Fun way to look at the existential spasm we have.
📽️ 1 SERIES / FILM or DOCUMENTARY:
Below film tells the story of the creator of Charlie Brown, Charles M Schulz. For more than 50 years, the cartoon characters stayed the same. We grew old but they were always our child-self. A strange group of kids and a dog named Snoopy.
Some of the best quotes from the series:
“Learn from yesterday, live for today, look to tomorrow, rest this afternoon.”
“No problem is so big or so complicated that it can’t be run away from!”
Happiness is anyone and anything that’s loved by you.
📜 2 Quotes:
Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.
— Dr. Seuss
If you want new ideas, read old books.
—Ivan Pavlov
📼 1 Playlist:
This playlist is made of Cuba-smelling songs again from Celine Symbiosis. This playlist is made of Cuba-smelling songs again from Celine Symbiosis. My suggestion is you put this in the background and use heroku.app like there is no tomorrow :)
Song of the week:
Still Corners - The Trip. If you are travelling somewhere right now, or at least imagining it, the song is a perfect fit for you. It took me to days while I was traveling to Sinop with my family when I was 5 or 6 years old. No worries, no regrets, no future, no past. It was just that moment. I wish I was aware of these precious times, just thinking about them makes me feel full of joy.
Time has come to go
Pack your bags, hit the open road
Our hearts just won't die
It's the trip, keeps us alive.
📱 1 Useful App/Website/Tool
This website will let you feel like you are traveling around the globe at your desk.
My favorite? Of course Havana, Cuba. Light up a cigar and bring out your whiskey.
While you are at it, try a little London tour for me. The song ? In my opinion, here it is.
16 down, 84 to go. This newsletter will always be free. If you would like to support me on my journey consider buying me some coffees. The money collected will be donated to charities and cover my book, mic, software expenses.
I have exciting news to share: You can now read Ruggets in the new Substack app for iPhone.
With the app, you’ll have a dedicated Inbox for my Substack and any others you subscribe to. New posts will never get lost in your email filters, or stuck in spam. Longer posts will never cut-off by your email app. Comments and rich media will all work seamlessly. Overall, it’s a big upgrade to the reading experience.
The Substack app is currently available for iOS. If you don’t have an Apple device, you can join the Android waitlist here.
Until next time,
Forward, always.
Ratip.