My Reading Highlights

Memories are more valuable than material possessions. Prioritize experiences over things; if you have a choice between a new couch or a road trip with your family, choose the road trip.

“Raise your ambitions. Lower your expectations. The higher your ambitions, the bolder your actions. The lower your expectations, the greater your satisfaction. Achieve more and be happy along the way.”

“Many problems are minor when you solve them right away, but grow into an enormous conflict when you let them linger. As a rule of thumb, fix it now.”

Always approach problems as a student. Not an expert.

Not an expert.

1) Always approach problems as a student.

lived in a house in Gorizia

There had been seven women: Claire, Siobhan, Julie Jackson, Delaney Kitt, Amie Trimble, Phoebe Caldwell, and Daphne Dixon.

Taken together, the cluster of Trump’s behaviors—the disregard for norms and attacks on institutions, the elevation of the personal over the public, the ceaseless lies, the vilification of and all-out assault on his opposition, and his authoritarian and law-defiant impulses and rhetoric—constitute classic demagogic behavior.

it weakens confidence in those institutions.

Trump’s rhetoric matters even when it does not result in action or policy change.

even if he typically does not follow through.

“The populist tends to believe that institutions are inherently corrupt because they are so easily captured by ‘elites,’” notes Eric Posner.[4]

Third, Trump has aggressively and often mendaciously attacked core institutions of American democracy—especially the press, the judiciary, Congress, state and local governments, and many elements of his own executive branch, including the Justice Department and the intelligence agencies.

Second, Trump has merged the institution of the presidency with his personal interests and has used the former to serve the latter like no previous occupant of the office.[3]

First, as has been noted widely, Trump is indifferent to the nonlegal norms of presidential behavior that have been established since Watergate to constrain presidential power and ensure presidential accountability.

The case for reform rests less on Trump’s law-breaking tendencies and more on how his conception of the office of the presidency and his actions in it have exposed gaps and ambiguities in the law and norms governing the office, and broader weaknesses in presidential accountability.

The de facto intelligence service of southern Iraq, the Hashd al-Shaabi,

“Man survives earthquakes, epidemics, the horrors of disease, and agonies of the soul, but all the time his most tormenting tragedy has been, is, and will always be, the tragedy of the bedroom.” —Leo Tolstoy

Vronsky raised his head in amazement and looked as he knew how to, not into the Englishman’s eyes but at his forehead, surprised at the boldness of the question.

pleasure lies not in discovering truth but in seeking it.’

pleasure, but the crown and sign of pleasure.

cigar is such a ... not exactly a

He now felt like a man who on coming home finds his house locked against him.

‘I think ... if it is true that there are as many minds as there are heads, then there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts.’

They had to return to the one sure and never-failing resource—slander.

‘You understood and understand me. Good-bye, my sweet one!’

He realized that this Association was merely an anchor to save his brother from self-contempt.

‘Yes, there is something strange, satanic, and enchanting about her,’

vous filez le parfait amour.

That is why so many prefer women of the demi-monde. If you don’t succeed in that case it only shows that you have not enough money, but in this case one’s pride is in the balance.

There are people who when they meet a rival, no matter in what, at once shut their eyes to everything good in him and see only the bad. There are others who on the contrary try to discern in a lucky rival the qualities which have enabled him to succeed, and with aching hearts seek only the good in him.

Plato defines in his “Symposium”—both kinds of love serve as a touchstone for men. Some men understand only the one, some only the other. Those who understand only the non-platonic love need not speak of tragedy. For such love there can be no tragedy. “Thank you kindly for the pleasure, good-bye,” and that’s the whole tragedy. And for the platonic love there can be no tragedy either, because there everything is clear and pure, because ...’

He understood that feeling of Levin’s so well, knew that for Levin all the girls in the world were divided into two classes: one class included all the girls in the world except her, and they had all the usual human failings and were very ordinary girls; while the other class—herself alone—had no weaknesses and was superior to all humanity.

He stepped down, avoiding any long look at her as one avoids long looks at the sun, but seeing her as one sees the sun, without looking.

Everything was lit up by her. She was the smile that brightened everything around.

‘Consequently, if my senses are destroyed, if my body dies, no further existence is possible?’

He could find no answer, except life’s usual answer to the most complex and insoluble questions. That answer is: live in the needs of the day, that is, find forgetfulness.

Each thought that his own way of living was real life, and that the life of his friend was—illusion.

women are the pivot on which everything turns!

All the variety, charm and beauty of life are made up of light and shade.’

‘entendons nous!’

As if tears were the necessary lubricant without which the machine of mutual confidence could not work properly between the sisters, after having had a cry they started talking of indifferent matters, and in so doing understood one another.

such horrid, ignoble people.’

To speak of it would be to give it an importance that does not belong to it.’

Himmlisch ist’s, wenn ich bezwungen Meine irdische Begier; Aber doch wenn’s nicht gelungen Hatt’ich auch recht hübsch Plaisir!’

The chief qualities that had won him this general respect in his Office were, first, his extreme leniency, founded on a consciousness of his own defects; secondly, his true Liberalism—not that of which he read in his paper, but that which was in his blood and made him treat all men alike whatever their rank or official position; thirdly and chiefly, his complete indifference to the business he was engaged on, in consequence of which he was never carried away by enthusiasm and never made mistakes.

Alexis Alexandrovich Karenin, his sister Anna’s husband, who held one of the most important positions in the Ministry to which that Moscow Board belonged.

religion was only good as a check on the more barbarous portion of the population;

ALL HAPPY families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

without love there is no happiness or unhappiness for us, for there would be no life,’

A habit is a behavior that has been repeated enough times to become automatic. The ultimate purpose of habits is to solve the problems of life with as little energy and effort as possible. Any habit can be broken down into a feedback loop that involves four steps: cue, craving, response, and reward. The Four Laws of Behavior Change are a simple set of rules we can use to build better habits. They are (1) make it obvious, (2) make it attractive, (3) make it easy, and (4) make it satisfying.

In summary, the cue triggers a craving, which motivates a response, which provides a reward, which satisfies the craving and, ultimately, becomes associated with the cue. Together, these four steps form a neurological feedback loop—cue, craving, response, reward; cue, craving, response, reward—that ultimately allows you to create automatic habits. This cycle is known as the habit loop.

Make the behavior difficult and you won’t be able to do it. And if the reward fails to satisfy your desire, then you’ll have no reason to do it again in the future. Without the first three steps, a behavior will not occur. Without all four, a behavior will not be repeated.

Improvements are only temporary until they become part of who you are.

You might start a habit because of motivation, but the only reason you’ll stick with one is that it becomes part of your identity.

The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity. It’s one thing to say I’m the type of person who wants this. It’s something very different to say I’m the type of person who is this.

It’s hard to change your habits if you never change the underlying beliefs that led to your past behavior. You have a new goal and a new plan, but you haven’t changed who you are.

With outcome-based habits, the focus is on what you want to achieve. With identity-based habits, the focus is on who you wish to become.

Many people begin the process of changing their habits by focusing on what they want to achieve. This leads us to outcome-based habits. The alternative is to build identity-based habits. With this approach, we start by focusing on who we wish to become.

There are three layers of behavior change: a change in your outcomes, a change in your processes, or a change in your identity.

Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. Getting 1 percent better every day counts for a lot in the long-run. Habits are a double-edged sword. They can work for you or against you, which is why understanding the details is essential. Small changes often appear to make no difference until you cross a critical threshold. The most powerful outcomes of any compounding process are delayed. You need to be patient. An atomic habit is a little habit that is part of a larger system. Just as atoms are the building blocks of molecules, atomic habits are the building blocks of remarkable results. If you want better results, then forget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.

In order to improve for good, you need to solve problems at the systems level. Fix the inputs and the outputs will fix themselves.

Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress.

Goals are about the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results.

“When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that last blow that did it—but all that had gone before.”

Being a little bit nicer in each interaction can result in a network of broad and strong connections over time.

Time magnifies the margin between success and failure. It will multiply whatever you feed it. Good habits make time your ally. Bad habits make time your enemy.

Your outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits. Your net worth is a lagging measure of your financial habits. Your weight is a lagging measure of your eating habits. Your knowledge is a lagging measure of your learning habits. Your clutter is a lagging measure of your cleaning habits. You get what you repeat.

Success is the product of daily habits—not once-in-a-lifetime transformations.

Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. The same way that money multiplies through compound interest, the effects of your habits multiply as you repeat them. They seem to make little difference on any given day and yet the impact they deliver over the months and years can be enormous. It is only when looking back two, five, or perhaps ten years later that the value of good habits and the cost of bad ones becomes strikingly apparent.

strategy that he referred to as “the aggregation of marginal gains,” which was the philosophy of searching for a tiny margin of improvement in everything you do. Brailsford said, “The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improve it by 1 percent, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together.”

Cravings are the second step, and they are the motivational force behind every habit.

The cue is about noticing the reward. The craving is about wanting the reward. The response is about obtaining the reward. We chase rewards because they serve two purposes: (1) they satisfy us and (2) they teach us.

Rewards are the end goal of every habit.

The response is the actual habit you perform, which can take the form of a thought or an action.

The cue triggers your brain to initiate a behavior.

All habits proceed through four stages in the same order: cue, craving, response, and reward.

Your habits shape your identity, and your identity shapes your habits. It’s a two-way street.

The goal is not to read a book, the goal is to become a reader. The goal is not to run a marathon, the goal is to become a runner. The goal is not to learn an instrument, the goal is to become a musician.

Gary Pisano: “

“A strategy is nothing more than a commitment to a pattern of behavior intended to help win a competition.”

Here are the three Plugins and their respective methods to make money

Balance warmth and competence cues to be charismatic.

If you can’t showcase your warmth, people won’t believe in your competence.

You can have the best content in the world, but if it’s not shared with the right charisma cues, it doesn’t land.

highly charismatic, likable, compelling people demonstrate a special blend of two specific traits: warmth and competence.

And it never failed that during the dry years the people forgot about the rich years, and during the wet years they lost all memory of the dry years. It was always that way.

You can boast about anything if it’s all you have. Maybe the less you have, the more you are required to boast.

When a child first catches adults out—when it first walks into his grave little head that adults do not have divine intelligence, that their judgments are not always wise, their thinking true, their sentences just—his world falls into panic desolation. The gods are fallen and all safety gone. And there is one sure thing about the fall of gods: they do not fall a little; they crash and shatter or sink deeply into green muck. It is a tedious job to build them up again; they never quite shine. And the child’s world is never quite whole again. It is an aching kind of growing.

installed justly to make little boys feel littler and stupid boys aware of their stupidity;

Always you must leave a man one escape before death.

if you can bring yourself to face not shadows but real death, described and recognizable, by bullet or saber, arrow or lance, then you need never be afraid again,

It was easy to guide a man’s strength where it was impossible to resist him.

Go through the motions, Adam.” “What motions?” “Act out being alive, like a play. And after a while, a long while, it will be true.”

But the Hebrew word, the word timshel—‘Thou mayest’—that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if ‘Thou mayest’—it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not.’ Don’t you see?”

I know why I’m going—and, Tom, I know where I’m going, and I am content.”

The horrors of mental turmoil and shell shock can be kept at bay by the mechanics of simple acts performed well, like hiking, packing a knapsack, fishing, and camp cooking.)

master of literary modernism,

Using accounting format is not particularly complicated either: just put the currency symbol in front of the number itself, and put an extra ‘,’ in front of the format specifier to use commas as a thousand separators.

The supertag feature is a tag on steroids; basically, you can create a set of fields associated with the tag. E.g. When you create a tag called a #person. You can customize the fields for that tag, like images, addresses, URLs, etc.

Why did wealth and power become distributed as they now are, rather than in some other way?

why did human development proceed at such different rates on different continents?

“Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?”

he excuses himself every day after his 9-5 shift and goes home to do what he liked most: reading and following his diverse interests in philosophy, organizational theory and sociology.

He did not just copy ideas or quotes from the texts he read, but made a transition from one context to another.

Studies on highly successful people have proven again and again that success is not the result of strong willpower and the ability to overcome resistance, but rather the result of smart working environments that avoid resistance in the first place

Whenever he read something, he would write the bibliographic information on one side of a card and make brief notes about the content on the other side (Schmidt 2013, 170). These notes would end up in the bibliographic slip-box.

Routines require simple, repeatable tasks that can become automatic and fit together seamlessly (cf. Mata, Todd, and Lippke, 2010).

Even the best tool will not improve your productivity considerably if you don’t change your daily routines the tool is embedded in, just as the fastest car won’t help you much if you don’t have proper roads to drive it on.

The trick is that he did not organise his notes by topic, but in the rather abstract way of giving them fixed numbers.

Getting to Know Readwise

What is this book _How to Use Readwise_? It's our version of a user manual explaining how to get the most out of Readwise. These highlights will be resurfaced like those from any other book, meaning you can perform all the standard actions: you can make particular highlights appear more or less often; you can favorite and discard; and so on. We sincerely hope these tips help you get more out of Readwise! If not, you can disable this book from resurfacing at any time.

Daily Readwise in Email & Web App

Introduction

Even though Amazon Kindle commands a staggering share of the ebook market (some reports suggest north of 90%!), Readwise also supports highlights from Apple iBooks. You can synchronize your iBooks highlights by selecting the [Add Highlights](https://readwise.io/sync) menu from the [Readwise Dashboard](https://readwise.io/dashboard) and clicking on the [iBooks](https://readwise.io/ibooks) link. You'll need to follow the instructions from there.

Paper and Audiobooks

Consistently revisiting the best part of our ebooks is great, but how can we do the same for paper and audiobooks? At first, we didn't have a solution for these books. Now we do. You can add paper and audiobooks to a special shelf in Readwise. After doing so, you'll start receiving their most popular passages as part of your Daily Readwise (provided we have enough data). It's not the same as revisiting your own highlights, but it's surprisingly close! You can add those books by selecting the [Add Highlights](https://readwise.io/sync) menu from the [Readwise Dashboard](https://readwise.io/dashboard) and clicking on the [Paper or Audiobooks](https://readwise.io/quick) link.

Readwise makes it fun and easy to review and retain the best parts of what you've read. It does this two ways. The first is the Readwise Email, which is intended for casual consumption, perhaps while drinking your morning coffee or riding the train into work. The second is the Readwise web app, which is intended to enable active engagement, for example tagging and taking notes. You can use the web app by clicking the banner at the top of each Readwise Email or by clicking [Daily Readwise](https://readwise.io/dailyreview) from the [Readwise Dashboard](https://readwise.io/dashboard) at any time.

Readwise Dashboard

The [Readwise Dashboard](https://readwise.io/dashboard) is the command center of your Readwise experience. From here, you can access your [Daily Readwise](https://readwise.io/dailyreview), add more highlight sources (such as Kindle, iBooks, and Instapaper), view highlights by book or article, customize your [Preferences](https://readwise.io/preferences), [Search](https://readwise.io/search), and more. To get to your Dashboard, simply click the Readwise logo in the upper left corner of the web app or click this link: [Readwise Dashboard](https://readwise.io/dashboard).

Books (Library)

You can easily view all your highlights on a book-by-book basis by selecting [Books](https://readwise.io/library) from the [Readwise Dashboard](https://readwise.io/dashboard). From the [Books](https://readwise.io/library) view, you can see statistics for each book such as how many highlights you've taken and the date of your last highlight, and you can perform actions such as increasing or decreasing the frequency of seeing a particular book in your [Daily Readwise](https://readwise.io/dailyreview).

Book or Article Review (Library)

While the cornerstone of Readwise is the Daily Readwise, which makes it fun and easy to consistently review the best parts of what you've read, many of our users also like to review all their highlights from a single book in chronological order. Doing so shortly after having finished is one of the best ways we know to solidify all your takeaways from that book. If you have too many highlights to "process" a book in one sitting, Readwise remembers where you left off so you can pick up the process in a future session.

Articles (Library)

You can easily view all your highlights on an article-by-article basis (assuming you've connected Instapaper, Highly, or Medium to your account) by selecting [Articles](https://readwise.io/articles) from the [Readwise Dashboard](https://readwise.io/dashboard). Just like the [Books](https://readwise.io/library) view, you can see statistics for each article such as how many highlights you've taken and the date of your last highlight, and you can perform actions such as increasing or decreasing the frequency of seeing a particular article in your [Daily Readwise](https://readwise.io/dailyreview).

Account Settings

The [Account Settings](https://readwise.io/preferences/account) menu (navigable from the [Readwise Dashboard](https://readwise.io/dashboard)) is where you can modify your subscription, update your billing info, export all your data, and delete your account. Note: If you delete your account, every bit of your data will be permanently wiped from our servers and cannot be recovered.

Installing the Readwise Mobile App

Readwise offers a native mobile app for both iOS and Android. The mobile app does everything the web app can do and more. Among other things, the mobile app enables you to "highlight" physical books using your phone's camera (OCR). On iOS, you can also install a widget that rotates different highlights on your home screen throughout the day. You can find links to each platform here: [Readwise Mobile Apps](https://readwise.io/homescreen).

Invite Friends

My Clippings.txt

Any time you highlight a book or document that was manually loaded onto your Kindle device (rather than purchased directly from Amazon), that highlight is saved to a local text file called My Clippings.txt. You can upload this file to Readwise to add all those highlights from sideloaded documents to your account. Upload My Clippings.txt by selecting the [Add Highlights](https://readwise.io/sync) menu from the [Readwise Dashboard](https://readwise.io/dashboard) and clicking on the [My Clippings](https://readwise.io/import_clippings) link.

Any time you highlight a Kindle book purchased directly from Amazon, that highlight will be synchronized in the Amazon cloud (provided your device is connected to the internet). The Readwise browser extension retrieves those highlights and saves them in your Readwise account. So long as you use Chrome or Firefox with the Readwise extension installed, Readwise will continuously synchronize with Amazon in the background. If you don't use Chrome or Firefox with the Readwise extension, you'll need to manually resync your Kindle highlights from time to time.

Most of our growth to date has come from users like you generously spreading the word. If you plan to share Readwise with your friends or family, be sure to invite them using your custom-generated [invite link](https://readwise.io/invite). This way both you and your friend will get an extra free month of Readwise! You can find your invite link and the status of any referrals here: [Invite Friends to Readwise](https://readwise.io/invite).

About Us

Many people ask us about how Readwise got started. It began in 2016 when [Tristan Homsi](https://twitter.com/homsiT) and [Daniel Doyon](https://twitter.com/deadly_onion) connected through an obscure comment about reading lists on Hacker News and subsequently bonded over a mutual interest in so-called "reading tech". One thing led to another and they decided to collaborate on an MVP, which launched in May 2017. Readwise has organically evolved ever since.

Bootstrapping

Some people ask us why we've decided to bootstrap Readwise through revenues rather than raise venture capital. It's a complicated answer to a complicated question, but long story short, we concluded that bootstrapping would better enable us to focus on our small niche market of "nonfiction power readers" rather than casual readers. You can read more about this decision here: [Why We're Bootstrapping Readwise](https://blog.readwise.io/why-were-bootstrapping-readwise/).

Synchronizing Your Data

Instapaper

Readwise isn't limited to just books. You can also use it with highlights from articles. There are myriad apps out there, but our favorite by far is Instapaper. The Instapaper reading experience is silky smooth and they offer an API which we can use to seamlessly synchronize with Readwise every highlight you take. To connect your Instapaper account select the [Add Highlights](https://readwise.io/sync) menu from the [Readwise Dashboard](https://readwise.io/dashboard) and click on the [Instapaper](https://readwise.io/instapaper) link.

How Kindle Syncing Works

Manually Syncing Kindle

If you don't use Chrome or Firefox with the Readwise extension installed, you'll need to manually "resync" your Kindle highlights from time to time. You can manually resync by selecting [Add Highlights](https://readwise.io/sync) from the [Readwise Dashboard](https://readwise.io/dashboard) and clicking on the Amazon Kindle icon from a desktop computer. Readwise will also send you a friendly reminder every 45 days without resyncing in case you forget.

iBooks

Gift Readwise

If you're an avid highlighter of Kindle books, you've probably encountered the Kindle highlight limit. Basically, for copyright reasons, many publishers set limitations on how much of a book you can export through highlights. For example, if you highlight more than 10% of many books, those highlights above the limit will be truncated with a "...". We understand how incredibly frustrating this can be because often the books we highlight the most are the ones we most want to post-process! Unfortunately, we have no way around this limit at this time.

Kindle Highlight Limits

We're often asked: What happens if I delete a highlight in Readwise? Does it disappear in Kindle? Conversely, we're also asked: What happens if I delete a highlight in Kindle? Does it disappear in Readwise? In both cases, the answer is no. If you delete a highlight in Kindle, it will be preserved in Readwise. If you delete a highlight in Readwise, it will be preserved in Kindle.

Deleting Highlights in Kindle

Many modern note-taking apps such as [Notion](https://notion.so) (our favorite!) accept [Markdown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown) as their preferred import format of choice. Accordingly, Readwise enables you to export to Markdown all your notes and highlights on a book-by-basis for use elsewhere. Simply head to the [Books](https://readwise.io/library) or [Articles](https://readwise.io/articles) menu from the [Readwise Dashboard](https://readwise.io/dashboard) and click the down arrow.

Export to Markdown

Searching

There are two ways to handle books and articles you don't want to see in Readwise. The first method is to set the book's frequency to "Never" from the [Books](https://readwise.io/library) menu. The book will continue to be accessible from your library, but its highlights will not be resurfaced in your Daily Readwises. The second method is to delete the book so that it does not appear anywhere in Readwise. You can do this from the [Books](https://readwise.io/library) menu as well. Note that if you delete a book, Readwise will not re-import the book on subsequent resyncs.

Deleting Books

If you're an Evernote lover, you can use Readwise to automatically (and continuously) export all your highlights from all sources to Evernote. Simply select the Evernote Export option from the [Readwise Dashboard](https://readwise.io/dashboard) and follow the instructions from there. Note: Exporting to Evernote is a premium feature.

Export to Evernote

Have you ever found yourself highlighting an entire fluff-filled paragraph even though all you really wanted were the key sentences at the beginning and end? You can cut this fluff by taking special notes while you read. These notes instruct Readwise to combine multiple, non-adjacent highlights into a single annotation. Simply highlight the first string of text you want to combine and add the note .c1 ("c" for "concatenate"). Then, highlight the second string of text and add the note .c2. Upon importing into Readwise, these two highlights will be combined into a single annotation. Read more here: [How to Combine Highlights On-the-Fly with Readwise](https://blog.readwise.io/combine-highlights-on-the-fly/).

Concatenation Tags (Combining Highlights)

Did you know you can add chapters to your highlights in Readwise? In addition, you can generate a nifty table of contents which you can use to quickly navigate a book and refresh your memory of the book's organization. You add this chapter data by taking a special note while you read. Simply highlight the title of each section and add a note beginning with a period (.) followed by an h (for "heading") and then the number 1 through 3 representing the section's position in the hierarchy. For example, with a book organized into parts, chapters, and sections, you would denote all parts as .h1, all chapters as .h2, and all sections as .h3. Read more here: [How to Add Chapters to Your Highlights in Readwise](https://blog.readwise.io/add-chapters-to-highlights/).

Heading Tags (Creating a Table of Contents)

Want to quickly copy and paste a highlight for use elsewhere? Perhaps in an article you're writing, a Slack discussion, or a Twitter debate? Simply click the down arrow in the upper right of each highlight and select "Copy highlight text". Pro tip: You can also use the keyboard shortcuts cc and cx to copy a highlight to the clipboard.

Do you ever wish that your highlights were tagged with useful keywords and categories, but never bothered because the process of tagging is just too cumbersome? There's an easy way to tag your highlights, found only in Readwise called, inline tagging. An inline tag is a special note taken while you read that's automatically converted into a tag in Readwise. Tagging in the moment is much faster than tagging after the fact, and once your highlights have keywords and categories, they're much easier to review and reference. Simply highlight a passage and add a note beginning with a period (.) followed by a single word or abbreviation (with no spaces). You can also train Readwise to interpret shorthand! Read more here: [How to Tag Your Highlights While You Read](https://blog.readwise.io/tag-your-highlights-while-you-read/).

Inline Tagging

COMING SOON! In addition to the general purpose methods for mastering a passive highlight in Readwise (cloze deletion and question & answer), there's also a special active recall method called term. If you pay attention, much of any nonfiction book is spent "coming to terms" in which the author carefully explains what he or she means by specific words. Sometimes authors even introduces new terms. For example, the term antifragile in Nassim Taleb's Antifragile. If you master the terms in a nonfiction book, your understanding will skyrocket compared to a passive reading. To convert a highlight to a term, hit the Master icon in the web app (keyboard shortcut m).

Terms (Mastery)

NEW! Not only can you convert a highlight to a Question & Answer flashcard while using Readwise, you can also create Q&A while you read. You create a flashcard by taking a special note while you read. Simply highlight the passage containing the memorable idea and add a note beginning .qa (for question & answer). Then type your question to your future self ending with a question mark followed by the answer. When this highlight is resurfaced in Readwise, it will be in the form of a question. Talk about retaining what you read!

Question & Answer Tag

NEW! Readwise offers increasing degrees of active recall intensity (Mastery). The least demanding is cloze deletion, but the most powerful is question & answer. Q&A is exactly what it sounds like: You convert a passage containing a piece of wisdom you wish to master into a question paired with the answer. The next time you see the highlight, you'll be prompted with the question, forcing you to actively recall the answer. This is scientifically proven to form stronger memories enabling you to retain profoundly more of what you've read. To convert a highlight to Q&A, hit the Master icon in the web app (keyboard shortcut m).

Question & Answer (Mastery)

Readwise offers increasing degrees of active recall intensity (Mastery). The least demanding is a deceptively simple technique called [cloze deletion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloze_test), more commonly known as "fill in the blank". With cloze deletion, a salient keyword is hidden from the passage, giving you an opportunity to pause and actively recall the missing information. This might sound trivial, but the simple act forces you to focus on the surrounding context and search your mind. This effort, in turn, is scientifically proven to form stronger memories enabling you to retain profoundly more of what you've read. To apply cloze deletion to a highlight, hit the Master icon in the web app (keyboard shortcut m).

Cloze Deletion (Mastery)

Readwise helps you remember more of what you read using two principles borrowed from cognitive science: [spaced repetition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_repetition) and [active recall](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_recall). Active recall (also known as quizzing, testing, or retrieval) is the process by which we challenge our minds to retrieve a piece of information. Simply rereading a passage from time to time, on the other hand, is passive. Rereading is no doubt better than never revisiting the passage, but research has repeatedly shown that active recall is significantly more effective. So how can you take advantage of active recall in Readwise? For any highlight that you wish to deliberately commit to memory, hit the Master icon in the web app (keyboard shortcut m). You can then convert that highlight from a passive passage to be reread to a flashcard to be actively recalled. In turn, you'll retain vastly more of what you read.

Active Recall (Mastery)

When you start using Readwise, its proprietary [spaced repetition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_repetition) algorithm assumes by default that each of your highlights is of equal quality, equal relevance, and equal difficulty. For most people, this is not entirely true. Some highlights are better than average; some are below. Some highlights are especially relevant right now; some not so much. Some highlights are hard to remember; some are easy. You can take control of this algorithm by supplying feedback in the web app. If a highlight is better than average, especially relevant, or difficult, instruct Readwise "More" (keyboard shortcut 2). You'll see this highlight more often than average. If a highlight is in the middle, instruct Readwise "Later" (keyboard shortcut 3). You get the idea. If you consistently supply feedback, you'll watch the quality of your reviews steadily improve. In turn, you'll retain significantly more of what you read.

Spaced Repetition Feedback Buttons

Readwise helps you remember more of what you read using two principles borrowed from cognitive science: [spaced repetition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_repetition) and [active recall](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_recall). Spaced repetition is a scientifically proven method for efficient learning that progressively increases the time between reviews of previously learned material. Basically, we remember things better if we spread our reviews out over time rather than cramming. If you stop to think about it, reading a book is kind of like cramming. We intensely learn about a single subject for a few weeks. Then we move onto the next book. Readwise uses your highlights from to space out each book you've read into perpetuity. The result is that your retain profoundly more of what you read.

Spaced Repetition Basics

Copying Highlight to Clipboard

Why does Readwise focus so much on retention? For the same reasons that founders should reduce churn in a SaaS business before investing in growth; or investors should buffer their portfolios against losses before seeking gains; or bodybuilders should prevent muscle loss before adding lean mass. No matter what you’re doing, the best way to grow is to first prevent losses. Think of it this way: If you've got a leaky bucket, you're better off fixing the leak before pouring water in the top. For those of you who prefer numbers: If you start with a portfolio worth $100 and lose 50%, you now need to earn 100% to breakeven. This principle, of course, also extends to learning.

Do you sometimes come across a profound highlight in your Daily Readwise that makes you wish that book were resurfaced more? Good news! You can instruct Readwise to "Show this book more often" by clicking the down arrow in the upper right corner of the web app (you can also use the keyboard shortcut: +). Going forward, the probability this book is resurfaced will be increased. You can tell Readwise to "Show this book less often" (keyboard shortcut: -) or even "Never show this book again" too.

Is there a particular book that pops up a little too frequently in your Daily Readwises? Or maybe there's a book that you wish you saw more often? You can increase or decrease the frequencies of each book or article using a feature called "tuning". Simply select the [Preferences](https://readwise.io/preferences) menu from the [Readwise Dashboard](https://readwise.io/dashboard) and toggle the Customize Books or Customize Articles option. For users with many books, this is one of the most powerful features in Readwise. Pro tip: You can also increase or decrease the frequency of a particular book conveniently during your Daily Readwise.

Book Tuning

It's not uncommon for a Readwise user to have more than 10,000 highlights in his or her catalog. If this user reviews 10 highlights per Daily Readwise, it'd take nearly three years to go through them all (assuming no new highlights during that time!). Because of this, we've built a "resurfacing algorithm" which tries to show you the "right highlight at the right time" kind of like Spotify trying to serve up daily mixes based on your listening history. The Readwise algorithm also enables you to take control and manually "tune" many of its settings. You can do this by selecting the [Preferences](https://readwise.io/preferences) menu from the [Readwise Dashboard](https://readwise.io/dashboard) and toggling the various settings.

The Readwise web app has two views which we call "Scroll Mode" and "Review Mode". Scroll Mode displays highlights vertically. This is great for quick scanning, juxtaposing highlights, or Cmd/Ctrl + Fing with a search term. Review Mode displays highlights one at a time in a horizontal view. This is great for focusing all your attention on a single passage and taking actions, such as tagging, noting, or spaced repetition, before moving on to the next. You can switch between these views by toggling the button in the upper right corner of the Readwise web app or using the keyboard shortcut ll.

Scroll Mode versus Review Mode

Advanced Usage

At the end of every Daily Readwise, you'll discover a "bonus highlight" from a book recommended specifically for you. Our recommendation algorithm uses the books you've actually read, and how intensely you've read each, to predict books we think you'll actually love. In contrast, most online retailers try to predict books they think you'll buy. The bonus highlight is a feature and we do not make any affiliate revenue off of these links. You can turn off the bonus highlight any time by selecting [Preferences](https://readwise.io/preferences) from the [Readwise Dashboard](https://readwise.io/dashboard) and toggling the Bonus Highlights option.

Bonus Highlight

One of the nice things about having all your highlights synchronized in a single repository is that it's easy to retrieve the excerpt you're looking for. You can hunt for a particular highlight by browsing the particular [Book](https://readwise.io/library) or [Article](https://readwise.io/articles), by using your [Tags](https://readwise.io/tags), or, of course, by using good old fashioned search. A search box is displayed in the upper right corner of most Readwise screens. Alternatively, you can go to the [Search](https://readwise.io/search) page to query your entire Readwise catalog.

Discarding

Let's be honest: Many of our highlights are not so good. Maybe we highlighted a fragment because of Kindle's annoying refresh rate. Maybe we highlighted a passage that made sense in the moment, but makes no sense now. Either way, if Readwise resurfaces a highlight that's unlikely to have any future value to you, you should "discard" it. You discard in the Readwise Email by clicking the Discard link underneath each highlight. You discard in the Readwise web app by clicking the Discard button or using the keyboard shortcut d. Note: Discarded highlights are not permanently deleted. You can retrieve them any time by selecting [Discards](https://readwise.io/discards) from the [Readwise Dashboard](https://readwise.io/dashboard).

Twitter

As software designed specifically for nonfiction power readers, you'd think we'd dogmatically eschew all forms of social media. Not true! We believe that Twitter, used judiciously, can be a profound source of wisdom, rife with deep thoughts worthy of revisiting, just like a profound highlight from a good book. You can connect your Readwise account to Twitter by selecting the [Add Highlights](https://readwise.io/sync) menu from the [Readwise Dashboard](https://readwise.io/dashboard) and clicking the [Twitter](https://readwise.io/twitter_start) link.

Tagging

Tags are a great way to organize your highlights by topic, keyword, or a variety of other use cases. You tag in the Readwise Email by clicking the Tag link underneath each highlight. You tag in the Readwise web app by clicking "Add tags" or using the keyboard shortcut t. You can then browse highlights on a tag-by-tag basis by selecting [Tags](https://readwise.io/tags) from the [Readwise Dashboard](https://readwise.io/dashboard). (You can also add tags while you read using a special Readwise feature called [Inline Tagging](https://blog.readwise.io/tag-your-highlights-while-you-read/)!)

Noting

We highly recommend taking notes alongside your highlights. After all, the best way to read between the lines is to write between the lines. Any notes you take in Kindle, iBooks, Instapaper, and elsewhere will be automatically imported to Readwise and attached to the respective highlight. You can edit this note in the Readwise web app by clicking the note icon, clicking into the body of the note itself, or using the keyboard shortcut n. Of course, you can also add notes to any highlight that doesn't have one already.

Sharing to Twitter or Facebook

It's easy to share particularly salient highlights on Twitter and Facebook through Readwise. Simply click the Share link underneath the noteworthy highlight in the Readwise Email or click the share icon in the Readwise web app and follow the instructions from there. (Pro tip: you can also use the keyboard shortcut s). Readwise will generate a "text shot" (an image as opposed to text) to which you can add your own commentary. We recommend tagging the original author to give him or her a little boost as well.

Opening in Kindle App

Many times a highlight resurfaced in Readwise will not be enough. You'll want to return to the highlight in the context of the book or article. You can automatically launch the Kindle app (assuming it's installed) and open the book to the appropriate location by clicking the down arrow in the upper right of each highlight and selecting "Open this book in Kindle". Note: Due technical limitations, this only works on desktop (not mobile) and only from the web app (not email).

Processing Highlights

The first time you see a highlight resurfaced in Readwise, it will have a blue dot in the upper left corner. This indicates that the highlight is still "unprocessed" similar to an unread email. Once you read the highlight or perform an action, the highlight will then be considered "processed". This is helpful for readers wishing to systematically review all their highlights, either in whole or for particular books. You can also mouseover the dot to see additional data, such as when you originally took the highlight.

Using Keyboard Shortcuts in the Web App

In-Line Book Tuning

Pocket

Readwise isn't limited to just books. You can also use it with highlights from articles. There are myriad apps out there, but one of the most popular is Pocket. To connect your Pocket account select the [Add Highlights](https://readwise.io/sync) menu from the [Readwise Dashboard](https://readwise.io/dashboard) and click on the [Pocket](https://readwise.io/pocket) link.

Freeform

There are two ways you can start using Readwise with paper or audiobooks. The first is to add those titles to a special shelf in Readwise by clicking [Paper or Audiobooks](https://readwise.io/quick) from the [Add Highlights](https://readwise.io/sync) menu. You'll then start receiving the most popular highlights from those books as part of your Daily Readwise. The second way is to manually add highlights to Readwise by typing or pasting them in. You can do this by selecting [Freeform Input](https://readwise.io/import_freeform) from the [Add Highlights](https://readwise.io/sync) menu.

CSV Import

If you have a bunch of highlights from a random source, such as an obscure reading or note-taking app, and that source lets you export your annotations in CSV format, you can easily import those into your Readwise account in one fell swoop. You can do this by selecting [Bulk Import](https://readwise.io/import_bulk) from the [Add Highlights](https://readwise.io/sync) menu and following the instructions from there to properly format your file.

Customizing Readwise

Change Email Frequency

By default, you'll receive a Daily Readwise email once per day. You can change this preference to be every other day, weekly, or never by selecting [Preferences](https://readwise.io/preferences) menu from the [Readwise Dashboard](https://readwise.io/dashboard) and toggling the Email Frequency option.

All of us go through periods of extreme busyness from time to time. During those times, it can be a little overwhelming to watch emails pile up in your inbox. To account for this, Readwise will automatically downgrade your frequency if you're unable to read the emails. First from every day to every other day, then from every other day to every week. It works the same in reverse. Once you start reading your emails again, your frequency will be automatically upgraded.

Customize Email Send Time

By default, you're set to receive your Daily Readwise email in the morning at 8:00 AM Eastern Time. For many users, this might be perfect. If you're in a different time zone, or if Readwise fits better into a different part of your daily routine, you can easily change this send time by selecting the [Preferences](https://readwise.io/preferences) menu from the [Readwise Dashboard](https://readwise.io/dashboard) and toggling the Email Send Time option.

Change the Number of Daily Readwise Highlights

By default, you're set to receive five (5) of your highlights per Daily Readwise. For many users, this is the optimal setting. If it's not ideal for you, you can easily increase or decrease the number of highlights by selecting the [Preferences](https://readwise.io/preferences) menu from the [Readwise Dashboard](https://readwise.io/dashboard) and toggling the Highlights Per Day option.

Why Retention?

Readwise Resurfacing Algorithm

Automatic Email Frequency Adjustment

Change the Number of Paper or Audiobook Highlights

Readwise is built for power readers so the web app has been designed for power users. This means, of course, that we have all kinds of keyboard shortcuts. There's not enough room to list them all here, but almost all shortcuts are discoverable if you hover over an action in the web app.

If you've added [Paper or Audiobooks](https://readwise.io/quick) to your Readwise shelf, you'll typically receive one highlight from these books per Daily Readwise. If this is not ideal for you, you can easily increase or decrease the number of Paper and Audiobook highlights by selecting the [Preferences](https://readwise.io/preferences) menu from the [Readwise Dashboard](https://readwise.io/dashboard) and toggling the Physical/Audiobooks option.

Highlight Recency

Have you been reading and highlighting on Kindle for years? I know I have. During that time, my interests have gone from real estate investing, to securities analysis, to sailing, to Stoicism, to startups, and beyond. It's safe to say that what I was interested in six years is hardly what I'm interested in now. If that's the case for you too, you can bias the Daily Readwise towards more recently taken highlights by selecting the [Preferences](https://readwise.io/preferences) menu from the [Readwise Dashboard](https://readwise.io/dashboard) and toggling the Highlight Recency option. You'll still see your old highlights: just less often than new highlights. (You can use Highlight Recency to bias towards old highlights too.)

Disabling Books

Many of us have books in our library that we never want to see again. Maybe the book no longer relevant to our lives. Or maybe you and your significant other share a Kindle account. Either way, it's easy to disable whole books from being resurfaced in Readwise. Simply go to [Books](https://readwise.io/library) from the [Readwise Dashboard](https://readwise.io/dashboard) and click the down arrow for the book you no longer wish to see. Then move the frequency slider to "Never". You can also conveniently disable a book during a Daily Readwise by selecting the down arrow in the upper right of the web app and clicking "Never show me this book again".

Basic Features

Favoriting

If you see a highlight your particularly love and/or you'd like to make easily retrievable, you can "favorite" it. You favorite in the Readwise Email by clicking the Favorite link underneath each highlight. You favorite in the Readwise web app by clicking the heart icon or using the keyboard shortcut f. You can view all these favorited highlights at any time by selecting [Favorites](https://readwise.io/favorites) from the [Readwise Dashboard](https://readwise.io/dashboard). Note: Once you have enough, you'll start receiving a special Daily Readwise on Sundays comprised only of your favorite highlights.

As a little psychological nudge to help you build your daily review habit, we've built a streak counter. You maintain your streak by reviewing your daily highlights at least once per day (within the 24 hour window of your email send time). Check out the leaderboard here: [Top Readwise Streaks](https://readwise.io/highscores)

Streaks

Support for highlights from PDFs is one of our most requested features. Unfortunately, PDFs are a super fickle file format and there's no great existing solution that we know of for highlighting and exporting from PDF. That said, we intend to solve the PDF highlighting problem soon once we develop the Readwise native mobile app.

Highlights from PDFs

Struggling to come up with a gift idea for the voracious reader in your life? Give him or her the gift of Readwise by clicking [Gift Readwise](https://readwise.io/gift) in the footer.

We don’t climb mountains to get to the top—we climb to see who we can become in trying to get there.

The mindset of Inner Excellence is this: I compete to raise the level of excellence in my life, to learn and grow, in order to raise it in others.

if you’re gonna fall, fall forward.”

Behind the double set of doors on the twenty-second floor,

It is highly recommended that you always rename your Master Query before triggering the Combine process, as the name of the Master Query gets incorporated into the name of some of the created folders and queries.

Rename the query as FilesList Load the query as a Connection Only query These steps are the way Ken prefers to build his “From Folder” scenarios as it offers the following two benefits: 1.It builds a very obvious place where you can go to review which files are being combined without having to navigate part way through a query to determine the details 2.It only hard codes the file path into the solution once

But what if you store your files in a different online storage system? Maybe you keep your files in Google Drive, DropBox, Box, Onedrive (Personal), or any of dozens of alternate solutions that exist. Even if no specific connector to that file system exists – so long as the vendor provides an application which can sync the files to a local copy on your PC – you can connect to these files via the From Folder connector!

The process of combining files follows a five-step recipe pattern: Step 0: Connect to the Folder Step 1: Filter and future proof Step 2: Combine the files Step 3: Data shaping via the Sample Transform Step 4: Data shaping via the Master Query

Adjusting Excel’s Default Power Query Properties To adjust your default settings in Excel: Go the Data tab → Get Data → Query Options Under Global → Data Load, ensure that Fast Data Load is checked. (This setting will lock Excel’s user interface during a refresh but will ensure that you have up to date data before continuing.) Under Global → Power Query Editor, ensure that every box here is checked. We especially want to make sure the Formula Bar is showing but checking every box will make sure you have all the options that you’ll see throughout this book. Click OK

Power Query is an ETL tool; its function is to Extract data from almost any source, Transform it as desired and then Load it.

take our data, clean it up, and turn that data into information.

Extracting the data from a data source, Transforming the data to our needs, Appending data sets, Merging multiple data sets together, and Enriching our data for better analysis.

no Power Query component associated with a table until it is explicitly created.

In order to merge or append queries together in Excel, the queries must exist. Just having a table in the Excel workbook isn’t good enough as there is

Power Query is essentially a macro recorder, keeping track of every step you use when you work through the Extract and Transform steps.

Lambda functions are concise, one-line anonymous functions. They can be very useful when used in callbacks, such as sorting lists. Let’s take a list of people with their ages. With a lambda function, you can sort the list based on age effortlessly. Lambda functions are versatile and handy for various scenarios, like custom mapping or filtering.

First, it is essential that you begin with one skill that you can master, and that serves as a foundation for acquiring others. You must avoid at all cost the idea that you can manage learning several skills at a time. You need to develop your powers of concentration, and understand that trying to multitask will be the death of the process.

present. The road to mastery requires patience. You will have to keep your focus on five or ten years down the road, when you will reap the rewards of your efforts.

“From now on you need never await temporal attestation to your thought. You think the truth. You do not have the right to eliminate yourself. You do not belong to you. You belong to Universe. Your significance will remain forever obscure to you, but you may assume that you are fulfilling your role if you apply yourself to converting your experiences to the highest advantage of others.”

You do not hold on to past ways of doing things, because that will ensure you will fall behind and suffer for it. You are flexible and always looking to adapt.

It is not up to others to protect or help you. You are on your own.

Feeling motivated and energized, we can overcome almost anything. Feeling bored and restless, our minds shut off and we become increasingly passive.

In the process leading to this ultimate form of power, we can identify three distinct phases or levels. The first is the Apprenticeship; the second is the Creative-Active; the third, Mastery.

Not to be constantly telling people (or writing them) that I’m too busy, unless I really am. Similarly, not to be always ducking my responsibilities to the people around me because of “pressing business.”

The body and its parts are a river, the soul a dream and mist, life is warfare and a journey far from home, lasting reputation is oblivion.

that the longest-lived and those who will die soonest lose the same thing.

Everyone gets one life. Yours is almost used up, and instead of treating yourself with respect, you have entrusted your own happiness to the souls of others.

Doing your job without whining.

Matter. How tiny your share of it. Time. How brief and fleeting your allotment of it. Fate. How small a role you play in it.

philosophy requires only what your nature already demands.

Prayer of the Athenians: Zeus, rain down, rain down On the land and fields of Athens.

“If you seek tranquillity, do less.”

Choose not to be harmed—and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed—and you haven’t been.

That things have no hold on the soul. They stand there unmoving, outside it. Disturbance comes only from within—from our own perceptions.

Body. Soul. Mind. Sensations: the body. Desires: the soul. Reasoning: the mind.

To the stand-bys above, add this one: always to define whatever it is we perceive—to trace its outline—so we can see what it really is: its substance. Stripped bare. As a whole. Unmodified.

Each of us lives only now, this brief instant. The rest has been lived already, or is impossible to see. The span we live is small—small

Remember how long you’ve been putting this off, how many extensions the gods gave you, and you didn’t use them.

You are an old man. Stop allowing your mind to be a slave, to be jerked about by selfish impulses, to kick against fate and the present, and to mistrust the future.

Nor can I feel angry at my relative, or hate him. We were born to work together like feet, hands, and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are obstructions.

Not to be constantly correcting people, and in particular not to jump on them whenever they make an error of usage or a grammatical mistake or mispronounce something, but just answer their question or add another example, or debate the issue itself (not their phrasing), or make some other contribution to the discussion—and insert the right expression, unobtrusively.

To praise without bombast; to display expertise without pretension.

Never use null values in number fields: Use zeros instead of null in a currency or number field that will be used in calculations.

When building your XLOOKUP function, keep in mind that the [lookup_array] argument must have the same dimensions as the [return_array] argument, that is, the same number of rows and columns.

The minimum arguments you need for XLOOKUP to work are [lookup_value], [lookup_array], and [return_array]. To understand these arguments, take a gander at Figure 10.25. In this example, we are attempting to populate the Customer Type column (column C) based on the matching values in the table found in columns E and F. A quick look at the Formula bar shows the following formula: =XLOOKUP(B2:B19,E2:E5,F2:F5,"No Match")  This formula is telling Excel to look up the values in column B (the [lookup_value]), match them to the values in column E (the [lookup_array]), and return the matching value in column F (the [return_array]). The final argument ([not_found]) defines what should be returned if no data matches the lookup criteria. Although the [not_found] argument is optional, it's typically best practice to include it to avoid the ugly #N/A errors you get when a value is not found.

XLOOKUP accepts a whopping six arguments: [lookup_value], [lookup_array], [return_array], [not_found], [match_mode], and [search_mode].

When any function uses an array that returns multiple values, the results will be output to a spill range.

Multi tag

Yet Another Obsidian Synchronizer

Git has three main states that your files can reside in: modified, staged, and committed: Modified means that you have changed the file but have not committed it to your database yet. Staged means that you have marked a modified file in its current version to go into your next commit snapshot. Committed means that the data is safely stored in your local database.

With Git, every time you commit, or save the state of your project, Git basically takes a picture of what all your files look like at that moment and stores a reference to that snapshot. To be efficient, if files have not changed, Git doesn’t store the file again, just a link to the previous identical file it has already stored. Git thinks about its data more like a stream of snapshots.

To ensure that no whitespace exists at the right side of a string, use the rstrip() method:

A traceback is a record of where the interpreter ran into trouble when trying to execute your code.

I also maintain an extensive set of supplementary resources at https://ehmatthes.github.io/pcc_3e. These resources include the following:

Library is further subdivided into a handful of locations like Inbox, Later, Archive, and Shortlist (depending on your Library configuration). Library is where things that you manually curate for yourself and choose to save permanently go. Feed is where things that are automatically pushed to you go. As you find documents in Feed that you want to read later and/or permanently save, you can move them to your Library.

Any articles that were archived inside Instapaper or Pocket will appear inside your Archive in Reader; the ten most recently saved items not archived will appear inside your Inbox in Reader; everything else will go in Later.

Google Vault now supports the Gemini app ([gemini.google.com](http://gemini.google.com)).

DeepSouth is a supercomputer designed to operate in a manner similar to a network of neurons. It uses interconnected artificial neurons and synapses to emulate the brain's ability to learn, adapt, and process information in a highly parallel and distributed manner. The neuromorphic supercomputer will be capable of 228 trillion synaptic operations per second, on par with the estimated number of operations in the human brain, when it becomes operational in April 2024.

Like Mark Twain used to say, [if you eat a live frog for breakfast](https://www.fastcompany.com/3000619/what-successful-people-do-first-hour-their-work-day), the rest of the day will taste great (*burp*)

This fable teaches us that sensible men, when their enemies attack them, divert them to someone better able to defend them than they are themselves.

The best way to advance your cause with the minimum of effort and bloodshed is to create a constantly shifting network of alliances, getting others to compensate for your deficiencies, do your dirty work, fight your wars, spend energy pulling you forward.

If your opponents are aggressive, bait them into a rash attack that will leave them in a weak position. Learn to use their impatience, their eagerness to get at you, as a way to throw them off balance and bring them down. In difficult moments do not despair or retreat: any situation can be turned around. If you learn how to hold back, waiting for the right moment to launch an unexpected counterattack, weakness can become strength.

Aggression is deceptive: it inherently hides weakness. Aggressors cannot control their emotions. They cannot wait for the right moment, cannot try different approaches, cannot stop to think about how to take their enemies by surprise. In that first wave of aggression, they seem strong, but the longer their attack goes on, the clearer their underlying weakness and insecurity become. It is easy to give in to impatience and make the first move, but there is more strength in holding back, patiently letting the other person make the play. That inner strength will almost always prevail over outward aggression.

When you yourself come under moral attack from a clever enemy, do not whine or get angry; fight fire with fire.

Life is battle and struggle, and you will constantly find yourself facing bad situations, destructive relationships, dangerous engagements. How you confront these difficulties will determine your fate. As Xenophon said, your obstacles are not rivers or mountains or other people; your obstacle is yourself. If you feel lost and confused, if you lose your sense of direction, if you cannot tell the difference between friend and foe, you have only yourself to blame.

Moving first—initiating the attack—will often put you at a disadvantage: you are exposing your strategy and limiting your options.

the Napoleonic way. At times you seem vulnerable and defensive, getting your opponents to disregard you as a threat, to lower their guard. When the moment is right and you sense an opening, you switch to the attack. Make your aggression controlled and your weakness a ploy to disguise your intentions. In a dangerous moment, when those around you see only doom and the need to retreat, that is when you smell an opportunity. By playing weak you can seduce your aggressive enemies to come at you full throttle. Then catch them off guard by switching to the offense when they least expect it. Mixing offense and defense in this fluid fashion, you will stay one step ahead of your inflexible opponents. The best blows are the ones they never see coming.

If you have never been willing to fight back before, no threatening gesture you make will be credible. Understand: there is great value in letting people know that when necessary you can let go of your niceness and be downright difficult and nasty. A few clear, violent demonstrations will suffice. Once people see you as a fighter, they will approach you with a little fear in their hearts. And as Machiavelli said, it is more useful to be feared than to be loved.

Learn to smoke out your enemies, to spot them by the signs and patterns that reveal hostility.

You are responsible for the good and bad in your life.

Injuring all of a man’s ten fingers is not as effective as chopping off one. —Mao Tse-tung (1893–1976)

If your enemies see you as someone to be pushed around, turn the tables with a sudden move, however small, designed to scare them. Threaten something they value.

If a person has his sword out all the time, he is habitually swinging a naked blade; people will not approach him and he will have no allies.

Hit them where you sense they may be vulnerable, and make it hurt.

Appeasing people can be as debilitating as fighting them; deterring them, scaring them out of attacking you or getting in your way, will save you valuable energy and resources.

The best way to fight off aggressors is to keep them from attacking you in the first place. To accomplish this you must create the impression of being more powerful than you are. Build up a reputation: You’re a little crazy. Fighting you is not worth it.

side. Even the subtlest gradations of these emotions can color the way you look at events. The only remedy is to be aware that the pull of emotion is inevitable, to notice it when it is happening, and to compensate for it. When you have success, be extra wary. When you are angry, take no action. When you are fearful, know you are going to exaggerate the dangers you face. War demands the utmost in realism, seeing things as they are. The more you can limit or compensate for your emotional responses, the closer you will come to this ideal.

The following are six fundamental ideals you should aim for in transforming yourself into a strategic warrior in daily life.   Look at things as they are, not as your emotions color them. In strategy you must see your emotional responses to events as a kind of disease that must be remedied. Fear will make you overestimate the enemy and act too defensively. Anger and impatience will draw you into rash actions that will cut off your options. Overconfidence, particularly as a result of success, will make you go too far. Love and affection will blind you to the treacherous maneuvers of those apparently on your

When it comes to power, outshining the master is perhaps the worst mistake of all.

Impatience, on the other hand, only makes you look weak. It is a principal impediment to power.

Your enemies, on the other hand, are an untapped gold mine that you must learn to exploit.

Without enemies around us, we grow lazy. An enemy at our heels sharpens our wits, keeping us focused and alert. It is sometimes better, then, to use enemies as enemies rather than transforming them into friends or allies.

Learn the lesson: Once the words are out, you cannot take them back. Keep them under control. Be particularly careful with sarcasm: The momentary satisfaction you gain with your biting words will be outweighed by the price you pay.

Your actions must seem natural and executed with ease. All the toil and practice that go into them, and also all the clever tricks, must be concealed. When you act, act effortlessly, as if you could do much more. Avoid the temptation of revealing how hard you work—it only raises questions. Teach no one your tricks or they will be used against you.

the secret of success consisted in appearing natural, concealing the effort behind one’s work.

Too much innovation is traumatic, and will lead to revolt.

If change is

necessary, make it feel like a gentle improvement on the past.

Never seem to be in a hurry-hurrying betrays a lack of control over yourself, and over time.

Always seem patient, as if you know that everything will come to you eventually.

Learn to stand back when the time is not yet ripe, and to strike fiercely when it has reached fruition.

Never take your position for granted and never let any favors you receive go to your head.

we know by our enemies sooner than by our friends and familiars. PLUTARCH, C. A.D. 46-120

All working situations require a kind of distance between people. You are trying to work, not make friends; friendliness (real or false) only obscures that fact. The key to power, then, is the ability to judge who is best able to further your interests in all situations. Keep friends for friendship, but work with the skilled and competent.

It takes great talent and skill to conceal one’s talent and skill

Appearing better than others is always dangerous, but most dangerous of all is to appear to have no faults or weaknesses. Envy creates silent enemies. It is smart to occasionally display defects, and admit to harmless vices, in order to deflect envy and appear more human and approachable. Only gods and the dead can seem perfect with impunity.

peace of mind, on the affairs of others—that is too high a price to pay.

Never waste valuable time, or mental

Did you ever consider how ridiculous it would be to try to cram on a farm—to forget to plant in the spring, play all summer and then cram in the fall to bring in the harvest? The farm is a natural system. The price must be paid and the process followed. You always reap what you sow; there is no shortcut.

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.

secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.

To lift an autumn hair is no sign of great strength; to see the sun and moon is no sign of sharp sight; to hear the noise of thunder is no sign of a quick ear.

What the ancients called a clever fighter is one who not only wins, but excels in winning with ease.

Daily Law: Suppress yourself in conversation. Let others talk endlessly.

Daily Law: Have a clear sense of your objective, but then identify the small composite steps. Now, attaining your dreams is easy: step-by-step. The 33 Strategies of War, Strategy 29: Take Small Bites—The Fait Accompli Strategy

To multiply small successes is precisely to build one treasure after another. In time one becomes rich without realizing how it has come about. —Frederick the Great

Space I can recover. Time, never. —Napoleon Bonaparte

Never show that something has affected you, or that you are offended—that only shows you have acknowledged a problem. Contempt is a dish that is best served cold and without affectation.

Man: Kick him—he’ll forgive you. Flatter him—he may or may not see through you. But ignore him and he’ll hate you. —Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams

each person you encounter represents an undiscovered country full of surprises.

Daily Law: Everyone has a thumbscrew, a gap in the castle wall. Once found, it is a thumbscrew you can turn to your advantage.

Appeal to their emotions and they will flock to your spectacle in hordes.

What makes the difference between an outstandingly creative person and a less creative one is not any special power, but greater knowledge (in the form of practiced expertise) and the motivation to acquire and use it. This motivation endures for long periods, perhaps shaping and inspiring a whole lifetime. —Margaret A. Boden

dedicate yourself to earning people’s respect. You do not feel entitled to it;

you must begin by respecting your own opinions more and those of others less, particularly when it comes to your areas of expertise, to the field you have immersed yourself in.

Accept the fact that nothing is certain and no law or strategy is fixed. The best way to protect yourself is to be as fluid and formless as water; never bet on stability or lasting order. Everything changes.

success tends to go to your head and make you emotional. Feeling invulnerable, you make aggressive moves that ultimately undo the victory you have gained.

Daily Law: The moment of victory is often the moment of greatest peril. Do not allow success to go to your head. There is no substitute for strategy and careful planning. Set a goal, and when you reach it, stop.

When in doubt, focus on the things you know you do well. Expand outward from the center.

Do not dream or make grand plans for the future, but instead concentrate on becoming proficient at these simple and immediate skills. This will bring you confidence and become a base from which you can expand to other pursuits.

Try to look at the world as if we were seeing things for the last time—the people around us, the everyday sights and sounds, the hum of the traffic, the sound of the birds, the view outside our window.

Most people prefer to cling to certain ideas and principles, many of them adopted early on in life. They are secretly afraid of what is unfamiliar and uncertain. They replace curiosity with conviction.

Don’t get comfortable. Take risks. Change. Try learning about a field you don’t know anything about. Or stepping into a viewpoint you’ve never considered.

The person with the more global perspective wins. Expand your gaze.

“Look wider and think further ahead”

Everything worth doing has a learning curve. When it gets hard, remember the goal: reaching the cycle of accelerated returns.

Real pleasure comes from overcoming challenges, feeling confidence in your abilities, gaining fluency in skills, and experiencing the power this brings.

You become what you think, your daily thoughts your reality.

You begin by choosing a field or position that roughly corresponds to your inclinations. This initial position offers you room to maneuver and important skills to learn. You don’t want to start with something too lofty, too ambitious—you need to make a living and establish some confidence. Once on this path you discover certain side routes that attract you, while other aspects of this field leave you cold. You adjust and perhaps move to a related field, continuing to learn more about yourself, but always expanding off your skill base. You take what you do for others and make it your own. Eventually, you will hit upon a particular field, niche, or opportunity that suits you perfectly. You will recognize it when you find it because it will spark that childlike sense of wonder and excitement; it will feel right. Once found, everything will fall into place. You will learn more quickly and more deeply. Your skill level will reach a point where you will be able to claim your independence from within the group you work for and move out on your own. In a world in which there is so much we cannot control, this will bring you the ultimate form of power. You will determine your circumstances. As your own Master, you will no longer be subject to the whims of tyrannical bosses or scheming peers.

You want to embrace negative experiences, limitations, and even pain as the perfect means of building up your skill levels and sharpening your sense of purpose.

Judge things and people for yourself.

at times you must offend and even hurt people who block your path, who have ugly values,

start caring less what people think of you.

Channel Your Grandiose Impulses

Never seem to be in a hurry—hurrying betrays a lack of control over yourself, and over time. Always seem patient, as if you know that everything will come to you eventually.

Acquiring a set of skills is the key to navigating a turbulent work world. The ability to later combine these skills is the best path to mastery.

Trust the process—time is the essential ingredient of mastery. Use it to your advantage.

Always break tasks into smaller bites. Each day or week you must have microgoals. This will help you focus and avoid entanglements or detours that will waste your energy. At the same time, you want to continually remind yourself of the larger goal, to avoid losing track of it or getting too mired in details.

“practice in all things a certain nonchalance which conceals all artistry and makes whatever one says or does seem uncontrived and effortless.”

Cultivate real allies. Find those with mutual self-interests and make an alliance.

It is easier to cope with a bad conscience than with a bad reputation. —Friedrich Nietzsche

scorn. If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away.

It is invariably saddening to look through new eyes at things upon which you have expended your own powers of adjustment.

No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart.

“There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy, and the tired.”

I wasn’t actually in love, but I felt a sort of tender curiosity.

rent asunder by dissension.

I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.

True peace was only guaranteed by jobs.

Socrates: The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.

vorable with amendment, or rarely, no recommendation). If the bill is amended by the committee, a vote is taken on the amendment, and if passed, another vote is taken on the bill as amende

Amendments can then be offered from the floor by any member. After all amendments are considered, the presiding officer orders the bill to be printed for its third and final reading. Third Reading: The bill must be printed in its final version with all amendments included for third reading. No amendments may be presented on third reading in the bill's chamber of origin, and the bill must be passed by a majority of the elected membership.

One hundred and eighty-eight men and women are elected every four years to serve in the State’s legislative branch to enact laws that protect the interest of Marylanders.

The thousand times that he had proved it meant nothing. Now he was proving it again. Each time was a new time and he never thought about the past when he was doing it.

No one should be alone in their old age, he thought. But it is unavoidable.

Most people are heartless about turtles because a turtle's heart will beat for hours after he has been cut up and butchered. But the old man thought, I have such a heart too and my feet and hands are like theirs.

It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready.

But the old man always thought of her as feminine and as something that gave or withheld great favours, and if she did wild or wicked things it was because she could not help them. The moon affects her as it does a woman, he thought.

It is not a garment I cast off this day, but a skin that I tear with my own hands.

Fain would I take with me all that is here. But how shall I? A voice cannot carry the tongue and the lips that gave it wings. Alone must it seek the ether. And alone and without his nest shall the eagle fly across the sun.

And you, vast sea, sleeping mother, Who alone are peace and freedom to the river and the stream, Only another winding will this stream make, only another murmur in this glade, And then I shall come to you, a boundless drop to a boundless ocean.

Shall the day of parting be the day of gathering? And shall it be said that my eve was in truth my dawn?

And ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.

You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.

But I say to you that when you work you fulfill a part of earth’s furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born, And in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life, And to love life through labour is to be intimate with life’s inmost secret.

Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.

For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger.

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.

When you are sorrowful, look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Verily the lust for comfort murders the passion of the soul, and then walks grinning in the funeral.

For that which is boundless in you abides in the mansion of the sky, whose door is the morning mist, and whose windows are the songs and the silences of night.

Forget not that modesty is for a shield against the eye of the unclean.

For the master spirit of the earth shall not sleep peacefully upon the wind till the needs of the least of you are satisfied.

Is not remorse the justice which is administered by that very law which you would fain serve?

For how can a tyrant rule the free and the proud, but for a tyranny in their own freedom and a shame in their own pride?

Verily all things move within your being in constant half embrace, the desired and the dreaded, the repugnant and the cherished, the pursued and that which you would escape. These things move within you as lights and shadows in pairs that cling. And when the shadow fades and is no more, the light that lingers becomes a shadow to another light. And thus your freedom when it loses its fetters becomes itself the fetter of a greater freedom.

Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgment wage war against your passion and your appetite.

Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul. If either your sails or your rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas.

When you part from your friend, you grieve not; For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.

Your house shall be not an anchor but a mast.

Your clothes conceal much of your beauty, yet they hide not the unbeautiful.

To measure you by your smallest deed is to reckon the power of ocean by the frailty of its foam.

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?

Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror. But you are eternity and you are the mirror.

But let not him who longs much say to him who longs little, “Wherefore are you slow and halting?”

But you who are strong and swift, see that you do not limp before the lame, deeming it kindness.

You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts; And when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart you live in your lips, and sound is a diversion and a pastime. And in much of your talking, thinking is half murdered. For thought is a bird of space, that in a cage of words may indeed unfold its wings but cannot fly.

If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.

[The Time a Couple Crazy Kids—Ford Madox Ford, Hemingway—Started a Journal in Paris](https://lithub.com/the-time-a-couple-crazy-kids-ford-madox-ford-hemingway-started-a-journal-in-paris/) [LitHub](https://lithub.com) by Nick Ripatrazone / Feb 7, 2025 at 10:13 AM // keep unread // hide  “For a time it was fun.” In November 1923, Ford Madox Ford, “like everyone else in Paris,” was sick with flu. Yet he was optimistic. He dashed off letters from a typewriter set on “a table across my bed.” In 1908, Ford founded *The English Review*, and edited its first fifteen issues. Now, as he wrote his daughter, he was “at my old game of starting reviews” again. *The Transatlantic Review* had an almost preternatural birth. Paris “gyrated, seethed, clamoured, roared with the Arts. Painters, novelists, poets, composers, sculptors, batik-designers, decorators, even advanced photographers, so crowded the boulevards that you could not see the tree-trunks.” Ford had a “vague sense rather than an idea” of what to do about this “immense seething cauldron” of artists, who “bubbled and overflowed,” but lacked a practical vision. His brother Oliver suggested a magazine. (The original name of the magazine was to be the *Paris Review*. The name was switched because the first serial advertisement was from Compagnie Transatlantique.) Ford soon promised H.G. Wells that the first issue of his new magazine, to be published in January 1924, would be better than the inaugural edition of *The English Review*, which boasted work from Thomas Hardy, Henry James, and Joseph Conrad. Ford hoped that the magazine would “[widen] the field in which the younger writers of the day can find publication.” “The review is very shabby in my opinion,” quipped James Joyce to Robert McAlmon, whose story appeared in the debut. The name was rendered in lowercase as *the transatlantic review*. William Bird, whose printing shop at 29 Quai d’Anjou was used by Ford as the magazine’s office, explained that it was the only way to fit the name in Caslon Old Face on the cover. Ford, who always sought connections and patterns, remembered a shop on the Boulevard “without capital letters and had rather liked the effect,” and the first issue opened with lowercase poems by E.E. Cummings. Ford had his skeptics. “The review is very shabby in my opinion,” quipped James Joyce to Robert McAlmon, whose story appeared in the debut. Equally cantankerous and hyperbolic, Joyce could be forgiven; the magazine’s first issue was rather uninspiring, and he had a grudge. As one condition of their support, the magazine’s original financial backers pressured Ford to never publish Joyce. (Joyce didn’t let it go. He later wrote: “Between lack of funds, printers’ errors, absconding secretaries and general misunderstandings, [the magazine] appears to be shortening people’s lives.”) The second issue featured three poems by H.D., and the third issue began with a Christmas story by Selma Lagerlöf, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for literature. That issue also includes the first published version of the poem “Last Words of My Grandmother” by William Carlos Williams about “an old woman // impossible to get on with / unless you left her alone / with her things.” The narrator pleads to bring her to the hospital, and while they ride along in the ambulance, she stares out the window and says: “What are all those / fuzzy looking things out there? / Trees? Well, I’m / tired of them.” The fourth issue was one of Ford’s finest; a snapshot of literature at the moment. Gertrude Stein began her serialization of *The Making of Americans*. Djuna Barnes, who would later publish an experimental novel, *Ryder,* contributed “Aller et Retour,” a story about a Russian widow living in Paris. “Man is rotten from the start,” the woman tells her daughter. “Rotten with virtue and with vice.” Once the magazine launched, Hemingway would spend his Thursday’s at the office reading manuscripts and throwing punches some more, Ford lamented, “at the files of unsold reviews, and at my nose.” Despite the earlier opposition to his work, James Joyce also makes an appearance in the issue. Titled “From Work in Progress,” the story is noteworthy for being the first publication of his manuscript for *Finnegans Wake*. Joyce already had his cadences: “And there they were too listening in as hard as they could to the solans and sycamores and the wild geese and gannets and the migratories and mistlethrushes and the auspices and all the birds of the sea, all four of them, all sighing and sobbing, and listening.” The *Transatlantic* editor who worked on Joyce’s manuscript complained that the writer’s additions to the proof were all “in microscopic handwriting.” That pugnacious young editor was Ernest Hemingway. “Indian Camp” also appeared in that issue, a sign that Hemingway’s influence on the magazine was more than marginal. Hemingway and Ford had met in October 1923, at a party where Hemingway was “shadow-boxing in a dim corner of the room.” Once the magazine launched, Hemingway would spend his Thursday’s at the office reading manuscripts and throwing punches some more, Ford lamented, “at the files of unsold reviews, and at my nose.” Hemingway carried his sparring to the page, where, in an editorial note in the fifth issue, he took aim at recent contributor Tristan Tzara: “Dada is dead although Tzara still cuddles its emaciated little corpse to his breast and croons a Roumanian folk-song, written by Princess Bibesco, while he tries to get the dead little lips to take sustenance from his monocle.” Hemingway’s influence on *The Transatlantic Review* increased. In the next issue, he published “The Voice of the Office” by Nathan Asch, a talky, impressionistic piece, and “Running Away” by Kennon Jewett. Both were Hemingway’s protégés, although he was less fond of Jewett: “It is discouraging to try to help people do something in their own way and then just have them imitate.” Asch would continue to appear in the magazine, as did Hemingway himself, with several more stories in successive issues, and a resigned eulogy for Joseph Conrad: “And now he is dead and I wish to God they would have taken some great, acknowledged technician of a literary figure and left him to write his bad stories.” Although Hemingway had succeeded in wresting control away from Ford—who’d traveled to America during the late summer, his large suitcase stuffed with copies of the magazine—it was a pyrrhic victory. The death of John Quinn, the magazine’s main financial backer, exposed Ford’s mismanagement. When the magazine’s release was delayed, he wrote a patronizing explanation: “What really happens to a household that receives its favourite periodical a day or two late? Does the dining-room clock stop; do the dachshunds go off their feed, the father the family stamp his slippered feet upon the heart-rug?” The end was in sight.

Constant, gentle pressure is about setting high standards, holding team members accountable, and correcting them — repeatedly, enthusiastically, and with kindness — when they start to drift from those standards. It’s also about accepting the infinite nature of this work. If you lead a team, this nudging and reminding literally never ends

I mistrust all frank and simple people, especially when their stories hold together,

“I can’t stand it to think my life is going so fast and I’m not really living it.”


Thanks for making Readwise part of your system, @jonathanalevi 🙏🏻 https://t.co/gtoPn2xqR5