The Man Who Knew

I am currently reading The Man Who Knew: The Life and Times of Alan Greenspan by Sebastian Mallaby. This excerpt stood out to me:

        Greenspan had spent a year and a half on a report that was destined for some dusty shelf; he had been wise not to invest more energy in it. And yet this non-outcome proved more significant than it appeared, for it anticipated the story of financial reform during Greenspan's Fed tenure. Finance did change in the 1970s, but it was shaped not by the deliberate planning of an expert commission but by market pressures and crises. The fact that Greenspan and his fellow commissioners proposed to phase out Regulation Q did not matter in the end; Regulation Q was neutered anyways as savings flooded in to the new money-market funds, as unregulated dollar bonds multiplied in London, and as the Fed dealt with the panic following Penn Central by scrapping the Regulation Q cap on the interest that banks could pay to attract very large deposits. The pattern was the same in later years. Finance changed dramatically in the 1990s and early 2000s, but the change was not dictated by the deliberations of experts; earnest working committees pondered the meaning of the new swaps market or the rise of shadow banks, but Greenspan declined to throw his weight behind their ideas, and their findings failed to alter policy.

        In this tentative approach to his regulatory responsibilities as Fed chairman, Greenspan was perhaps exhibiting a fatalism he had learned under Nixon. The evolution of finance could have huge consequences, to be sure, but efforts to shape it were liable to founder. Technological changes, the exigencies of crises, and money's mulish tendency to find its was around the rules - these forces decided things.

It is worth the time reading about Greenspan and the financial changes during the second half of the 20th century. As the saying goes, "History doesn't repeat itself but it often rhymes." 

Our Favorite Books We Read In 2016

Last year we listed our favorite books we read in 2015. We compiled a similar list for 2016. As before, we purposely did not aim for a certain number each, so all the books listed are books we think are excellent. In other words, it is a list focused entirely on quality and not at all on quantity.

Regan

• To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
• On the Road - Jack Kerouac
• Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future - Peter Thiel & Blake Masters
• The Shining - Stephen King
• Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World - Adam Grant

Bryan

• Anything You Want - Derek Sivers

Bryan’s commentary: This book is the story how Derek Sivers accidentally created the online business giant, CDBaby.com, then eventually sold it and decided to donate a healthy chunk of the proceeds to charity.  In the book, you learn why he first started the business, how he managed it, and the lessons and key advice he learned along the way. I took several notes in the book itself and re-read many paragraphs because they resonated with me deeply. It is essentially 80 small pages of straight-to-the-point advice that actually makes sense.  Sivers' attitude towards business is nothing short of refreshing. He was originally a musician, producer, engineer, then started CDbaby.com when he wanted a way to sell his CDs online. He taught himself how to computer program so he could create a 'buy now' button on his website, which was the first time any musician had done this. His friends heard about his ‘buy now’ button and asked him to make one for them too.  He made them for his friends only, who ended up telling their friends about it too. He did it all for free. Several, nice favors led to a multi-million dollar company. Although several tech, venture capitalists offered over the years, he never took investor money (except for his Dad's) because he didn't see the point. He was like “why do I need all of these investors?”  They would respond, “so you can keep growing and making more money.”  His response to that was, “well, I already have a lot of money.”  Within his business, he made a few errors and paid for them dearly, but ultimately, he was in it to help musicians and others he cared about. Best advice from this book: don't create a new business for the sole purpose of making a lot of money, simply start doing favors for others and keep doing what your audience is asking of you. If you’re good, it will become your new business.

Luke

• East of Eden - John Steinbeck 
• The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy 
• Sunny's Nights: Lost and Found at a Bar on the Edge of the World - Tim Sultan
• Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything - Joshua Foer
• The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival - John Vaillant
• Speaker for the Dead - Orson Scott Card

Joe

• When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi
• Sunny's Nights: Lost and Found at a Bar on the Edge of the World - Tim Sultan
• Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
• Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything - Joshua Foer
• The Power of One: A Novel - Bryce Courtenay

Defeating the Sunday Scaries

Over the past year or so I’ve noticed a certain phrase surge in popularity: “The Sunday Scaries.” If you’re unfamiliar, it’s that Sunday afternoon feeling of dread as you mentally prepare to say ‘farewell’ to your blissful weekend and begrudgingly usher in a week of responsibility. This isn’t anything new for most people, but the creation of a name to express the feeling has lead me to reflect on its power over one’s mood, and specifically how that feeling disappeared from my routine. You heard me right, unbeknownst to me that feeling faded out of my existence over the past year. Upon noticing its absence I decided to explore the changes to my routine that I believe helped alleviate the scaries.

You may be wondering “Does this guy provide financial advice to new puppy owners?” or “does he work five hours a day?” The obvious assumption is that “he must love his job.” You’d be wrong if you guessed the first two (I haven’t even seen a puppy in months :( :(), and you’d only be partially correct if you guessed the obvious third choice. I absolutely do love my job, but not all of it and not all the time. Only a saint could love his job all the time. Even puppy sitters have to deal with stepping in doo-doo on occasion. Besides, despite moving to sunny California for a dream job in Silicon Valley, the scaries still creeped up on Sunday afternoons for my first few months here just as they always had. Although finding purpose and passion in your work are important components, for me the defining factor can be found in my morning routine.

First things first though, before blindly applying a new routine you should explore why exactly your scaries exist. If your job sucks and literally anything sounds more appealing than subjecting yourself to that cubicle for one more day, I’m not going to be much help to you. My solution applies more to the “I like it and it’s fulfilling, but I’d sleep in and watch Netflix if I could” crowd. Your scaries likely exist for one reason more than any other: scarcity. Our weekends are so enjoyable only because they’re temporary. This becomes obvious when you look at a long weekend or vacation where you have sufficient time to “waste time.” This past weekend I was off from work Thursday through Sunday and watched an excessive amount of tv due to rainy weather in SF. By the time Sunday rolled around I wasn’t exactly craving my cubicle, but I was pretty burnt out from excessive media consumption. As my long weekend progressed each episode of Westworld, New Girl, and Mr. Robot that I plowed through had diminishing returns. My friend Luke likes to draw on a scene from Troy when abundance or scarcity occurs. In this particular scene, Brad Pitt’s character reveals a great secret about how the gods perceive their human subordinates: “everything is more beautiful because we’re doomed.” He states that the gods envy humans because our lives are temporary. Each sunset we see is cherished because it could be our last. In much the same way, if every day were the weekend few days would be special. This insight brings me peace of mind on Sunday afternoons and has lead to an increased focus on the factors I can control during my transition back to the work week.

Throughout high school, college, and for about a year in the working world my morning routine looked much the same. If I needed to get up at 7am I would set my alarm for 6am and hit the snooze button repeatedly for an hour. My justification being the hour transition would allow me to ease into waking up. Knowing I had more time to sleep turned me into a junkie and the snooze button was my drug. Waking up early to realize you have more time to sleep is one of the most soothing feelings, and I was manufacturing that feeling every day. When that first, second, and third alarm went off I felt incredible, but by the time 7am rolled around I was going through serious withdrawal. When tempted by the choice of floating back to dream world or getting on with facing the day, the stark contrast caused me to despise the latter. In reality, facing the day wasn’t awful at all, it just seemed that way as long as I remained horizontal.

I wish I could give myself more credit, but I believe ridding myself of the scaries was entirely a product of normalizing my new routine upon moving to California. If you’re familiar with the Bay Area, then you know driving down the 101 is a nightmare during 95% of daylight hours. As a result, living in San Francisco and working in Palo Alto lead me to adopt a schedule many would never consider. To avoid the worst of traffic my alarm goes off at 4:45am every morning so I can be on the road by 5:25 and sitting at my desk by 6:00. As I was accepting this reality in preparation for my first day I never considered setting my alarm at 3:45am, instead, I aimed to maximize efficiency.

My nightly routine before an early morning always looks the same:

• Start preparation for bed around 8:30pm
• Pack laptop and other work materials in bag
• Lay clothes out on desk chair
• Place full water bottle on nightstand
  • This is hugely important. Chugging water is the first thing I do after my alarm goes off. Super simple, but amazingly effective.
• Organize toiletries
• Pack lunch
• In bed by 8:45pm

The routine is simple, but it makes all the difference and you don’t need to get up before 5 for it to be effective. When I first started my new routine I placed my alarm on the other side of the room, forcing myself to get out of bed the second it went off. Although I’m no sleep expert, I’m convinced not allowing myself the fading comfort of the snooze button has been crucial to my success. Back in my junkie days it would take me an hour or more to start feeling awake, but now I feel sharp in a matter of minutes. The alarm goes off, I chug water, grab my clothes, and hop in the shower. The combination of eight hours of sleep, immediate re-hydration, and water on my face lead me to feeling normal by about 4:48am.

Other than perhaps amount of time slept, all of the variables I’ve described are incredibly easy ways to keep your routine healthy and consistent. Upon grasping the importance of this routine, I quickly transitioned to confidently calling myself a morning person. In fact, mornings are freakin’ incredible, you guys. With proper bodily maintenance, mornings are the time your mind is at its sharpest and your inhibitions at their lowest. Here’s my list of things that I’ve found to be incredibly more enjoyable and productive during a fresh early morning:

• Retaining information from a nonfiction audio book
• Listening to new music
• Tackling a complex planning issue
• Writing creatively
• Editing work completed days prior
• Memorizing
• Reading ANYTHING!

Discovering the power of a consistent morning routine has been huge for my productivity and mental well-being. Ideally, one should keep the morning routine consistent on weekends too, but I won’t try to impress advice upon you that I don’t follow myself. You can get by allowing yourself the flexibility to stay up late on the weekends as long as you allow yourself your proper amount of sleep. It’s not ideal, but that’s reality.

Beating the Sunday Scaries requires upfront work in normalizing a productive morning routine, but if you can turn that time into something you look forward to then the scaries will cease to exist. In fact, by the time Sunday afternoons roll around I’m often looking forward to getting back into the more productive weekday mindset. The first step in defeating the scaries is to realize that it’s not possible to do consistently with sheer will power. Just like working out, you need to get yourself in shape before it becomes an enjoyable experience.