What I learned week 51 2022

There are two ideas in this weeks review:

  • Creating supply can actually create demand. And that leads to a moral imperative.

  • Reading alone won’t teach you much. Here’s a strategy for getting more out of your reading.

Enjoy!

Creating supply can actually create demand

Last week I discovered Jenova’s Paradox which states that increasing the supply of some thing (for example energy) creates more demand (people will find more ways of using energy).

Why is this so interesting?

Because it means that creating some products actually increases the demand for those products.

Juan David’s explores this idea in his newsletter and comes up with two inspiring effects:

The main reason one must do what one loves doing is that supply creates its own demand. Therefore, we have a moral obligation to ourselves and to the world to create and be what we can only achieve. Neglecting that is the greatest disservice and dishonor to you, your name, and your entire existence.

Juan David

Mind. Blown.

Scratching your own itch might actually be creating the very demand you need to build the project or life you want to lead.

He also shares this provocative statement:

This is also the reason why market research is bullshit. When you’re doing what you want, the demand will be created.

Juan David

Which I think has at least a kernel of truth, but I’ll have to explore it further.

Reading alone won’t teach you much

Recently I read How to live on 24 hours a day (and I highly recommend it) which has a few good ideas about how to manage your time and energy. This week I was surprised to realise that current entrepreneurs are discovering the same ideas as Arnold Bennet.

The second suggestion is to think as well as to read. I know people who read and read, and for all the good it does them they might just as well cut bread-and-butter. They take to reading as better men take to drink. They fly through the shires of literature on a motor-car, their sole object being motion. They will tell you how many books they have read in a year.

Arnold Bennet - How to live on 24 hours a day

Basically, do not just plow through books unless you’re doing it for fun. If you want to learn, you need to reflect. Or even better:

When I’m consuming non-fiction content, I try to write down specific experiments I can try that put the things I “learned” into practice.

Jakob Greenfeld

A genius way to make sure you’re doing something actionable with what you’re reading.

Isn’t it fascinating how we as a society keep rediscovering some ideas? I find this happening a lot personally as well.

That’s it for this week, thanks for reading!

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