Slowly but surely things are coming together. New landing page, posts have thumbnails, and I’m steadily refining my format.

I’m contemplating having some kind of companion media for the newsletter to delve a little deeper into some of the ideas, as I’ve noticed that people tend not to watch the source material for my posts. So for more complex ideas like Terrance Howard’s insane theory of everything(from my brain rot newsletter), I’ll have longer-form content that I can link to for people whose interest I’ve piqued.

“Dr Cheri Mah is a sleep scientist and Professor at the Stanford Sleep Medicine Centre, specializing in the relationship between sleep and performance in elite athletes.”

I have always been terrible at sleeping, and have always considered it to be a skill. Naturally, I’m always curious to see what the latest scientific consensus on sleep is and who better to give us some tips and tricks than a doctor who works with the best athletes in the country? It’s funny how a lot of scientific knowledge is advanced either by the military or where there’s a lot of money on the line.

This is where hard data and sleep studies collide with the real world. We’re getting anecdotal evidence from high performers and now it’s time to try to implement some of these tactics in our own lives^.

Sleep, along with diet and exercise, truly are panaceas. Sometimes it really is just doing the basics consistently. I was looking for an excuse to sleep in more often and I think I’ve found it.

Sleep where it’s cool, dark, and quiet. Sleep as often as you need.

If you snore, go see a doctor, and thank me later.

The Private Equity playbook is two decades of Adam Coffey’s experience in creating companies for private equity firms. He defines the terms, he talks about growth strategies, and acts as a coach for making your first moves into the private equity landscape.

I’m trying to shore up on private equity basics before launching my fund. To a certain degree, funds can be as simple or as complicated as you’d like them to be. With most things in business and finance, there are standard approaches to problems but the limit of what you can do is really up to your imagination. This book lays out some of the basics of the private equity world and has shored up some of my 101 knowledge of private equity.

No.

Not unless you’re looking to sell your business to a PE firm or are trying to start or work at one.

Maybe read it if you’re a giant nerd like me and you just like to better understand how the world works.

“We are all imposters.”

This is something I’ve been saying to myself recently. As an ENTP(someone who is constantly working on many disparate projects at the same time) I’m very rarely the most competent or seasoned person in the room. In fact, I often deliberately put myself in places I have little qualification to be in. I very well may be an imposter.

“70-80% of people will experience impostor syndrome at some point in their lives”-any precursory Google search on the topic

If you’re building something for the first time, learning a new thing, or climbing the corporate ladder, you can easily make the argument to yourself that you’re unqualified. Here’s the thing…

You are unqualified.

There’s no proof you’ll be good at it. No proof that you can get it done. No proof that you even have the right aptitude for it.

And yet the world spins around and around as millions upon millions of people elect to do things they’ve never done before because of course it does. If people didn’t do things they were unqualified to do nothing would ever get done, and nothing would ever progress.

The world is built by imposters like you and me.

The real solution to impostor syndrome? Be an impostor. Play the part.

Do you know how many bestselling games are built around the very premise of being an imposter?

It’s fun. Make it a game.

What makes a brilliant imposter? You have to listen intently when other people are talking so that you understand what’s going on; studying every little thing. You have to think about what you say so that you can craft your language strategically to get what you want. You have to be honest; enough to be credible without giving yourself away.

These are all qualities that you should have anyway.

Play the part until you aren’t playing anymore, and then find another room to be an imposter in so you can play again. How else are you supposed to keep growing?

I feel bad for those who might never experience playing the part of the imposter. Living comfortable lives, never needing to adapt, never truly being tested.

So go out and do something a little risky. Be somewhere you shouldn’t. Bite off a little more than you can chew. Play the part of someone you aren’t but someday might be.

Being an imposter is a gift and a fleeting one at that. You can only be an imposter for so long, until one day

you aren’t.