About
Shane Parish (@ShaneAParrish) is the creator of Farnam Street.
Check the complete Rich Roll Podcast episode here.
Key Points
- Our ability to learn depends on both Experience and Reflection. The current ‘Era of Distraction’ makes it harder for us to learn.
- A large part of what generally people consume is information with a short expiration date. We should build depth around timeless ideas.
- A large part of decision-making is pattern matching. Better decisions result from delaying intuition and not acting on it immediately.
- The reversibility of a decision should be the main determinant of the process that precedes it.
- An exercise that can help us to determine a life purpose is to ask ourselves: ‘What to do I want my eulogy to say?’ → Inversion: Imagine yourself as if on the last day of your life with the determined outcome and follow the the path to the past.
- A purposeful life requires responsibility, direction, feedback and reflection.
According to Shane, our goal in life should be to live by our own internal scoreboard. Adding to his concept and from my point of view, there is no such thing as a “single target point” in the future, but a range of desired outcomes in the future that obey to our internal scoreboard (the ‘IS’ arch). The vector of purpose changes over time, depending on the current circumstances, but always aims to guide us towards our objective. Not all life events bring us closer to it but only coupling the experiences with reflection (in the figure these moments are marked with orange points) can we course-correct. We are responsible for it.
- ‘So often, life is getting up one more time than you have fallen down’ – Shane Parrish
- We should constantly be aware of ego – living accordingly to an ‘internal scoreboard’ (instead of an ‘external scoreboard’) allows us to live free from external expectations.
- Emotion plays a big role in decisions making. Overanalyzing, delaying or suppressing has an high cost. Being present with it is the goal.
- When struggling with a decision 2 points should be adressed:
- Clarifying exactly what is being decided.
- Determine it is the right level of decision.
Life Advice
- Imagine yourself at the end of your life, deciding over what you would like to be or not be remembered by.
- This will help you decide what you really want in life – purposeful life.
- “Very few people ever sit down in life and say where do you want to go?” – Shane Parrish
- “We’re so focused on speed and the difference between speed and velocity is velocity has a destination”
- It is key to live accordingly to an ‘internal scoreboard’ (instead of an ‘external scoreboard’) – this allows us to live free from external expectations.
- The importance of being alone with your thoughts → intentionality and internal feedback
- ‘So often, life is getting up one more time than you have fallen down’ – Shane Parrish
- Spend time around timeless ideas.
- Environment will dictate a large part of your life, be selective with who you decide to be with
- Be aware of your own narrative and choose better ones: ‘I’m in control of my life and, no matter what’s happened to me, it might not be my fault that I’m in this situation but it’s my responsibility how I handle this situation going forward, it’s my responsibility to respond to this situation in the best way that I can and I own that and nobody else owns that for me and I can’t blame my past. But everything in my past does get me here and that’s okay. That past has put you on this trajectory, it has put you at this moment in time – where you go from here it’s completely up to you. You control that and nobody else controls that’ – Shane Parrish
Shane Parrish and Farnam Street – his mission to establish a framework for decision-making
Shane graduated with a Computer Science (CS) Degree and the worked for Canada’s Intelligence Agency 2 week before 9/11.
- worked 6 to 7 days a week – 8 to 12 hours a day – for 7 years straight
- A large part of managing people is about letting them keep the motivation by maintaining a high degree of recognition and autonomy.
- the combination of time and higher ranks meant that his CS degree became less relevant and his decision skills became more important. He pursued an MBA as a way to become better at decision making.
- He realized that “real life” decision making is a subset of skills, which can’t be taught at schools.
- A classmate told him about Charlie Munger. Shane quickly grew a admiration around his ideas.
During the time he was both working and taking the MBA, Shane started an anonymous website to keep track of what he was learning. It was never intended to anyone but himself.
- He focused on timeless ideas.
- Charlie Munger, Peter Bevelin, Peter Kaufman and Warren Buffett were some of the sources for his content.
- The content is open and available online → equalizing opportunity.
- 3 major audiences grew – Wall Street, Sillicon Valley, top atheletes
- common denominator – small diferences translate into huge disparities of outcome
- Attention from these groups grew because the website’s focus on becoming better in a non ‘self-helpy way’.
Mental Models
- Mental models help you be aware of your blind spots
“The better the tools you have for the particular situation you have, the better your thinking is likely to be” – Shane Parrish
- The reversibility of a decision should be the main determinant of the process that precedes it. A irreversible decision requires more dedication of attention and time.
Highlighted mental models:
- Circle of competence – the higher the intersection degree of the decision with your circle of competence, the higher the role intuition should play
- Inversion – Think about what you don’t want to happen, instead of what you want.
- First-order negative vs second order positive – choose long-term over immediate satisfaction
MENTIONED BOOKS
The host (Rich Roll) describes Shane’s Books as “almost a textbook, but not hard to read a combination of ‘vegetables + desert’”. To add to this point, Shane says that it’s designed to be a reference book, a testament to the old encycolopedia brittanica – with a focus on timeless ideas.
- The Ego Is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday